Only 67 days ago R was a zombie, and he is now relearning how to be Alive, with the help of his girlfriend Julie, who still belongs to the Living. With the world still under the threat of zombies, far from everyone was as lucky as R: life was reasonably peaceful in Julie and R's little fixer-upper, except for those pesky bloodstains that are yet to be removed. However, one day when Julie came home from scavenging supplies, she receives a phone call from Lawrence Rosso at the Citi Stadium command offices. The zombies are not the only threat anymore. On their way to the stadium, which is where 20,000 people are huddled in a semblance of a city, Julie and R hear a noise: there are helicopters hovering above, which is not normal. Does it have anything to do with Rosso's summons? Is there something else to be worried about?

Before THE BURNING WORLD, I had read exactly one zombie book, and it was Isaac Marion's WARM BODIES, which I had loved so much, that I didn't even look at the blurb for THE BURNING WORLD, I just knew I had to read it. I read WARM BODIES several years ago, and my memory is now fuzzy on some details, but Julie and R held a special place in my heart all this time. Readers who have not read the previous book will thus be able to follow the story reasonably easily. I am still amazed at the richness of Mr. Marion's postapocalyptic world. While R was the first shade of grey between the white of the Living, and the black of the Dead, there is now a full spectrum of grey for the zombies. But not only is R changing, so is Julie.

THE BURNING WORLD is written mostly in the first person, R's voice, and I loved watching his thought evolution. Isaac Marion's writing is as dazzling as the first time, if not more. The prose is very cultured, crisply lyrical, flowing and effortless; the author's natural eloquence makes the darker moments more unsettling, and the lighter ones more brilliant and happy. Even though it takes place in the near future, Mr. Marion's postapocalyptic world is a surreal nightmare that is easy to understand, as the vestiges are mostly of today's world gone terribly wrong.

THE BURNING WORLD is bursting with action; the gory passages, which are to be expected, will turn your stomach a few times, but that's zombies for you! The characters are even more interesting this time around, I think, mostly because of the few who have tagged along with R and Julie. Then again, at other times, some moments are truly poignant, especially when words provoke heart-shattering reminiscences. I felt the philosophical side was even more profound, the questions on what makes us decent, what we shouldn't take for granted has a greater importance in view of the metamorphoses that are happening, and the dangers ahead. It is a tribute to Isaac Marion's talent that the characters' metaphysical pondering takes place amidst a tremendously entertaining escapist extravaganza, and that both are just as gripping. There are also fabulous illustrations, and I will need to have a second look at those. I didn't even think how it would or could end, and it was quite intriguing.