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Peter Clines does what I thought to be a near-impossible feat here- he breathes new life into the well-past-it's-expiration-date zombie story by combining it with an almost equally tired trope, the superhero team. Clines makes the smart decision to throw us into the middle of the story. The zombies have risen, and the superheros already have their origins. This is my least favorite part of both of these kinds of stories- the need to explain just how the superheroes/zombies came to be. Clines smartly chooses to skip this, and only gives us details about each of the different heroes after he has already piqued our interest. He's also managed to introduced an entire super-team's worth of super-guys and super-gals in one short novel, along with telling an interesting story that never gets weighed down in exposition or arbitary plotting. I just now realized there's a sequel, and I'm excited to check it out, even though 'Ex-Heroes' stands on its own. It manages to leave you wanting more not by introducing frustrating cliffhangers or series-long 'mysteries', but by telling a compelling story in a fresh way.

2020-10-12 11:33