Review: Zombie World Dominance: The Destruction Begins by L.D. King

Published: August 2016 Synopsis: "In 2036 the zombie outbreak exploded throughout the world. Hundreds of thousands of people were being killed daily around the world. Nothing man did could stop the zombies. The zombies moved forward like a conquering army. For nearly a year, the world as they knew it, had ground to a stop. Every utility, communication and transportation that had existed was gone. They had been replaced with surviving from one day to next. During that same year the number of zombies had grown. They had been able to kill hundreds of millions or even several billion people worldwide. There was no way to keep an accurate count of the killed and missing. Adding to the zombie killings bandits were killing other survivors for their meager supplies. The Destruction Begins follows groups of people as they fight to survive the zombie outbreak. They fight for their lives. They fight just to survive. A year of fighting nothing mankind did stopped the zombies. The human race was doomed. After a year of the killings there was still no relief in sight. If the zombies could not be stopped, and stopped quickly, the human race on the planet Earth would cease to exist." Rating: ***

I received a free copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

First off I really liked the cover and it did take me a while to spot the huge zombie. Very appropriately titled; Zombie World Dominance, with The Destruction Begins implying this is the first in a series. Does exactly what it says on the tin.

The characters introduced in the prologue were teenagers but the hypothetical questions they were asking about what would happen to their world and what would future historians make of this didn't ring true as to what teenagers would think. Especially after seeing 2 of their friends ripped to pieces. Similarly, throughout the book, the teenagers dialogue didn't always ring true. For example, would a teenager say "scratches or gouges" when describing an apparent break in? I would have thought one adjective or the other but not both with the or in between. Another example was Mary telling her boyfriend she had packed "undergarments". The description was very well written and written very maturely and expertly, and the dialogue was written in the same way, which I feel let the book down a little. I felt the dialogue needed to be changed slightly to suit the characters ages. Related, all of the characters spoke the same; there weren't any differences in accent etc, which could be something for the author to work on in book 2.

It wasn't obvious that the book was set in 2036, as nothing seemed to have changed between 2016 and then. There weren't any technological advances being described or major political changes (other than the collapse of the UN). It was mentioned in the prologue about major events that happened in various years, but one the main novel started this was easy to forget.

This was definitely plot driven rather than character driven and the descriptions were very good.

An appropriate ending, that was a good summary and felt almost like a news program. Very nice touch.