Pros: Powerful, and surprisingly original given the current wave of zombie interest
Cons: Very few (sometimes it took me a little time to catch up)
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Review copy courtesy of Penguin Group.

Sure, we’ve seen the zombie-causing virus before. We’ve witnessed countless movies and books about mindless once-human things bent on contaminating all of the human race. Yet Walter Greatshell’s Xombies: Apocalypticon (sequel to his Xombies: Apocalypse Blues) actually succeeds in bringing something new and fascinating to this milieu.

Agent X has taken out most of the human race in one fell swoop. People—starting with women—became blue-skinned, mindless, and crazed, relentlessly chasing down every last human possible in the effort to spread the contamination. But why? How did X escape? Why did it affect women first? How is it that a few Xombies seem to have some of their mental faculties left intact?

All of these are fine questions to be sure, but they pale next to the need to survive. A ragtag bunch of young men, a scientist who worked on Agent X, and a bunch of military men seem to be safe aboard a refitted nuclear sub; their only major problem—and it’s a doozy—is that they’re running out of food. They have the only “tame” Xombies known to exist, and plan to use them to seek out supplies, as well as knowledge of what happened with Agent X. There are just a couple of problems with this. Their tame Xombies might have other ideas, and there’s a new world order out there that doesn’t want the competition…

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