SPSFC 3 Book Review - Three Rivers Plague by Zachary and Joshua Forbes
Three Rivers Plague was an epic zombie adventure in an unapologetically entertaining genre mash up!
The Soul Smashers are playing their hearts out, rocking out on stage and having a blast. The music is pumping, the crowd is vibing and Thomas may beat Nick in the riff off this time. That was all before the green mist started falling from the sky. The band looks out into the crowd and notices something funky, as the mist touches the masses, their bodies start to turn and mass hysteria follows. Ripped off stage before they can help, the Soul Smashers are shuffled into a zeppelin designed to keep them safe. For how long, no one knows. Little does this group of 20-30 somethings know, they just witnessed the unleashing of the worlds latest biological weapon.
Life on the zeppelin isn’t all fun and games, as soon as someone is suspected of infection, they end up dead. Or worse, a hunch. When group manager Ben starts to show signs of the disease, Thomas begs to be allowed to return to earth, to find help for the only man who ever believed in him, even if it is a lost cause. What they find on the ground was so much more than they bargained for. Mafia esk groups are at each other’s throats, the hunches are supercharged, and they are in more danger than they ever imagined.
This book had a lot to offer, it was a fun take on the post-apocalyptic zombie genre with a few surprises thrown in there for good measure. My favourite part of this story was the way it was executed in 9 episodes. Each episode focuses on a different aspect of the story, whether that be characters, a story arc or location. Due to the set-up, the episodes felt somewhat self-contained even though they flowed on throughout the book and made me want to check out what happens next. I also think this style of story telling made quite a long book for this subgenre more accessible. It certainly gave off the “just one more episode” vibe as I was reading.
I also really loved the way the authors have taken no prisoners when it comes to the genre blend. Three Rivers Plague had a little bit of everything inside. The authors have quite obviously written the story they wanted to and that, my friends, is the beauty of self-publishing. They have absolutely nailed that aspect and their pride for this story can be read in each chapter. There are a handful of pop culture references for the rock and roll lovers, the mafia thriller storyline for a touch of noir, and the horror of the hunches, this book had it all. If you go into this expecting a lot of fun in a zombie story with a twist, you will have a good time.
I will say that I felt the story fell somewhat due to repetition, length, and character work in my opinion. There were several scenarios where our characters would need to go to a location to achieve a goal or obtain an item, only to have to go back to that location several times throughout the book. This made for a repeated framework of terrain travelled where similar things would happen as the characters worked their way to that area. For the most part it was hostile interactions between either the zombie like hunches or one of the two mafia like groups making their power plays. I also felt that because the book was so action heavy during these moments of travel (fair enough we are in a zombie wasteland here) it didn’t leave a whole lot of room for the characters to have deeper moments before succumbing to one fate or another.
Overall, this book was super fun and I hope more people give it a shot! Just … maybe don’t get attached to anyone.
