The Ball Washer

Zombies Vs. Robots - Joe Cautilli, Marsha Cautilli 3/5 stars

             
                                                




     I received a copy of Zombies Vs. Robots in exchange for an honest review and I'm actually kind of torn with this one. If you've read my reviews you know how I feel about this genre. You know I'm always looking for something new, something that takes the genre to new levels, and adds something fresh and unique. In a sense Z V R did that, but what weighed it down for me were the over drawn ideas as the survivors had for their actual survival. It goes into a lot of detail here about everything, and I really didn't care. It weighed the book down, made me feel as if I were suddenly reading a surival manual. I realize this is a zombie novel, and these people need to create a sustainable environment, but holy crap on a cracker! I do like the idea though. Once we find them in their new sustainable habitiat, the action sort of picks up, but it falls into familiar territory. We know what happens and the robots don't get a lot of time in the book. They do see some action but it's the typical stuff we expect to see.


     There are a few interesting ideas here which do elevate the novel a bit. Crazed religious fanatics were an interesting aspect, and I hope that in the next book of the series we see more of them. The authors dabble in a variety of different genres which I found courageous. Z V R is as much a cautionary tale as it is straight up zombie novel. Something like this could happen, and it adds an undercurrent of fear to it. Fans of the genre will enjoy this a great deal because it feels exactly the way it's supposed to. You get a few surprises that will no doubt suck you in and make you cheer your head off as the survivors take out zombies, and the Army of God. Me, I just wasn't all that into it. The characters felt like an afterthought and the real story wasn't actually about them, but how they planned on surviving. I didn't care about them, and in a novel like this you need characters that you like, or can even relate too. The idea is great, but it just didn't work for me. I think most of that had to do with the genre in general. I get that these novels have to follow a pattern but when I saw the description I was hoping for something a bit different.


      As a reviewer I could tell you to avoid this book at all costs, but that's not fair to the people who wrote it. If you're a fan of the genre, you're going to enjoy it. Be warned, the first half does move slow, but once the world falls apart, you'll get exactly what you came for. What this isn't for is just horror fans who dislike the zombie genre. You'll feel exactly the way I did, or you'll end up leaving a one star review which it doesn't really deserve. It follows the usual formula these books always follows except with robots thrown in. There's nothing here for people who don't like zombies, or survival horror. I think it does deserve three stars and that's because it's not a terrible book. I just crave something unique in my horror. I want to see something I've never seen. There was a lot of hope that this would be one of those books, but it's not. Joe, and Marsha are decent writers, and they know how to tell a story, Sometimes, they go a little overboard with details, but all writers do that. It's clearly not a bad thing. Just beware of what you're getting into.