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| ★★★★✰ |
Synopsis: Coldbrook is a secret laboratory located deep in Appalachian Mountains. Its scientists had achieved the impossible: a gateway to a new world. Theirs was to be the greatest discovery in the history of mankind, but they had no idea what they were about to unleash. With their breakthrough comes disease and now it is out and ravaging the human population. The only hope is a cure and the only cure is genetic resistance: an uninfected person amongst the billions dead. In the chaos of destruction there is only one person that can save the human race. But will they find her in time?
***
Review: This was a pretty great read. I say 'pretty' because I did have a couple of issues with it, but for the most part it was a fairly original, very enjoyable sci-fi take on the usual zombie horror/thriller story.
I wanted to be blown away by Coldbrook. Initially, I thought I would be. I've read one other novel by Lebbon, The Silence, which was a very good read let down somewhat by a couple of underdeveloped and hard to swallow plot threads. Coldbrook is leagues ahead, in my opinion. The same excellent standard of writing is present, and the plot is more complex and better fleshed out. I suppose my biggest problem with it is that I found the sci-fi aspects to be, although potentially the unique selling point of this book, in actuality a bit lacking in attention. I can't even say underdeveloped because the concepts that Lebbon wanted to protray were complete, I just felt they could have been a much more central focus. As it was, there was a bit too much of characters I wasn't overly invested in running around having close calls with zombies and by the end I was skimming pages.
It also seemed to be perpetually dawn and Lebbon seems unable to conceive of colour being anything but smeared or smudged across a sky. That got irritiating.
I sound like I'm being pretty hard on it, considering I'm giving it four stars, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable read; I just wish the parts I felt were its characterizing feature has also been its focus.
Rating: 4/5
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