James Knapp (1) (1970–)

Knapp has written a fast-paced, dark, and entirely compelling story which unfortunately has many plot problems.

This is set in a US which had been ravaged by prion disease (aka, Mad Cow), and in its aftermath, resulted in "no-man's-land" zones in which a weird mix of lawlessness, martial law, and gang warfare existed, depending on where in the zone you were. The main character, Alice, is the 17-year-old daughter of the owner of a large corporation who is going to revitalize one of the zones. Her father's passenger ship is shot down and she ends up alone on the ground and has to find her brother, escape the zone, and bring the truth of the corporate/government conspiracies of what is happening in the zones to light.

On a superficial level, I really enjoyed this book. It didn't pull punches. It wasn't pretty. People died and in not pleasant ways. Murder, attempted rape, cannibalism, and torture show up on the pages. Alice starts off the book as a very sheltered, very rich white girl and she has a pretty steep learning curve on what real life is like in Ypsilanti Bloc. As she's our POV character, the reader sees the Bloc through her eyes, and her realizations that the things she's been spoonfed to believe are not always true. She begins to realize there are layers of political and corporate conspiracies going on related to the Bloc, while seeing the "squatters" as not the worthless uncivilized masses they are assumed to be by the outside.

The plot moves along at a good clip and while reading, I really liked it. However, once I stopped being a passive reader and started probing deeper into the world-building, plot, and characterizations, I became less satisfied with the book.

The premise of this world is the prion epidemic that swept the United States. But it was never clear just why this epidemic resulted in these areas where people had to be evacuated from. As is stated many times in the book, prion sickness is not contagious - it is caused by eating contaminated meat. So without the need for quarantines or buffer areas, why the evacuations?

There was also this internal inconsistency related to how the people Alice encountered treated her given the world that Knapp created. This is a society which is ruthless, brutal, and hard. There is a brief mention of a mother selling her daughter. Basilio and Maya are also teenagers but are treated as adults by the gang they work for, and their age goes unremarked throughout the book. So why then is Alice's age something that other people in the Bloc mention? She's 17, yet the way some people remarked about her being "just a kid" made me want to picture her as 12 or 13, especially given a society in which children are by necessity forced to grow up very fast or they die. But her (white) youth is special and precious and remarkable when (brown-skinned) Basilio's and Maya's is not.

Lastly, the ending just left me completely unsatisfied. I get that Alice's journey in the Bloc is meant to pay homage in some way to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and the characters that Carroll's Alice meets in her travels never show up again once she leaves them behind. That worked for Wonderland - it does not work for No-Man's-Land. Because part of Alice's character growth is her personal realization that the people in the Bloc are just doing the best they can given the circumstances, and while there are some bad people, most do have reasons for doing what they do even if it may seem awful or inconceivable to her -- even the cannibals.

So, given all that, characters are left behind as she moves through No-Man's Land, except for her companions of Basilio and Maya. And especially since the book ended with the Cerulean bombing of the Bloc, and the implication that all the people she met along the way just got blown to bits.

Perhaps there will be a book two that will lead to some resolution for the plot threads that were left dangling. Seiko Santana was this larger-than-life cold-hearted villain who never actually appeared directly, or was confronted and made to account for her actions. Maya and Basilio's futures are not anywhere near secure nor rosy, despite Alice's mom's assurances. And then there's that whole larger government/corporate conspiracy that Alice saw evidence of that needs to be resolved. So yes, I can definitely see more fodder here for sequels, which I would definitely be interested in reading.

Alice in No-Man's-Land, despite its shortcomings, is still a good read. I suspect the YA crowd, who devour post-apocs, would love this.

Review copy courtesy of the publisher via Netgalley… (lisätietoja)

*This is a review of an early version. Changes may have been made*

What I thought:

Well-edited

The first chapter seemed a bit too detailed

The little excerpts at the beginning of each chapter were my favorite. They, especially the ones about the Survivor-esque show, sufficiently clued me in.

However, the excerpt at the beginning of the second chapter needs to be moved to somewhere further in the book. I had to go back and read that one after I finished the book again, just to connect it to the story.

The level of violence is pretty high. While it suits the story, I dunno if all readers would like all the gore.

I had a lot of fun reading the book.

The first two chapters were a bit slow for me but the story picked up the pace and I wanted to keep reading.

Any sequels could include details about how the disease started.

Also reviewed/liked at:

Shelfari
Amazon
… (lisätietoja)

Pros: lots of action, variety of action, interesting world-building some tense & gritty scenes

Cons: black book information sometimes comes at convenient times, soldiers at the end of the book make some questionable decisions

Yuric Walshe is on an airship to visit the footprint his branch of Cerulean Holdings has in Ypsilanti Bloc as prelude to an urban renewal project. Decades ago a food borne plague wiped out large areas of the US. Most of the country recovered, but some areas slow to recover were walled off instead, and allowed to fester in a post-apocalyptic state. Mr. Walshe is looking at an illegal black book with data from one of his competitors and talking to his kids when the ship is attacked. Alice, his 20 year old daughter and protege, and Cody, his 11 year old son, make it to drop ships before its too late. When Alice comes to, she’s alone in an extremely hostile environment. Through the black book she learns that the rival branch is not only responsible for the crash, they’re using the event as an excuse to speed up the renewal, a process she’s discovering is more violent and destructive than she believed.

The book focuses on Alice’s journey through Ypsilanti Bloc with the two people who find her drop ship as she tries to leave, contact the outside world and/or find her brother. You really get a feel for her as a character, both her resilience and her surprising naivete. Despite the evidence in front of her and the constant testimony of those around her, Alice holds on to her beliefs about Ypsilanti Bloc and what the urban renewal project will do for the people in it. Only towards the end of the book does she accept that things aren’t what she’s always believed.

Basilio and Maya, the people who help Alice out, are very interesting characters. I didn’t like Maya at first, as she fit the jealous angry woman stereotype, but the more you get to know her the more fleshed out her character becomes and the more understandable her actions - and reactions - are. I’m surprised at the lengths they end up going to to help Alice, but their relationship does develop as time goes by, making their actions realistic.

I was impressed at the variety of dangers Alice faced as she moved through the Bloc. It’s an interesting post-apocalyptic setting within a modernized world. The Bloc itself has all the traditional dangers: cannibals, gangs, etc. and some of the scenes get pretty tense. There’s a good balance between action and down town, keeping the novel fast paced and entertaining.

The world-building was well done, with a good set-up and chapter openings containing quotes from the outside world. This allows you to understand how the people from Alice’s community feel about the Bloc, even as you see the Bloc itself first hand.

The black book was occasionally the source of much needed intelligence at the right time, which felt a bit contrived.

The ending was satisfying, though I felt that the soldiers were a little more inept than they should have been.

If you like post-apocalyptic fiction and a fast read, it’s a great book.… (lisätietoja)

This book has a completely different approach to "zombies". Are they dead, yes, do they eat brains? Not really. But hey they are dead that qualifies as zombie-esque for me.

They are really "revivors" - people die and they are brought back with technology to be used in this seemingly never ending war (which you really don't learn much about). They are also used for other sordid things, like blow up dolls, without the blowing up of course.

It is well written and paced and I already own the next one. The characters intriqued me enough that I plan to read it soon. This has really nice character building. Each one that was introduced is made to feel real enough that you become interested to learn more and care about what happens to them. I especially love the lil drunk gal. tee hee hee.

A must read for zombie fans.… (lisätietoja)