Day by Day Armageddon (A Zombie Novel)
by J. L. Bourne
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Book Summary Information
Author: J. L. BourneEditor: Travis Adkins
Introduction: Z. A. Recht
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-11-01
ISBN: 0978970772
Number of pages: 228
Publisher: Permuted Press
Book Reviews of Day by Day Armageddon (A Zombie Novel)
Book Review: Choice of narrative style was disappointing
Summary: 1 Stars
Day by Day Armageddon is not a very good book. The main character is a two dimensional non-entity and the secondary characters are at best semi-mobile cardboard cut-outs. The story plods along minus even a hint of direction for its entirety, despite its stunning lack of length (which could be considered a triumph, I suppose...) and then it just ends suddenly (run out of journal paper?...) with the somewhat threatening promise of more to come. Clichés, technical errors and continuity flubs abound and the home preparedness of the narrator walks that thin line between ridiculously overly coincidental and borderline psychotic or maybe I should say psychic since the man just happened to be so incredibly prepared for the onset of a zombie apocalypse... Screw tension, huh?
But all that is neither here nor there, because none of it should really be all that surprising. Why? Because at its core, Day by Day Armageddon is nothing but a silly little zombie adventure story, more lazy, adolescent power fantasy than tall tale and no one actively searching out a title like this should expect any better. You can't fault it for its lack of imagination, style or ability, this isn't supposed to be a Pulitzer winner here, folks, so a little leeway should be given going in. Unfortunately, though, the real problem can't be ignored and that is the book's asinine choice of narrative style.
To me, the "personal journal" approach is the "Blair witch" of literature. It is a style that never really works, mostly because it is fraught with a myriad of inherent problems. The main one being that no matter what, at some point, the audience can't help but ask: "Why the hell are they still filming?" or in this case: "Why the hell is he still keeping a journal?" It makes no sense after a certain point given the situation. It is destined to fail eventually because the reality of it is, that if the world fell before the crush of the Dead and the stuff in the book was really happening to the guy, then after awhile he'd be too busy surviving to write in some stupid little girl journal! I know, I know, its just a story, but that's my point, if it was told in a different style... poof! That problem vanishes. The narrative style is a detriment to the story's believability. Now, the apologists out there will tell you that this is because the main character wants the World to know his story or some stupid crap like that... fine, whatever, it's a dumb excuse, but its an excuse and in the end, to argue it is to fall into a quagmire of trivial quibbles.
Of course, the apologists will classify every complaint as an unimportant quibble. God forbid you mention the typos. "Oh, that's because its a journal," the apologist will say. Is that so? Well, if that's true, if the writing and the book itself is in fact a physical manifestation of the tale, then why is it typed? Why isn't it then presented in a scrawled hand written style? To that they will of course answer: "Because then it would be too hard to read! Duh!" Well, sorry, kids, but that's a no go. Its too bad, but you can't have it both ways. If you're going to commit to a style, then commit to it, there's no half efforts allowed... which is what this book is: A disappointing half-effort. The "journal style" is nothing more than a gimmick and it's a neutering one at that, its constraining rules ensure that the characters can never appear in the book as real people. As a result, it comes off like it was meant as nothing more than a convenient defensive shield should someone question the authors ability or the "somewhat" transparent plot line. And maybe that's actually why he choose this style, I don't know. I certainly can not think of a viable reason to use this otherwise terrible narrative point of view. It is nothing except limiting story-wise. I mean, come on, isn't the author, the audience and the story naturally better served when we get to spend some good old fashioned character building time with the characters? Or maybe an internal moment or two or just a few... I don't know... conversations, so we could feel like we're actually taking part in a story instead of the poorly written and fanciful blog of a lonely teenager? Did he ever even talk to one of the female characters or were those feeling a little too ooky for his little diary? I hate to burst your bubble, people, but the typos and mistakes are not there because the author was actually trying to write as if the character was writing a journal, no, they're just mistakes and annoying ones at that, much like the story itself...
My recommendation: Pass.
Summary of Day by Day Armageddon (A Zombie Novel)
START INTERCEPT_ Sporadic news reports indicate chaos and violence spreading through U.S. cities. An unknown evil is sweeping the planet. The dead are rising to claim the Earth as the new dominant species in the food chain. INTERCEPT COMPLETE_ Survivor, In your hands is the handwritten journal depicting one man's struggle for survival. Trapped in the midst of global disaster, he must make decisions; choices that ultimately mean life, or the eternal curse to walk as one of them. Enter if you will into his world. -The world of the undead.Action & Adventure Books
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