Day by Day Armageddon

Day by Day ArmageddonI owned J.L. Bourne’s Day by Day Armageddon for quite a while before I read it.  In addition to being a slow(ish) reader, I have a pile of books, a three shelf bookcase actually, of books waiting to be read, so sometimes books wait.  After plowing through DBDA in March of this year, I picked up the sequel, Beyond Exile, which I just finished last night.

Both of these books are excellent.  Written in the style of a personal journal, we follow the story of an unnamed Naval Officer as he notes his thoughts and experiences in a world quickly becoming overrun by zombies.  Personally, I thought the journal style worked very well, the only drawback being that since things are always written after the fact, you know that no matter what is being written about the author has to survive or else he wouldn’t have written it down.  This journal style, however, is also one of the complaints many people have about the books, so you have to know about it going in.  They claim things like “I just read a guy’s personal diary and I didn’t learn anything about them.”  I have to wonder if they’ve ever read anyone’s personal journals that weren’t fictionalized.  Most journals, especially those started by men later in life (not as kids) tend more toward facts and what happened, and are not full of emotions and internal dialog about how they feel.  Think of it less as a diary and more of an After Action Report by a military officer and it’ll probably work better for you.

Another common complaint on zombie stories is they seem to have a “right wing slant”.  And while these critics might have a point, when flesh eating zombies spring up, who is more likely to have a gun ready to shoot them in the head, an NRA member with a right leaning political view or a liberal gun control supporter?  Similarly, why are the survivors always military or people with training?  I think that’s a question that answers itself.  I mean, I go to Dragon*Con every year, and when I go to panels about apocalyptic themes I know every person in that room thinks they are going to be victorious if the zeds should ever start walking, but realistically most of them wouldn’t last a week, and probably not more than a day.

Anyway… back to the tales at hand.  I found both stories to be very entertaining and engaging.  I especially enjoyed the use of slower shambling zombies and opposed to having them all running and jumping and stuff.  I highly recommend both books, and I believe there will be a third next year.  The second book takes a turn at the end that I’m interested to see where J.L. Bourne goes with it.

2 July 1998

Hrmm… I’ve got that rant waiting to go up but I think I’m gonna hold off for now…
I’ve been making alot of progress on my web page… the Pavilion is looking better (graphics still need a little work)… and I’ve been working privately on my North 5 page… but until I can iron out my new work schedule and all that I’m not putting too much into it. But I will.
Short .plan today… this weekend (or next week after work) I’ll rant anew.
I do have a new section that will appear periodically, but will mostly remain empty…
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Theater Review: Armageddon (or as pronounced by a friend of mine, Ar-Mega-Don… he must be fighting Godzilla). This movie kicks some serious ass. If you saw Deep Impact then you know the plot, only without the underground caves to “save humanity”. In DI they had quite a long time before the comet would hit and they trained and stuff. In Armageddon they get 18 days. And I still hold to my original “before viewing” opinion of these 2 movies… DI had better plot and character developement, but Armageddon was a wild ride with better effects and action, and it wasn’t as much of a downer as DI. Armageddon has you cheering at points, but DI never let you get out of the “we’re all doomed” funk until the happy speech at the end. But back to the movie at hand… Armageddon just kicked ass… it was a ride… edge-of-your-seat, eyes-plastered-open film. See it on the big screen in full Dolby Digital Sound… it’s worth it at twice the price.
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Today’s Song: How Soon Is Now by too many people to name. I borrowed some CD’s from people and some of my own and listened to a bunch of different versions of this song, and it’s all good. First there is The Smiths, the original… then I had the Love Spit Love version from the Craft soundtrack… and there is a version by Everclear on compliation CD that I can’t recall the name of at the moment. I know there are more but I just can’t put them all down in my head. Every version of that song is cool.
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Today’s Movie: No movie today… I saw Armageddon last night, what more do you want from me?!?!