My favorite book (King Blood - Simon Clark)

Member Name: leeman-seed

Product:	King Blood - Simon Clark
Date:	04/04/09 (85 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: brilliant gripping plot well written

Disadvantages: cant put down factor may make you loose your job

TYPE- Post apocalyptic Horror fiction
PRICE- £6.99 as printed on book
PAGES- 534 as in paperback edition

------------------------------------ Basic Plot ----------------------------------------------
This book is set in England in what we are to assume is present day,
The book itself starts with a brief page of a man running through the a wasteland that the world has become, this is confusing at the time but soon becomes apparent and this is followed by some fictional 'eye witness' reports that seem so heart felt they could have been real.
The story opens straight away at a teenage house party just outside the city of Leeds and gives a really light hearted setting to introdce the charaters into the story.This gives a nice contrast to the suspense of the rest of the book and i often found myself think .. remember how these people used to be as if i actually knew them.
after various happenings and introductions at this opening scene the story really starts to 'heat up' excuse the pun.
The idea for this book is that the earth is heating up from the inside out, this causes various problems as you would imagine. The initial problems this causes is burst water mains and gas pipes leaking toxic fumes, to burning fields to forcing refugees to flock away from citys and running out of food.
We follow a group of friends trying to survive in this ever increasing nightmare and stick with them through all the problems they face, be it enviromental, rabid refugees turned canibal or relationship problems within there own tribe.
as well as the increasingly baron landscapes and deminishing food supplies the survivors have another problem being the mysterious 'grey men' that appear to to increasing in number.

This is really a story of human endevour (sorry thats such a cliche) and the terror in this book not only comes from the fact the world is being destroyed, or horrible monsters... but what we would act like if this kind of situation happened.


------------------------------------Writing style -----------------------------------------
the book is written in the first person of the main character (see next section) for the most part and gives you alot of in depth thoughts and opinions. The style ofwriting is not hard to read in the slightest and i never found myself flicking back several pages to remember who said what, infact this is the only book i have ever read that when i think back to it i remember as though i saw actually there and it even brings feelings back. i will definatly be reading more simon clarke novels if there are all written so well.

------------------------------------Charaters ----------------------------------------------
The charaters in this book are fantastic, the main charater is Rick Kennedy, this is the person whos thoughts you hear and opions you come to agree with, he is basically a normal english late teens early twenties guy, he plays guitar,likes a local girls and relaxing with his friends (prehaps why i related so well to him)
The other main Characters in the story are Ricks older brother, who is just visiting from America when the whole fiasco starts. As the older of the group he takes the role of the leader of the group.
Other characters include Kate, Ricks love intrest, and a whole group of friends, including a very strange girl that Rick and his brother resuce. she has a whole is she good is she bad vibe throughout the book.
We also have another tribe introduce later in the book, being a buch of homeless, who obviously are thriving in a situation where they need to survive.

------------------------------------My Opinion ---------------------------------------------
This is honestly the best book I have ever read, i kept me gripped and literally could not put it down, i would sometimes be awake until 3 in the morning reading this and arrive at work the next day unable to keep my eyes open (obviously i told them i was out partying all night to keep my integrity)
After i had finished it, it played on my mind for weeks after and i would find myself thinking, I wonder what would happen if ... In my opinion that is the sign of a good book / movie. if you cant remove it from you brain or let go your worry for the characters.

-----------------------------------Other reviews ------------------------------------------
the other reviews printed on the back of the book state:

'The hottest new Purveyor of horrific thrills currently working on these shores'

'Readers will relish clarkes uncomplicated cocktail of chlorophyl and human blood' (okay im not quite sure what that meant either)

Summary: Brilliant book!