Outpost [Paperback]

When a strange infection takes hold of most of the world's population, a small group of refinery workers in the Arctic are initially protected from the pandemic. But they soon tire of waiting for a rescue that never comes, and eventually decide to make their own way south to establish contact with whatever might be left of civilisation.

The disparate bunch - a suicidal female vicar, a sikh handyman who seems to be maintaining the rig single-handedly, a body-building thug, a failed medic, a bank cashier looking for a bit of excitement, and various 'Star Trek'-like bit-part extras (i.e doomed to meet a bitter end!), always manage to take the least sensible or safe option (wouldn't you be more likely to stay put in your heated refuge with 6 months of food and no sign of the undead?!). However their foolhardiness admittedly does keep the action and excitement ticking along nicely. And this is probably the book's greatest strength - the incredibly fast pace and constant changes of scene. On the flipside, most of the characters are not fleshed out properly, and potentially tense and exciting situations often resolved without explanation (such as the crew member who exits the plot in the first half of the book, yet inexplicably reappears toward the end with no detail of how or why they engineered their own return).

The number of high octane explosions, crashes, fights, and treks through the frozen wastes convince me that the author had a screenplay in mind from the outset with this book. And it probably would translate quite well into a sort of polar '28 Days Later'.... But it's a shame that someone who I think probably is capable of writing a slightly more highbrow novel (as evidenced by the convincing descriptions of the inhospitable frozen environment) has opted for action over substance or suspense.

In summary, tersely written and a very easy read, but probably more public transport fare than Pulitzer prize. Read more ›

The book tells the tale of a skeleton crew marooned on a drilling rig in the Arctic Circle as the rest of the world succumbs to a mysterious plague. As the Arctic winter draws in their hopes of escape are raised and dashed (and raised and dashed...).

The evocation of the bleak environment, both within the rig and out on the ice, is handled pretty well, and the central idea of whether you want to be the first to go or the last to survive when your world ends is a recurrent theme of the dialogue between the characters. My main problem is that virtually all of the characters are so sparsely sketched that it is hard to care about any of them.

The writing style is spartan with lots of short sentences. By way of example: "Bitter. She grimaced. She scooped more painkillers. She didn't want to fall asleep before she ate enough pills to kill herself outright. She didn't want to wake.". Depending on your tastes, this is either invigorating or irritating. For me, it was irritating and interrupted the flow of the story.

There are a number of big set-pieces which help to keep the story moving along, and the survivors' reactions to the approaching plague are reasonably well framed, if not exactly novel. Personally, I think bringing in the sci-fi aspect was a mistake - a case of trying to tick too many genre boxes? Overall, this comes across as a plot treatment for a disaster movie, with some of the set pieces seemingly chosen for how they will look on-screen, rather than as a coherent development of the storyline. If you're not looking for anything deep or meaningful, it's an OK way to pass an evening or two, but overall I'd rate it as average.

when i read a zombie novel, i expect action and blood and guts from the word go, but i didn,t get that from this novel. huge sections were devoted to the plans the survivors were making while the zombies were treated like a backdrop. i have also read juggernaut, the prequel to this, so i was rather amused when ANOTHER shuttle, like in the prevous novel, suddenly turned up, in the vicinty of the rig. how did the pandemic start? was there a legion of shuttles up in space just waiting to land!!!!

one thing that made no sense, was the character of nikki. she spends days at sea in a makeshift boat, presumably traveling miles, and the next thing we know, she is back near the rig. how did she get back there so quick? did she somehow manage to paddle back against the flow!!!! maybe she teleported lol

near the end of the novel, it started to make no sense whatsoever. how was nikki able to control the infected? how did the body of the cosmonaut get into the bunker, especially since he was blown up near the beginning of the book? none of this was explained.

i know that horror novels are supposed to be bleak, but the ending of this one left me depressed. it ends ubruptly, with no one knowing what happens to the survivors.

interesting spin on the zombie genre and intersting characters, but it was too slow for me, and the final confusing part spoilt it

Oh how I couldn't wait to finish this book. Sadly for the wrong reasons. This has got to be one of the worst books I've read, there was no character development, no plot, no pace, no excitement and no soul.

The author switched between characters far too quickly and what could have been whole chapters of character development was shortened to a single paragraph. Prime example of this was when a leading character had his hand cut off in one sentence!

Maybe it's my own fault for reading so much - I'm used to authors painting me a graphic picture, so with that in mind don't read this book if you are an avid reader, it'll rob you of the time you could be spending reading a truly good book!