The Remaining by D.J. Molles.

Hey guys!

Joe here with another review for you! :)
Today I am reviewing ‘The Remaining’ by D.J. Molles.

Here’s the blurb for you:

In a steel-and-lead-encased bunker 40 feet below the basement level of his house, Captain Lee Harden of the United States Army waits. On the surface, a plague ravages the planet, infecting over 90% of the populace.

The bacterium burrows through the brain, destroying all signs of humanity and leaving behind little more than base, prehistoric instincts. The infected turn into hyper-aggressive predators, with an insatiable desire to kill and feed.

Some day soon, Captain Harden will have to open the hatch to his bunker, and step out into this new wasteland, to complete his very simple mission: Subvenire Refectus.

To Rescue and Rebuild

-

I bought this book on a whim; I saw it in Waterstones for a cheap price, it was a horror/survival book so I thought, “Why not give it a chance?”

So, as soon as I got home I started to read and honestly, it wasn’t either amazing or terrible.

There were quite a few flaws, which I believe a-lot of other readers have also picked up on. These things are simple errors but yet they affect the whole story. For example: Lee is a military captain who has a humongous bunker created from a stupid amount of government money. In this bunker he has a massive plasma screen TV, up to date games consoles with the newest games, huge rooms, etc. But the one thing that the bunker doesn’t have, which you think it would, is some sort of danger system/alarm/CCTV equipment about and showing the progression of the outside world.

Surely, if the government built it for a ‘world ending cause’ then they would have sufficient Intel uploaded onto Lee’s computer about what this recent apocalypse has done. (Which, admittedly, was given on the USB stick… but even then, it doesn’t give enough evidence about the outside world for Lee, only giving Lee the scientific intelligence, which is then also proved slightly wrong when the Infected start to form packs and hunt more intelligently)

There were a few other flaws that I won’t point out, as I don’t want to spoil other reader’s experiences.

The plot was pretty basic aswell; Lee had to find more survivors and cultivate an area for which a large following of survivors would be founded then they create the new world civilisation.

If only it was that easy, Lee has to struggle with raiders, infected and those awkward moments in life in which we all have and we all deal with.

(Starting to turn into an episode of The Walking Dead… I love that show >.<)

I’ve also heard that in some of the old copies published, a chapter name was spelt incorrectly and Abby’s name changed from ‘Abby’ to ‘Abbey’ a lot.

I believe I have a newer printed version as mine did not have incorrect spellings nor did Abby’s name change.

Even so, the plot was still enjoyable and easy to follow, it was all a zombie book needed to be.

Survivors who fight for their need to survive but yet bad things happen around each turning giving them a much harder and stronger need to stay alive.

The only bit through out the book, which actually got to me, was when Lee put down his dog Tango… I did cry… a little… I like dogs :(

It was generally quite sad, it was written very-very well. Going from Lee’s unwanted attachment to Tango, to Tango’s change into an infected. It really reminded me of the scene from ‘I am Legend’ when Will Smith starts crying while he had to put his dog down…
Don’t lie; you cried at that aswell.

But yeah, a book hasn’t made me cry since the Mistborn trilogy.

The characters were pretty basic aswell.

There wasn’t a single character I felt strongly attached too (Excluding Tango… I liked Tango :) )

Lee was depicted to be some badass American military captain who had knowledge of military formations and tactical solutions, but when he was out of his house he made a lot of stupid decisions that almost ended up in getting himself killed and everyone around him killed.

He did have leadership instincts, but they were mostly clouded by his need to protect more than 4 people. Honestly, those 4 people should have been his main priority because say those 4 people died, what makes him fit to lead a much-much larger group of people in this new world.

Then we had side characters such as Angela, Abby, Sam, Jack and Tango.

Some of the characters which were written in, didn’t really need to be in the book…
Characters such as Sam or Angela didn’t actually need to be involved at-all, they only characters that had input within the groups decisions were Lee and Jack.

For example:
Angela is a middle-aged woman (my guess would have to be late 20’s, early 30’s)
She is also Abby’s mum.

The one thing that made me unsure of her character was that, even though the infection had been going on for about a month, she didn’t seem nerved or broken when Lee shot her infected husband right in front of her and Abby…

That subject was never picked up on and never mentioned again throughout the book.

And then Lee starts to wonder if there was ‘trouble’ in their marriage… like seriously? Come on man. You just shot her husband. Don’t think about stuff like that.

I don’t think I’m going to continue this series as I wasn’t fully intrigued or amazed enough to believe that Lee could lead a successful group to civilisation.

I would have to say that this book was good in ways, but yet it lacked so much in terms of suspense, impact, effectiveness, etc.

The plot was a good idea, but there were loop-holes.

All in all, if you want to have a quick read through a zombie book go ahead and read this book, you may enjoy it. But if you are looking for a hard-core zombie book that will leave you on the edge of your seat, do not read this.

You can buy the book here:
http://tinyurl.com/k3fkyhe

Thanks for reading this review guys!

Joe :D