Amazon paperback/Kindle

The world is dead, devoured by a plague of reanimated corpses.

Cahz and his squad of veteran soldiers are tasked with flying into abandoned cities and retrieving zombies for scientific study. Deep in infected territory, hundreds of miles from their support vessel, the ever present dangers weigh heavily on Cahz’s mind as he shepherds his team to make quick, clean extractions.

Then the unbelievable happens. After years of encountering nothing but the undead, the team discovers a handful of disheveled survivors in a fortified warehouse with dwindling supplies.

Surrounded by hordes of ravenous corpses, Cahz is faced with the terrible responsibility of determining the five passengers who will escape in the helicopter. While those left stranded must continue to fight off the infected and starvation long enough to be rescued.

I had the great pleasure of receiving a signed copy of Remains of the Dead directly from the author while attending ZomBcon.  Iain McKinnon is a wonderfully entertaining, well spoken and great gentleman.  I hope, one day, to have the pleasure of chatting with him at length and yes, to ask him the ever popular question of whether it’s true what Scotsmen don’t wear beneath their kilts.

So, to start off the review, Remains of the Dead is a sequel. I did not realize this until after I had completed the book. I am definitely interested in going back and reading it’s predecessor Domain of the Dead, but I had no problem with any of the story lines in Remains of the Dead, so it could definitely be read as a standalone novel.

The tale is divided into 2 storylines. From one perspective you have Ali’s story. Ali was one of the warehouse survivors who gets separated from the group and must fight his way to safety. I liked Ali, he is definitely the type of person I would want in my camp should the shit hit the fan. He is resourceful and resilient, doing everything in his power to survive and get to a place where he can, hopefully, meet up with his group. The second storyline revolves around 2 soldiers, Cahz and Cannon and 3 warehouse survivors, an elderly woman, Elspeth, Ryan and an infant who is the granddaughter of Elspeth and the daughter of Ryan.This group has the same type of issues that Ali has only in a group situation. It’s kind of interesting to see the two dynamics of survival. Is it easier to try to survive in a group or alone? Both have positive and negative aspects from my viewpoint. 

The author has an excellent grasp of the various emotions that would run through people during a  zombie apocalypse. Especially when it comes to having to deal with one of their own. There was a particular scene during which I  became rather emotional and that makes me happy. I love to feel emotion while reading a book! The zombies were the slow shambling type that, while not too threatening if taken on one on one, can be shit your pants scary in a large group. The violence and gore were there and in great detail, but not over the top extreme. There was no excessive bloody description of mutilation of the undead or the living. 

I definitely recommend Remains of the Dead as a must read for any fan of the zombie genre. I look forward to getting my hands on Domain of the Dead and seeing how the worlds fit together. For now, I need to go find myself some spam to throw at a zombie. 

Learn more about the author by checking out his self titled website Iain McKinnon where you can find out what he is currently up to and how to contact him with feedback after you have picked up and read Remains of the Dead. 

Click on the cover image above to purchase your paperback or Kindle copy of Remains of the Dead via Amazon or go (HERE) to visit Barnes & Noble for your paperback/nook copy! Another option is Smashwords (HERE)

Espresso rating: Quad