World Famous Comics: Down the Road: A Zombie Horror Story (Special Edition)
Down the Road: A Zombie Horror Story (Special Edition)
By: Bowie Ibarra Publisher: Permuted Press Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Permuted Press Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 184 Publication Date: May 15, 2006
Product Description: A bizarre plague of the walking dead. A nation desperate for survival. It could be the end of the world.
Around the globe, the dead are rising to devour the living. Hospitals are overrun, and martial law has been declared. The streets are in chaos. Society is disintegrating.
George Zaragosa is a young school teacher living in the shadow of his fiancée’s unsolved murder. Now he just wants to go home to his family. He has made the journey before, traveling from Austin to San Uvalde. It is usually a short drive. But he knows this time is going to be different.
Along the way, George must negotiate military roadblocks, FEMA camps, and street thugs, not to mention hordes of the living dead. He is determined to make it home, but only one thing is certain: his trip down the road will be a journey like no other.
New Features in the Special Edition: - New introduction by Travis Adkins, author of Twilight of the Dead. - New "Director's Commentary" afterword by Bowie Ibarra. - Newly formatted and corrected manuscript. - Sneak preview of the sequel, Down the Road: On the Last Day. - Amazing new cover art.
could it get any worse? If I could give this book less than 1 star, I would. Not good zombie fiction, or any fiction for that matter. I would not recommend wasting your time with this title.
If you hate America, read this! I don't personally know Mr. Ibarra, but I think after reading this book, one gets a pretty good idea of what he's like.
1) He HATES America...well, the government anyway. Apparently, he thinks this great country is run by people and institutions whose sanities are literally hanging by a thread, just waiting for an excuse to come completely unhinged and go around imprisoning its citizens, while murdering and raping at any opportunity. The Zombie Apocalypse provides that very opportunity here.
2) As a teacher, it is his biggest fantasy to have sex multiple times with one or more of his colleagues.
3) He dreams of being a super-hero in the apocalypse, a man of few words, willing to fight or kill anyone and anything that gets in his way.
There's more, but you get the idea. George, the protagonist of the story, is the author. So, we get an inside look into the mind of Mr. Ibarra.
Honestly, some of the story is good...but I actually find it easier to find things I don't like. I mean, come on...if there was a plague of any kind here in America, the author believes that our military and government would literally become a Nazi regime. FEMA camps are nothing more than recreations of Nazi internment camps, where peoples' wills are beaten down, soldiers kill indiscriminately, and choose women to rape...even young girls. The author literally beats the reader about the brain with very clear, anti-government conspiracy theories. The book is filled with them...not just from the FEMA camp situation, but even minor characters' conversations. It's a bit too much. And George...he can do anything. He can have sex multiple times with gorgeous women. Even with chaos and death all around him, he knows how to please a woman. He can fight, he can murder police officers at the very beginning of the outbreak just to get to a memento of his lost love! That's right...didn't I mention through most of the book, he is mourning the loss of a woman he loves, all while bedding as many women as he can, because he LOVED HER. Wow...what a noble guy!
The only part of the entire story that I actually thought was clever, was the ending. After everything George goes through, it is an interesting way to wrap up the tale.
The author clearly has issues with the government...possibly reinforced by the situation with Hurricane Katrina, or Waco, TX. Unfortunately, the book almost seems like an excuse to lure people to his deranged beliefs. As another person said in their review on this site, I would NOT want this man teaching my children.
Unrealistic even for a zombie novel The book started off well, but quickly went downhill. While the writing itself isn't bad, the behavior of the people in the book is simply too unbelievable. Certain parts reminded me of the plot a a cheap porno. Example: while hordes of zombies are literally on the other side of the wall, and could break in at any time, the main character has sex multiple times with a colleague (who was grading papers in the middle of the apocalypse) in various different rooms of a school. Perhaps a bit unrealistic? The ruthlessness of the common American soldier is also unrealistic. They are portrayed as mindless killers who blindly follow the orders of the government to kill all people who refuse to go to a FEMA camp. Members of the military are our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, friends and relatives. Do you really think they would go around killing helpless Americans simply because they were told to? The ATF would (and has), but as a member of the US military, I can tell you that most of us are normal people who would never obey an order to fire on unarmed Americans. Basically, the characters in this book are just too two dimensional and ruin what could be a good story.
not that great Didn't really care for this book, felt short and low class. This book will sell at any trailer park gift shop.
A fun zombie tale to read on vacation. Down the Road is the tale of one man's attempt at surviving a plague of zombies overtaking the nation. George Zaragosa, like many Americans, did not believe the news reports of the dead rising until it was nearly too late. He finally decides to flee his apartment in Austin and head "home" to San Uvalde. This is the tale of that trip. I like how the author works in the book's title more than once throughout the text, the addition is clever and not forced.
As George makes his way through a city torn up by zombies, looters, police and other survivors the reader learns bits and pieces of his past. These story elements are inter-mixed with the ongoing "current" plot as flashbacks and memories. The author handles this rather well, blending something from the survival plot with character development.
Down the Road is a relatively short read, wrapping up in 168 pages or so. I read it in one day while traveling across the state of Wisconsin. The adventure George has throughout the book is a fun and scary read for anyone who enjoys zombie fiction. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the sequel.
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