Publishers Weekly Review of SIEGE

THE FIRST DAYS received a Starred Review from Publishers Weekly and the review for FIGHTING TO SURVIVE was glowing, yet I've been on pins and needles waiting for the review for SIEGE.  I worked very hard on the revisions for SIEGE and it quickly became the book with the biggest overhaul.  As I have recounted before on this blog, I chopped over 60,000 words out of the original manuscript. Since the story had been originally told online in serial form, there were a lot of scenes in SIEGE that were written just so I would post something.  I slashed my way through these filler scenes, hacked out any repetitiveness scenes or conversations, eliminated some stuff I wrote just to make fans happy, and returned the ending to my original inception.  By the time I was done with SIEGE, I felt pride in my accomplishment, yet a little fearful on how the old fans and new fans would respond to the book. I loved it, but would everyone else?

Publisher Weekly's review came out today and I'm so pleased with it.

The people of Ashley Oaks have managed to survive the zombie plague detailed in The First Days and Fighting to Survive, thanks to hard work and the leadership of new mayor Travis. As characters struggle with their new circumstances, they find a community of survivors, under the brutal control of ambitious Sen. Paige Brightman and Maj. Gen. Gordon Knox. The danger represented by the senator and her minions pales in comparison to the tsunami of undead making its slow but inexorable way toward Ashley Oaks and its tasty inhabitants. Frater has managed to develop an original treatment of the zompocalypse; the protagonists try their best not to abandon civilized values, and they resist despair despite tragic loss. Even in the face of disaster, the series manages an odd but reassuring optimism, a peculiar faith in humanity not often seen in horror. 

My favorite line is actually the last one. It is the well-established trope in zombie horror that everything must be doom and gloom.  Every time I watch a zombie movie, I expect everyone to bicker until they die in the end.  I knew that I was going against the tide by having a group of people building a community in the deadlands.

I'm giddy, ecstatic, and crying right now.  The enormous relief I felt when I read this review has liberated me from all my previous angst.

Remember to enter the SIEGE Giveaway!