Review: Outpost ~ by Adam Baker

Review by John for: Outpost ~ by Adam Baker

An apocalyptic “zombiesque” thriller for lovers of B-movie horror.

About:   A skeleton crew has been left aboard a gigantic dormant oil refinery platform that is moored deep in the Arctic circle. Bored with life so far removed from civilization, they look forward to being relieved. But the relief ship is delayed and something is going awfully wrong back home. The world has been hit by a deadly pandemic, and gradually all TV channels and all communications with the outside world die.

Totally cut off, the crew have no choice but to try to make it through the Arctic winter, with the hope of somehow finding a way home in the spring. But deadly cold and dwindling rations are not their only enemy – the horrific contagion seems to be heading their way.

John’s thoughts:   I’ve stayed away from zombie-themed books so far, but decided to give this one a go – you have to try different things sometimes and I thought the set-up of the plot looked interesting. But for me this turned out to be one of those books which is sort of enjoyable as long as you can suspend disbelief and ignore things in the plot which seem to make little or no sense; kind of like watching a B movie where you can still get a kick out of it despite some fundamental flaws.

The best part of this book is undoubtedly the infected human creatures. They’re actually a really neat idea. However, I found it tough to get away from some illogical leaps in the plot, key things that were left unexplained, silly action sequences, a main character that simply wasn’t believable, and a supporting cast of wafer-thin two-dimensional characters. The biggest barrier for me was that some developments in the plot just didn’t make too much sense.

Overall I did enjoy some things about the book and it was an ok read. I’m sure that many horror fans will love it; personally it’s not really my cup of tea and I’d rate it 2 stars.

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Outpost ~ by Adam Baker; 400 pages; Hodder Pb (August 4, 2011) US|UK|Canada.  Apocalyptic Zombie Horror

Although John designated the book as okay (which equals 2 stars in our book-rating scheme, many readers may enjoy this type of read as Zombies are hot right now and it is the Halloween season. So if interested link to the book’s preview in our incoming books section to find out more.

Fall is falling upon us even in the desert (it’s only 105 and it cooling off at night to around 65 degrees) so in an effort for “scary thoughts” this book certainly fits! 

Have a great Monday!