
I read Recht's first book, Plague of the Dead
The characters from the first novel have returned, all heading towards a medical center in Omaha to find a vaccine for the deadly Morningstar/zombie virus. They must fight their way through a full-on zombocalypse; the undead wait in every corner and the survivors must scrape by, scavenging supplies on the way to their destination.
Thunder and Ashes
Thunder and Ashes is fun, though--kind of a popcorn action-flick of a book. It moves quickly and keeps you engaged. But, like a popcorn action flick, it's light in several departments; character development being a big one. As it is, most of the characters are limited to a name, nationality and profession. Recht would probably have done well to cut down the cast of characters and focusing on robustly developing a few. It's not particularly distracting, but the series may have been better served with fewer, more thought out characters.
Thunder and Ashes does not go especially deeply into preparation or survivalism--it's no Patriots or Lights Out. There are some fun anti-zombie vehicles, general scavenging, and fighting off zombie hordes/bandits gangs. It's a light, fun read; your mind won't be blown and you won't be taking copious notes for your preps
Overall though, Thunder and Ashes is a good zombie-slaying time.
A word of warning: The Morningstar Saga has more than a little profanity throughout. If you're sensitive to that kind of thing, then skip this one.
Thunder and Ashes is the second book in a planned, and leaves off with a middle-book style cliffhanger. With Recht gone, I'm unsure if the trilogy will be completed with the third novel in the trilogy, Survivors. On Recht's personal website, he mentions working on and editing the manuscript; from the sounds of it, he was working with the publisher to put together a final draft. I would imagine that if there was even a close-to-final manuscript completed, the novel will eventually be released and the trilogy fittingly completed. I certainly hope so, and will keep you updated if I find anything out.
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