| Title | : | Coldbrook |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1781168784 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781781168783 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 509 |
| Publication | : | First published October 1, 2012 |
With their breakthrough comes disease and now it is out and ravaging the human population. The only hope is a cure and the only cure is genetic an uninfected person amongst the billions dead.
In the chaos of destruction there is only one person that can save the human race.
But will they find her in time?
Coldbrook Reviews
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Not just another zombie apocalypse story here. A different idea that follows through to the end. I enjoyed it a lot.
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I wasn’t crazy about the ending, but this was still a solid read!! Very intense and fast paced. My copy was about 500ish pages but it didn’t feel like it at all, there was a barely a moment for me to catch my breath.
It’s about about a team of scientists that create a breach into an alternate earth. One day something comes through, and the zombie apocalypse is released upon the world.
This was a really cool mix of scifi and zombie horror, and really felt like nothing I’ve read before. It was like if Blake Crouch wrote about the zombie apocalypse. Highly recommend! -
It's like reading the script of a B-movie from the SyFy Channel. It reads fast, has a few unexpected twists and turns, and the characters are the usual ones to be found in a low-grade movie. That being said, I liked it.
Don't read this expecting something new and ground-breaking in horror. Read it simply to be entertained. -
Reviewed on Adventures in Scifi Publishing
Seeing my enthusiasm for this book’s kickbutt ending, a friend teased me: “you and your zombies.” Yes, I still love zombies, but the more I read them the more I need the story and characters to stand out and excel. Coldbrook by Tim Lebbon suits every tastebud of my zombie fettish, even sprinkling on a little bit of multi-dimensional warfare into its apocalyptic plate. Do you remember when the TV show Fringe expanded its horizon by opening up the multi-dimension possibilities? Coldbrook adds this epic element right up front and keeps you guessing about how everything will wrap up straight to the very last bite.
Coldbrook is a very solid story. The beginning threw me a little as I tried to make sense of the point of view character and his lucid dreams about zombies and people dying. It may have taken about 10 percent in before I was sure I’d keep reading, but even that first ten percent was not too bad to read. It laid a foundation for character interaction and the suspense of their first voyage across dimensions, but as happened at times during the story, I sometimes lacked an urgency to keep reading. If there is one complaint about this book, it’s that it didn’t make me want to read it faster. The last few percent I read at a joyously fast pace, but I wanted the story to be like that from start to finish.
I don’t know why there were moments when I could put the book down. The action is well-written and fast-paced and the characters made me care about what was happening. He has a nice touch on providing images that made this story often scary. In a market flooded by zombie stories, he gave me something I hadn’t seen before. The virus produces fast zombies who add a pack mentality to their hunt. Okay, seen that before, but their place in the story’s thrills remains fresh through the end, probably because of the character stories I had to see finished.
Lebbon’s characters are sympathetic and tragic. Thank you, Tim, for giving me a zombie story with characters to care for.
Vic, one of the scientists at Coldbrook facility, had cut off his affair with another scientist, Holly, the day he found out his wife, Lucy, was pregnant. The problem is, he still loves both women. Once the outbreak happens, he leaves his duties at Coldbrook to save his family. He is a man of guilt because of his affair and the ramifications of his leaving Coldbrook, but he needs to save his family, and that builds a strong desire to see him succeed. You worry about his wife finding out about his affair because you want them to be a happy family, but this story is dark, so you fear the looming tragedy.
Jonah is the head guy at Coldbrook, and in his mid seventies, he provides a different kind of hero for our story. He is a sad man, having lost his wife years ago, and yet he is a brilliant explorer, interested in seeing what the multiple dimensions have to offer.
Introduced about a quarter into the story is a young woman, Jayne, who has a rare disease that debilitates her muscles. She has a loving relationship with her husband that makes them easily sympathetic. Her and the rest of the cast, and even minor characters, all met my interest level to make them memorable and worth reading.
I don’t want to go too much more into the plot other than to say that I was very impressed with the surprise twists he took all the way to the end. Part Two has a terrific ending and it keeps getting better, with me still not knowing what would happen high into the ninety eight percent marker.
Tim Lebbon is an author I will follow gladly after his superb accomplishment in Coldbrook. I love zombie apocalypse’s and was pleasantly surprised at Lebbon’s twists and emotionally impacting story that used the multi-dimension angle very well.
4.5 Stars
Stay tuned for a written interview with Tim on Adventures in Scifi Publishing. John Dodds also
reviewed his new release:
Alien: Out of the Shadows. -
An alternate earth, seen through 'the breach' created deep in the ground of the Appalachians. In the Coldbrook facility, decades of experimentation finally pays off. The Eradicator provides an instant death to anything that enters the breach, maintaining safety protocols. A bipedal form approaches the breach and passes through unscathed. After all, it can't kill something that's already dead. As alarms blare and the facility goes into lockdown to prevent anything from escaping to the surface, Vic Pearson thinks only of his family and breaks lockdown protocol. Vic's not the only thing to dig its way out of Coldbrook, and now the contagion is out.
Coldbrook is nothing short of incredible. Each character is well fleshed out and Lebbon has not only given readers some excellent characterization, but each person is struggling with their own demons. Jonah's story is enhanced by the complicated grief of losing his wife. An omnipresent being known as the Inquisitor beckons to him, showing him visions of the multiverse and urging him to take on a new form and follow him. Vic is caught in a love triangle with his wife and the woman he fell in love with years ago. With the fall of the world credited to his selfish actions, he must make the ultimate sacrifice to right his wrong.
The daunting task of finding a cure hangs on the fate of a sickly girl with immunity to the bites. Jayne is a captivating character who's inner strength comes across in Lebbon's writing. A welcome breath of fresh air, secondary character Chaney, is an intriguing addition to the book. An attorney and weekend warrior. The only thing that could have made this character better would have been to see more of him.
Coldbrook is a multifaceted work of fiction; spanning the horror, science fiction and fantasy genres. From the first page it will suck readers into another dimension and reward them with a fast paced, horrific break from reality. This is no average zombie tale.
The Inquisitor bits come off a bit disjointed and falls under the kitchen sink factor. Sometimes less is more, and this bit of plot comes out of left field and takes a turn for the weird. There is no debate that Tim Lebbon is a talented writer. His imagination paints the pages of Coldbrook like priceless art and his descriptive writing style delivers provocative characters, innovative settings and situational catastrophes in highly-detailed prose. Lebbon visualizes to his readers what he sees, hears, tastes, smells and feels in the Coldbrook facility and worlds beyond.
Visit
www.bookie-monster.com for a chance to win a free book. -
Two stars because the story was unique. I love me a good zombie movie/tv show/book and this had some pretty awesome twists and turns I didn't not expect and thoroughly enjoyed.
What kept this from being a 3+ stars was that although the story was great, the characters were such a bloody drag! It's hard to root for a positive outcome when you kind of sort of hate everyone involved.
This was 509 pages of following around a handful of characters that either really sucked or like Jayne, Sean, Marc and poor Chaney - you don't get any page time with. These characters by the way were the ONLY characters I liked. Holly wasn't so bad but I got tired of her weak clingy attitude when it came to weak willed, spineless Vic.
The story primarily focuses on Jonas, Holly and Vic. Colleagues who work at a privately funded facility called Coldbrook. They create a doorway to another Earth and through this rip in time and space, an infected human comes through and the "zombie" outbreak occurs. The storyline takes place in less than 2 weeks and follows the three main characters as they watch their world crash and burn.
It was definitely gripping and emotional and horrific because the author does not skimp on the grotesque details of blood and gore but again I found it hard to really engage with any one of the main characters. I also didn't really care for the open to interpret ending. I wanted something a bit more concrete especially since it didn't make a lot of sense that Holly would choose to so drastically damage her world as a last resort. I will say I wasn't disappointed regarding Vic. He didn't deserve such an end - but an end is an end is an end, I guess. -
** Edited as review is now live on Kendall Reviews! **
Way back in 2015, my life was going through significant change. To take a minor step back, in 2013 I decided to really make a change. I switched sports. I was competing in shot put and as certain areas of my body broke down (mainly my elbow and wrist) I decided to make a 360 and I lost 100lbs and began to compete in the winter sport of bobsled. Throughout my time in sliding, reading was a constant anxiety reducer. I had a horrible coach and when I was living in Whistler, I would retreat to my shared athlete room and read, trying my best to block the growing doubts out.
After that season, we moved to Calgary – in 2015. Near us was a Chapters, so we visited often and on one such visit, a book was recommended to me by a worker there – ‘Coldbrook’ by Tim Lebbon. At that time, I’d not heard of Tim, but the cover and synopsis sounded great. Shamefully, I passed on buying it at that time (instead taking a photo of the cover to remind myself to buy it later), but ended up grabbing it for Kindle a few years back now.
When it made it to the top of my TBR, I smiled. This caused numerous memories to return, but also reminded me of just how nice and kind Tim has been to me over these last few years (heck, he even signed a Kong: Skull Island book for my son!).
So, to get to the actual review content, ha!, I dove in, excited to see where Tim’s imagination was going to take me.
What I liked: Coldbrook is a secretive base, focused on a singular purpose – finding a way to open a door to another world. A portal if you will. And, to the benefit of the readers, we learn immediately that not only have they done this, but small things have been coming through; bugs and similar small creatures.
From here, as expected (this is a horror novel after all) things go sideways, something comes through and it doesn’t do so well with our side. We get a fairly standard ravenous ‘zombie’ type story and we see how it overruns and takes over the world.
But what Tim does so magnificently with this book is this – when things initially go bad, one scientist survives by leaping through the portal and ending up on the other side. And it’s this back and forth, between our world and that world, that really drives the story. It was fascinating seeing the butterfly effect on both sides, and it was great to see how these people did their absolute best to try and stay alive.
What I didn���t like: Keeping in mind this came out in 2014, which was around the time that we had a really big zombie resurgence, some parts come off as a bit predictable. It all works to move the story along, but we know full well that at the beginning nobody in authority is going to take this seriously and they’ll be too slow to react etc.
Why you should buy this: If you’re a fan of Lebbon’s fantastic writing, don’t snooze on this one or let the page count deter you. I took my time with this one and really loved diving back in. The characters are great, while remaining flawed and as I mentioned, Lebbon does something we typically don’t see – two sides to a portal based story at the same time, which for me, really elevated it from either ending up as a sci-fi story set in another world, or a straight-forward zombie feature.
Combined, they really worked to heighten the reading experience. -
3.5 Stars
Lebbon successfully managed to make zombies feel fresh by bringing in a fascinating science fiction twist. Personally, I love when horror and science fiction mix and this was done very well here. I do generally enjoy zombie fiction, but I have grown a bit tired of tropes of the genre which can become a bit repetitive. However, this story felt different with the inclusion of the multiverse angle. I thought that the characters were well developed and overall enjoyed the story. -
THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT HAS CHANGED FOREVER
THE REASON IS COLDBROOK
The facility lay deep in Appalachian Mountains, a secret laboratory called Coldbrook. Its scientists had achieved the impossible: a gateway to a new world. Theirs was to be the greatest discovery in the history of mankind, but they had no idea what they were unleashing.
With their breakthrough comes disease and now it is out and ravaging the human population. The only hope is a cure and the only cure and the only cure is genetic resistance: an uninfected person amongst the billions dead.
In the chaos of destruction there is only one person that can save the human race.
But will they find her in time?
Unfortunately for the rest of humanity, there are some, most notably those pesky scientific types, who continue to be a spectacularly inquisitive bunch. Have they learned nothing from watching cats and their innate sense of curiosity? Based on the events that occur in Coldbrook the answer is a resounding no. It seems that as a race we just can’t help ourselves, we will go out of our way to fiddle with things that are best left alone. Coldbrook by Tim Lebbon is the latest novel from Hammer and is a rather wonderful horror/sci-fi mash-up that explores everything from atheism and religion through to zombies via a good old dollop of multiverse theory.
"Six hours after forging a pathway from his own reality to another, Jonah Jones closed his eyes to dream. But he doubted that sleep would come."
There are a host of characters that I really enjoyed, some sadly feature all too briefly (don’t worry I won’t say who, that would spoil the surprise), but the most interesting from my perspective was Jonah Jones. His journey, both physically and psychologically, was utterly engrossing. A pivotal member of the team at the research facility, he is destined to travel further and discover more than anyone else. It was a surprise to learn that a seventy six year old widower could be an action hero.
The other character that stood out for me was Jonah’s colleague, Vic. Driven by a desire to protect his family, he will do anything in his power to keep them safe. This single-mindedness leads Vic to make some epically poor decisions and he spends the rest of the novel trying to atone for his mistakes. There is something quite gratifying about watching someone attempting to seek redemption. I think a flawed character is often far more interesting to follow than a perfect one.
When it comes to apocalyptic fiction I’m always impressed when an author manages to push the boundaries. You would think that the end of the Earth would be bad enough? Not at all. Mr. Lebbon takes the reader one step beyond, the end of all Earths. Yes people, we’re taking the zombie threat to parallel universes. This is the point where my brain started to melt in the most splendid of ways. Once we are firmly into the realms of multiple visions of Earth, the author also casually tosses in the concept of an infinite never-ending evil. Needless to say by then, my tiny little mind was well and truly blown.
The science fiction elements of this story blend well with the horrific. The reader follows characters travelling from our Earth to other worlds. What follows is race against time to find a cure and halt the spread of the contagion. Imagine Stargate with a dark heart and you’re about half way there.
I’ve got to be honest here and admit that I’ve never read any of Tim Lebbon’s other novels. I had no notion of what to expect when I cracked this open at page one but I’m glad to say I was very impressed. I’ve read a lot of apocalyptic fiction and Coldbrook is right up there with the best. I’m always on the lookout for a fresh interpretation of the end of the world, and with this novel I think I may have just found it. All we need to do now is find a movie company who are willing to bring this striking vision to life on the big screen. Does anyone know any?
Coldbrook is published by Hammer and is available now. Highly recommended. -
2.5 Stars
Coldbrook should have been an easy five star book for me... After all it is written by my favorite author of the last year, Tim Lebbon. It is a post apocalyptic zombie thriller which I always adore. Finally it is about the multiverse, which also happens to be my real world obsession. Unfortunately, all these amazing parts did not add up to be a great whole.
As for being a horror novel, this is the weakest Lebbon fiction that I have read. There is little here to scare you or to gross you out. The atmosphere and the world building are adequate at best. This is so unlike previous Lebbon books that have stolen me away with their realism and their beauty.
The characters in this book are forgettable. I did not find a single one to latch on to. The zombies are Standard fare and add little originality to the genre other than a cool name for them, The Furies. The science fiction and the multiverse all have great potential, but in the end they do not add up to much.
This is a clear case of the sum of the amazing parts does not add up to an equally amazing whole. I am a huge fan of Tim Lebbon's but was very disappointed by this book. -
Since it's October, I felt the need to add a horror story to my list. Enter "Coldbrook", a zombie entry, which happens to be my favorite monster genre. Coldbrook is the name of a scientist, who helped to design a facility to open into an alternate reality, or multi-verse. The team in this layered structure has studied the flora and fauna through an artificial opening. There is a protective high electrical field to protect anything living from entering our world that could be detrimental to our lives.
Big, bad, smart science has let us down again, as the scourge infects the compound. Action ensues, and a small band of heroic folks on both sides works to stop the menace. -
This one started out strong and finished weak. By the time I was around 80% done with the book it sucked. I was expecting more from this book.
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I've read a few zombie books, they frighten me in the same sort of way that roller-coasters do - I enjoy it but shake like a fool for twenty minutes afterwards and have the occasional issue with walking to the toilet on my own in the night for a couple of days.
Coldbrook blew them all out of the water.
As far as zombies go, Lebbon created the scariest ones I have encountered. Which is impressive because until now I would have replied to a statement like that with 'but surely a zombie is just a zombie?' Apparently not.
Combining quantum physics and multi-universe discoveries with Stephen King-esque road-trip horror, Coldbrook takes you on a journey across an America ravaged by something from another world.
There's plenty of stereotypical 'shoot the zombies in the head' action mixed in with loyalty and love and bucket loads of desperation when there's a whisper of the word 'immunity'.
I liked the ferocity of love in the book, sometimes it is easy for horror novels to fall into the trap of killing everyone off apart from maybe one character, and I always find those a bit numbing - by the end I really don't care - but Coldbrook doesn't do that. There is the love of friendship, family and illicit affairs running through the story, buoying you through the gore and terror of it all and stopping it from becoming too mindless - there was a reason for all the destruction you witness through the character's eyes. (Admittedly though, if Vic had called his daughter 'beautiful' one more time I may have screamed. I understand the contrast of innocent child versus relentless death-bringing zombie hoard but, seriously, there are other words than 'beautiful'.)
Possibly the scariest thing about Coldbrook was the human-ness of it. The story may be stretched across worlds but the heart of it all was something very human and scary - the reactions of the world and the mystery at the very centre of all the madness came down to things that were hauntingly easy to believe. Humans are very scary creatures.
Coldbrook scared me witless and made me cry but for all that, there was just something not quite right that I couldn't put my finger on. Partly I felt it was trying a bit hard to be a Stephen King novel - there were a few references dotted throughout, Lebbon clearly holds him in high regard - and because of that bit of it felt almost forced. I probably couldn't go back and tell you which bits, it was just a feeling I got that sometimes dragged me out of the action. Also, I think there was a slight juxtaposition where the characters all felt a bit too 'British' for a book set in America - something subconsciously off about their mannerisms - I've found it before, though more often in books written by American authors, set in England.
If you like zombies, shotguns, multi-universe theology or being scared witless I would recommend picking up a copy of this. -
3.5*
This was pretty good, I got through it quick and it was a fun take on zombies but what the fuck was with the ending? rushed much?? I would've preferred things to be cleared up a bit more but overall it was enjoyable -
A great concept, combining particle-physics-based science fiction and zombie horror, that goes completely off the rails with a marvelously and most entertainingly inept execution. Author Tim Lebbon didn’t apparently bother to familiarize himself with American English, American culture or American geography before writing a novel set in America with mostly American characters. Both the narrative told from the perspective of American characters plus the actual dialogue of the American characters are peppered with British words and phrasing that nobody in the US would use in actual conversation. Lebbon forgets American vehicles don’t have the steering wheel on the right side and has a character drive an US Army Humvee and look to his left out the passenger window. The zombie plague is somehow spread across several states in just a few hours, despite said zombies being on foot. Even apart from this, the book is chock-full of other bizarre creative decisions as well. As in his novel The Silence, instead of immersing the reader in the action, vast chunks of the book consist of the main characters sitting around and observing the unfolding action from afar via media and internet. Also like The Silence, Coldbrook is highly derivative, in this case of 28 Days Later (Lebbon even calls his zombie plague the "fury" virus - obviously he just looked up "rage" in his thesaurus). The hero of Coldbrook is a completely unlikable jerk who cheats on his wife and who flees the government facility when the zombie outbreak starts, breaking the containment protocol and allowing the plague to escape and ravage humanity. I mean, this guy’s behavior is literally 100% the reason that the zombie apocalypse goes down and yet we’re supposed to be rooting for him. It makes no sense. Not to mention the hero’s escape route through an air duct hidden away in one of the facility’s many HVAC rooms involves engineering knowledge and technical skills that only he has, yet somehow later on the zombies are able to stumble upon this same hidden air duct and make their way up through the various airlocks and fail-safes that proved so challenging to the engineer hero earlier in the story. I could go on, but you get the idea.
-
Wow. I read this in a white heat over two days, as ravenous to know what was going to happen next as the undead hordes streaming through these pages were eager to bite their hapless victims ...
The premise is prosaic: in a research laboratory under the Appalachian Mountains, known as Coldbrook, scientists have created a quantum portal to another world, another earth. Then one day what appears to be a human being shambles through from the other side. Except it is not human. Cue the swift descent of civilisation into a gore-drenched apocalypse.
The plot is dependent on some crucial reveals, so it is tricky to review this without giving too much away. Suffice it to say this is a commendable addition to the growing zombie genre.
What is particularly interesting is a Lovecraftian sub-plot linked to the Many Worlds quantum theory, with one of the characters forced to go through the Breach from our side -- where a few shocking discoveries awake. (Lebbon is a master at creepy descriptions of alien scenery and fauna and flora).
The characterisation is very believable, and one gets to care for the disparate bunch of survivors, even the obligatory cute little kid, in this instance a girl, who is not too irritating that one wishes for her to be bitten. -
The author bio in the back mentions that the author has been lately working on screenplays for TV and film. It shows. Coldbrook seems like it was written to be adapted into a blockbuster film.
Lebbon used to write original stories with complex character psychology and emotional depth. What we have here is just another zombie novel. Bringing quantum physics into it (barely) and calling them "furies" doesn't make it different.
I wish him success with his current endeavors but I miss the old Tim. -
This is a multi-verse sci-fi zombie apocalypse with enough human drama for a Lifetime movie. Lebbon has combined science, religion, and manifest destiny to create a jaw dropping villain. This is a must read if you like original works of zombie.
-
I feel like I only finished this book because I felt like the concept interested me enough that I should have enjoyed it.
The character development was poor and never once developed beyond surface level, many phrases and statements used were confusing and often contradictory and every chapter ended in a ridiculously cliched line.
Probably my biggest issue with the book is the confusion that comes from paragraphs containing the observations and thoughts of multiple characters. -
Interesting concept. Dragged all the way, though.
-
This was a fast paced easy read. When my daughter used to read Twilight and other vampire books I used to laugh thinking it was moronic. Then the zombie wave hit and I have to admit I got caught up in it. I only started back into reading about two years ago so I just judged everything and I think I still judge too much - in fact I know I do. Since this is a sci-fi based zombie novel I'll explain why I thought the vampire and zombie fascination troubled me. Honestly, I think that if aliens were watching from above they would be laughing their asses off at us, thinking that we must be a bunch of frickin morons. For all our technological advances we have all these fascinations with something that isn't real. Throw in the comic genre here as well - superheroes. But hey were human and we all need to escape and yeah I love Batman and Superman but just cannot pick up a comic - I can't read that style. I did get into some vampire novels as well *Jonathan Maberry's Ghost road blues trilogy is classic and Salem's Lot is in my unread library. I have read lots of zombie novels and this was a fresh take and since I clearly think there are aliens out there watching us I definitely bought into Lebbon's scenario. As I mentioned this was an easy read and Lebbon is very articulate. In my mind this book comes to a definitive ending but it's not spelled out so I would welcome a sequel. Also, there is a lot of zombie action in the novel but it does not preoccupy itself with that aspect. If you want a great read and a different take on zombie's with a little science fiction try this won out. It may sound a little odd but I was hooked by the first 50 pages and stayed hooked throughout!! I rate this book an 8.4 out of ten.
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Coldbrook, a research facility in the Appalachian mountains is filled with scientists from multiple disciplines attempting to do the impossible--create a breach within our reality and establish contact within the multiverse. A scifi tale of scientists trying to do something to see if they can, not thinking if they should. Like all humans when put to any task, they believe their preparations are enough to render the unknown safe, but quickly find out they are wrong.
The author is trying to do a little too much for the number of pages we have, so we jump between several very different survival scenarios, giving a disjointed feel to an interesting world idea. We have the "hunker down" survival idea that is lightly laced with an almost supernatural aura. Then there are "zombie hoards" which is the more traditional survival tale of things going from bad to worse while attempting to stay off the menu. Finally we have "new Earth" which has an exploration element. All of these stories are trimmed with "father figure" and/or "love triangle" which made the story line lag. Because of the multiple story lines centering around the central theme of the breach, I felt for very few of the characters, even with drastic decisions had to be made.
If you liked Stranger Things and The Fold, then you might enjoy this book. This is less about the actual zombies, and more about the consequences of technology. If you start this book hoping for a good zombie survival story, you'll be disappointed as it's more scifi than horror.
NOTE: the book uses another newly coined term for the walking dead, without actually changing the idea of what a zombie is... so no... in this review they are properly labeled zombies -
(english below)
Una vuelta de tuerca al género zombi, al que vuelvo intermitentemente cuando consigo encontrar algo nuevo que parezca merecer la pena. Ya conocía a Lebbon por The Silence, así que cuando leí el resumen de este libro no dudé en comprarlo y no me arrepentí. Lebbon consigue mezclar el género de los muertos viviente con multiversos, dimensiones paralelas y una Tierra alternativa. Y lo hace con éxito. La novela te engancha, a lo que ayudan los personajes, bien construidos, y la creciente expansión de la infección zombie por el planeta. Y Coldbrook en sí, el centro militar-científico donde empieza todo, es casi lo que más miedo da.
A twist on the zombie genre, to which I return from time to time when I can find something new that seems to be worthwhile. I already knew Lebbon from The Silence, so when I read the summary of this book I didn't hesitate to buy it and I didn't regret it. Lebbon manages to mix the genre of the living dead with multiverses, parallel dimensions and an alternative Earth. And he does it successfully. The novel gets you hooked, the well-built characters help, and the growing spread of zombie infection around the planet. And Coldbrook itself, the military-scientific center where everything begins, is almost the scariest thing in the book. -
Absolutely enthralled by this book!! It’s intense and horrifying. I’ve read it twice now and would read it again in a heartbeat.
-
A spot-on novel from Tim Lebbon here. From the setup to the finale, the pacing felt just right to me. The story never once loses focus.
I enjoyed how nothing felt overplayed, either. This could have gone so many different ways. It could have gotten really technical in all of the science. It could have been an absolute gore fest. It could have been a typical run-of-the-mill zombie story, but each scene understood what it needed to do. I really appreciated the urgency of resolve, the reason why it had to move along swiftly. It felt believable and true.
I'm glad I finally got around to reading this. Released in 2012. Not old, I know, but it stands up really well.
Solid work.
Loved it.
Five stars. Deserved. -
I'm kind of over zombies.
I think it's only fair to start this review with that caveat. Aside from The Walking Dead -- the gold standard, so to speak -- I've made a deliberate decision to avoid all tales of reanimation moving forward. Like vampires before them, I'm simply over zombies.
However, Coldbrook was sneaky. The title, cover art and description don't scream "zombie story." As a result, I found myself deeply entrenched in the creative sci-fi/horror plot before I realized I had been suckered in by an exceptionally crafty gang of the undead. In this book, Tim Lebbon has created a well-written, outside the box tale where the zombies are actually kind of an afterthought -- and it works.
Coldbrook focuses on the science behind a zombie outbreak - a device other authors have tried in the past. What makes Coldbrook different is the ambitious world building that accompanies the expected zombie plague. Zombie Patient Zero is unleashed on our world when the strange being accidentally staggers through a rift between our universe and another, a portal discovered and meticulously guarded by a team of scientists at a secret installation deep in the mountains of West Virginia.
Of course, it all goes wrong (as things often do in these books). But instead of focusing on a ragtag band of survivors and the horrors of their new reality, Coldbrook alternates between leaders on both sides of the rip -- on both Earths -- working to secure a future for the multiverse threatened by the spreading disease.
The plot is ambitious and a little complicated, and the cast of characters is large. But I really loved the way Lebbon handled the action and the horror without sacrificing character development. By the end of the book, I felt like I really knew the central characters and understood their motivations. I wanted to know what would happen next -- I cared. That's a tall order for a somewhat pulpy sci-fi/horror paperback, but Lebbon succeeded with flying colors.
I would recommend this book as a great summer read for anyone who likes a traditional monster story with some challenging science thrown in for good measure. -
THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT HAS CHANGED FOREVER
THE REASON IS COLDBROOK
In a hidden research facility, deep in the Appalachian Mountains, a team of scientists achieve the impossible. They create a portal to an alternate Earth. Just as they are celebrating their success, however, something comes through the portal and unleashes a plague of the undead that threaten to wipe out the human race. Only one woman seems to be immune, but there are millions of walking corpses between her and the team of scientists who hope she can provide a cure.
Been a long time since I dipped my toe into anything remotely Sci fi (apart from Ready Player One which doesn’t count) and I was pleasantly surprised.
Coldbrook is a page turning mash up of post apocalypse zombies, quantum physics, multi-universes and scientists making the usual bad decisions regarding the planet and the rest of us.
I cannot review it fully as far too many spoilers involved but it really is a thoughtful novel and did make me ponder several of the ideas explored within the story. Characters were well written and very human; the role of the family and wider community plays a huge part in this novel making it expectedly emotional in places.
A lot of reviewers are reminded of Stephen King in his middle period and I can see that in the road trip section of the novel….there are a couple of set pieces that are still in my mind
Fast paced, intelligent and makes for very compelling reading -
Coldbrook is a seamless blend of science fiction and horror that for the most part works brilliantly (I had a couple of niggles, but nothing that detracted too much from the story). A group of scientists lift the lid on a Pandora’s box when they open a gateway to a parallel universe, but what comes through is not what they are expecting.
The characters in the novel are brought to life on the page, and they become people you root for and care about as they try to cope with the end of the world as we know it. They seem like very real people trying to manage with a very unreal situation. This is an inventive and thrilling addition to the shambling zombie genre, and it goes to show that there are still some authors out there who can push the boundaries and take it to the next level. -
Coldbrook, a secret laboratory buried underneath the Appalachian Mountains, has opened a gateway to another world - what comes through will end the world as they know it. Millions die only to get up again, teeth gnashing, in search of new victims to bite and infect. A zombie apocalypse story that threatens not just our Earth but a multiverse of Earths. Can a team of survivors of two decimated worlds find a cure? Earth after Earth falls to the chaos. Who or what is the black robed Inquisitor that watches from the shadows? A fast, page turning thriller that mixes science and horror.
