Review: State of Decay by James Knapp

 

State of Decay is the first book in the Revivors series by James Knapp and a ROC Fantasy.

Book Blurb:

They call them revivors - technologically reanimated corpses - and away from the public eye, they do humanity's dirtiest work.  In the near future, where a never-ending war drones on, they are the infantry.  Back home, they sustain a black-market trade in labor and pleasure models.

If Nico Wachalowski never sees another revivor, it will be too soon.  He chose to fight alongside - and against - them rather than allowing his corpse to later be revived for military service.  But now, back home and working as a field agent for the FBI, he's sent to bust a smuggling ring trafficking revivors for the sex trade.  What he finds is not pleasure models, but revivors that are custom-made to kill, and a massive stockpile of weapons. 

Someone is taking a war to the streets.  Nico soon realizes that the twisted roots of this conspiracy go unfathomably deep - and that there may be more to revivors than he ever knew.

My thoughts:

State of Decay is set in a futuristic war torn world where people are divided into tiers - first tier being the most financially well off, second tier the working class and third tier considered little better than garbage.

Everyone who dies is revived and sent to fight in the war - unless you choose to fight while still alive.  Then you have the option to not be revived once dead.

It does seem a bit complicated on the surface - and the war is not really explained.  What it is about and who it is with - or where, for that matter.  But I don't think that is the major point in the story anyway.

I was first drawn to this book because it is touted as a zombie book - and I am really on a zombie kick right now.  But that is misleading. 

State of Decay is not really a zombie book - not to me.  The revivors remind me of the soldiers in the movie Universal Soldier.  They are programmed and down loaded with information - controlled by someone else.

It is mentioned that if a part of the revivor is removed then they will begin to crave human flesh - but as long as that piece of equipment is in place - that does not happen - and it does not happen in State of Decay.

State of Decay turned out to be, for me, a fantasy murder mystery.  Several bodies are turning up dead and the local PD and FBI are trying to find the killer before he or she strikes again.

And then FBI agent Wachalowski finds out that the revivor's are involved - and he wants to know how and why - and who is pushing the buttons on the reanimated.

I did enjoy State of Decay and look forward to reading the rest of this series - even if it's not about the typical 'zombie'.  :)

I give State of Decay 3 out of 5 stars.

M

Revivors
1. State of Decay (2010)
2. The Silent Army (2010)
3. Element Zero (2011)