Robin Marx's Writing Repository

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on July 20, 2015.

Coldbrook

By Tim Lebbon – Titan Books – April 8, 2014

Review by Robin Marx

Zombie Stargate. If this premise appeals, by all means pick this book up.

The beginning was intriguing and exciting, reminiscent of the beginning of the Half-Life video game. Scientists working Coldbrook, a top-secret underground research complex, succeed in tearing open a rift to a parallel Earth. After days of passive monitoring by the scientists, one of the alternate Earth's inhabitants stumble through the portal. Unfortunately for the researchers, their first contact happens to be with a zombie.

The situation goes to hell almost immediately, and in a realistic manner. Despite all the protocols in place, one highly placed staff member has a very human moment of weakness, choosing to flee the facility and ensure the safety of his family, rather than stay for the security lock-down. While selfish characters in zombie stories tend to get their just desserts fairly soon after their betrayal, Vic remains for the remainder of the book as one of the main viewpoint characters, lending an interesting perspective to the apocalyptic events that follow.

While I enjoyed this book—the first half was unputdownable—there were some issues that kept it from greatness. Despite an abundance of action, it still felt like the second half lost steam. Many interesting elements (the culture of the alternate Earth humans, the search for a cure, etc.) were introduced, only to receive only perfunctory or lackluster development. Without revealing too much, the backstory behind the mysterious Inquisitor turned out to be a disappointment, nowhere near as exciting and cool as initially hinted. New characters (such as a biker gang leader named Chaney) were introduced too late and in too convenient a manner for me to care much about their eventual fates.

I also noticed a few Britishisms crept into the text. Seeing multiple American point-of-view characters referring to their flashlights as “torches” took me out of the story, and it was particularly jarring when a rough-and-tumble all-American biker promises scared children candy and ice cream “for tea.” Sure enough, the About the Author mentions that Lebbon is Welsh. It's a minor point, but I feel like the editor should have caught these anachronisms.

Coldbrook was a good read, but not quite a great one. While there's plenty of room left for a sequel, I think I'm satisfied with just the one book.

★★★☆☆

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