by Adam Baker (Hodder & Stoughton)
Before he took up writing, British author Adam Baker had a job as a grave-digger.
Shovelling earth from many final “resting places” might well have given him ideas for stories such as this “end of the world as we know it”.
Baker certainly has a winning way with prose, when it comes to describing various forms of death – or half-death, in the case of living with a worldwide lethal infection.
To try to halt the contagion, the US president has decided to nuke New York, as one does.
Post the nuking, as it happens, it is discovered that, somewhere within the now radioactive rubble, lurks Ekks, the only scientist who just might have the antidote, the cure to humanity’s woes.
It’s “Year Zero” and Ekks just might have the ticket out of the contagion zone for the few pockets of humanity left around the world.
A punchy, apocalyptic nightmare of a story. Sci-fi thrill-seekers will love it.
Of course, Baker, an author known for cooking up horrific scenarios for his characters, throws a slew of monstrous moments into this race against time.
The man certainly has grave thoughts when it comes to ways one could die, or, even worse, not quite die…