Rating:

“Perhaps, as with people, there were some realities where evil was endemic.”

Author: Tim Lebbon

Something hides in the Appalachians, and it’s not what you think. It’s a private research facility, where scientists have been working for decades to unravel the linkage between worlds. And they have succeeded. They have made a portal and armed it to ensure that nothing comes through. It is a new era in human history and technology. They are on the verge of understanding the metaverse . . . until something makes it through the portal. You see, the neutralizing system can’t kill that which is already dead.

And so, it begins. The end of the world.

As one man chooses fleeing to his family over protocol, he opens the way for the apocalypse to leak out of Coldbrook. Mere hours later, the world is infected, the contagion spreading, and the remaining scientists are either exploring the portal for answers or encountering a mystical being that is showing them visions of destruction and promising them immortality for acquiescence in a scheme that impacts worlds.

Coldbook is a heart-pounding and eerie marriage of science fiction and blood-spattering horror at its best. Even before the breech, we feel the aura – the “all is not right” calm before the inevitable storm. There are prophetic dreams, anxieties, and even questions amongst the scientists as, during this eve of celebration, they wonder if the powers they now wield should have ever been discovered. But Pandora’s box is open. The breach is there, and soon the silence will be shattered.

What starts as an eerie underground sensation in a high-tech, locked down facility (think Resident Evil and Doom vibes) soon tears its way out into the world, beyond the domain of the scientists, and we oscillate between the creeping, traditional terror of dark corridors and buzzing fluorescents and the sharp sunshine of a world gone mad. This disparity works, capturing the slow moments of terror in the dark and the fast-paced action moments of immediate violence, loss, and a struggle for survival. It’s a perfect blend, giving us rest and horror and action and allowing us to enter the minds and hearts of the few survivors who are trying to understand, trying to make things right.

Among the scientists, we have Vic, Holly, and Jonah. Vic is the cause of the outbreak. A cowardly man, he has been torn for years between his trusting wife and family in the town and his ongoing, steamy relationship with fellow scientist Holly. When he hears the sirens, he ditches protocol and flees. We’re ready to hate him. Not only is he a cheat, but he has also put the entire world in jeopardy. As the death toll rises and Vic struggles to get back to his family, however, Lebbon paints a multifaceted character. We do hate aspects of him, certainly, but we don’t actually want him to become zombie chow. It’s a fine line, this treading between heroism and guilt, this portrait of frail, fallible, horrible, and yet sometimes genuinely good humanity. It keeps us guessing and wondering. Will Vic redeem himself. Can he? What happens with his love triangle when wife/child are thrown into the mix with the mistress he left to die?

Meanwhile, Holly (said mistress) has fled through the portal. She is our look into a terrible new future, and through her eyes we explore between worlds, the parallels and the inevitable differences as she slowly unravels the chain of events that lead to this sister world’s destruction. Holly is more of an action / exploring character, although her genuine love of Vic creates a certain sense of sorrow and unfulfilled longing that takes a backseat to her desire to solve and save.

Finally, we have Jonah – the leader of the program, an old man stuck in the dark of the facility and tormented by an alien entity.  As the lone survivor left in a burned-out Coldbrook, his segments provide the creeping terror, the wandering in the dark, the bump in the night, the secrets in the shadows. Jonah is a man driven by love and scientific curiosity, and we root for him just as we fear for him. He doesn’t have the marks of a survivor – or does he?

Finally, out in a rapidly deteriorating world, we have Jayne – a woman who lives with a terminal and chronically painful disease that, somehow, has left her immune to the bite of a zombie. She may be the only hope left for the world, but can the scientists find her in time and unravel the secret in her blood? Will she survive both the outbreak and her own disease long enough to get to Coldbrook, and will there be anything left of the facility by the time she gets there?

Coldbrook is a massive book, but it doesn’t feel like it. I was soon ignoring all my other reads, entranced by the make believe that came alive and shone, asking the questions of what if. It’s a unique take on the zombie apocalypse, and it perfectly combines exquisite characterization with edge-of-you-seat tension, gore galore, and the obligatory death, destruction, and mayhem. Like Goldilocks would say, it’s just right. This is one of the best and most unique takes on the zombie apocalypse I’ve ever read, and it will stay with me for a long time. This is one of the few books I’ll be buying in hard copy form to join my library, because I will be coming back to it and that eerie, fateful portal again. Highly recommended.

– Frances Carden

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Frances Carden
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