The Undead Ruins doesn’t pick up immediately after the second book in the trilogy, The Undead Haze, but about a decade after the start of the zombie apocalypse and years after Cyrus reconnected with Blaze near the end of the previous book. They have spent the past few years working for the leader of three rebuilt towns as mercenaries for hire, doing the tough jobs no one else wants, including executing those who have disobeyed the laws about hiding undead family members. As has always been the case, Blaze and Cyrus are aloof, not befriending many of the people they now interact with except for a select few that have a military background like Blaze. She still has every intention of finding her lost brother, the brother that Cyrus knows about and has kept secrets about since the events that took place in the prior novel. That isn’t the only secret he’s keeping from Blaze-secrets if revealed might mean his death at the hands of his closest companion.
At the start of this trilogy, Cyrus V. Sinclair proclaimed himself a sociopath. Much of the frustration with the author from the bulk of reviews I have seen have been with this proclamation. Either he is not a textbook definition of a sociopath or he softens in the second book to the point where even Cyrus is no longer sure what he is anymore. Whatever he truly is, since all three of these books were written in first person, we have only the narcissistic and egotistical Cyrus to rely on for his diagnosis. It would be fair to say that Cyrus liked the idea of being a sociopath and indeed has some of those tendencies, though even he had to acknowledge he has transformed into something else by the time the events of this book take place. Blaze, Cyrus’s companion and sometimes nemesis, is perhaps closer in definition to a sociopath, although the love she shows for her brother puts a chink in her armor with that designation. More important, Blaze would be unlikely to care what someone labels her. She is what the world has made her.
Things start out fairly calm at the beginning of this book, with Blaze and Cyrus dealing with grunt work no one else wants to do. They aren’t necessarily popular with most of the town folk due to the roles they take on, but they are needed and appreciated by the leadership. Unfortunately, with an attack on one of the towns, there are hints that the crazies they thought had faded into history have returned, stronger than ever and with a new and even more vicious leader. With this new turmoil comes the possibility that the lies that Cyrus has been telling Blaze to keep the peace between them will be revealed.
It is interesting how the voice of Cyrus has changed during the course of these books. A smug, unrepentant loner when we first meet him, he still remains aloof but has transformed in many ways. He still loathes cowardice and weakness, but has gained a respect for those who fight to survive and the necessity of civilization, even if aspects of it make him nauseous. The relationship between him and Blaze has gotten more complicated. They are not lovers, but soldiers who have been through wars together. They would fight and die for one another but at the same time it seems clear that one would kill the other if it suited their needs.
Overall, this has been an entertaining trilogy. The main character made a proclamation about himself early on that does not play out as he expected. If it had, this story would have run the risk of predictability. A criticism I had for the first book came back to haunt this one when the author slips away from first person for a brief moment-a chapter-near the end of the novel. It could be argued in both cases of the necessity of these diversions although I believe that the author could have found a way to keep on telling the story from Cyrus’ perspective and gotten the same point across. I had few other quibbles when it came to the writing itself. It was interesting that here in the third book about Cyrus that the story is as much about someone else, Blaze, as it was about him. It added depth to the tale and made their relationship that much more compelling.
This and more can be found at Patrick's website Tomes of Darkness!
A character named Blaze? No. Well I'm at a nice guy named blaze in Thailand one time the north of Thailand. I kid you not he made me play a board game with him. And then we went hiking up into the jungles and dated a jungle Village and they were elephants in the creek or the river next to the village that were cleaning themselves when we cleaned ourselves and we walked back up to the hut and there was a gasp and a scream and a pointing at me and I didn't know what the hell was wrong and a girl lit a cigarette and went to stub it out on my foot and again I did not know what was going on but it turned out there was a leech on my foot so she burnt it and it fell off and it flopped and fell through the slats of the bamboo poles that made up the floor. I was a little dizzy after that so it was a good thing that Dr opium came along soon after that and we smoked opium from a really really long pipe like a 4 ft long pipe. I didn't feel a thing. It was a waste of $2. Or eight b a h t. Then we had to build our own rafts to get out of there and float down the river. The rafts were half sunk into the water and we had big poles to move along that was harrowing just horrible. There are all sorts of creatures that came to the Waters Edge and glared at us things I've never seen before. When we got back down down down down to a lower Valley Village some bright entrepreneur had chilled cans of Coca-Cola and I bought one, and I never buy Coca-Cola or sodas or brand names and I will tell you this. That was the most delicious beverage I've ever had to drink. They were those Hill tribe people with their shells and Spanish coins and big tall hats and gold rings around their neck. We're up in the Golden Triangle near three Pagoda pass like we're Cambodia Vietnam and Laos and Thailand meet. Then Blaze went home to Oregon and became a school teacher. Maybe Blazes aren't all bad?
ReplyDelete