Jun 10, 2009: I have to give this story a lot of credit for literally making me laugh out loud. The dry humour in the narration of the main character – a true anti-hero – is great! Michael Cooper really has a way with words: sarcastic, funny, and also, very descriptive in an original way. You’ll see what I mean.This story is scary, creepy, full of tension, has interesting characters – it has a lot going for it and I was hooked right through the first half of the novel.

Now, I have to say there was a point about halfway through when I found I’d (temporarily) lost interest in the story and started skimming through. I think the story just ran up against the zombie conumdrum: as mindless, shambling creatures, zombies (although the afflicted in this story are actually hosts to an alien parasite, not zombies, they share the classic zombie characteristics) are not really that interesting antagonists. Once the main characters have figured out how to avoid them while still meeting their food and shelter needs – which they have to do fairly quickly or the story is soon over – what happens next?

The problem for me was that formerly sensible, or at least realistically cowardly, characters started behaving irrationally and taking unnecessary risks, as – it seemed to me – a plot device to keep the story moving along. I think this is where I lost the necessary suspension of disbelief and thus involvement in the outcome of the story. Now I may be being totally unfair: given the context of the story, there’s plenty, indeed PLENTY, of scope for anyone to go a little nuts.

So, I went back to the story, and was won back over by the exceptional writing. And overall, yes, the story does make sense and is, in fact, an amazing work of imagination. Don’t miss this gem – it’s a barrel of fun and a real find.

2 of 2 members found this review helpful.
Help us improve!  Register or log in to rate this review.

Dec 6, 2008: I should probably start with some kind of disclaimer here. The author of this work asked me to read it before submitting it to Web Fiction Guide because he wanted to know if it was ready.

I thought it was then and still do.

According to the author’s preface before the beginning, the story is zombie inspired. I skipped the preface and didn’t notice that until I came back and read the [more . . .]

Mar 3, 2009: This is a MUST READ for all lovers of the Zombie/post-apocalypse genre. A story of epic proportions, Coop addresses the true horror of being trapped in this new terrifying world and a wide range of complex emotions and relationship/friendship dynamics.

Fatal Cure is strongly character driven, with a hero who I am constantly torn between loving and throttling.

This is a very mature story told by a writer who really knows his [more . . .]

Dec 4, 2008: If the Cohen Brothers wrote end-of-the-world, zombie-inspired, black comedy-style horror, this is the story they’d write.

Sam, the antihero of Fatal Cure, is busy saving his skin as everyone around him is taken over by Parasites. If you want a mental picture (and don’t mind mixing your genres/movie-references), think of a cowardly, overweight Bruce Willis spending a whole movie avoiding Aliens. Sam survives by looting shops and taking every kind of drug he can find and, while he’s teetering on the [more . . .]