Coldbrook - Review

Title:  Coldbrook

Author:  Tim Lebbon

Synopsis:  “The facility lay deep in Appalachian Mountains, a secret laboratory called Coldbrook.  Its scientists had achieved the impossible: a gateway to a new world.  Theirs was to be the greatest discovery in the history of mankind, but they had no idea what they were unleashing.  With their breakthrough comes disease.  Billions are dead yet still walking.  The only hope is a cure, and the only cure is genetic immunity.  In the chaos of destruction there is one person that can save the human race.  But will they find her in time?”

Review:  I needed a new book to read.  My to-be-read pile still has about 20 books in it; but none of them were what I wanted at the time.  Plus I was stressed, and when I’m stressed I go book shopping*.  I found Coldbrook.  At first I failed to notice the red eyes on the shadowy figure on the cover.  I purchased this book because it’s by Tim Lebbon and the blurb on the front cover caught my interest.  The blurb reads “Will a door to another earth mean the end for this one?” and my first thought was, “It wouldn’t be much fun if it didn’t”.  So that, combined with the fact that this is a big book (509 pages) and therefore guaranteed to keep me busy for a few days, prompted me to pick up Coldbrook.  I did not realize until page 43 that this was, in part, a zombie novel.  At that point I was thrilled, because I love a good zombie novel.  I also felt very silly, because now when I look at the dark, shadowy cover the red eyes are the first thing that I notice.

          This book was wonderful.  It was just the novel I needed to snap myself out of a stress filled haze in which barely any reading was getting done.  About halfway through I realized that Lebbon was taking the story into a completely different place than that which I had expected and that was thrilling.  I was afraid for a while that it wasn’t going to end in a satisfactory manner (for me), but at the end of the novel I was pleased with how it all wrapped up.            Coldbrook was exciting, horrifying and thrilling.  I was reading every chance I got (although, when am I not?) and reached the critical climax one day while reading on my break at work.  I had to stop in the middle and go back to work!  It was horrible!  I actually had a moment where I was sitting in the breakroom debating just not going back to work until I was finished with the novel.  At that point it would have been 20 more minutes tops!  I think there should be some sort of special allowances for this sort of thing.  Perhaps I’ll speak to management about instituting an extended break for special circumstances such as these. 

          If you like horror and suspense read Coldbrook.  Zombies come through a portal from an alternate Earth and begin laying waste to our world.  There is death, destruction, plane crashes and even a Speed-like bus chase.  Tim Lebbon is an awesome storyteller and I look forward to reading more from him.

* Please note: I basically go book shopping when I’m feeling any emotion whatsoever. 

Publisher:   Titan Books

ISBN:  978-1781168783

Because I loved this book I have added these to my Review Wish List:

 The Toxic City Series by Tim Lebbon

The Beautiful Land by Alan Averill

If you liked this book you may want to read:

The Newsflesh Trilogy by Mira Grant (see BookGirl’s review of Feed here)

Alien: Out of the Shadows by Tim Lebbon (see BookGirl’s review here)