I went into Beyond Exile with slightly misleading information--its written journal style (its a guy, so I don't think we can call it a 'diary') and chock full of military terms, euphemisms and well...military stuff. Having grown up military this was both a godsend (because I understood what he was talking about) and a curse (because I understood too well what he wasn't saying). Also its fair to point out I read the first book (Day by Day Armageddon) after reading this book.

As a zombie book this is almost pitch perfect; the author's obvious military training (he's on active duty) gives a more realistic spin on how to deal with the threat. This doesn't mean its a clean cut fight, but there is a sense of order to some of the chaos. As this is about the narrator's first hand experiences anything that happens outside of his purvue, or anything he doesn't directly relate to us via his entries, may as well have not happened. In a way I was glad that the narrator wasn't in every single skirmish or battle, that would have seemed contrived. Sometimes though Bourne keeps the interesting action as a third hand accounting, which is irritating.

By its very nature a journal is an anti-info dump. Journals are personal things, how many people explain every little detail about something that is a) obvious to them and b) almost second nature? The occasional explanation of what a weapon or abbreviation means--that's understandable. It's nice to have reminders about important stuff.a full point-by-point breakdown of a big plot point in the third act just before the ending? Warning bells!

Not only that but abrupt what the heck are you talking about warning bells. At first I thought it was because I hadn't read the first book, but then I bought the first book. And it still made little sense to me. There is going to be a third one (I can't see how there won't be given that ending), so there is hope for this all to be explained. As is, read, enjoy and pick up some useful tips for surviving a zombie invasion. ( )

Beyond Exile was the second book in the Day by Day Armageddon book.

Honestly, this one didn't work as well for me as the first one. It felt like halfway through this book there was a shift from the cool journal like entries to a more story based route for presentation. It was noticeable and just didn't hold my attention as much as the journal entries. I also don't know much about military, planes or cars so I felt at a loss and had to constantly research what was going on in the book. I felt like I was spending more time on the internet trying to understand what was going on than actually reading the book. I also felt that there was a lot in this book that could have been left out and the story would have remained unchanged.

That being said, it's still a great book. It's just not a book for me as a reader. I won't be continuing with this series but I will look up some spoilers for how it ends. J.L. Bourne has crafted one super cool but and I really appreciate the uniqueness of it!

Three out of five stars. ( )

Took the fairly standard first book in an entertaining new direction. I am surprised to discover that I now plan to get the third book when it comes out. ( )

En la primera parte, una epidemia desconocida arrasaba el planeta y un marine desde el sótano de su casa convertido en búnker, escribía un diario en el que nos relataba su lucha contra los muertos vivientes. Ahora, las hordas de zombies están por todas partes. Han invadido Estados Unidos y no hay lugar donde refugiarse. El protagonista y su vecino, John, han escapado a una base nuclear donde encuentran a una pequeña colonia humana. Juntos, intentarán mantenerse vivos. Sin embargo, las municiones comienzan a escasear y el riesgo de que los zombies ataquen es cada vez mayor.

Beyond Exile by J.L. Bourne is the continuation of his zombie story that began in Day By Day Armageddon. I rated the first book very high and was excited to finally be getting around to the second. Although not quite up to the level of the first, Beyond Exile was still an exciting and fun read.

Written as the personal journal of one man, the story tells how the small group of survivors from the first book manage to come in contact with the remnants of the American military and soon the main character finds himself the commanding officer at his outpost and in charge of planning and executing missions. Of course, something goes wrong and he is stranded some 200 miles away from the relative safety of the missile silo and has to work his way across Texas and through armies of the undead and other dangers to get back.

As both the author J.L. Bourne and the main character of the story are members of the armed forces, there is a lot of discussion of armaments and military jargon included in this book. I actually found this added to the believability of the story and most of this was explained in layman’s terms so it wasn’t too difficult to follow. The main character was trained in military equipment and had gone through survival training so is definitely someone I would want to be with in the event of an apocalypse.

Beyond Exile didn’t quite have the natural flow of the first book, but certainly delivered what I look for in a zombie book - plenty of frightening moments and lots of gore. ( )