Dr. Hugh Mann by Mark Tufo
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
Oh, for heaven’s sake.
Alright, I know I said I was taking a break from this series because I was getting a bit burnt out on them, but since this was a prequel, I thought I’d give it a shot. I’m not particularly happy that I did.
This short novella, tucked between books three and four of the series, gives some history of the virus that causes the Zombie Apocalypse in the Fallout series. It follows Dr. Hugh Mann (yes, it’s really that ridiculous), a physicist around the turn of the 20th century, who discovers a tiny race of humans that are engaged in a full-out war with dust mites.
I’m actually not kidding.
Without the humour that peppers the other books in this series, I found this novella falling flat for me. The history was so outrageous, so impossible to quell the stirrings of “Too far” in my brain, that I couldn’t turn on the suspension of disbelief that makes zombie novels so much fun to read. I feel like the author was trying to take things too seriously (beyond the name which was too punny for me). The fact that he was, additionally, supposed to be a family ancestor of the main characters in the series, and that he had met Tommy just pushed it too far for me.
My brain snapped. I could almost hear it.
I listened to this on audiobook, and it’s short – about three hours – and it occupied me while I was doing housework. If I’d been reading this instead of listening, I wouldn’t have made it through. If I hadn’t had other things to occupy my thoughts as well while listening, I wouldn’t have made it through. What was the author thinking? Just… why?
Okay, usually I’m all about the in-between novellas in a series, but not here. Don’t do it. Don’t read it. If you are enjoying this series? Just keep reading the regular books. This is not worth three hours of your life. You can’t get those hours back, man! Pet a cat or go for a walk or listen to some bad music instead. You’ll thank me someday, I think.
