Monster Planet and Nowhere To Go But Down: A Book Review

Author: David Wellington.

David Wellington's Monster Planet is the third book in a horror ficiton trilogy, which was released by Running Press in June, 2007. The first book, Monster Island, was reviewed here (Monster Island Book Review) and Monster Nation was reviewed here (Monster Nation Book Review). However, this third book almost does not deserve the attention of the first two novels and calling this book a "Zombie Novel" (Running Press) is a misnomer. There are no zombies here and instead, they are named ghouls. They serve liches, who are possessed by magic and this book trades the action and excitement of the earlier books for unnecessary descriptions of monsters and theologies, which dragged down the interest of this reviewer.

Sarah, the daughter of Dekalb from the very thrilling first novel, is the central protagonist in this third story. The tale begins in Africa and later Egypt, with Sarah searching for her comrade in arms, Ayaan. There is some conflict between liches, who are the undead with consciousness, and mummies, but there is too much focus spent on magic. The Source forever burns in the mid-west of America and here, this magical force promises the end of mankind. Drawing all the characters repetitively towards this powerful energy, this reviewer felt pushed away by this novel at the halfway mark.

As well, there is not enough horrifying action here to justify labelling this a horror fiction novel. Sure, there are werewolves, ghouls and liches, but there is no tension between any of these evil forces and mankind. The climax offers a few glimpses of conflicted interaction; however, few readers will make it to this turning point and even the final passages seemed rushed. Wellington's first novel Monster Island had tense focus and warfare, while this novel suffers from issues of slow pacing.

Finally, the zombies in this book are called ghouls and their presence is tertiary. As Sarah ventures to New York City, the ghouls are only a threat when controlled by powerful magicians aka liches. This is really a liche novel, with competing warlocks vying for your reading time. The addition of these undead characters is interesting, but the tense and dangerous zombies from the first two novels are mostly forgotten.

Wellington seems to have rushed this third novel, or he became tired of this fictional universe. Either way, Monster Planet is a disappointing read. There is none of the excitement of the first two novels and this trilogy is not convincingly summed up. Your reward for following Wellington to the somewhat bloody end are more questions than answers. Hopefully, Wellington takes more time with his upcoming novels and as a consolation, Plague Zone is available as a serial novel at Wellington's site below.

Overall: 5.5 out of 10 (disappointing).

Plague Zone is available below:

Plague Zone at David Wellington's Homepage

The first two books are recommended:



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