Order Z PLAN: BLOOD ON THE SAND here
What would be the worst possible place for you to be in during a zombie apocalypse? It's one of the several things I've discussed in these several man-talk about the end of the world I've had with my friend, and my answer was irrevocably the same: deployed in a war zone. Being far from home, in a hostile territory, having to find my way back to my loved ones to most likely just have the privilege to learn how they perished is my idea of a worst case scenario. I was glad to learn author Mikhail Lerma decided to turn this haunting of mine into a novel (it's actually a series) Z PLAN: BLOOD ON THE SAND. Not that it helps me sleep better at night to see how of my worst nightmares materialized on the page, but it's a novel done in the tradition of pulp and men's adventure magazines.
Z PLAN: BLOOD ON THE SAND has a bubblegum magazine flavor to it that evens out the tragic and the spectacular.
Cale has been deployed in Iraq where he hangs out with his friend Zach, plays Halo a lot, listens to his iPod and escorts convoys. This is the essence of his life during his deployment and he's making the most of it, learning stuff, socializing and most important, making good money. When his company hits an astounding traffic jam during an early morning mission, it's clear that shit's hit the fan somewhere near, but in Iraq, shit's always hitting the fan something. Shamblers soon show up at the gates of the military base, aggressive, hungry and forcing their way in. Cale and Zach will have to choose between survival and the rules of engagement in order to figure their way out of there. They decide to desert and find their way home on their own.
Technically, Z PLAN: BLOOD ON THE SAND isn't a traditional zombie novel. It's crossing over with military pulp, and hints at inspiration from video games. Mikhail Lerma's been in the army and it shows as much in his clever (and never intrusive) use of technical lingo as it does in his knowledge of life on a military base and the relationship between soldiers. The novel turns into a survival pulp/more traditional zombie narrative. once Cale and Zach escape the military base, but it's not an atmospheric zombie novel. Everything goes too fast to let the horror sink in. Cale's always killing shamblers, running away from something, looking for survival gear. It's more pulp than horror. It's more Resident Evil than Silent Hill, if you will.
"Is there anyone you want me to find for you?" Cale asked.
"I don't know who's alive and who's dead."
There are a couple issues with Z PLAN: BLOOD ON THE SAND that were mostly related to stylistic choices Mikhail Lerma made. The prose is a mere afterthought to the storytelling for example. Its main purpose is to carry you from point A to point B, so it can be a little rigid at times, like you felt you were reading something you've read somewhere else before. It happens, novel that are heavily plot oriented tend not to have the strongest identity. My other issue with the book was that past a certain point, the zombie killing became somewhat of a grind. It becomes about going to one place, clearing the walkers, going to another, doing the same thing. It eventually becomes imbued with a purpose, but it's still the game grind and I thought it became a tad redundant past of the halfway point of the novel.
Almost every contemporary pulp writers I know wants to elevate the genre into an art. They have high ambitions for such a low-key, blue collar literary genre. Mikhail Lerma's more of a throwback pulp writer in that regard as he wrote Z PLAN: BLOOD ON THE SAND in an earnest mindset, looking to get an amazing story down before anything else. If you can't fault Jim Butcher for not being Philip K. Dick, you ultimately can't fault Mikhail Lerma for not being Cormac McCarthy or Don DeLillo. Z PLAN: BLOOD ON THE SAND is blue collar pulp the way it was meant to be written and if you can't enjoy this, maybe you can't really enjoy the genre at all. It's uncompromising, maybe a little rigid at times, but it's a good time overall.