“DEAD RECKONING,” by Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill, Bloomsbury USA Childrens, Hardcover, June 5, 2012, $16.99 (ages 12 and up)
I admit, I am not a big fan of zombies. I don’t like zombie movies. I don’t like zombie books. There’s just too much of an ick factor for me. And recent events in Florida with one man eating another’s face and eyes brings the idea of zombies a little too close to home.
So you can imagine my trepidation going into “Dead Reckoning,” a new YA book by Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill that features zombies. Truth be told, though, I found myself pleasantly surprised.
At the heart of “Dead Reckoning” are three wildly different characters — Jett Gallatin, a teenage girl disguised as a gambler; Honoria Gibbons, a young inventor who debunks wild claims; and White Fox, a white man who was raised as an Indian.
Each of the three is traveling the prairie alone, looking for people who have gone missing. A chance meeting brings them together and inadvertently aligns their purposes. It appears those who are missing haven’t just up and left, they’ve been turned into zombies. Someone’s raising a zombie army and it’s up to Jett, Gibbons and White Fox to stop them before all of Texas is overrun by the undead.
At first glance, “Dead Reckoning” sounds a bit silly — a zombie Western mashup set in Texas. The thing is, it is a bit silly, but it works. And the reason it works is because the authors don’t take it too seriously. There’s a tongue-in-cheek vibe that runs subtly throughout. The ick factor is still there, but it’s manageable. The zombies are a necessary part of the plot but not in a gratuitous way.
Another thing “Dead Reckoning” has going for it is pacing. The authors’ prose is fast moving and accessible. And without knowing better, one would never guess two writers were at hand here. There were a few plot holes to quibble about, but nothing worth going into detail. Overall, the reading experience was a lot more enjoyable than I anticipated, and I look forward to reading more by these authors.
