Aftermath

March 24, 2014
Anxiety and building desperation fuel this debut zombie thriller, the first in a series that already has a significant online fan base. Army Capt. Lee Harden is alone in an underground bunker, preparing to return to a world where the FURY virus has turned most of the population into homicidal cannibals. Sharply targeted sentences depict an acutely human action hero who wrestles his anxiety by packing and unpacking his gear, trying to find online porn in a post-Internet world, and playing with his dog. Amply trained and armed, Lee is nonetheless a nauseated shaking mess as he emerges with little understanding of what he’s up against. With a handful of survivors, he embarks on a sweaty, frantic, bloody scramble across the surreally placid North Carolina countryside. Though this first installment is less a story than an establishment of scene and players, Molles’s precise construction gives readers ample reason to return, as does the agonizing companion novella, which provides an unnerving view of what occurred while Lee was waiting to begin his mission.

April 28, 2014
Molles (The Remaining) continues the vigorously authored, formidable saga of army captain Lee Harden’s mission to restore civilization while survivors fight off hordes of savage zombie-like infected. Injured and overwhelmed, Harden barely managed to survive the first novel, but having been rescued, he is now on surer footing. Molles continues to supply Harden with enough depth to keep him from becoming a stock action character, but escalates both the intense combat and grim horror, as well as substantially expanding the cast of characters. Harden manages to get to his first bunker of cached supplies, a victory that is soon overshadowed by the increasingly disturbing tactical skills of the so-called zombies, the megalomaniacal leader of a band of predatory raiders, and some truly surprising betrayals. A cramped and claustrophobic hospital provides both a forbidding backdrop for a harrowing showdown, and an opportunity to stretch the story further into what should be an eagerly awaited sequel.