'Time and space are under threat when a monstrous new alien zombie threat emerges, in this horror thriller from the riotous Zombicide Invader boardgame.
'Scientist Dizzie Drexler is on the mission of a lifetime: exploring a strange planet named Sik-Tar, in the company of a mysterious alien crew. The dig looks like a dud, until they stumble across an ancient spaceship, filled with arcane tech. What could possibly go wrong? Everything: opening the spaceship activates an unimaginable horror: a form of ravenous mold which possesses the skeletons that litter the spaceship with the desire to kill, spread, and consume every living thing. While fighting these undead terrors, Dizzie and their team delve into the spaceship’s mysteries, and soon realise that such monstrosities could only come from one place: the future.'
We've had some great books in the new Zombicide line recently. There have been some good traditional zombie stories set during modern day, Last Resort and All or Nothing, the fun fantasy story Age of the Undead, and the futuristic sci-fi horror Planet Havoc. The latest book returns us to the distant future for another Zombicide: Invader novel, one which sees a small group of explorers heading to a remote planet to investigate an ancient signal.
Terror World follows a handful of new characters, the first of these being Ix-Nix-Six, a Caridian, an insectoid alien from a distant part of the galaxy outside of human controlled space. Having been granted permission to travel into human space by his superiors, Six approaches the human coalition government, requesting the opportunity to investigate a remote world within their borders. This world, Sik-Tar, has been transmitting a signal for the last thousand years, one that Six's people picked up long ago. Even more intriguing, the signal appears to be Caridian in origin. The Coalition agrees to let him investigate the planet, but sends a group with him to keep an eye on him, and investigate the possibility that Sik-Tar might be home to the powerful fuel source Xenium.
The human scientist Dizzie Drexler, and their friend and colleague, the Centauran telepath Corinus, are sent along to lead the expedition and search for any signs of Xenium on the planet. A Thassian mercenary called Divak is assigned to the team for their protection, and a pair of human brothers and theives, Grayson and Mason, are hired to help out thanks to their particular set of skills; and Mason being an incredibly adaptable cyborg.
The small team head to the remote planet and find a huge Caridian ship on the surface, one that's been there for centuries, and has been mining the Xenium deposits on the planet, refining them into a never before encountered liquid form. However, the team's presence on Sik-Tar seems to awaken something, the deadly mould infects and transforms living matter, turning them into the deadly Xenos creatures. With the long dead crew of the ship returning to life as monsters, the team are left fighting for their lives.
I compared the first of the Zombicide: Invader novel to being like Aliens. It featured monstrous alien creatures that were zombies in how it animates the dead and infects the living, but are closer to aliens than traditional zombies. The book also had a base under siege type story, and featured a lot of action. In comparison, this book is a lot smaller in scope, and feels more akin to horror stories like Alien, and Event Horizon more than anything else, thanks to the small group being picked off one by one whilst on a remote mission hoping to discover something amazing. There aren't as many characters, virtually none of them have weapons, so there's not ass much running and gunning happening here. Instead, we have the ever mounting dread of waiting for something awful to happen.
The book doesn't jump straight into the action, it takes its time setting up the characters and the locations, letting the reader get attached to the people before anything bad happens to them. With a small cast of characters it's easier to spend this time with them, to expand upon them and make them more than just stock characters of 'scientist', 'soldier', and 'thief'. Each of them ends up being much more complex than they first appear, with even the bloodthirsty warrior woman ending up being more complex than she really has any right to be.
This time spent setting things up and slowly introducing small elements doesn't just mean that we get the chance to know the characters though, as it also slowly increases the tension. This is a Zombicide book, we know something awful is going to happen. It's not a question of if, but one of when. As such, as the characters are slowly exploring the ancient ship, searching around for answers as to how it got there and what happened to it, the reader is waiting for the other shoe to drop. You know that the monsters are coming, and that wait is a horrible one. By the time the monsters do arrive it feels like something of a relief; though the characters then end up in incredible danger, and the tension begins to increase in different ways.
One of the things that I really liked about the book was that this wasn't a group of soldiers or mercenaries or bounty hunters armed to the teeth and ready for action. These are mostly scientists, they're people who aren't used to having to fight, and who don't have weapons. The situations aren't going to be resolved by shooting your way through Xenos or blowing things up, and requires the characters to start thinking smart, to have to come up with plans and strategies to just keep their lives going a few more hours.
Cath Luria manages to keep things tense throughout without it ever feeling completely overwhelming, and part of that is by having smaller character moments scattered throughout the narrative. Things get to slow down for a moment and we get to really see how the characters are reacting to this and how its effecting them. This focus on the characters ended up greatly improving the book for me, and allowed the horror of what was happening to really hit home.
Overall, this ended up being a very different kind of book from any of the other Zombicide novels we've had, not just the other Zombicide: Invader entry. The book ends with a mystery, one that's partially answered, and yet still has a ton of room for it to be able to mess with your head a little. It makes you wish that the book continued on, and that all of the answers were given; which for me is a sign of a really great read, where you don't really want it to end and you just want more. Hopefully we'll get more book in this series by Cath Lauria, even if they don't continue on from this one, as this was such an enjoyable reading experience.
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