Pg. 69: "Monster Nation"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: Monster Nation by David Wellington.

About the novel, from the publisher:

In the heart of America, in the world's most secure prison, something horrible is growing in the dark. A wave of cannibalism and fear is sweeping across the heartland, spreading carnage and infection in its wake. Captain Bannerman Clark of the National Guard has been tasked with an impossible mission: discover what is happening — and then stop it before it annihilates Los Angeles.

In California, he discovers a woman trapped in a hospital overrun with violent madmen. She may hold the secret to the Epidemic but she has lost everything — even her name.

David Wellington's first novel, Monster Island, explored a world overcome by horror and the few people strong enough to survive. Now he takes us back in time to where it all began — to the day the dead began to rise.

Paul Goat Allen's review for The Barnes & Noble Review:

Simply put, David Wellington has done for zombies what Victoria's Secret has done for lingerie (not that reanimated, flesh-eating corpses should in any way be associated with glamorous bras and sexy sleepwear!). With the release of Monster Island in the spring of 2006 -- made an instant cult classic in large part by a hugely popular online serialization -- Wellington brought the zombie subgenre to the forefront of horror with a macabre masterpiece about a mysterious contagion that sweeps the planet and brings about an end to the age of humanity.

Monster Nation is a prequel of sorts that chronicles the very first days of the Epidemic, when an unknowing public hadn't yet discovered the horrific truth -- that tens of thousands of infected undead, hungry for succulent flesh, were creating more of their kind and systematically taking over the United States. Standing in their way is Bannerman Clark, a 61-year-old captain in the Colorado National Guard who is tasked with the impossible: to find the origins of the ghoulish outbreak and somehow put a stop to it before it's too late. His search begins in a Supermax prison outside of Colorado Springs, where a gruesomely violent riot has confirmed that numerous occupants are, in fact, zombies. And to make matters worse, the warden -- quite possibly infected -- has just left on vacation for California…

Comparable to other end-of-the-world classics like Stephen King's The Stand and Robert R. McCammon's Swan Song, Wellington's Monster Nation is an absolute must-read for horror aficionados. Who knew that armies of decomposing corpses bent on sucking the life out of the remnants of humankind could be so wildly entertaining?

Visit David Wellington's website to learn more about the trilogy and his other books.

The Page 69 Test: Monster Nation.

--Marshal Zeringue