I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Zombicide Invader book Planet Havoc by Tim Waggoner, published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.

So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.

I am going to try my best to not let that cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.

So let’s crack on with a review then!

What is Zombicide
Zombicide Invader is a co-op adventure game set in a post zombie apocalyptic world, created by Guillotine Games and published by CMON.

Each player controls a survivor, as they look to complete a narrative objective before being overrun by Xenos, who come in various different forms, the more you kill, the more skilled you get and the more Xenos you can kill.

Its a spin off of the popular Zombicide games.

The Story
The story sees a mercenary crew, employed by a new Guild, Leviathan, who aim to plunder the planet of a mysterious new source of fuel.

Upon landing on the planet they discover the neighboring planet was devastated by a vicious race of aliens called the Xenos, potentially linked to the new fuel.

But pursuing the mercenaries is a quarantine ship, who aim to stop them landing on this quarantined world, and preventing them from finding out its secrets.

Conclusion
Right off the bat, I read one chapter, went to sleep, the next night I picked it up intending to read a little bit more and couldn’t put it down and read it until its conclusion.

Its an amazing, well written and fantastic book, filled with wonderful characters, ok the aliens aren’t really zombies, but close enough, they kind of remind me of Tyranids.

The mercenaries have the more colourful variety of characters, but the military aren’t completely without charm.

Look I am not sure what else I can say, its a great book, go buy it and read it, you won’t regret it.

Oh and Tim, sequel???

5 out of 5 stars!

Planet Havoc is out now as a paperback, eBook and audiobook!

This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.
Before I could finish reading this book it got archived and there's no way I can review a book I didn't finish reading.

A Zombicide novel

I received an advance reader copy of this book from Aconyte Books via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

This is the second book I’ve read based on the Zombicide board game. Unlike the first book, it takes place in outer space and doesn’t involve zombies in the traditional sense.


A ship of mercenaries employed by a powerful and ambitious guild is sent to explore an abandoned planet in a quarantined system, but when they are discovered and pursued by a Coalition military ship, both spaceships crash on the planet’s surface. The shipwrecked crews soon encounter a native lifeform that threatens all life in the universe if it escapes.

I gave Planet Havoc five stars. In a lot of ways the plot resembles that of Alien, but despite the similarity, the fast-paced plot kept me interested throughout. I recommend this for fans of science fiction and/or horror.

The first of the Zombicide books by Aconyte, Last Resort, was a somewhat traditional zombie story. It was set in a modern setting, in a world much like our own where the living dead have spread across the globe, infecting folks and eating the living. It was a pretty safe introduction to the world of the Zombicide games. However, the games don't just follow this formula, and have some pretty interesting takes on the zombie genre; and we get to explore one of these variations in the new novel Planet Havoc.

Planet Havoc is set in the distant future, where humanity has taken to the stars, meeting alien races and colonising new worlds. We join the mercenary crew of a ship that has been hired by the Leviathan corporation to sneak into a quarantined star system, getting past the military blockades set to capture any trespassers. The crew have been hired to travel to one of the remote planets in the system, Penumbra, and acquire samples of a rare mineral that could revolutionise power generation. As the ship is sneaking into the system they're discovered by a small patrol vessel, and a chase ensues between the two ships that results in both crews crashing on Penumbra.

On the barren planet, the two separate groups discover that Penumbra is home to more than just this rare mineral, but also contains a deadly race of alien beings. These creatures, the Neo-Xenos, are highly dangerous, and want off the planet. Controlled by a terrible hive mind intelligence, the Neo-Xenos set out to use the crashed ships to escape their prison, killing or infecting any human who dares to get in their way. Now the two opposing crews have to come together to try and survive, and to stop a terrible plague from being unleashed upon the galaxy.

If Last Resort is The Walking Dead, Planet Havoc is Aliens. This is probably the easiest comparison to make to try and describe the tone and feel of the story; and as a life-long fan of the Alien franchise I absolutely loved it.

There are some easy comparisons to make between the two, the duplicitous mega-corporations that want a deadly alien species to make into profit, androids, and bug-like aliens, but Tim Waggoner hasn't just made an Alien clone with this novel, and has drawn inspiration from a number of other great science fiction and horror titles such as Starship Troopers and The Thing to create something that will make genre fans feel at home, yet manages to do a lot of new things.

Whilst I normally wouldn't expect to have to explain the monsters in a book with zombie in the title, the creatures of Planet Havoc do need something of an explanation. Grown from a huge organism that has some kind of connection to a mysterious blue mould, the Neo-Xenos don't require other lifeforms in order to create themselves, literally growing new members of their race out of each other. This lack of hosts needed to create new foes makes them an incredibly unpredictable foe, as the heroes are never really going to manage to kill them all; as long as at least one survives there's always the risk that more will come.

The Neo-Xenos also come in a few different varieties, ranging from fast and agile creatures that seem designed to swarm and overwhelm their prey, to large, hulking brutes with immense strength and the ability to fire spikes at people. Perhaps the most frightening part of the Neo-Xeno, however, is their ability to infect others. Whilst they don't need hosts to create new members of the race they can infect and transform humans, making them into either huge, monstrous creatures, or intelligent sleeper agents that look no different from normal.

This twist certainly brings the creatures more into line with what we think about with zombies, of the infection that can spread within a group, but also makes them all the more frightening. Much like The Thing there's a sense of never being sure who you can trust, and not knowing exactly who might be infected that makes the Neo-Xeno truly terrifying.

But it's not just about the monsters, as there's a large cast of humans fighting to stay alive across the course of the book; although that cast does keep getting smaller as things go on. There are essentially two groups when the book begins, one who are trying to sneak onto Penumbra, and the other who are trying to stop them. These two groups have a decent mix of people, though they definitely have a more central cast, with a few other characters that don't get as much of a focus who you kind of suspect are just there to get killed off at some point. Those that do get focus, however, are a lot of fun.

The mercenary crew make for the more colourful group of characters, and thanks to the inclusion of some evil corporate lackeys amongst them, makes for an interesting mixture. The team is led by Luis Gonzales, a former soldier who seems to be a decent man, taking on jobs that don't hurt innocent people and is fighting to do something good with his life. He's competent, has the respect of his crew, and doesn't seem afraid to talk back to the Leviathan representative. That representative, Jena Woodruff falls nicely into the Burke from Aliens role. She never really does anything bad or evil, but she's absolutely a bit of a bitch and you want to hit her half the time. She cares about herself, about profit and advancing her career. She's a cold and calculating person who doesn't seem to care about putting other people at risk to get what she wants.

In addition to various other soldiers and miners, the crew has a few stand out members. Oren is a cyborg, a human brain that's been placed within a mechanical body, that's been sent on the mission by Leviathan to record everything that happens. At first he seems to be a pretty simple kind of person, barely more than a walking camera who doesn't really say much. However, as the book progresses we learn that Oren has some pretty extreme views on the universe, views that put him at odds with many of the others around him. We also learn more about what it means to be a cyborg, as well as his personal history, and it makes for some truly fascinating reading. There's also doctor Sidney Cheung, a biologist that has been brought along on the mission to help with any native lifeforms found on Penumbra. Whilst Sidney gets more than she bargained for thanks to the Neo-Xeno, much like Oren she has some secrets beneath her exterior that make her to be one of the more complex members of the crew, and some surprises that readers won't be expecting.

The members of the Coalition Command military trapped on the planet with the mercs also get the chance to shine, and make for some interesting characters too. The stand-outs include Aisha Barakat, the captain of their small vessel, transferred to the patrol the remote system following a terrible event in her past; and Jason, the ship's android. In a lot of ways Aisha is very similar to Luis, and the two commanders get a lot of scenes together and the chance to form a real bond as the book progresses. We get a sense that despite being a part of a military who will execute prisoners, Aisha isn't a bad person, and we see a lot of her views on the universe and what it means to be a good person get challenged over the course of the story. Possibly the biggest surprise on that crew, however, is Jason. Entirely mechanical, Jason should be the kind of character who is completely loyal to the Coalition, programmed to follow orders and the letter of the law; but he's actually incredibly human and very much has a mind of his own. It's fascinating seeing they way his character unfolds across the book, and he quickly made for one of my favourite characters.

Planet Havoc is an action packed survival story that managed to feel incredibly familiar and comfortable for me as a fan of this kind of genre; yet it always managed to entertain, surprise, and never felt like it was being cheap or lazy. Waggonner seems to have written a love letter to some of the truly great sci-fi horror stories with this book, and fans of the genre are going to find a lot to enjoy here. Going into this novel knowing nothing about this particular branch of the Zombicide games I left eager to read more, and hoping that this ends up being the first of many such books.

When I saw a zombicide title by Tim Waggoner I was more than a little excited and I was not disappointed. Waggoner does have an acquired style for some but when it comes to horror and media tie-ins he is good, really good.

Planet Havoc sees scoundrels and soldiers band together to survive an onslaught of alien-zombies. A deserted R&D facility tempts Leviathan, a hungry new Guild, into sending a team to plunder its valuable research. After a neighbouring planet was devastated by an outbreak of Neo-Xenos – alien zombies, the base was abandoned but that outbreak was a planet away so surely it wouldn’t be a problem. When the Guild ship is attacked by a quarantine patrol, both ship crash onto the deserted world. But it isn’t as deserted as they hope. A murderous new Xeno threat awakens and intends to escape the planet. Can the crews cooperate to destroy the new foe? Or will they be forced to sacrifice their ships and lives to protect the galaxy?

I have to say the first couple of chapters I was worried I wouldn’t be into this – the writing didn’t overly hook me to begin because there was a lot of introduction to the characters. I continued on and I am so glad I did. After the initial introduction chapters everything is dialed up to and past eleven! From crash landing on the deserted planet to the first attack by the alien life forms, Waggoner does what he does best: action and horror.

With elements of a Starship Trooper-esque Xeno outbreak this work quickly turned to action-packed, blood-soaked adventure. Capturing the real essence of the game, Waggoner pits his protagonists against almost un-survivable odds. The action is near non-stop and it’s not always the Xeno’s the protagonists have to worry about but each other as well.

As usual I don’t like spoiling anything but the ending was brilliantly executed, coming almost full circle with the characters involved and the situation. It also left a brilliant opening for a follow up novel which I would love to see in the future. A definite most for a sci-fi horror fan as well as fans of the zombicide games. As usual Aconyte and Waggoner have managed to perfect tie-in fiction by keeping enough of the game lore there but making it their own as well.

The ebook will be available from 5th April 2022 along with the Paperbook version in the US, the paperbook will be available from 7th July for the UK.

TIM WAGGONER is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of over fifty novels and seven collections of short stories. He writes dark fantasy and horror, as well as media tie-ins. He’s also a full-time tenured professor who teaches creative writing and composition at Sinclair College in Dayton, Ohio.

Waggoner seamlessly blends the atmospheric tension of the Zombicide board games with books like The Expanse Series and The Thing/Who Goes There? in Zombicide Invaders: Planet Havoc.

A Guild called the Leviathan contracts a ship to plunder a research and development lab on a planet called Penumbra. Due to events on a neighboring planet the area is quarantined and patrolled by the Coalition. Both crews survive a crash onto Penumbra only to realize that was the least of their problems.

They soon learn this planet is inhabited by an entity that is creating an army of Xenos, alien zombies that offer a very refreshing take on both aliens and zombies. New alliances are made, crew members are betrayed, and people are not as they seem as both crews struggle to get off planet alive.

Waggoner is a very talented writer that managed to create a fantastic space horror novel that will be loved by fans of Zombicide, horror, and science fiction alike.

A better-than-average example of game fiction, Planet Havoc benefits from a skilled horror writer as it’s author. Tim Waggoner takes a cliched scenario - two spaceship crews stranded on a mysterious planet - and effectively amps up the tension and terror as the book progresses. If you are looking for gore, blood, and desperate struggle, this book is for you. If you want deep characterization and sophisticated plotting, not so much. Ample room for a sequel or more. Note, that there are no zombies but an insidious and reasonably scarier zombie-like threat.