I’m a fan of the Horror/Sci Fi/Fantasy genres. While there are a lot of books written about vampires, werewolves and zombies, this novel: Fangs, Claws, and Camouflage: Zombie Problems puts, what I think is, a unique spin on the zombie-apocalypse genre.

A trend seems to be emerging in literature and movies wherein the world-at-large is aware of the various creatures of the night. (Note the popularity of True Blood, both the books and television show.) In this book, however, humanity is not aware of the existence of vampires and werewolves, although they’ve been around for hundreds of years, and zombies do not exist - at least not at the start of the book.

The novel is divided into two parts. The first part (about 1/4 of the book) introduces us to characters that will play a pivotal role in the second part of the book. The primary character is a young woman named Avianna, who was turned into a vampire over 800 years before the upcoming battle. Other characters include two Samurai brothers that were turned over 400 years before the battle, a doctor that was turned 35 years before the battle, a married couple that were turned into werewolves 8 years before battle, a coven of Wiccans that will lend mystical support to the coalition from afar, a young Marine captain in charge of commanding the Marines while he tries to keep the various factions from turning on each other – after all a bleeding Marine would make a very tempting morsel for a vampire.

The second part of the book opens with a meeting between a U.S. Senator, a werewolf, a Wiccan, and two vampires. An outbreak of a zombie virus is spreading worldwide, this group is brought together to discuss forming an alliance with the purpose of wiping out the virus. At first, the Senator finds it difficult to believe in the existence of vampires and werewolves, however, the recent outbreak of the zombie virus has opened his mind to things he could never have conceived of in the past. Each of the groups gathered has a vested interest in stopping the virus. After all, if the entire human population becomes infected, what will the vampires and werewolves feed on.

Part two of the book follows a plethora of individuals all eventually coming together to attempt to eradicate all the zombies from one U.S. town. This is a pilot run to see if there is any chance that Marines, vampires, zombies, and Wiccans can work effectively together. If this pilot works, the plan is to broaden the scope of the alliance.

As mentioned above, there are a lot of characters in this novel. My favorites are Alexandria and Missy, two college co-eds seeking to get close to the upcoming battle so as to report on it via their blog. Which brings up another interesting point about the book. In many zombie apocalypse stories, e.g. The Walking Dead, society quickly disintegrates. In this book, the author has the uninfected portions of the human race doing their best to maintain whatever degree of normalcy that they can.

This was an excellent read, and I’m hoping the author publishes a sequel.

ebk, pbk, hc