A walled city surrounded by lush land, protected by high mountain summits, and fortified by a massive gate to secure the only pass into the valley, The Bastion remained humanity’s last hope against the fearsome undead creatures known as the Inferi Scourge. On one fateful day, the valley gate failed and the Inferi Scourge overran and destroyed the human settlements outside the walls, trapping the remaining survivors inside the city. Now, decades later, the last remaining humans are struggling to survive in a dying city of dwindling resources…and dwindling hope.
(synopsis cont’d)
Vanguard Maria Martinez has lived her entire life within the towering walls of steel. She yearns for a life away from the overcrowded streets, rolling blackouts, and food shortages, but there is no hope for anyone as long as the Inferi Scourge howl outside the high walls. Her only refuge from the daily grind is in the arms of Dwayne Reichardt, an officer in the Bastion Constabulary. Both are highly-decorated veterans of the last disastrous push against the Inferi Scourge. Their secret affair is her only happiness.
Then one day Maria is summoned to meet with a mysterious representative from the Science Warfare Division and is offered the opportunity to finally destroy the Inferi Scourge in the valley and close the gate, reclaiming the lost lands and energizing the populace with renewed hope for the future. The rewards of success are great, but she will have to sacrifice everything, possibly even her life, to accomplish the ultimate goal of securing the future of humanity and saving it from extinction.
So, I took part in the cover reveal for The Last Bastion of the Living (very cool cover….I was so excited) and today I am even MORE excited!!! Today, is my tour date for The Last Bastion of the Living! I’ll give a quick review of the book, have an interview with Rhiannon Frater, AND start a giveaway (provided by Rhiannon!) so someone can win an ecopy for themselves! I will do TWO posts. This one will have the review and giveaway, the next will have the interview!
Ok…the review. I need to figure out a way to do this review and convey how freaking awesome it really was, without letting my aversion to sci-fi affect it. Hmm….I guess I’ll just get my “dislikes” out of the way first, that way I can focus on the good stuff!!!!
I didn’t like how the zombies were referred to as “Inferi Scourge”. Yes, I understand why they were but I still didn’t love it, so while reading I replaced ‘Inferi Scourge’ with ‘zombies’ in my head. Other than that, the only other thing I didn’t like was the sci-fi setting. I know, seems like a pretty major thing and how could I possibly like the book w/out liking the sci-fi aspect, right? Easy. Rhiannon is an AMAZING author and the story was written so well that it kept my interest despite being sci-fi. That’s it, now onto the stuff I DID like!
Maria is badass! After battling the Inferi Scourge, Maria is back inside the city working as a guard for the city walls by day and spending time with her {secret} boyfriend Dwayne by night. That is, until Maria is called to meet with the SWD (Science Warfare Division) and asked if she would like to be an integral part of bringing down the Inferi Scourge. Of course she accepts, she wants a better life for her and her family than what currently exists within the city walls. Only problem? She can’t tell ANYONE exactly what the assignment entails, only that she is going away for about 6 months.
Gah! How do I keep going with the review without giving away what happens? I know some reviewers can, and I 110% admire them! Me…I get too excited and the coherent thoughts flee my brain, leaving me to ramble on with spoilers! I guess all I can really add without spoilers is; after Maria accepts the job, things go a lot different than she was told they would go. Like, REALLY different and not in a good way! Despite that, Maria battles through. She finds a way to secretly keep in contact with Dwayne while working with her new team outside the city walls, among the Inferi Scourge and he starts his own plan to help her out. While out in the field things go wrong (extremely wrong) for Maria and the crew. Ok. That is all I can write. Or else, I will give away the twists. Bottom line: another freaking cool book from Rhiannon! My hubby and my daughter are both going to read this book, and I can’t wait for them to do so! They both love sci-fi, so I’m sure they’ll be raving about it even more than me!
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I give The Last Bastion of the Living: A Futuristic Zombie Novel 4 Heels!
I was just talking a friend about reading a good zombie book. This is now on my TBR list! Great review!!
On the to-be-read list!
Zombies are so in fashion these days! I need to get with the program and read some zombie-fic!