Spores

I love Sc-Fi! I have been reading, of late, Christian Speculative Fiction or "horror". I am not a horror person, but yet not a whole lot scares me. I could have done with out some of the cuss words, but I also know they are probably more common in books that are just not the ones I normally read. This book was creative enough in the creatures and the infections. It was sad with who all was dying or changing that we were getting to know. However, you knew from the start that there wouldn't be many folks left standing. I appreciated the detail given to the creatures - lethal though they are. The origins of their species/makers and the mystery surrounding them was just getting really good when the end of the book suddenly occurred leaving many things very open ended. I checked twice to be sure my Kindle didn't skip something I missed. It hadn't so the rest of the book either isn't finished or isn't written. :( I wish I had known that before I read it because open ended books aggravate me if I can't read the rest of the story, and there is not a sequel at this time to finish answering the questions or solve the mysteries.

Book Info: Genre: Horror Reading Level: Adult Disclosure: I picked up a free copy for my Kindle from Amazon.com; since it is Ian Woodhead's birthday 4/19/12, I decided to have a little Ian Woodhead marathon this week in celebration. Happy Birthday, Ian! Spores Synopsis: Over the course of a couple of days, all the liquid is lost from the body, leaving in its wake a dried shell. Just a slight vibration is enough for the corpse to detonate, sending millions of dust spores into the air. Everyone over the age of 40 has been wiped out by an unidentified fungal plague. Only the young remain. The survivors leave their shelters and emerge into a world blanketed with clouds of drifting spores. They believe that the worst is over, now is the time to start re-building. They have yet to encounter the abominations, altered by the spores. They thought the plague was the end. The plague is just the beginning. My Thoughts: Wow, this is one high-octane thrill-ride of horror. There's no way to tell who to trust, who is telling the truth or who is lying. It isn't a very long book, and it is mostly action, but there is some character development. The book is left open for a sequel, too, which I'll be interested in seeing if it should come out. Recommended for fans of horror.

This book is pretty damned good at being depressing and crushing your hopes...so. Its probably excellent as a book. I'm kind of new to the genre so, I couldn't honestly tell you if it stands out, but just in general as a book it'll probably rate alright, if it fails there, for you.

didnt like at all, didnt even finish reading,,I tried, really, just too,,ick...just didnt like it..boring..not my type of reading material..

This book's premise is very good. Maybe not earth shattering as far as plot ideas go but still a fun and solid idea. "Something" is coming and killing everyone over 40 by turning them into dried out husks which then explode and spread the spores to other people. Awesome. Even more awesome when the second wave mutation hits and now there are monsters. A nice refresher from the zombie apocalypse. Unfortunately, even though the prologue showed promise in characterization and story, that's where it ended. The book is a mess. Filled with typos and poor writing. The characters are under developed for the most part. The ones that do have some interesting set ups are only briefly touched on, pushed to the side for a more "interesting" story line involving the military and stealing women for some reason. Because everyone knows, when the apocalypse comes, the first thing to do is steal all the women. The ending just leaves you feeling as though you've wasted your time. Barely anything was explained and there were a ton of loose ends. One would assume this is so you'll be pulled into the next book. But honestly, I didn't care enough about anyone in the book to be bothered to look into the sequel. Bottom line, don't waste your money or your time.

This was an end of days novella where the human race is subjected to The Wasting. Everyone over 40 'wastes' and turns into a cloud of spores. Such clouds sometimes block out the sun. The survivors are trying to get themselves organized while trying to avoid the leftover pets which have now turned into mutant-y monsters that roam the streets. I don't want to give away too much of the plot, but I did find it to be interesting. There were some parts of it that reminded me of the "Day of the Triffids" , but some other parts were completely original and unique. Unfortunately there were a few weird word switch things happening-wonder and wander were confused and a few other words as well. All in all, I enjoyed this story and I will read more offerings from Mr. Woodhead.

This book was amazing... you never knew what was going to happen from one page to the next. If you like a good horror that makes you not want to eat while you are reading, well this is it. I even found myself lifting my feet so nothing would grab my feet. I found this to be a truly unique si-fi horror about survival, trust and the human breaking point.

Aside from a few minor problems that could be chalked up to the fact that the author is English and uses slang I'm not familiar with this turned out to be an entertaining read. I'm not a very big fan of the current glut of Zombie Apocalyptic fiction in general but Ian has added a twist that deserves a second look. He would have earned five stars except there there were a couple of places that could have used tightening up in my opinion. Otherwise it was an entertaining read and I look forward to ordering more work from this author.

I had high hopes for this book with horror being my favourite genre but sadly I found it quite disappointing. The plot itself was quite good but the characters were too shallow and the storyline a little too haphazard which is a shame. The dialogue wasn't bad but there are too many spelling errors and for me it spoilt the flow of the story. I do have a few more of Ian's books and I hope they are better than this, overall though this book wasn't bad so maybe I just had too high an expectation for it.

Right from the start - you know this is going to be a story that ends with very few survivors. The under-40's are battling to stay alive as a host of mutated animal hybrids and altered humans threaten to wipe mankind from the earth. With a disparate group of characters; besieged by turns by the Military and their ulterior motives, not-quite lost loved ones and the implacable and relentless hunger of the plague-ridden - Ian creates a desperate thread of hope amongst the vile horror that pervades every section of the story. Pleasingly; most of the good guys will have what it takes to emerge alive at the end - but is there any hope of escape beyond the last page? It looks like a gut-wrenchingly certain abomination-filled finality for the last Humans. (Regarding reviews about typo's etc: an updated version appears to up now which answers a lot of these issues.)

Book Review: Spores by Ian Woodhead Reviewed by J Bryden Lloyd Writing Style - 3.5/5.0 (Good) I was pleasantly surprised to find another UK author in my TBR list, and it was equally nice that the general construction was good and the dialogue reasonably strong. I found it a little perplexing that the author chose to build some of the expletive remarks into the descriptive, taking them a little too far away from the thought structure of the character, when it would have just been easier to either directly associate them by placing them as thoughts, or miss them out of the descriptive, where they felt a little awkward. For the rest of it, the text certainly skipped along at a nice pace and although I found a few minor issues, this wasn't a bad read. Character Development - 3.5/5.0 (Good) I liked several of the characters straight away. Certainly Amber, who seemed to have the lion's share of the plot, developed quite consistently and very well. One or two of the characters seemed to be a little two-dimensional and difficult to relate to. The Colonel and some of the senior scientists who we never really get to know in any significant way (if at all) do seem to be significant to the main sub-plot, but we never really get any level of understanding of this. Descriptive - 3.5/5.0 (Good) I enjoy good descriptive, and I found superb flashes of it throughout this book. However, this was weighed down by an equal amount of very average descriptive which came in fits and spurts, and didn't really allow the text to flow as it should have. Some of the characters are a little vague, and though I understand that some of this may be by design, I also felt that it would have been minor thing to make these more rounded. The scene building is very good, the atmospheric work is considered and very much contributes to the characterisations in the story, which is always a good sign. Language & Grammar - 3.0/5.0 (Okay) This is a tough one to assess. I found several incorrect, missing and misspelled words, along with a number of punctuation issues... Not massive, and not overly-numerous, but certainly far more than I was comfortable with. In general, the use of language is very good, the majority of the terminology is used in excellent context (with the possible exception of a few unnecessarily placed expletives, as mentioned earlier) and the dialogue is fairly realistic throughout. The positives did outweigh the negatives, and kept the reasonable flow of the piece, but this still felt like it needs a final polish. Plot - 4.0/5.0 (Very Good) - MINOR SPOILERS The story starts very well and continues to build nicely until you have all the pieces in play. As the characters re-appear in the later story, the twists are brilliantly creative and cleverly penned. Indeed, the whole underlying plot is excellent, and is well supported by the interweaving sub-plots and twists. This alone should make this a 4 or 5 star novel for someone like me, but I felt like I had missed the best of the detail when the `conspiracy' was discovered in the lab computer... Excellent turn in the plot, but not only were we not party to its discovery (annoying), but we become pulled into the Sergeant's retaliation, when his motivation seems questionable, and his solution foolish at best. Nevertheless, you get past this as the cast come together for one last punch-up, and although I thought the build-up to this was just a little too jumpy, it was very nicely done. Unfortunately (and yes, I have to use that word) the end just... arrives. It feels so incomplete, and so frustratingly sudden. Anything, literally anything, could happen at the end of this story, but we are left with only minor clues as to what comes next, though you have to assume the end is nigh. General - 3.5/5.0 (Good) It is easy to sit here and say "Don't bother with this. There are too many issues." And if I was going to be really picky, I wouldn't be wrong in saying that... However, I quite liked this. Imperfections aside, this is a clever tale, well built and well told. No. Not perfectly executed, and if you read this and genuinely believe it is a `wonderful 5-star read', I'm sorry, it's not. But it's not far off. The world-wide law of averages says this is 3-and-a-half stars, and that IS more than fair for this book in its present incarnation. The world-wide law of Amazon says I can't give 3-and-a-half, so with my review title stating my ideal rating, I'll round up to 4, as it doesn't deserve to have just the 3. If ever another revised edition comes out, I hope I can legitimise that extra bit of star. In the meantime, you should give this a try.

This was initially a good read though poorly written. The grammar was poor and I'm not sure it was proof read before being released, making for a sometime jarring read. The thing that lets it down the most is the 2D characters and the fact that none of the plot points are really explained or expanded on, leaving you confused and disappointed. Could of been great, the premise was there but the execution was poor

I actually got 95% of the way through this book before I gave up. The premise is fine and the fact that its set in the UK makes a refreshing change. It started well, the descriptions of the "horror" and its effects were vivid enough to make me wince from time to time, and the stories how how people's parents, spouses etc succumbed were personal and real. Where I lost patience is with the plot, it gets so flaky, especially towards the end, the narrative wanders around, characters start to blur that I forget who are the good guys and who are the bad, the dialogue no longer makes any sense and I no longer cared what happened. Such a shame, it showed so much promise but then it lost me.