Ordinary

I borrowed Ordinary (The Anything But Series Book 1)by Lindy Zart from a friend. So I don't own it.

I don't usually read zombie stories. So, it's a good thing this isn't really a zombie story. In this world where Honor is there are the UD's and the UDK's. They are both the product of a virus that's been accidentally let loose on the world years ago .(I take it from the story that Accidentally is a debatable term.) It has manifested itself in two forms, those who are the undead(UD's) and those who can control, contain and eliminate the undead(UDK's).

Or is that true?

It's no wonder Honor has doubts and the inability to trust anyone when she's lived a life that's been a completed lie. It becomes even worse when discovering that her mother has been in on the lie all this time. It will be no help that there are a lot more revelations coming her way that she most likely will find hard to swallow.

Honor is an ordinary teen with the usual friends and a few undesirables around her. It turns out that the undesirables, Ryder and Natasha, are part of the UDK's and are there to help integrate her into thier ranks so that she can help control the UD's. The problem with that is that one of the UD's is someone she knows and though not well acquainted with, she likes.

Christian is her age and in her class and he's just manifest his active virus at the same time that Honor has. It's in part, because she saw him undergoing the affects that she was noticed by the other UDK's, though she's apparently already on the watch list.

Drawn into the whole mess against her will she attempts to maintain her own code of moral conduct despite the pressure that's being applied by those who are attempting to paint the UD's as something horrible and mindless. Despite the dangers involved she'll have to make a stand and do what she thinks is right.

The story seems a bit weak on demonstrating where the character is now and what needs to be done to reach where she'll be at the end. But, that's because it's more a story of how despite the evidence and the odds she attempts to maintain who she is throughout.

I like Ordinary and am looking forward to hearing the rest of the story. There are at least four characters dealing with conflicted lives. It will be interesting to see which ones work it all out and make it to the end.

J.L. Dobias

Ordinary (The Anything But Series)by Lindy Zart

So this is another in the series of free offerings.

Unfortunately I'm not sure It's still free.

Now, because it's free, I should at least be civil and nice. But at the risk of spoiling things- You can't end it like that.

Granted I'll give that this is almost like a Zombie Apocalypse novel, but it's really not- so there.

Make no mistake, I really liked this story and I'll be waiting for the other half of it to make it to e-print.

This story has many elements of similar novels of this type:
Honor lives with her mother and sister and has lost her father. She's living a life that she's about to discover is a lie. There are people who are out to get her- with the notion they want to help. Do they really?

Honor doesn't know and is struggling to trust anyone after her world has just been destroyed and re-arraigned. It all starts when she notices Christian, an acquaintance and classmate, exhibiting odd behavior- which pales to the odd behavior around them as no one else seems to notice. Later she sees what she thinks is Christian being abducted. The very fact that she could see what Christian was going through has put her in danger, but it will take her a bit of time to discover that.

Honor, who is one of those people who probably brings every stray dog they find home, is concerned for Christian. It almost looks as though her concern is what gets her into trouble, but she's already there it just hasn't caught up to her.

Honor has two school related nemesis, Natasha and Ryder, who figure into the gang of people who try to 'save' her.

In Honor's universe there was a virus that was accidentally released which over time began to manifest itself with dramatic changes in the DNA of those affected. There are three types of people the UD's who become zombie like, the UDK's who are able to control and eliminate the UD's and the ordinarys who may carry the virus but show no signs.

-----------------Spoiler- maybe but maybe not--------------------------
Now, and this is speculation and not a spoiler unless I've speculated correctly, this really sounds like a- lets make the ultimate soldier gone bad scenario. Once again we're making soldiers with no way to safely integrate them back into society. Only this time were growing them up to a trigger date without any good missions to point them at.
------------------end spoiler alert------------------------------------

Honor has to start trusting her instincts because she can't trust anything that's she's being told. The problem is that this lack of information could get her and some of her friends and acquaintances killed.

And as things unfold- that may be someones plan.

This is a well told story and though it seems to be cliffhanger-ish it does stand well alone and definitely grabbed my interest to where I will buy the next book once it comes out.

There are plenty of unresolved threads-but as you can see it gives much room for speculation and imagination until the writer gets that second half out.

While waiting Lindy has another series out that you can read.

Sural