Fire & Ash (Rot & Ruin Series #4)

by Jonathan Maberry

Overview

In the gripping conclusion to the action-packed “standard bearer” (Booklist) of zombie series—Rot & Ruin—the threat of death is given new life and the battle to end all battles is just beginning.

Benny Imura and his friends have found the jet and Sanctuary—but neither is what they expected. Instead of a refuge, Sanctuary is a hospice, and the soldiers who flew the plane seem to be little more than bureaucrats who have given up hope for civilization’s future.

With Chong hovering between life and death, clinging to his humanity by a thread, Benny makes a startling discovery: A scientist may have discovered a cure for the zombie plague. Desperate to save Chong, Benny and his friends mount a search and rescue mission.

But they’re not the only ones on the hunt. The reapers are after the cure too, and they want to use it turn all the zombies into superfast shock troops—and wipe humanity off the face of the earth.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442439931
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	08/26/2014
Series:	Rot & Ruin Series , #4
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	544
Sales rank:	179,936
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.50(d)
Lexile:	770L (what's this?)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Jonathan Maberry is a New York Times bestselling author, five-time Bram Stoker Award winner, and comic book writer. He writes in multiple genres including suspense, thriller, horror, science fiction, fantasy, and adventure; and he writes for adults, teens, and middle grade. His works include the Joe Ledger thrillers, Glimpse, the Rot & Ruin series, the Dead of Night series, The Wolfman, The X-Files Origins: Devil’s Advocate, Mars One, and many others. Several of his works are in development for film and TV, including V Wars, which is a Netflix original series. He is the editor of high-profile anthologies including the X-Files books, Aliens: Bug Hunt, Out of Tune, Hardboiled Horror, Baker Street Irregulars, Nights of the Living Dead, and others. He lives in Del Mar, California. Visit him at JonathanMaberry.com and on Twitter (@JonathanMaberry) and Facebook.

Read an Excerpt

Fire & Ash
1

BENNY IMURA SAT IN THE dark and spoke with monsters.

It was like that every day.

It had become the pattern of his life. Shadows and blood. And monsters.

Everywhere.

Monsters.

Editorial Reviews

"[Readers] will be taken by this finale, which manipulates the large cast with wonderful clarity."

Booklist

"[Readers] will be taken by this finale, which manipulates the large cast with wonderful clarity."

Booklist

Maberry delivers a fitting conclusion to his popular Rot & Ruin series. Filling in back story throughout, this fourth novel picks up three weeks after Benny and his teen allies discovered the elusive jet that guided much of the series' story arc. Now bunkered in a monastery that also serves as a government laboratory, they await the fate of their friend Chong, who was bitten by a zombie at the end of the third novel. As the teens search for a missing government researcher who may just hold the antidote to the zombie plague, religious zealot and psychopath Saint John continues his genocidal holy war, using an army of living dead. The focus of this novel is less on gory battles (though there are still plenty to keep fans entertained) and more on successfully tying together the characters and storylines from the series. The suspense comes instead from the teens' race to find a cure for Chong, save their hometown from zombie attacks and ultimately regain control in their part of the new American Nation. Benny's conscious realization that he has crossed over from boy to a man with a future ahead of him and that his generation must fix the problems of the previous one will particularly strike a chord with adolescent readers. In the end, this gripping zombie saga is really about Hope & Love. (Science fiction. 13 & up)

Kirkus Reviews