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The Tilian Virus (The Pandemic Sequence) (2013)

by Tom Calen(Favorite Author)

3.7 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1618680900 (ISBN13: 9781618680907)

languge

English

genre

Horror

publisher

Permuted Press

series

The Pandemic Sequence

review 1: As you begin reading The Tilian Virus you assume that you’re following the main character, Mike Allard, as he goes through the motions of daily life right before the outbreak that brings society to its knees. Immediately you’ll find yourself corrected as Chapter 2 thrusts you into the post outbreak world and you find Allard at the head of a band of survivors who have sought refuge in the Appalachian Mountains. The stark contrast between the first few chapters of the book are somewhat jarring as you don’t really expect to have side by side storytelling in this way, but eventually the story in itself will suck you in and you’ll race to the end of each chapter in order to satisfy your desire to know what happens next.Mike Allard, our lovable main character, is a hig... moreh school History teacher who has not only a love for education, but for his students and their thirst for knowledge. When a mysterious flu-like virus begins spreading through Mike’s small town (and eventually the whole world) he is suddenly in the middle of a deadly outbreak that turns the frail and sick into strong and deadly cannibals. Holed up in the high school’s faculty room at the start of this doomsday virus, Mike is challenged with keeping his students out of harm’s way and finding them a place of safety. On the flipside of this story, we are 6 years into the future and are experiencing not only an entirely different world, but an entirely different Mike Allard. Allard, now a hardened survivor, is the leader of a camp of refugees in a post outbreak world. In the past, he was tasked with keeping a handful of teenagers safe while now he has close to 100 people in his care.I knew immediately that I was going to love this novel. The author, Tom Calen, does an excellent job of gradually introducing the reader to his apocalypse scenario and then, with a cautious style of writing, takes the reader on an adventure into the future of “the end.” With the switching back and forth between past and future, it can be a little confusing for the reader at first, but I found that after pressing on and discovering the fantastic storytelling, I barely noticed the changes. I personally enjoy seeing stories through different perspectives, whether that be character, location, or in this case, time. The comparison and contrast between character emotions and skillsets of the early days and post-outbreak days is remarkable.While the “deadly outbreak” scenario is not original in itself, the type of virus, called “Inclusion Body Disease” is something new for zombie lovers and horror readers. Inclusion Body Disease attacks the central nervous system of boa constrictors and in the novel, has somehow developed into a strain that now infects human beings. The “Tils” as the infected are named in the book, have a tell-tale sign of infection in which their heads dramatically cock to the side, which is a real side effect of the virus in snakes. The plus side of this airborne virus? Unless you’re bitten by an infected, you’re safe if your blood type is anything other than Type O Positive or Negative. (I would be screwed!) I thought the small things like the “dramatically cocked head” being a real life side effect was very interesting and I really appreciated how Calen wove this into his story.The only improvement The Tilian Virus needed is that I felt the majority of the secondary characters were “redshirts.” Allard’s students were very hard to tell apart, even with different names. Often times I had to read back and figure out which ones were which and it was hard to discern who was speaking to whom. There was a lack of emotional attachment to any of the other characters aside from Allard. The strong protagonist makes up for this, but the story could have been much deeper with a stronger supporting cast. Another round of edits wouldn’t have hurt the book but I wasn’t distracted by the errors enough to be taken out of the story.The end of The Tilian Virus is a twisting conclusion that left me excited for the second book. I had to stop myself from beginning Calen’s follow up to The Tilian Virus before I wrote this first review. The Tilian Virus and Tom Calen both deserve the 5 Star Rating I have given this book and it is a welcome addition to my horror novel collection.
review 2: I had difficulty with it switching from past to present and telling about people being dead before having them die. I was thinking I'd missed something, then the next chapter explained. There was a lot of action and I liked the perspective of a teacher just starting out in life before the virus. The ending was gripping. I would give it a four but I had to keep reminding myself what time period it was. less

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