"Ex-Isle" by Peter Clines - The Other Survivors

At the forefront of a new wave of science-fiction novels, Peter Clines decided to push the boundaries of the current prevalent tropes in a very simple way: combining genres.

More specifically, he decided to make a crossover of the zombie and superhero genres, which gave birth to the Ex-Heroes series. The original premise in it was very simple: what would it be like for low-powered heroes to try and rebuild society once the dead rise from below?

In Ex-Isle, Clines continues the storyline as our main heroes, Saint George, Zzzap, Corpse Girl and Cerberus find themselves in a precarious position with their food supplies destroyed.

Their safe haven, The Mount, can't hope to survive for very long, and so the first three mentioned above set out on a rather strange and dangerous journey: to seek out a man-made island that recently appeared, made from fused ships and tankers.

Needless to say, the citizens inhabiting the island are rather suspicious and don't take well to outsiders... especially since their leader is a half-insane superhero himself. Meanwhile, Cerberus stays behind, rebuilding her armour and struggling with her inner demons born from her incessant close brushes with death.

To be fair, it seemed that once our heroes had established themselves on The Mount, there wouldn't be all that much more to write about. After all, some sense of stability was achieved with the worse now being behind everyone. Thankfully, Clines did find a way to reinvigorate the story by expanding the world he's been relatively conservative with until now.

This time around we get to follow more characters around and see them develop, especially ones that were neglected in the previous books. Cerberus is especially one we get much-better acquainted with as her struggles with PTSD set the stage for very interesting thoughts and observations on death, trauma, self-reliance, purpose, survival and such.

The island itself does feel like a character to a certain extent, and Clines goes in great detail to explain its inner workings, dynamics and citizens. We get to know pretty much all there is to about that little society, which works both for and against the novel.

The island's ruler turns out to be really just another villain for the heroes to fight, rather than a long-lasting rival or crucial ally, which begs for the question as to whether or not we will ever return to this setting in future novels... in other words, there is a possibility to that all this meticulous world-building will go to waste.

On the whole, Clines doesn't really make any major changes to the story or the characters in this book, being content to more or less maintain the status quo while making only minor introductions into his world. There are hints here and there about the characters we may get to encounter in the future as well as the trials awaiting some of the protagonists.

All things considered, Ex-Isle is a welcome addition to the series that takes our heroes on another exciting and enthralling adventure, and even though there is a slight lack of major events, there are more than enough fascinating storylines and character developments to keep your attention.

While in the future this probably won't end up being a “must-read” in the series, it certainly offers a fair share of entertainment.

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Peter Clines Personal site Peter Clines is an American author who grew up in Cape Neddick, Maine where he found himself mainly inspired by cartoons, comics and Star Wars. Some of his better-known novels include 14, Ex-Heroes and Ex-Patriots.