January 22, 2021
Shattered World Post Five
Week 3, Day 5 – Shattered World
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction
Release Date: October 1, 2014
Cover Design: Jimmy Gibbs
Formats: ebook, audiobook, and paperback
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Universal
Audible
Goodreads
Stranded in the middle of the Mojave Desert, surrounded by zombies, Vivian and Axl’s group are sure they’re facing the end. The dead are closing in and the shelter they were promised is sealed tight, only they refuse to go down without a fight. Just when they think they’ve run out of time, the doors to the shelter are thrown open and they’re given refuge. Five years in underground condos with all the provisions there for the taking. It’s almost too good to be true. With the promise of security, Vivian hopes she’ll finally able to take a deep breath and deal with everything that’s happened.
RIP: Characters we lost in Shattered World
By this point, most readers know I have no problem killing off a character if I think it’s necessary. Sometimes the characters are minor and I do it more or less because I don’t see any real future for them, but other times it’s to move the plot along. Having said that, there weren’t any really significant deaths in this book, oddly enough, but I wanted to mention the big one from book one because it relates to Shattered World.
Emily.
Yup, I know. I’m awful. I’ve gotten a lot of crap from readers over this one and even had one person who joined the reader marathon a couple years ago get furious at me and refuse to keep reading because she’s a mom and she thought the whole thing was just awful. Yes, it is, but there was a point to it, which she didn’t understand no matter how much I tried to explain. That doesn’t mean I’m going to avoid the subject now, though.
You see, I never planned to kill Emily. I never planned to do anything with her, really. She was a catalyst. A reason Vivian started traveling the country rather than just sit in her apartment in Kentucky and wait for the virus to kill her. Emily led Vivian to Axl and Angus, and because they joined up, everything changed. If it hadn’t been for Emily, Angus might not have ever found out he was immune and he definitely wouldn’t have been in a position to get to Atlanta. Even though at the time I had no idea all those things were going to happen, I still needed a legitimate reason Vivian would travel during a pandemic, and this seemed like the logical choice.
I really, really struggled with killing her, believe it or not. I knew it might turn some people off and since this was the first book, I was well aware of the risks. But ultimately, Emily became an anchor. That might sound harsh, but it’s true. I write from first person POV and to keep the story moving, I needed Vivian to be part of the action. Sending my characters to an underground bunker in the middle of nowhere meant limited action if she stayed there, and no reader in their right might would think it was okay for her to go out on supply runs if she had a child that was her responsibility. It just wouldn’t make sense. So, Emily had to die. Was it sad? Of course! I have four kids. But life is sad sometimes and this is the zombie apocalypse.
Now for the two deaths in Shattered World.
James –
He worked for the company that built the condos and came in with the helicopter pilot to set things up, but got stranded. He lives just long enough to show everyone – but mostly Al – how to run the control room, then is bitten while unloading the truck from Sam’s Club. When Nathan and his group want to kill James immediately, Hadley argues that a person could be immune to a bite, and even though this doesn’t happen and her hope is dashed, his death planted that seed of possibility for the reader. We all know what happens next.
Dr. Victor Gates –
We barely see him and when we do he’s a bit of a mess. Mourning his wife, who we later learn is tied up in his room, he’s one of those people who is just too damaged to make it in this world, and he looks at the trip to the hospital as a suicide mission. Once again, his death was a catalyst to move the plot forward, because I needed the group in the hospital (Angus, Axl, Vivian, and Hadley) to get split up, giving the guys from the Monte Carlo the perfect opportunity.
And there you have it! Two small characters who seemed to add very little to the plot on first glance, but when you break down the story, you realize they actually did a lot more by dying than they did when they were alive. 🙂
