The Living Dead

Why do I continue reading this T. H. Lain series?! Probably because I've bought them and they're short enough to flip through quickly. Plus the fact that it's much easier to write negative reviews.

As a fantasy story, it was derivative and illogical - just your regular zombie infestation with a rather pathetic archvillain thrown in, even has the mandatory family-with-a-child in a last-stand situation. Character motives were weak. Protagonist choice is weird - they keep dying and almost dying - if I'm a powerful mage with a powerful spouse, and I have a thousand years to plan, I'd pick more promising candidates and plan more contingencies and backup plans.

As a story, the plot is weak and felt like it's just dragging along, with character thoughts and reflections feeling more like filler trying to pad it longer. The book is poorly researched and the story poorly executed, with improbable things like a zombie/ghoul/wight (the book itself wasn't sure) barging into a tavern in the middle of a pretty large town holding a dismembered halfling foot (how it got dismembered was never explained, just to be dramatic, which failed of course). Undead regularly attacking settlements with no reaction at all from the citizenry, the archvillain being capable of zipping here and there, molten metal flying an incredibly long distance in a tunnel, absolutely no food and water concerns, weird volcano behaviour... that's more than enough typing.

As a D&D story... it was pretty horrible. A lot of D&D rules were disregarded and ignored. Death and resurrection, controlling undead, turning undead, a wight that feels more like an underpowered lich, possession of undead bodies, bardic abilities, wizard familiars, spellcasting, deities and avatars, ... badly integrated as plot elements for some, never bothered to reconcile with the rules at all for others.

So why do I keep reading this series even though I know it's bad? I guess it's kinda gives me a different form of entertainment - the eye-rolling kind. It's like watching a children's cartoon - you're not supposed to take it seriously. Even the book tries to inject some jokes about itself (or at least, I hoped that the book wasn't trying to take itself seriously).