Julie Rayzor ~ Romance, Adventure, Zombies

Need a Young Adult Zombie Thriller Novel starring a teenage girl with lots of Zombies Zombies Zombies?
Read Julie Rayzor ~ Romance, Adventure, Zombies by Richard Howes

My books are available in electronic formats as well as paperback.
Kindle and Nook:
www.tinyurl.com/TheKillersCoop and www.tinyurl.com/KillersCoopNook
www.tinyurl.com/JulieRNook and www.tinyurl.com/JulieRayzor
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and
https://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=Julie+Rayzor

Excerpt from the Julie Rayzor Zombie War Series: RayzorWire:


Taking my binoculars from my belt I scanned the Zomb force before us. A thousand yards away zombie riders and Scabs alike sat tall as they rode bareback, their legs extended and feet turned so that heels and calves gripped their horse’s flanks. It was a poor way to ride horses, amateurish, but amateurs with weapons were still a fearful sight at any distance.
Torches burned. Thick black smoke filled the air around them. The riders waved the torches, carrying them high as though they were the guidons of a medieval regiment signaling the coming of war and confirming Shanha’s prophecy of doom. The force before us appeared far more deadly than her simple prediction of change that the white buck symbolized.
War-axes, clubs, bows and spears topped with feathers, animal tails and scalps rose in the air as the enemy let out a guttural howl. The roar became that of a thousand lions rolling across the fields.
Their faces were swathed with the garish paint of native tribes of America, Africa, or the ancient Picts of Scotland. The clothing, except where riders were bare-chested or completely naked, was of torn rags, or as their brain-damaged minds allowed, fashioned as breastplates made of bone, turtle shells, leather or steel.
The zombies half-seeing, half-cured vision and mutated brains  trained to follow Leaders’ commands gave them their direction - to carry out their orders of killing the weak and infecting the strong. Many Zomb no longer needed Leaders to guide them with every step. Many, I knew from my own abilities, could control their horses with thoughts alone. The truly blind masses, their horses unbridled and unguided, would follow the herd of horses off a cliff if so led, but it was no cliff they faced. It was us - a simple and poorly fortified settlement of people.
“What do you see, Julie?” Jill asked as she tugged on my arm. I tried to describe the scene but my words stuck in my throat as the fear of five hundred zombies and Scabs about to attack us froze my body.
The Scavengers that I worried would join the Zomb had done so. They were there, among our enemy, allied to their own demise for the Zomb Leaders had no friends and simply used zombies and Scabs as they willed. There were no vehicles, no tanks or trucks. Several Scabs hoisted firearms and all were mounted upon horses but at that distance I was unable to distinguish zombies from Leaders from Scabs.
Some horses and several riders wore great antlers of elk, and deer, or the horns of buffalo upon their heads appearing as demon-spawned Vikings. Others carried bows and were garbed in cloaks of feather or fur, appearing to my eyes as Russian cavalry or Mongolian warriors.
Their horses were painted, many like Native American horses decorated for war. The enemy clad their horses in red leather covered with  blackened steel plates resembling black knights of the dark ages. Bracelets of sharpened spikes were wrapped around their fetlocks to gash open those who might be trampled under hoof. Tails were braided and swathed in long ribbons which glinted fiercely in the morning sun.
“Razor blades,” I said as I lowered the binoculars and looked at Jill. The horror on her face was surely a reflection of my own.
Looking again at the enemy I spotted the Leaders gathering behind the ranks on a low rise, sitting upon their own horses. The sun slowly rose over the flat horizon, blinding us for it was at the backs of our enemy. Clouds higher in the sky cast a crimson glow over the brown hay fields.
Zombie-horses pranced in anticipation and excitement emanated from each bareback rider. Riders held no reins for the animals moved gracefully to the thoughts of each zombie and Leader. They moved to warm their blood in the cool morning air and prepare for battle.
The wind came from the east nearly the opposite direction of the normal winter winds and on the foul air rode the smell of death. This was no zombie horde or swarm. The enemy was an army, a battalion of death formed of demons.





Chapter Readings from my zombie book: Now on youtube as well as Vimeo. If you like Julie Rayzor and want to hear the zombie war novel because you don't have time to read it yourself, now you can...
chapter 1 : http://tinyurl.com/9tf6thw

Enjoy!

Review for Julie Rayzor:
Book Review of JULIE RAYZOR, Romance, Adventure, Zombies by author Richard Howes   Review written by John Hill - ScreenWriter of Quigley down Under, LA Law, Quantum Leap, and over 25 Screen-Plays. UNLV Writing Instructor
    Richard Howes's new novel, JULIE RAYZOR, Romance, Adventure, Zombies boldly hurls us into a post-apocalyptic world of human civilian soldiers against two different types of zombies.    One type is the classic stumbling but lethal, mindless zombie, wanting only to kill and eat any humans, and traveling in packs that usually comes to mind.   But the other type is Howes's own creative new take on zombies:  that some zombies are intelligent and called Leaders.   (Now there’s a scary thought for his heroine, Julie Rayzor, and the readers of this fresh, fast-paced action novel:  a zombie who can think and plan and lead!)    And Leaders are often one step ahead of the struggling, armed humans, who can never know when they are playing catch-up with intelligent focused zombies, as well as the biting, human-eating zombies.
    Julie Rayzor is a self-taught warrior, in an Army fort in Tulsa, Oklahoma, an oasis of almost-safety, in a world overrun by zombies.   She is secretly in love with Corporal Jim Barnett (who is out on a mission and missing at the start of the story, which worries her very much) and Julie is the one who discovers that clever Leader-zombies found out how to infect dogs and they attack the base immediately at the start of this crisply-written, dialogue-rich novel.    Having to kill man’s best friend due to the zombie virus infection immediately sets the tone.    Julie Rayzor is a woman for her times;  she has a broken leg, not yet healed, but volunteers to go outside the walls on the next mission, but her leg in a cast stops all this.  So right in front of the captain, she smashes the cast off her own leg, and pronounces herself ready for duty.   So she leads a group out to a radio station, into enemy territory (along with best friend Jill, and a few macho soldiers who don’t like taking orders from a woman).   They fight their way up the tall office building stairs, leaving Claymore mines behind for the zombies that come after them, and the explosions below become almost routine.   Things go from bad to worse in the ensuing battles, and the speed of Howes's narration is almost as fast as this summary.    Julie’s real hope is to find and save her secret lover, Jim Barnett, who is out there somewhere.
    Richard Howes's writing style is very impressive.   He is writing in a style usually found in male adventure, yet his heroine is a woman in love, but he also successfully pulls off the balancing act between realistic feminine energy and highly effective tough combat energy as well.   There’s a great deal of dialogue in this entertaining novel, and it’s the Elmore Leonard type:   short, character-revealing, and advancing the story conflict.   And conflict is everywhere.    This is a war novel in many ways, a war between humans working together in a combat unit, with zombies everywhere, so it’s a sci-fi zombie adventure, and also a love story.
    The impressive thing about Richard Howes's JULIE RAYZOR, Romance, Adventure, Zombies is that the author successfully blends all three genres:   sci-fi, a love story, and a war story, and it works on all three levels.   Additionally, the fast-paced (and violent - ever try to kill a zombie?) action works very well for male readers, yet the choice of gender of the protagonist and her secret love story quest will make this novel a successful read for women as well.
    Reviewers of books fall into two categories:  those who blithely give away important plot points and reveal secrets that should instead unfold in the contexts of reading the story, and those who review the book without giving anything away, yet providing some facts about what the reader can expect.   I personally am in that second group;  I will not give away any reveals or secrets or solutions to plot problems within this novel.   (I won’t tell you about the train scenes, wow, you’ll have to discover thoset yourself.)  I will say that she finds Jim, so the love story kicks in like an afterburner, but it all happens in a fast-paced, frightening world of a small Army patrol taking casualties, constantly having to run-shoot-hide, and improvise, since they are lost behind the scariest of all possible enemy lines.   They are fighting and trying to kill the already dead - and they are running out of ammo.
    Imagine the movie PLATOON or whatever the best military-platoon-o-patrol book or movie you ever read (or experienced yourself) and transplant that constant tension, surprises, and body count into a world of zombies, and you’ll have some idea of what kind of novel JULIE RAYZOR, Romance, Adventure, Zombies turns out to be.   It really is a great blend of romance, adventure, and zombies, (but not for the squeamish - there’s blood and body parts aplenty!)    Julie Rayzor on military patrol in this scary world is a total page-turner, one with fast-paced, realistic dialogue as well -- and just when you start to relax along with these warriors, zombies come around the corner and through the windows!
    And if that isn’t enough excitement for you... This is a novel that should be a movie and the first of a series of novels too.  When you finish reading it, you want more, and that is one big characteristic of a really fun novel to enjoy.

Also...
I'm writing a sequel - It is tentatively called Rayzor-Wire. Here's a little excerpt that I wrote just tonight on my blog at RichardHowesBooks. If you like this you might like the first book "Julie Rayzor ~ Romance, Adventure, Zombies".


SEO: Zombie War, Zombie Apocalypse, Zombie Attack, Zombie Survival, Zombie Plan.

2 comments:

  1. Any ideas when we might see the eagerly awaited sequel? Absolutely loved Julie Rayzor.

    Might I also suggest that you set up your author page at Amazon and be sure to include links to your website and possibly an rss feed from your blog? Take advantage of a free promotion venue.

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    1. Thank you. As you probably know the sequel came out last summer and another one is due later this year. 2014. I've got a mystery novel called Sullyland coming out soon. Sorry for long delay. I don't get notified when ppl comment. Not sure why that is.

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