#BookReview The Dead City by @dylanjmorgan #TuesdayBookBlog #newrelease #RBRT

Author: Dylan J Morgan

Category: Post-apocalyptic Thriller

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

I don’t know where to start! When I read The Dead Lands, which is the prequel to this book, I didn’t think I could ever feel quite so involved in a novel again, but I was wrong. Dylan Morgan has a unique talent for dropping you into the thick of the action as if you are a living, breathing member of the Erebus Superior Armed Forces. I had to keep coming up for breath after certain scenes just to check I was still in my living room!

The Dead City can easily be read as a stand-alone novel, without having read The Dead Lands. There are a couple of references made to the characters in the other book but nothing that will confuse a reader who finds this title first.

As with all of the books I’ve read by this author, he crafts characters that stay with you long after you’ve finished reading. Unfortunately, Dylan Morgan also has a knack for ripping your heart out of your chest by killing off your favourite characters in a blaze of gunfire. I think this is what I love most about Dylan’s books – they are incredibly realistic. Unfortunately, in war, the good guys don’t always make it home and this is what gives The Dead City such a powerfully emotional pull. I cried twice reading this book!! I’d love to talk more about the wonderful mix of characters but I fear that I may inadvertently leave a spoiler or two.

The storyline follows the team of soldiers as they arrive on the planet of Hemera with instructions to extract the city’s huge wealth. You are dropped into the action almost immediately and the scenes that unfold are both gripping and terrifying. Greed, betrayal, and horror meets the soldiers and you are swept along this tidal wave of emotion with them.

I became a firm fan of Dylan Morgan several books back but The Dead City has cemented my allegiance as a lifelong groupie. I can’t recommend this title highly enough.

I read The Dead City as a member of Rosie Amber’s Book Review Team and received an ARC copy from the author in response for an honest review.

Read my interview with Dylan Morgan HERE.

The Dead City

Nuclear war devastated the planet of Hemera and shattered its main city, Magna. A century later, its sister planet, Erebus, despatched a team of soldiers to the city to rescue Hemera’s president and restore that world to its former glory. What the reconnaissance team found however was a violent mutated population—all they discovered there was death. Now, four weeks after the final mayday call from her decimated soldiers, Erebus has sent a larger force to Hemera’s surface. Colonel Paden is coming with them, but his desires go way beyond the rescue of the surviving recon team. A mountain of jewels and gold is rumoured to lie buried beneath the presidential palace, and Paden is here to claim the wealth he believes is due to him.

Dropped into an unforgiving world, Ryan and the other soldiers of Erebus Superior Armed Forces soon discover everything is not as they thought. Magna’s population is more deadly than they could ever have imagined, their Colonel more corrupt than they’d ever known. Seeking refuge in the president’s underground bunker, the combatants are forced to sacrifice everything just to stay alive.

Bandit clans control Hemera’s dead lands and they’ve surrounded Magna in an effort to claim the fortune that belongs to their planet. Mutants control the city streets, but all they want is the taste of human flesh. Trapped inside the dead city, Ryan must fight against a mutated population—against the greed, betrayal, and hatred of those who stand at his side—in a desperate battle for survival.