Empire: A Zombie Novel

  As I walked through the bookstore, I saw a green paperback, with a seemingly human silhouette and the form of a scythe on the cover behind the words Empire: A Zombie Novel.  I was immediately intrigued.  Zombie books and Post-Apocalyptic settings have comprised some of my favorite reads.  I went in expecting zombies.  I came out delightfully surprised with a Zombie Apocalypse novel.  
  Who doesn't love a nice little zombie story, right?  In Empire: A Zombie Novel by David Dunwoody there is an aura, only found at certain places on Earth, which will reanimate dead tissue.  The government discovered this fact, and as I'm sure we would all expect, began experimenting, it is unclear however if they were seeking to make a weapon or an undead fighting force.  Whatever their intentions, of course, something went wrong.  The undead that were naturally created by these odd auras, despite them requiring to eat dead flesh to remain "alive," their bite would not create a new undead.  The undead created through government experiments were quite the opposite.  As with any good zombie novel, the undead got loose and ravaged the country for over a decade before this story actually place.  Now there are only small cells of the living operating independently.  Some are seeking to end the "war" the living have been in for so long against the dead and others are simply trying to survive.  In the midst of it all rides death atop his skeletal steed.  It is a story of survival, the human spirit, and self-discovery... not only for the living. 
  Drugs, violence, tragedy, love, plenty of action, an interesting twist on death itself, and plenty of things leaving you wondering what the hell is going on makes this quite an great read right up to the final page. Before reading, I could not have possibly pictured death in the way I now do.  Life as a whole also had a new light to it that may not have been shown to me otherwise.  I believe it is healthy to be accepting of death, of course not seeking it; but in certain scenarios, one just may be pleading for it.  In such a scenario would YOU be capable of obliging and ending the suffering?