Odd Men Out by Matt Betts

I've been working on reading this book since April.  It has steampunk, zombies, and alternate history.  Sounds pretty exciting, right?!  I think so too!  The problem is, I'd pick it up and read the first page, and immediately put it right back down.  Then about a month later, I'd pick it up again and wonder why I hadn't read it yet.  Then I'd read the first page and remember.  The type is surprisingly small, making it difficult to read, even if I take off my eye assistance devices.  Also, it has a reeeeaaaally slow first page.  Think snail consuming a turkey leg.

So today, I gobbled up as much determination as I could and went for it.  Once I made it to the third page, things really started to speed up!  That isn't entirely accurate.  My interest in the book sped up.  We were introduced to the world we're in and we really started to get a feel for who the characters are.

I'm not really into the whole 'war' thing, but it didn't really detract for me in this book.  There aren't really that many politics going on and the scenes are written well enough.  Instead of feeling like I'm mid-battlefield, I feel more like I'm in the middle of a good action movie.

The writing is planned well, and it has a great flow.  I just wish that the pace would have kept up with the story line.  Throughout the entire book, we have this methodical way of detailing everything.  There's absolutely nothing wrong with that and I know some people prefer it.  For me, I would have really enjoyed if the author seemed to have more passion infused in his writing at some of the crucial points.

This is Betts' first novel, but supposedly there will be more coming to follow this one.  Having read the first one, I'm actually interested in jumping in to a sequel.  Now that I'm familiar with the storytelling, characters and world, I'm pretty anxious to see what happens next.