Review: End of Days

End of Days by Susan Ee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“These are the rules we live by. We are soldiers, Penryn. Legendary warriors willing to make legendary sacrifices. We do not ask. We do not choose.”

Actually I should just finish this. Actions-Scenes, fights are great. Rest of story so-so.
Also, while there are no Zombies per se, the Changed People and the Resurrected are bad enough.
The election who from the Angels gets to be leader gets even worse, not to spoil the story, but I could do without.
My main reason for reading this was that I somehow got the impression this gets made into a movie, ok, it is planned: News from November 2012. Now after reading this, I am not too sure I want to watch a movie (let alone 3) from this material. Liking some of Sam Raimi & Rob Tapert's works (Xena, Evil Dead etc.), I can only guess how they should film it: bloody and brutal as the book describes some scenes, or toned down to get a greater audience. Both is not possible, and with dark and gritty dystopia these books describe, a toned down version would not do it justice. Wether even I would enjoy such a movie, I am not too sure.

But then again, I am not finished yet with this book.

Hm, so now the final thoughts after finishing this - finally.
As said before, the fight scenes where very well done, vivid and bloody.
Romance was ok, though a bit obvious, and no-sex scenes, very tame in contrast to the brutal and blood fights, for that I would have expected more. That might be my upbringing, but I never understand why the Americans do not mind brutal and bloody, even sadistic scenes, but shy away from nudity and sex, as a movie this might have been rated FSK 18 (adults-only, NC-17 or even X in USA) in Germany, but probably PG-13 (comparable to our FSK 12) in USA.

The trilogy as a whole is a fast read, I just took my time, as I saw the structure and the end was as guessed. There could have been some twist, or more back-story, more philosophical pondering or or or, I am not sure, but writing this, 4 stars feel a little too much. More like 3.5 rounded up. As it was good entertainment, with short chapters I stand by the 4 stars but can understand when some might not feel these warranted.

No love triangle, no unnecessary swearing, no sex, also nothing risky, like LGBT, feels a bit tame in that way (almost PC). Not really sure whom I would recommend it to.

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