Blood Country

Janz’s sequel to 2020’s The Raven isn’t his best work; action-packed stock situations, rather than innovative chills, dominate this familiar account of attempted survival in a postapocalyptic world. In the previous volume, rogue scientists “unleashed a plague that obliterated nearly all of humankind, the earth now a horrorscape of monsters and bloodshed and fear.” Now, “nearly every person on earth had either been transformed into a monster or been killed by one.” Dez McClane, whose father, son, and brother have all already succumbed to the DNA-altering disease, hopes to rescue others dear to him before it’s too late. After McClane’s new love’s daughter, Cassidy, and his ex-girlfriend, Susan, are abducted by the vampires who have taken over a large portion of the U.S. (now known as Blood Country), McClane vows to rescue them. This mission consists of largely predictable perils and entirely unsurprising twists. The straightforward prose and heaps of explicit gore don’t do much to enhance the clichéd plot. Walking Dead fans seeking more of the same will be pleased; others, not so much. (Oct.)