Bigfoot War 3: Food Chain (2011)
Eric S. Brown is back with his hugely popular and successful BIGFOOT WAR series. In the first book of the series, BIGFOOT WAR (my review here), the Bigfoot clan exposed themselves and waged a merciless war against humanity. Brown’s creatures are intelligent, extremely strong, extremely violent, and have such a dense muscle mass that most bullets just harmlessly bounce off them. Not too many people in the first novel made it to the final pages. The BIGFOOT WAR 2: DEAD IN THE WOODS (my review here), Brown takes those same creatures waging the same violent war against humanity but amps up the energy-level and intensity. How, you may ask? By adding in the zombie apocalypse!! The creatures have some sort of virus in their blood and saliva and naturally occurring under their fingernails that any human they bite, scratch, or maul ends up part of the undead. He took something awesome (book 1) and made it absolutely, freaking awesome. It’s like going to a strip club and finding out that all the girls are sexy, free of disease and nymphomaniacs … and then finding out the bouncers are all midgets!! Something great just became awesome.
So we know what Eric S. Brown is capable of. Now the question remains. Can Brown make lightning strike three times with BIGFOOT WAR 3: FOOD CHAIN?
Part three takes place fifteen years after the end of part two. The war is still raging on, but it seems as though the Bigfoot clans have gotten the best of humanity. There are pockets of human survivors scattered across America, but their numbers seem to dwindle by the week. Add to this the fact that the zombie outbreak whittled down humanity’s numbers even more and it’s not looking good for human beings. But humanity is more resilient than you think. In secret, underground bunkers, a large group of survivors have been hard at work with the technology they still have available to them to create a defense against the creatures. But time’s running out because the Bigfoot clans are planning on staging one final battle to wipe humans off the face of the earth.
We follow around a few main characters throughout the book. There’s Wally, a Hunter who’s looking for his lost love; Bree, who just might be humanity’s greatest hope for survival; Greg and Anna, a married couple who’s been surviving on their own in the wilderness; and General Thane, the psychotic leader of a group of survivors. But if you’re at all familiar with Eric S. Brown’s novels, you know that just because someone is a ‘main character’ doesn’t mean shit. No one in a Brown novel is safe, and anyone could die at any time.
author Eric S. Brown
Like in his other novels in the BIGFOOT WAR series, Brown writes some really fun characters who all have a level of depth to them and who we get close to before Brown has them brutally butchered (don’t worry; no spoilers here). Wally, perhaps, is the most interesting of the characters. Wally is a Hunter. A Hunter is a specially trained and uniquely skilled warrior who lives for two purposes: To kill as many Bigfoot creatures as possible and to protect humanity. Wally has killed many creatures with nothing more than a katana blade and his lightning-fast reflexes. The only code a Hunter lives by is that they never abandon the group of survivors they’re supposed to be protecting. Wally is that last of the Hunters and has fought in many battles against the creatures. With the looming end of humanity right around the corner, Wally decides to leave his post and go look for the love of his life, Bree. This pisses off General Thane, who is as violent and psychotic as the creatures, and he sets up a search party to go find Wally and kill him.
If you notice there’s a lack of zombies in the above description, well then you’re paying attention. Brown seems to abandon the zombie element in part three. He has a few characters mention some large past battles with the living dead, but the zombie threat at this current time is non-existent. It seems either the zombies have all been killed off or have wasted away. It also sounds as though we missed a lot of really great battles and encounters with both the creatures and the undead over the last fifteen years. Some huge Bigfoot vs the Living Dead vs Humanity battles were fought, but we really don’t get any details. Plus it would’ve been great to see groups of the Hunters in action. Reading BIGFOOT WAR 3: FOOD CHAIN, reminded me of STAR WARS IV: A NEW HOPE. We get to hear about the Jedi and what mighty warriors they were, but we never get to see them in action, en mass. I’m hoping that in the next BIGFOOT WAR novel, Brown takes us back to some of these battles and fills in the gaps of what went down over the last fifteen years.
My only other complaint here is that BIGFOOT WAR 3: FOOD CHAIN felt a little rushed. The paperback version isn’t even 100 pages. Granted that there’s more violence and death in these 94 pages than in most war movies, but Brown’s regular style felt a little rushed here. There were a lot of convenient plot points that pushed the story along pretty quickly. But don’t get me wrong; BIGFOOT WAR 3: FOOD CHAIN is a hugely entertaining novel and Brown continues to amaze me at how much violence he can pack into one novel!!
I’m definitely recommending BIGFOOT WAR 3: FOOD CHAIN; it’s a fun, fast-paced read that could’ve only been better with more zombie violence and more details about the fifteen year gap from BIGFOOT WAR 2. And if you’re wondering, yes … Brown does add in another ingredient into the mix here. In Book one we had Bigfoot creatures. In Book two we had the creatures and zombies. In Book three we get creatures and … robots (don’t worry; I didn’t spoil anything for ya. You find out about the robots in the prologue). So I’m guessing we’re gonna get an alien invasion in Book four? Or maybe even werewolves!?!! I’m good with either one. Definitely check this one out; it’s a really fun read.
My Summary:
Author: Eric S. Brown
Plot: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Gore: 7.5 out of 10 skulls
Zombie Mayhem: .5 out of 5 brains
Reviewed by Scott Shoyer
