With the exceptional reviews and comparison’s to Steven King’s epic novel, The Stand, I had very high expectations when I embarked on this 760 page novel. That being said, I was drawn in and loved the first 1/3 of the book and then I just liked most of the rest of it. The plot gaps and side stories were distracting and resulted in a loss of interest in the overall story line. The book has all the elements for a good story, an army conspiracy, an apocalyptic flair, creepy vampire like creatures, some interesting characters and an endearing little girl who tugs at your heart right from the beginning. The author has great ideas and writes well enough to pull the reader in, but the delivery falls flat. If the author removed some of the side stories and filled in some of the plot gaps, I’d consider this mediocre book great.