Official Review: Omega Plague: Collapse by P.R. Principe

[katiesquilts]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Omega Plague: Collapse" by P.R. Principe.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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The following is an official review for P.R. Principe’s novel Omega Plague: Collapse.

Bruno Ricasso lives and works as a member of the Carabinieri on the beautiful Italian island of Capri. It’s a great place to live, away from the mainland without lacking any resources. In fact, it’s his location that keeps Bruno safe when reports come out detailing a strange new infectious disease, which spreads through the continents and even some of Italy’s larger cities. When the disease finally makes its way to Capri, Bruno is left with only his knowledge and survival skills left to protect himself from the “Plague.”

P.R. Principe has served on active duty as a commissioned U.S. Air Force officer, and this is evident even without reading his biography. The amount of detail in this novel is astounding, almost overwhelming at times. Also, despite being a U.S. Air Force officer, Principe demonstrated his extensive knowledge of the Italian government, Italian territories, and even Italian mindsets throughout the novel. As someone who has very little knowledge of Italy, much less been there personally, sometimes it was hard for me to imagine the buildings, street, and directions that Principe detailed so fervently.

What helped me to imagine Principe’s world was the realism with which he wrote every single scene. I tend to stay away from action novels because I’m very particular about writers using realism especially as it pertains to crimes, death, or death-defying acts. However, Omega Plague did a great job of staying in touch with reality, from the everyday action all the way to the virus itself. One of the things I liked most about the novel was that each chapter starts with the date, so you can track the virus as it spreads and as the characters receive news updates. It was also fascinating to see how people responded to the virus – just as in real life, there were hypochondriacs as well as people who were certain the virus would not reach them until it had officially started infecting people in their own city. Those little touches made the novel so much more entertaining and believable, and they also helped to heighten the drama for the reader.

One thing I had mixed feelings on was the use of Italian. I don’t want to say over-use, because it wasn’t as if there was Italian on each page, and words such as Carabinieri are properly explained and easy to remember the more you see them. However, there were lines of dialogue that I’m assuming were just swears or off-hand comments, because while they fit into the dialogue well enough there were only a few instances of them being translated. For someone who actually knows Italian it might be a treat for them to come across those little sentences, but as I said before, I know almost nothing about Italy or the Italian language, so I was a little overwhelmed by the casual mentions of place names, random Italian words, and on top of that entire Italian phrases.

Overall the book itself was enjoyable, but the main character was a little blasé. The minor characters all played their roles very well and felt like they could be real people, but Bruno’s emotions were hard to connect with. He was almost too analytical at some points, and although sometimes a character’s thoughts should be used to update the readers on what sort of situation the character is in, conveying the character’s thoughts all the time makes the character seem a little dull. Also, Bruno seemed to go from emotionless to rage with the flip of a switch. I would have liked to see more emotional struggle and build-up during confrontations with other characters. However, this problem is very typical of action and military-type novels, so people who usually read books from those genres might prefer a drier character.

Overall, I give this novel 3 out of 4 stars. It had a brilliant plot with great supporting characters and realistic scenarios. If the main character had been a bit more likeable I might have even given it 4 stars. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes disaster or military novels, but I should warn that it can get a bit gruesome at times.

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Omega Plague: Collapse
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Like katiesquilts's review? Post a comment saying so!

[gali]

Nice review! Too bad the author didn't add translations of the Italian words.

[katiesquilts]

Thanks! I think my brain just short-circuited when I saw them because I've never really delved into European languages..
If it's not English or Japanese I'm lost at sea!

[Tanaya]

Great review! I enjoyed your honest critiques. I'm not a stickler for realism, but I do value believability. I find it interesting that his realistic writing style but be a bit over the top.

[katiesquilts]

Great review! I enjoyed your honest critiques. I'm not a stickler for realism, but I do value believability. I find it interesting that his realistic writing style but be a bit over the top.

Thanks! All disaster novels have to be taken with a grain of salt, in my opinion, but Omega played out the timeline so well! I like authors who like to take their time destroying the Earth

[Rachaelamb1]

Not really my type of book, but well done on the review!

[katiesquilts]

Thanks!

[kimmyschemy06]

Very nice review! I'm not usually into disaster stories and such but I surely would appreciate the parts about Italy and Italians as I haven't been there. Congratulations to P.R. Principe for such a good book!