A novel series by D.L. Snell and Thom Brannan chronicling the end of the world in a Zombie Apocalypse but with the twist there is a small hope for mankind, a group of genetically-engineered werewolves on a small island. It's published by Permuted Press.
WEREWOLVES
Dr. Crispin has engineered the saviors of mankind: Pavlov’s Dogs, a team of soldiers capable of transforming into fearsome beasts. But when Crispin and his team welcome a new talented neurotechnician to the island, Dr. Crispin quickly realizes his masterwork has fallen into the hands of a man he does not trust.
ZOMBIES
Back on the mainland, Ken Bishop and his best friend Jorge get caught in a traffic jam on their way home from work. There’s a wreck up ahead. And something worse. The first sign of a major outbreak—and Ken and Jorge are stuck in the gridlock. Not only do they need to escape, but they also need to save as many people as possible on the way.
ARMAGEDDON
Now Dr. Crispin and his team must make a terrible decision. Should they send the Dogs out into the zombie apocalypse to rescue survivors? Or should they listen to the new neurotechnician, who would have them hoard their resources and post the Dogs as island guards?
The book series, so far, consists of:
- Pavlov's Dogs
- The Omega Dog
And a series of short-stories released on Amazon.com.
- Dog Years 1: Moreau Labs
- Dog Years 2: Pedigree
- Dog Years 3: Return to Moreau Labs
Tropes present in this series:
- Action Girl: Shayna is one of the actioniest.
- After the End: The first book is before the end. The second book is when its in full-swing.
- All Myths Are True: Played with. The zombies seem to come out of nowhere while the werewolves were genetically engineered. We later discover they came from Doctor Crispin's research in another lab. No explanation has yet been given for the crazy stuff in Mexico.
- Ambiguous Situation: Was it the real Shayna or not?
- Anyone Can Die: To the point Ken, Jorges, and his family are the only survivors by the end of book 2.
- Ascended Extra: Summer Chan in the second book. Not that it does her much good.
- Badass Abnormal: Kaiser.
- Badass Normal: Ken Bishop. Jorge. Shayna. Ken Bishop's primary gift seems to be having seen zombie movies in a zombie apocalypse.
- Bathos: Ken and Jorges are remarkably light-hearted through the first part of the Zombie Apocalypse. It becomes more and more an obvious coping mechanism across Book 2.
- BFS: Doctor Crispin keeps one on his wall.
- Bittersweet Ending: Both books. The second verges on a Downer Ending.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: The world runs on this. Ken Bishop, however, desperately wants it to run on Black and White.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: One interpretation of Kaiser. He makes an excellent argument to operating on the laws of animals rather than man. At least, if you ignore the dog fights he put countless women through.
- Break the Cutie: A rare male example happens to Ken Bishop in the second novel.
- The Cartel:
- Adolfo runs one in The Omega Dog.
- Played with as The Cartel is one of the last remaining surviving institutions once the Zombie Apocalypse is in full swing.
- Cerebus Syndrome: Deliberately invoked at the start of the novel as things seem semi-under control.
- Cool Versus Awesome: More or less the entire book series reason for existing.
- Dropped a Bridge on Her:
- Shayna... seemingly.
- The whole cast is at risk.
- For Science!: Doctor Crispin's motivation.
- Fourth-Date Marriage: Ken Bishop tries this with Shayna. Subverted in that her reaction is confusion and anger.
- Genre Savvy: How Ken Bishop and Jorge survive as long as they do.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: What things start to turn into as they get more serious and less like the urban fantasy buddy comedy they were treating it as.
- The first book is especially noteworthy as it's one of the few Zombie Apocalypse stories which assume zombie fiction exists. As a result, its heroes avoid a lot of the common pratfalls associated with the genre. This is because zombies were created, in part, as a terror weapon.
- The Hero: Ken Bishop desperately wants to be this. Almost everyone else is better qualified on his team but he's the only one who seems idealistic enough to try and make the world better.
- Kick the Dog: Kaiser's "games" in the first book. The heroes enslaving Kaiser in the second book.
- The latter qualifies as I Did What I Had to Do from their perspective as the world is overrun by zombies and they didn't have much in the way of resources.
- Mad Scientist: Doctor Crispin manages to revive a Dead Horse Trope quite well. His research into creating werewolf supersoldiers is treated as completely sane and rational in-story. So much so, the heroes are convinced. It's not until the short stories we find out he's responsible for the zombie outbreak too.
- Meaningful Name: The title of the book and the mind-control experiments on the werewolves. Likewise, all of the werewolves ranks in their pack.
- Mind-Control Device: The Dogs were supposed to have this built into them. It didn't take. The second book has Kaiser under their control with one. It's a nightmarish experience.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: The entirety of Doctor Crispin's research team.
- My God, What Have I Done?: The heroes go through this when they end up fighting a war against The Cartel when they're some of the last surviving humans.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Genetically engineered werewolf commandos.
- Only Sane Man: Adolfo is a drug lord but reacts to the End of the World by trying to build an enclave of survivors with looted military tech.
- Redemption Equals Death: Theta Kaiser. However none of the heroes think he's redeemed.
- The Savage South: The first book took place on a relatively contained island. The second book is where they head down to Mexico and things gets weird.
- Notable, also, that Mexico has some of the few OnlySaneMen in the series.
- Surprisingly Sudden Death: Summer Chan dies of an infection as opposed to anything related to zombies or werewolves.
- The Virus: Of the George Romero, "bite makes you into a zombie" variety. Werewolves are, partially, immune.
- Zombie Apocalypse: A pretty classic one.
