Ex-Purgatory by Peter Clines

When he’s awake, George Bailey is just an ordinary man. Five days a week he coaxes his old Hyundai to life, curses the Los Angeles traffic, and clocks in at his job as a handyman at the local college.

But when he sleeps, George dreams of something more.

George dreams of flying. He dreams of fighting monsters. He dreams of a man made of pure lightning, an armored robot, a giant in an army uniform, a beautiful woman who moves like a ninja.

Then one day as he’s walking from one fix-it job to the next, a pale girl in a wheelchair tells George of another world, one in which civilization fell to a plague that animates the dead…and in which George is no longer a glorified janitor, but one of humanity’s last heroes.

Her tale sounds like madness, of course. But as George’s dreams and his waking life begin bleeding together, he starts to wonder—which is the real world, and which is just fantasy?

Peter Clines has done the seemingly impossible and combined the superhero genre with the zombie genre and made it a success.  This isn’t just the Walking Dead, or Romero at his finest; this isn’t just the Avengers or Whedon at his finest; this is the Walking Dead versus the Avengers.  And it is fine!

Ex-Purgatory is book four in the Ex-Heroes series, set in Los Angeles after a plague of living death spread around the globe. Billions died, civilization fell, and the city of angels was left a desolate zombie wasteland. A year later and a group of heroes (originally Stealth, Gorgon, Regenerator, Cerberus, Zzzap, and The Mighty Dragon.) protect a last few thousand survivors in their film-studio-turned-fortress, the Mount.  The heroes fight the armies of ravenous ex-humans at their citadel’s gates, lead teams out to scavenge for supplies—and struggle to be the symbols of strength and hope the survivors so desperately need.

…but the hungry ex-humans aren’t the only threats the heroes face. Other heroes and villains, the military, even other human survivors are all threats that the Ex-Heroes must overcome.

Praise for Ex-Purgatory

“With Ex-Purgatory, Peter Clines steps up from talented newcomer to seasoned master of the game. Witty, inventive, daring and way too much fun.” —Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of Extinction Machine and Fire & Ash

“A fabulously geeky adventure about getting the superpowered band back together. . . . Ex-Purgatory not only drops a host of Easter eggs for longtime fans, but it also makes for a satisfying entry point for new readers.” —Kirkus Reviews 

“The fourth episode in Clines’ genre-blending Ex series puts an unusual twist on the superheroes/zombie apocalypse mashup. . . . Clines has always written with a pop culture sensibility, but he’s got a new air of confidence in his characters and world-building that allows the series to go off at a 90-degree angle and still stay faithful to its roots.”—Publishers Weekly

About the author

PETER CLINES has published several pieces of short fiction and countless articles on the film and television industry, as well as the recent novel 14, named best sci-fi novel of 2012 by Audible.com and voted one of the best horror novels of 2012 on Goodreads and Bloody Disgusting. He lives in Southern California.

On Sale: January 14, 2014

Irwin Fletcher

I'm an LA journalist who really lives for his profession. I have also published work as Jane Doe in various mags and newspapers across the globe. I normally write articles that can cause trouble but now I write for FTN because Nerds are never angry, so I feel safe.