# Peter Clines' Exes series
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-clines-exes-series/720910
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 26, 2015, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-clines-exes-series/720910 "2015-05-26T21:35:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2015, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-clines-exes-series/720910/1 "2015-05-26T21:35:35Z")
I’m currently reading the series and really enjoying it. The basic idea is superheroes vs zombie apocalypse. Which could be really stupid but Clines is handling it very well.
The series so far:
_Ex-Heroes_ (bonus snob points if you’ve got the Permuted Press edition)
_Ex-Patriots
Ex-Communications
Ex-Purgatory
Ex-Isle_ (due out in October)
Anyone else read this series?
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### Author:  [@FlyingDragonFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingDragonFan)
#### Post date: [May 26, 2015, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-clines-exes-series/720910/2 "2015-05-26T22:43:39Z")
I’ve read all four books released so far, and definitely enjoy them. I’m a fan of superhero fiction to begin with, and these are fun books. Not high literature, but entertaining, and they all keep a brisk pace so even on a re-read they’re good page-turners. I also enjoy his periodic flashback chapters, and I’m kind of surprised that he’s managed to make that conceit work for four books in a row.
Thumbs up from me if you enjoy light genre fiction.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2016, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-clines-exes-series/720910/3 "2016-02-12T06:33:54Z")
An appropriate bump to a zombie topic thread. I just wanted to note that Clines’ new book, _Ex-Isle_, has been released albeit a few months later than originally announced.
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### Author:  [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2016, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-clines-exes-series/720910/4 "2016-02-12T15:34:39Z")
I haven’t read any of his Exes series, but I have read _ **14** _ and _ **The Fold** _, both excellent sci-fi novels by Clines.
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### Author:  [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2016, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-clines-exes-series/720910/5 "2016-02-12T17:28:45Z")
In a recent AMA, Clines hinted at the possibility of a crossover between the Exes universe and the 14/Fold universe.
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### Author:  [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2016, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-clines-exes-series/720910/6 "2016-02-12T21:56:16Z")
I’ve read the first four, haven’t gotten around to Ex-Isle yet. I loved the first one and the third, not so crazy about the second and especially the fourth. I HOPE that pattern means I’ll love the fifth. 😃
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### Author:  [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2016, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-clines-exes-series/720910/7 "2016-02-13T14:58:45Z")
The stories have mentioned several times that Catalina is darned near zombie-free; I don’t get why they haven’t moved everyone there or at least started a colony. Once it’s cleared of zombies, they’d be done with zombies.
I like the series okay, but Ex-Patriots and Ex-Purgatory were pretty weak, and Ex-Isle has pretty much the same plot as Ex-Patriots. I’ll have to hear some great things about the next one for me to bother, and a crossover with The Fold (which I liked) won’t do it.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2016, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-clines-exes-series/720910/8 "2016-02-13T16:20:26Z")
> [@epbrown01](#):
>
> The stories have mentioned several times that Catalina is darned near zombie-free; I don’t get why they haven’t moved everyone there or at least started a colony. Once it’s cleared of zombies, they’d be done with zombies.
Just speculating but I think there would be an issue with transporting all of the people in the enclave, along with their possessions, to Catalina. The enclave is a small refuge of people surrounded by a vast horde of zombies. I don’t know the exact figures but it’s clear there the zombies outnumber the people by something like a 1000:1 ratio. The humans survive because they live inside a fortified area and the zombies don’t know how to climb over walls. But if the people attempted to travel outside the walls, they’d be overrun. The only people that go outside are groups small enough to travel in one of the handful of working vehicles and the superheroes.
The other issue is resources. The books have made it clear that the enclave is living mostly off of stored food it scavenges from the city. In the most recent book, they’re trying to set up a farming area to produce food but experiencing difficulties. Catalina isn’t going to have the kind of resources that Los Angeles does.
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### Author:  [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2016, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-clines-exes-series/720910/9 "2016-02-13T16:52:36Z")
If we are talking about the island of Catalina off the SoCal coast, it wouldnt be able to support anyone. There is no water.
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### Author:  [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2016, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-clines-exes-series/720910/10 "2016-02-13T17:05:43Z")
Yep, we’re talking about Catalina island. What do people there do for water currently? In the book Ex-Isle, they mention bison herds on the island - those must be drinking something.
As far as food, The Mount has cropland inside the walls and has for years, what with 20k people living there since they merged with the 17s. The scavenging supplements that, but I don’t think it’s the primary food source anymore.
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### Author:  [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2016, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-clines-exes-series/720910/11 "2016-02-13T17:39:44Z")
Im pretty sure they need water to be brought in. The draught is worse there. Ill see if I can find cites.
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### Author:  [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2016, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-clines-exes-series/720910/12 "2016-02-13T17:46:47Z")
Here is a cite that explains that water comes from three shallow wells and a desalination plant. If the characters have the technical knowledge and materials I think they might be able to make it.
[http://ecatalina.com/news/2015-01-12/Answers-to-Common-Questions-about-Catalinas-Water-Supply](http://ecatalina.com/news/2015-01-12/Answers-to-Common-Questions-about-Catalinas-Water-Supply)
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2016, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-clines-exes-series/720910/13 "2016-02-14T21:38:40Z")
Catalina’s current population is under five thousand. If you quadrupled the population, you’d already have a significant increase.
But making the island self-sufficient in food would be much more difficult. A figure I’ve found is the food an average person consumes requires seven times as much water as the average person himself uses. So 20,000 people growing their own food are the equivalent of 160,000 people. What we’d be looking at is over a thirty-fold increase in Catalina’s water needs.
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### Author:  [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2016, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-clines-exes-series/720910/14 "2016-02-15T00:35:01Z")
Hmm. That makes me wonder why the constant foreshadowing about it then. I think Catalina has been mentioned in every book except the first.
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### Author:  [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2016, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/peter-clines-exes-series/720910/15 "2016-02-15T14:42:24Z")
> [@epbrown01](#):
>
> The stories have mentioned several times that Catalina is darned near zombie-free; I don’t get why they haven’t moved everyone there or at least started a colony. Once it’s cleared of zombies, they’d be done with zombies.
Until someone dies and then they turn and attack, and so on, and so on.