'The Walking Dead: The Road to Woodbury' - Robert Kirkman & Jay Bonansinga (Tor UK)

If you follow 'The Walking Dead' in any of its incarnations (I didn't even realise that there was a video game until today...) then you/re not just in it for the gore. You want to see just what regular people will do in order to survive one more day of the zombie apocalypse. Either that or you want to see the real psychos cut loose when law and order stop working. How do I know this? I'm still one of those readers.

Even though I no longer read the comic book (it was a little too much, even for me), Kirkman and Bonansinga's filling in the Governors backstory is still required reading. We're talking about a character who has done some absolutely vile things. Even if you know his ultimate fate, don't you want to know just why the Governor turned out the way he did? I do (despite some initial reservations) and that's why I'm sticking around for the time being.

Lily has been running all her life so, in some respects, the arrival of the walking dead hasn't changed her life that much. Zombies are just another thing to run from after all. Running away is easy though, it's what you run towards that's the clincher. Lily and her friends find herself in the walled community of Woodbury, a community beginning to turn on itself as tensions grow. As the Governor's rule brings new dangers, Lily realises that she has nowhere left to run. Sometimes you have to stand your ground and fight.

'The Road to Woodbury' doesn't have quite the same impact as its predecessor. The big revelation has come and gone, leaving us to wonder what the final volume of the trilogy has in store. There was a sense that the book was really just marking time until that final instalment, laying a few more foundations (so we can say, 'oh... that's where the bit in the comic book came from...') but not really doing much that's new. At least, not to those of us who have read the comics.

I'd say stick with it though, while 'The Road to Woodbury' may not have the urgency that 'Rise of the Governor' did, it's actually a very thoughtful piece that rewards continued reading. That's not to say that the gore isn't there (or that sense of creeping terror as zombies crowd outside a house), this is 'The Walking Dead' after all! Lovers of gore will get what they came here for (and then some), there's a little bit more to this book though...

Lily and her friend Megan are essentially the same kind of person, defenceless against this new threat and looking to survive in any way that they can. The big difference is that Megan believes she is more honest in how she goes about it, giving herself to men for protection as well as satisfying her own urges. Lily wants to be with just the one man (Josh) but isn’t sure why. Does Lily love him or is she using him as a barrier between her and the zombies? This makes for an interesting internal dilemma that you don’t normally come across in zombie fiction (even though it’s a valid question for this setting) and the addition of Megan makes for some thought provoking comparisons. Is there room for a conscience in the zombie apocalypse? Fair play to Lily for trying to do the right thing but, by the time she has figured it out, this is the world of ‘The Walking Dead’… Tragedy is never far away.

At the other end of the scale is the Governor, a strangely subdued character given that this is meant to be his tale and the focus lies on another character entirely. Not that he doesn’t have his moments though; if you haven’t already seen what he keeps in those fish tanks… Well, you’re about to and it’s just as grim as it was in the comic books.
What’s more interesting to follow though is the way that the Governor stamps his authority on the people of Woodbury. It’s cruel, and the arena makes for some brutal reading, but all the Governor is doing is giving the people exactly what they want. It just so happens that offering a release to the tension neatly coincides with the Governors need to stay in control. It’s very cleverly done and offers another dimension to this character. A large chunk of us probably already know how the story ends but treatment like this hints at a potentially explosive finale that could still spring some surprises.

I’d say that ‘The Road to Woodbury’ does suffer from being a ‘middle book’ and the shift in focus isolates the Governor in the wrong kind of way (it’s meant to be a series about him). Despite that though, Kirkman and Bonansinga have come up with the goods again. ‘The Road to Woodbury’ has everything that makes ‘The Walking Dead’ such a compelling read; I will be there to see how it ends.

Eight and a Half out of Ten

'Resident Evil: Retribution' - John Shirley (Titan Books)

I know, I know... :o) 'There are far too many zombie books out there and I can't be bothered with it any more!' I said. Fast forward a few weeks and what do you get? A review of the latest 'Resident Evil' movie novelisation, that's what you get. Didn't take me long to come crawling back, did it...? :o)
To be fair, David Moody did write a very convincing guest post about why I shouldn't give up on the genre just yet. There was also the fact that I'd just finished Joe Abercrombie's 'Red Country' (review in the pipeline) and was after a read that was a little lighter. The bottom line though is, well... Zombies! Once you've been bitten then you're infected with a craving that will never let go.... A craving for a genre that can be a lot more intelligent than you'd think.

With that last sentence in mind, a 'Resident Evil' movie novelisation might seem like an odd choice then but, like I said, I was after a light read and this book came through the door at just the right moment. I've enjoyed the 'Resident Evil' films that I've seen, by the way, and was looking forward to catching up with what had happened. What had been going on? Not an awful lot if 'Resident Evil: Retribution' was anything to go by. Check out the blurb...

Just as she finds a safe haven, free from the Undead, Alice is kidnapped by her former employers the Umbrella Corporation. Regaining consciousness, she finds herself trapped in the most terrifying scenario imaginable. As the T-virus continues to ravage the Earth, transforming the world s population into legions of flesh-eating monsters, Alice must fight her way back to reality in order to survive.

I can't help but think that some films are meant to be just films. Don't mess around with the novelisation; just leave the film where it belongs and let it do what it does best. 'Retribution' is very much one of those films.

I haven't seen the film but, reading the book, you can imagine how it would look on the big screen. Flashy and full of action packed spectacle; certainly enough to disguise the paper thin plot and the fact that this is a whole film designed to get everyone in one place before the final film kicks off (I'm guessing the next one will be the last). The problem is though, a book isn't nearly so forgiving when it clearly has so little to work with. You can't be distracted by crazy images of exploding zombies and other monsters. All you have are words on a page that give away a lot more than the author perhaps intended.

'Retribution' is basically a big ol' slug fest, from start to finish, and John Shirley doesn't portray this as effectively as he could have done. Instead of keeping these fights relatively short and sweet, Shirley takes his cue from the script and tries to capture every single little thing that happens. This approach works fine on the big screen as it all happens very quickly, this is far from the case in the novelisation. What you get here are confrontations that are drawn out so much as to lose any impact that they might have had. When I start skimming paragraphs, to get to the end of a fight sequence, I know there's a pretty big problem. That was very much the case here. Shirley says, in his introduction, that some of these scenes were inspired by the screenplay and don't actually appear in the film itself. If this is the case then my argument goes double for those scenes.

Dragging the fight scenes out also just shows the reader that there isn't much in the way of plot going on and I wonder if that was why Shirley chose to introduce a sub-plot of his own. I can see why Shirley chose to branch things out but this sub-plot really doesn't gel that well with the main one. There doesn't seem to be a lot of point to it and it slows things down even more, something that this book really doesn't need.

One good thing about 'Resident Evil: Retribution' is that it promises a great finale to come but I wish I hadn't had to sit through this book just to get to that point. If Shirley had trimmed things back then this book would have been a different deal. I reckon this book could have lost a third of its pages and been the better for it. As it was though, 'Retribution' is the very definition of a throwaway read. If you were to ask me about this book next week, I probably wouldn't be able to tell you a single thing about it.

Five out of Ten

Guest Post! “Are there really too many zombies Graeme?” (David Moody)

Back in September I wrote a short piece questioning whether there are just too many zombie books out there now and if the quality is suffering as a result. When David Moody very kindly offered to write a post for the blog I couldn't resist the opportunity to have a guy who has written several very well received zombie novels answer that question for me. Put yourself in my shoes and you wouldn't have passed up the chance either. Here's what David had to say and there's a lot for me to think about...

“Are there really too many zombies Graeme?”

Firstly, it’s a pleasure to be guest posting here at Graeme’s site today. I’ve been a loyal follower since he reviewed the original self-published version of my novel Autumn way, way, way back in the dim and distant past. He’s been very kind to my work over the years, posting positive reviews of my books, many of which feature zombies, or variations thereof. So imagine my horror when, back in September, Graeme wrote a post entitled: Too Many Zombies? Thing is, to an extent, I think he’s absolutely right. But I don’t think we should completely write the living dead off just yet. I’ll explain...

I’ve noticed a disturbing trend. People are always interested when they ask me what I do for a living and I tell them I’m an author. The inevitable follow-up question is always ‘what do you write?’. When I tell them I write horror, many folks are admirably honest and explain that they don’t really like horror, then proceed to spend the next ten or fifteen minutes telling me exactly what they do like. But here’s my concern... of those who continue the conversation because they genuinely are fans of the genre, many of them switch off as soon as I mention the dreaded ‘z word’. So why is that? Is it just a question of overkill?

One of the living dead’s greatest strengths, I think, is their adaptability. Think of a situation and, one way or another, if you try hard enough you can usually find a way to get zombies in there. As well as the usual tried and tested shopping mall and isolated farmhouse scenarios, more recently we’ve had zombies in Iraq, zombies in the Arctic, zombies at a Star Trek convention, Nazi zombies, Viking zombies, zombies in Star Wars, zombies in the past, present and future, and so on and so on. When you boil stories down to their most basic level, wherever there are people, you can almost always shove in a zombie horde or two. As well as being a strength, though, this adaptability can also be a problem because as a result zombies seem to have become the lazy horror writer and film-maker’s monster of choice. A bit of blood, the odd groan, a slow, stilted walk with arms outstretched, a bag of offal from the butcher’s and there you go... Bob’s your (undead) uncle. It’s very easy to go for drama only to quickly descend into Zombieland-like parody.

It doesn’t help matters that the typical zombie story has become something of a cliché either. It usually goes something like this: initial outbreak > denial/cover-up > it’s too late, the Z-poc’s here > a small group of survivors escape and hole-up somewhere > they have a plan > it doesn’t work > one of them gets infected and tries to hide it from the rest > he/she ‘turns’ at the least opportune moment > almost everyone else gets bitten/eaten > a lone survivor is forced to admit defeat in a bleak and nihilistic ending. Along the way there will be copious excuses for ‘intense scenes of graphic, bloody violence’ (as it usually says on the back of the DVD). Of course, there are people who only want ‘intense scenes of graphic, bloody violence’, and I’m sure they’re happy with the way things are. But I don’t think those folks are likely to be frequent visitors to Graeme’s blog.

My time with the living dead is coming to an end through personal choice. I’ve written more than my fair share: five Autumn novels, more than 120,000 words worth of free zombie fiction (available at www.lastoftheliving.net), copious short stories, not to mention the three book Hater series which isn’t about zombies at all but which everyone still insists on labelling as zombie novels anyway... I think I’ve done as much as I can do with dead bodies (and I appreciate how wrong that sentence sounds). But I’m still fascinated by the zombie sub-genre, and remain an unashamed fan. Here’s why.

For every few bad zombie stories you have to plough through, you can usually find at least one gem. I said earlier that wherever you have people, you can have zombies. The undead are a mirror: you and me in an uncomfortably familiar yet wildly different alternative reality. They are the people we love, and the people we hate. They are the world outside your window. They are the faceless corporation you work for, the government you didn’t elect but are stuck with anyway. They are your kids and your parents, your lover even. They are everyone but you. Zombies are capable of bringing out the very best and the very worst in us. They can give you a reason to fight and survive or, just as easily, they can drag you down to gutter level and render you helpless and lost.

To an extent, though, the dead are simply the dead – devoid of all character, no longer young, old, male, female, short, tall, able-bodied, disabled, etc. etc.... just dead. It’s the other characters in zombie stories which matter most, and how they deal with the situation they’re presented with. So whether it’s the suicidal overweight vicar in Adam Baker’s Outpost, the disillusioned police officers of Belfast in Wayne Simmons’ Flu, the jaded zombie-hunter from V M Zito’s The Return Man, the Walking Dead’s Rick Grimes, or anyone else from the many other excellent zombie stories I’ve read recently, it doesn’t matter.

I think a zombie novel’s success boils down to its focus and the bottom line is this: give me an intelligent, thought-provoking story with characters I care about and I’ll lap it up, and if that book also happens to feature hundreds of thousands of zombies, then so be it. But if your book is about walking corpses and just happens to feature a few survivors, then I’m with Graeme: too many zombies!

Thanks David :o) 


You can find David's website over Here and he's right, I've reviewed a fair few of his books. You'll find reviews Here, Here, Here, Here and Here; all of them are worth picking up.

More Zombie Short Stories...

Like those people who always make sure they have plenty of tinned goods (in case of an emergency) I always make sure I have at least a couple of short story collections to hand. You know, just in case a book isn't working for me and I don't know what to read next. Or if Hope has been running me ragged and I just want something to read that's even shorter than normal. Yesterday was one of those days (I was also completely wiped out after taking Hope to the Strange Chemistry launch on Thursday night...) so I needed some short story action just to keep me ticking over. I'm sure it won't surprise you at all to learn that I have a zombie anthology ready for situations just like this one... :o)

I haven't made it all the way through Otto Penzler's 'Zombies' yet but I'm quickly coming to the conclusion that it's a collection that any self respecting zombie fan needs to have on their shelves. And not just because it is so large and weighty that it makes a very effective zombie killing weapon... What we have here is a book that stretches the definition of zombie to the point where the reader is presented with a wide range of stories that tackle zombies in all their forms. There is something here for everyone. The last time I picked 'Zombies' up I was immediately introduced to a writer that I'd never heard of. This time round I was pleased to make the re-acquaintance of three writers that I should have known would have written a zombie tale; I just never realised that they had. The table of contents here is so large (there's over eight hundred pages of zombie tales...) that there are lots of little gems waiting to be found.

After reading 'Friday Night in Beast House', the other day, I was keen to read more by Richard Laymon if only I could find it. 'Zombies' duly obliged by giving me 'Mess Hall', a story of serial killers and revenge from beyond the grave. The plot itself is a little too straightforward albeit with a twist that makes the tale one worth sticking with. After all, why would zombies want to rescue the heroine when they could just eat her instead? This twist adds a frantic flourish to the closing paragraphs and Laymon balances out the linear plot by racking up the tension and gore in all the right places. He doesn't hold back on the 'prelude to torture' either and that's something that you might want to bear in mind before giving this tale a read...

It's always a bit of a treat to come across an unexpected Richard Matheson story so I was really pleased to find 'Where There’s A Will’ lurking in the contents. This was written in conjunction with his son, Christian, and gives the reader a slant on zombie fiction that is perhaps missing from today’s tales of ‘post zombie apocalypse’ survival. A man wakes up inside a coffin and… Well, you can probably guess. As with ‘Mess Hall’, 'Where There’s A Will’ is predictable and very straightforward (although it would have made for a great horror episode on TV, shot from a first person perspective). You know what’s coming straight away and that’s a bit of a shame given what the Mathesons do with the subject matter. I don’t think I’ve ever read a story that felt as claustrophobic as this one. The Mathesons leave you in no doubt just what it must feel like being trapped in a very tight fitting coffin. I found myself unconsciously flexing my arms as I read it (just to give myself a little more room). Despite knowing where the plot was ultimately headed, I couldn’t help but root for the hero and that’s what added the real impact to the ending.

Last up was Robert McCammon’s ‘Eat Me’, a tale of one zombies search for companionship in a world where admitting loneliness is now a crime. What I love about McCammon’s work is how he really goes to town telling us just how weird the ‘post apocalypse’ can be. Everything is as it was before but with enough of a slant on it to let us know that things are actually really different. In that respect, reading ‘Eat Me’ reminded me of McCammon’s ‘Something Passed By’; another tale of ‘end time weirdness’.  The atmosphere here is bleak but you can’t help but drink it in.

McCammon uses the characters of Jim and Brenda to really explore the inherent loneliness of being a zombie, giving it a human voice that we can all identify with. And if zombies ever do end up having sex I’m pretty sure they’d be doing it just like Jim and Brenda do in ‘Eat Me’. I wasn’t sure what to expect here but I certainly wasn’t expecting something so visceral yet tender at the same time. If there’s ever a sequel to the ‘Hungry for your love’ collection then I fully expect to see ‘ Eat Me’ there.

A mixed bag of short stories then but all were good to one degree or another. You can guess what the stand out tale was for me; the other two did a good job but were ultimately restricted by their own plots.

Zombie Hunter - Steve Barlow & Steve Skidmore (Orchard Books)

As a rule, I don't normally review children’s/young adult books. Not that I've got anything against them (a book can be badly written whatever age group it's for), it's just that there's a whole load of adult genre fiction that I want to read/review first.

Every so often though something will happen to change my mind. Something like my wife finding a kids zombie book, in the library, whilst looking for books for Hope. Something like said zombie book being a 'choose your own adventure' book; I've never reviewed one of those here and I thought that this might be a good place to start (I've got a few others that I want to review as well). The book pretty much sold itself really :)
It's a bit of a shame then that 'Zombie Hunter' didn't quite live up to its early promise but it was a fun way to while away half an hour.

The premise is simple. You are a zombie hunter called to the South Pacific to help the Nutco Corporation deal with their zombie problem. It's a big problem though and there's more to it than just zombies. You're going to have your work cut out if you want to stay alive...

Like I said 'Zombie Hunter' was a fun way to pass half an hour but not a lot more than that. This was a real shame as any book that features a shotgun toting 'white trash' zombie grandma deserves a lot more...

The story itself isn't too bad with a twist in the tale that is saved until just the right point so it throws the story into a new light (you may have seen it coming already, I just liked where it was placed). There is also bucket loads of gore (both in the text and accompanying illustrations) and the zombies don't stop coming; whether they're flying helicopters or riding motorbikes (I'm cool with zombies doing this but only in moderation). The relentless zombie attacks are balanced just right, adding to the tension without getting repetitive.

Where things fell down for me were in the mechanics of the 'game' side of the book. 'Zombie Hunter' is divided up into a hundred small paragraphs, going through these in the right order will win you the game. Initially, I was impressed at how Barlow and Skidmore were able to tell their story in such a short space but reading into it a bit more... Only having a short space to tell the story really limits the number of choices you can make and this highlights the fact that the plot itself is a little too linear for my tastes. There are no interesting diversions that take you back into the main plot; just right and wrong answers that can leave you feeling like you're reading a flow chart rather than a book. And there are only so many times that I can read the same 'death page' before I start wishing for a little more variety. You can keep things tight but there is such a thing as ‘too tight’ I think…

‘Zombie Hunter’ was a quick fun read but also a story that was hampered by its format when it really shouldn’t have been. To be fair, I would have loved reading this when I was twelve and I'm just not in that market anymore… I’m glad I stuck around for the zombie Grandma but if I’m reading a ‘choose your own adventure’ book then I want a few more choices while I’m reading…

Seven out of Ten

‘Dawn of the Dead’ – George Romero & Susanna Sparrow (Sphere)

When I’m working (not at the moment), lunchtimes will invariably see me finding my way to a bookshop where I’ll spend a quiet hour having a browse. I can’t help myself; if there’s a bookshop within fifteen minutes walk then I’ll find it, if there isn’t then I’ll just hop on a tube and find another one. If that doesn’t work then I’ll sit at my desk and pore over Amazon. That’s just the way I am, I love bookshops :o)

Browsing doesn’t normally throw up many surprises I have to say. I read a lot of blogs so know what’s out there (or will be out there) but every so often a book will catch me out. A book like the novelisation of ‘Dawn of the Dead’ for instance. I saw this one in Foyles, on the South Bank, a few weeks ago and found myself thinking, ‘really…?’ It’s an old book, first published in 1979, that has clearly been re-released to take advantage of the love for all things zombie that’s going on right now. If any title deserves that kind of love it’s ‘Dawn of the Dead’, a title that any zombie fan will think of straight away when the conversation arises. But that’s the thing though, it’s the film that springs to mind. Is there any room for a book there? Is there any need for a book there? Or is this re-release there just to cash in?
Those were the thoughts going through my head when I saw the book on the shelf. The foremost thought though was… you guessed it. ‘Wow! Another zombie book and it’s a book of one of my favourite zombie films, I’ve got to read it.’

It’s fair to say that I had mixed thoughts about this book then but there was never any doubt that I’d read it. Having read ‘Dawn of the Dead’ I still have mixed thoughts about it. I might just stick with the film to be honest…

The world is being overrun by zombies and no-one has any idea how to stop them; human nature leads to the collapse of civilisation and the zombies are there to eat whatever is left… Four survivors escape the chaos of Philadelphia and take to the air, eventually finding shelter in a deserted shopping mall. The world outside is a dangerous place though and soon these survivors find that they cannot leave. The mall is a prison and in more ways than one. The outside world hasn’t forgotten the mall though, the undead claw at the doors and other, human, eyes are watching greedily…

Yesterday I spoke about how the ‘Batman’ novelisation was a tough nut to crack as I hadn’t seen the film and couldn’t make the comparison (between the two) that the review needed. No such problems here! It’s been a while since I last watched ‘Dawn of the Dead’ but I’ve seen it enough times to know what I’m talking about. The ‘Dawn of the Dead’ novelisation is fairly faithful to the film (although what was the need to include a cute puppy while all the other animals were left in the pet store…?) but I’m not sure that’s such a good thing…

You see… The thing about the film is once the zombie stuff, at the beginning, is out of the way, not a lot actually happens until the climactic end scenes. Our ‘heroes’ just sit there, that’s the whole point of the film. You get to see them slowly buckle under the pressures of what looked like shelter but has turned out to be a trap. This works on the screen but I’m not so sure that it works on the page. Sparrow makes an attempt to freshen things up by giving the cast a little bit of background that you wouldn’t see in the film. This makes for an interesting slant but wasn’t quite enough to keep me going through the long passages of inactivity. Not a lot happens and that does make the book drag.

Having said all that, you could make an argument that this approach is the whole point of the message behind the book. The survivors are in a prison of their own making, powerless to do anything but ‘shop’ while the world crumbles outside. I would totally agree with this but the fact remains that it works a whole lot better on the screen than it does here. There’s more to look at on the screen but words in a book need to do a lot more, than they do here, to hold interest.

That’s not to say that ‘Dawn of the Dead’ doesn’t do a lot of good stuff though, it does. When it really matters, Sparrow takes Romero’s vision of the zombie apocalypse and really runs with it when it matters the most. The nervous energy running through the TV station (and the clash between logic and human response), the clearing out of the tenement block and those moments at the end where everything comes crashing down. Those moments, as well, where the survivors are trying to make their way through a landscape where zombies really could be anywhere. Sparrow really hits the target here, capturing the bleak spirit of the film and even managing to inject a little of her own voice into the proceedings. I wouldn’t minded have seeing more of the redneck zombie hunters but you can’t have it all when you’re trying to squeeze a film into a limited number of pages.

I still have mixed feelings about ‘Dawn of the Dead’ in this format. It’s a perfectly capable zombie novel (in its own right) that does a good job of giving us another viewpoint on the film. On the other hand, should someone really be able to sleep through the zombie apocalypse (even walls aren't enough to keep the undead out sometimes...)? Our heroes did and there were times when I felt like putting the book down and having a little snooze myself.

Eight out of Ten

'The Walking Dead Vol. 16 - A Larger World' Kirkman, Adlard (Image)

I've been reading the ‘Walking Dead’ books for at least a couple of years longer than I've been running the blog and I've been running the blog... Well... Ages now :-) It's along time then to stay with any series so you couldn't blame me for feeling a little let down when Volume 15 never really went anywhere. Not only did I have ages to wait until this volume bit vol 15 hinted at a direction, for the overall series, that didn't look promising from where I was sitting. You can read the review Here if you like, a review that I summed up by saying...

'Right now, things just felt a little lacklustre (including the artwork), like the story was just marking time instead of actually doing something. That doesn’t bode well for the future but, like I said, I’m willing to be proved wrong.'

Like I was ever going to stop reading though... You put years of reading in and there's no question about whether you'll see it through to the end. It didn't really take too much for me to give Kirkman the benefit of the doubt either. The 'Walking Dead' series has had far more ups than downs so all I had to do was hope that vol 16 took things back on an upward path rather than the other direction.
It's a slow path upwards but 'A Larger World' does start to move things in the right direction again.

Supplies are growing dangerously low in the settlement and the surrounding area has been picked clean of anything useful. Trips further afield are in order and one such trip reveals that Rick's community isn't the only one trying to survive. New encounters envariably mean new problems to solve though and Rick and his friends must face up to some tough decisions if their community is going to make it through the winter...

'A Larger World' has similar problems to the previous volume in terms of just how safe the characters all are. There's a big walled settlement for shelter and even the weakest character has killed enough zombies for that not to be an issue either. A little bit of the tension is missing then but Kirkman sidesteps this rather neatly by throwing the wider setting into sharper focus. There's a whole new world out there and Kirkman shows us the potential here for new tales yet to come.

If there's a problem here it's very much that all these tales are 'yet to come'. 'A Larger World' is all about setting things up for future volumes so be prepared for not a lot to happen at times. Balancing this out though is the air of menace that Kirkman builds up over the course of the book; 'A Larger World' isn't just filler, things are being laid in place that promise something explosive in the very near future. This is what I'm after and I don't mind waiting a little bit longer if I know it's coming.

There are also more developments, on the personal front, for our band of survivors and it's all credit to Kirkman that he keeps things becoming too much like a soap opera. These are people learning to feel again, after some traumatic events, and I think Kirkman captures that perfectly.

Like I said then, it's a slow road but 'A Larger World' sets the plot back on an upward trajectory. I’m all excited again about seeing where the series takes us next.

Eight and a Half out of Ten

'Siege'- Rhiannon Frater (Tor)

Despite a few misgivings along the way, I've enjoyed reading Rhiannon Frater's 'As The World Dies' books; it was just a bit of a shame that the major misgiving I had covered all of the second book. You can read the reviews of the first two books Here and Here but, if you don't want to, it's all summed up just below...

On 'The First Days'

'These were relatively small complaints though when placed against a book that does a superb job of detailing people’s reactions, and what they find themselves capable of, when zombies quite literally land on their doorstep. I’m there for the next book, really looking forward to it!'

On 'Fighting to Survive'

'To be blunt, after clearing out the hotel the fort is just too safe; zombies cannot get in and survivors are checked for bites etc before they can be allowed to stay...'

‘Fighting to Survive’ does everything that ‘The First Days’ did so well but suffers a little bit too much from ‘middle book syndrome’ to be truly effective. I’ll still be around for the conclusion though.'

It took me a little while to get to that concluding part but I got there in the end! Like I said, there was enough to the story to hold my interest and well, you know, zombies :o) Those earlier misgivings meant that I was a little wary this time round though and it turned out that I had good reason to be. 'Siege' looks amazing but if you dig a little deeper, well...

The old world is long gone but a new one is slowly taking shape in Ashley Oaks, Texas. With the fort safe from zombie attack; Katie and Jenni have not only been able to find new love but Katie will soon give birth to her first child.

All isn't well though... Zombies cluster at the gates, trying to get in, and must be dealt with regularly. Inside the fort itself, divisive factions seek to gain power while the mysterious vigilante dispenses lethal justice of his own. And if all that wasn't enough, a former US senator (and her soldiers) is casting envious looks in the direction of the fort. When the largest zombie horde ever seen appears on the horizon, will anyone be left alive...?

On the surface, 'Siege' looks to be a rousing finale for the 'As The World Dies' trilogy. It's packed full of zombies and hard people having to make hard decisions off the back of this post-apocalyptic landscape. A zombie bite, or scratch, is a death sentence and Frater doesn't flinch from what it's like to have her cast carry this sentence out. There are some really heart rending moments for the reader... Add to this the fact that Frater's cast are genuinely flawed people (who often can't see the big picture past their own desires) and will endanger everything just to increase their own standing. All the best zombie tales focus on how humanity's inability to co-operate will cause big problems and 'Siege' is no different. The reader has a tale that is nothing short of compelling when it really gets going, just like it did in 'The First Days'.

Is it enough though? I didn't think so by the time I finally put the book down.

The best zombie films/books etc really make the point that life is cheap in this scenario and that death can come quickly for anyone. No-one is truly safe and that is what keeps things so fresh and engaging. Is your favourite character going to make it to the end? And what kind of an ending will that be? Usually very bleak...

Rhiannon Frater's big problem is that she cannot bear to let any of her main characters die, not even the ones who actually die (which lent a para-normal air to the proceedings completely at odds with the gritty bleakness that had been the norm). If you're a member of the supporting cast then you're fair game. These characters die in their droves and as a result, Frater is able to point to a high body count that's in keeping with zombie fiction. These are all people who don't really matter though; people that you'd be hard pressed to remember if you hadn't read the other two books fairly recently. There's no attachment to these characters (at least there wasn't for me), they're just a part of the scenery to be chewed on by various zombies.

The main players though? They're pretty much guaranteed clear passage to the very last page of the book, even if they die in the meantime (can you tell that really bugged me?) Maybe I'm just not used to an optimistic zombie tale but this approach robbed the story of a whole load of the suspense and had me foccusing on what was going on, in the background, rather than the plot itself. Why do otherwise? I knew that these people were going to make it.

I think the fairest thing to say about 'Siege' (and possibly the other two books as well) is that it's 'zombie lite'. It looks good but shys away from tackling the themes that really matter, the themes that could have pushed this book to the next level. Black and white then with no shades of grey. It's a shame given how good the first book was...

Seven and Three Quarters out of Ten

'Blackout' - Mira Grant (Orbit)

I love zombie novels, zombie films, the works really. I don't think there's any other form of media where you can get such an honest insight into someones character while the guy next to them is having their lower intestine pulled out and eaten by hordes of the hungry dead. It's a sub-genre that pretty much ticks all the boxes as far as I'm concerned :o)

It will take something pretty big then to get past my enthusiasm and spoil the whole experience for me; even the 'Hard Rock Zombies' film was so bad that it was actually quite enjoyable to watch. (It's two hours of your life that you won't get back though, think very carefully before watching it...) Mira Grant's 'Feed' was one of those books . Yep, you heard me; I'm talking about multiple Hugo award nominated Mira Grant here. 'Feed' wasn't a bad story in itself, it was all the baggage that came with it that proved to be its downfall as far as I was concerned. You can read the full review Here but if not, these quotes sum up my feelings...

'Miriam Grant’s explanation behind her outbreak of zombies is superbly done but it hobbles the story at the same time...'

‘Feed’ is meant to be a book about zombies. Stop telling me about the safeguards, insurance premiums, disease control measures etc and start giving me the good stuff!'

‘Feed’ was a gripping yet ultimately frustrating read where I ended up learning a lot about the setting at the expense of the story and its characters. Not the balance that I look for when I’m reading...'

So not one of my favourite reads here then. The sequel, 'Deadline' kind of passed me by (last year) but I was always interested to see how the trilogy ended so when 'Blackout' turned up on the doorstep it wasn't too long before I picked it up for a read. And what a read! 'Blackout' may suffer from its own problems but was a real step up from 'Feed' in terms of quality. Blurb copied and pasted in a vain attempt to save myself some time on what is going to be a horribly busy day...

The year is 2041, and Shaun Mason is having a bad day. Everyone he knows is dead or in hiding. The world is doing its best to end itself for the second time. The Centre for Disease Control is out to get him. With too much left to do and not much time left to do it in, he must face mad scientists, zombie bears and rogue government agencies before the conspiracy that killed Georgia manages to kill the only thing he has left of her - the truth.

And if there's one thing he knows is true in this post-zombie, post-resurrection America (full of mad scientists, zombie bears and rogue government agencies), it's this: Things can always get worse.

So, about those zombie bears... The way I see it, if you promise me zombie bears then it's reasonable to expect a frantic chase through a forest followed by a tense standoff, maybe even a little wrestling with a dead (but still ravenous) bear. That's what I want to see next time; what I got this time round was a brief glimpse of zombie bear followed by some congratulatory noises about how easy it was to kill a couple of chapters later. I spent a large chunk of the book looking forward to some zombie bear action and then Grant deals with it when no-one is looking so to speak. I did feel a little let down here...
The good news is that this is pretty much the only thing that Mira Grant really did wrong. 'Blackout' had a couple of other problems but it was a book that I found very hard to put down.

I was a little bit concerned that, having missed out on 'Deadline', I'd have a lot of catching up to do that might get in the way of the plot. I shouldn't have worried; while readers are obviously going to get a lot more out of having read all the books, the main plot here takes a twist that means things pick up almost straight from where 'Feed' left off. I can't say too much more other than it was a twist I never saw coming and Grant's habit of explaining everything in detail really paid off here. It all worked fine from where I was sat.

I wasn't too sure about how sure about the rest of the plt hang to be honest. When I finally found out what was going on, why everyone is fighting and being all covert, I couldn't help but think... 'everyone's getting worked up over this?' It's not actually that big a deal. Where Grant really rescues it though is that she has believing it's a big deal through what happens to her characters and how keen they are to get to the bottom of things before it's too late. There's a real sense of urgency here that really powers the plot forward and you can't help but be caught up in the wake of it. It also really helps that Grant has clearly come ot the conclusion that she has told us all there is to tell about her 'post zombie- apocalypse' world. This means we get to spend a lot more time with the cast and we get to see a whole load more zombies doing what they do best (apart from the bear that is, I'm still sore about that...) If you're anything like me you'll find it really nervewracking peering round certain corners in 'Blackout', anything could be lurking...

'Blackout' isn't a great read then but it does offer plenty to keep the reader occupied while they're reading. I'm glad I got to see how it all signed off for the cast and the 'extra bonus short story 'Countdown' shows you the chilling and impersonal nature of how it all began...

Eight and a Quarter out of Ten

Is there anything that zombies can't do...?

As much as I love those shambling, rotting fellows I always thought they were a bit limited in what they could do. They eat people and, erm... that's it really isn't it? Well, Brian Keene had other ideas but the jury's out on whether they're actually zombies (they are but they're not, all at the same time). Which leaves us back at square one, doesn't it? Not if Joseph Nassise has anything to say on the matter. Check this out,

At the tail end of 1917, the Germans introduced a new type of gas to the battlefield, T-Leiche, or "corpse gas," and changed the face of the war by resurrecting the bodies of the dead, giving the enemy an almost unlimited source of fresh troops.

When the American ace Major Jack Freeman—poster boy for the war against the Kaiser's undead army of shamblers—is downed over enemy lines and taken captive, veteran Captain Michael "Madman" Burke is the only man brave and foolish enough to accept the mission to recover Freeman. Burke assembles a team of disparate members, from his right-hand man, Sergeant Moore, to big-game-hunter-turned-soldier Clayton Manning, who funds the mission for an opportunity to confront this most dangerous zombie game, to professor Dan Richards, one of Tesla's top men and the resident authority on all things supernatural. With the help of a highly advanced British dirigible war machine to infiltrate enemy territory, the team faces incredible danger as it struggles to reach the prison camp and strike at the heart of the enemy.

But they are pitted against the most deadly enemy of all: Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron. Having risen from the dead with his abilities enhanced but his mind on the brink of madness, Richthofen has plans for victory that give no quarter to soldiers or civilians.

I'll say it again, is there nothing that zombies cannot do? I don't think there is, not anymore... Next week the blog will briefly be a pitstop on Joseph Nassise's blog tour, for 'By the Blood of Heroes', so maybe I'll find out then :o)

‘Autumn: Purification’ – David Moody (Gollancz)

It’s been a while since I last delved into David Moody’s ‘Autumn’ series, long enough for ‘Purification’ to make it’s debut as a Gollancz hardback and then be released in paperback format. Like any good zombie though, I’m happy to take things real slow in the knowledge that I’ll get there in the end… :o)
The ‘Autumn’ series hasn’t been without it’s issues but, on the whole, has made for an engrossing and very ‘British’ take on the zombie apocalypse (with survivors being more about dull acceptance and getting on with it rather than mass hysterics). Have a click on the links to read my reviews of ‘Autumn’ and ‘Autumn: The City’ if you like. I think there’s one more book to come after ‘Autumn: Purification’ (a collection of short stories?) but my understanding was that this was the book that would round things off for characters that we’ve come to know very well over the course of the series. There is a sense of closure although not what you might think from an initial look at the back of the book…

The dead walk the face of the earth. Underneath the earth though, a small group of survivors huddle in an underground hangar, sheltering from the dead outside but prevented from going any deeper by armed soldiers scared of contamination.
The dead are massing outside though, drawn by the heat of the underground base. Vents are clogged up by dead bodies and the base is slowly starved of oxygen; the only option is to send soldiers outside to clear the vents if the occupants of the base are to survive. No-one realised just how many walking corpses were waiting outside though…

I normally give my own version of the blurb just to let people know what the book is about. This time round I’m including some blurb to let you know that there’s actually a lot more to ‘Purification’ than you might think. Anyone looking at the blurb would think that the book ends with a full scale battle (a la ‘Day of the Dead’) that leaves you gasping. Read ‘Purification’ though and you’ll see that this battle takes place very early on in the book; there is lot more for our cast to get through before the end. While there is closure (of a kind) it’s not what you’d expect and I think the blurb is a little misleading in that regard. You might want to bear that in mind when picking ‘Purification’ up…

I’d definitely recommend you pick it up though although having said that, the way in which the plot unfolds means that you really need to have read ‘Autumn’ and ‘Autumn: The City’ first. I guess you could read ‘Purification’ on its own but you would be missing out on a more in-depth examination of ‘zombie evolution’ that Moody has bought to the series. This is what has proved to be the highlight of the series for me; Moody has taken a well established trope and made it his own almost without the reader realising it. The dead have a real motivation for acting the way that they do and it’s a motivation that evokes some degree of sympathy from the reader given what Moody tells. Without giving too much away, I’d challenge any reader to put themselves in a similar position and not react in the same way.

This revelation also casts the actions of the survivors in an entirely new light, especially as certain characters begin to work out just what is happening. A notion of ethics has always been part of zombie fiction, with the whole ‘Would you kill a family member if they turned?’ kind of question popping up regularly. Moody’s treatment of his zombies adds a whole new level to this approach though with questions facing the survivors that can only be answered in the long term. The big question, which Moody cleverly leaves unanswered, is that if the zombies are evolving then what will they evolve into next…?

‘Autumn: Purification’ is another short novel in the series, weighing in at a ‘slightly underfed’ looking two hundred and seventy two pages. This is a kind of ‘trademark’ for Moody’s work, a writer who likes to keep things fairly simple and just tell it exactly how he sees it.
With ‘Purification’, I’m not sure that the approach works quite so well as it has in the past. Don’t get me wrong, keeping it short and sweet gives the reader a real flavour for just how bleak and deserted this new world is. If Moody is only showing us what he can see then there can’t be an awful lot left… I was unconvinced overall though and a large chunk of this is down to Moody’s decision to finally introduce a reason behind the disease outbreak that led to the dead returning to life in the first place. What we’re given is essentially conjecture (no-one knows if it is true or not) and this is completely at odds with Moody’s policy of just reporting the facts. This sequence judders while the rest of the book flows as normal. I was also left wondering just what the point of this information was; it doesn’t advance the plot in any way and comes across as if Moody forgot to include it in the first book and wanted to get it down before the very end.

The relative paucity of pages also left me wondering if Moody left himself with enough room to give us more insight into what is going on for our characters. While climactic scenes are treated with a greater degree of gusto and spectacle (you get an unnerving feel for what it’s like to be at the wrong end of a zombie swarm…) you don’t really know what it’s like for the characters in the midst of it all. The notable exception here is the treatment of the soldiers trapped inside their survival suits and slowly dying, that was nasty in all the right ways. Zombie fiction is all about the survivors and maybe if Moody had given himself a few more pages to work with then we really could have seen what it was like for them here.

The ending is sufficiently sombre but with an element of hope that is in keeping with what Moody has been saying over the course of the series; humanity can survive but it will take a hell of a lot of hard work...
I did have issues with ‘Autumn: Purification’ but none of them stopped me from finishing the book and I’m looking forward to seeing what ‘Autumn: Disintegration’ has to offer.

Eight out of Ten

‘Plague Town’ – Dana Fredsti (Titan Books)

This is going to be a much shorter review, than normal, as I’ve spent a large chunk of today sorting out bits of paperwork for the new job that I’ll be starting next Tuesday. Go me :o)

Do you remember the days when monsters used to be, well… you know… scary? I do. Werewolves used to prowl deserted moors and prey on hapless hitchhikers. Vampires used to lurk in the dark and climb through your bedroom window if you were stupid enough to leave it open. Other monsters quietly got on with doing what they did best, usually at a great cost in human life…
Then Urban Fantasy came along and everything changed. The werewolves came off the moors and became night-club bouncers for clubs owned by the vampires. Monsters still got on with what they did best but it all was tempered by deep and meaningful conversations with heroines looking for the humanity in creatures that hadn’t been human for an awfully long time. Thanks a lot Urban Fantasy, thanks for making vampires and werewolves (and even some demons) far less scary than they’ve ever been.

But that’s ok though. I mean, we’ve still got zombies right? The living dead, creatures that would rather eat the heroine than talk with her. There was still one last bastion of ‘monsterhood’ that Urban Fantasy couldn’t storm… could it? Well, I didn’t think so until a copy of ‘Plague Town’ arrived in the post. Look at that cover, have a read of the blurb in a paragraph's time. It was a long siege but Urban Fantasy won through in the end.
Of course I was going to read ‘Plague Town’ though, it promised to be full of zombies so how could I not? I picked up the book with a heavy heart though, not really that keen to see how Urban Fantasy treated my favourite monsters. Turns out that I needn’t have worried all that much. There’s a lot to ‘Plague Town’ that feels familiar but there’s a lot that’s different at the same time.

The people of Redwood Grove are dying of the flu but they’re not staying dead for long though… Student Ashley Parker finds herself on the wrong end of a zombie outbreak but also finds herself in a unique position, one that will let her fight back.
It turns out that Ashley is a ‘Wild Card’, someone who is not only immune to a zombie’s bite but can also heal from such a bite incredibly quickly. Recruited by an organisation that deals with this specific kind of threat, Ashley now has the chance to fight back. Will her small team of fellow ‘Wild Cards’ be enough to turn the tide though? Time is running out…

‘Plague Town’ is a bit of an odd one, at least it was for me. What I found difficult to get my head around will probably be what attracts a lot of people to the series. I’ll certainly be checking out the next book at least.

You see, ‘Plague Town’ is very much a ‘by the numbers’ Urban Fantasy. Take one feisty heroine with issues, open her eyes up to a world that she never knew existed and add a love interest that is destined to be a bumpy ride (in more ways than one) and what have you got? You’ve got ‘Plague Town’ of course but you’ve also got any number of other books doing exactly the same thing. It’s not original, not any more, not when the core tropes are just being rolled out instead of having a little care and attention paid to them. Actually that’s not quite true here.  The love interest does feel a little contrived but Fredsti does give you something new to ponder and that was cool as far as I was concerned.

I kept reading though, as I really will finish a book if it has zombies in it, and I’m glad that I did.

‘Plague Town’ may be ‘by the numbers Urban Fantasy’ in many ways but it redeems itself by also being a very nasty little horror novel at the same time. You may know what’s coming but Fredsti plays on your nerves and still manages to make you jump, sending her characters down some dark alleyways where anything could happen. There are plenty of ‘zombie surprises’ but there’s also a very interesting spin on the zombie epidemic that bodes well for future instalments (although if it’s used to solve the ‘love interest problem’ then I don’t know what I’ll do…) As it is, it’s certainly a moment that puts you right in the middle of the zombie apocalypse and shows you what people are capable of when the chips are down. If that wasn’t enough, Fredsti shows that she has absolutely no problems putting her readers right in the middle of a zombie swarm and leaving them to it. There’s a real surge of adrenaline in these sequences that makes you feel like you’re there experiencing it for real.

‘Plague Town’ is a novel then where short bursts of horror offset the fact that it isn’t doing a lot else that is new. There was enough to it though that I’d check out any sequels to see which way the balance swings in the future, definitely a series with potential.

Eight out of Ten

‘Pickman’s Model’ and ‘Dance of the Damned’

There used to be a time when I could review a whole anthology here and pay attention to each and every one of the stories contained therein. Not these days though, not with anthologies being released that can make even a Steven Erikson novel look all weak and anaemic (I’m looking at you ‘The Weird’ and you know it…)
Instead of leaving these books to gather dust on my lovely new shelves I thought I’d find a way round the ‘reviewing problem’ by picking out one story, every now and again, and writing a short post about it. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? So why am I looking at two short stories today...?

While I’d love to sound like I know what I’m talking about, the truth is far more… well… me really. I thought that today’s post could feature a tale from Otto Penzler’s ‘Zombies’ compendium and, opening the book completely a random, found myself faced with the illustrated opening to Arthur J. Burk’s ‘Dance of the Damned’. I’d never read anything of Burk’s and resolved to set that straight right away. At least until I closed the book and realised that I’d forgotten to pop a bookmark in…
A quick trip to the list of contents showed me that H.P. Lovecraft’s ‘Pickman’s Model’ was also to be found in the book. Here was a tale that I’d heard a lot of good things about but wasn’t included in the ‘Call of Cthulhu’ collection that I’ve been dipping in and out of.
Which story to post about first? Why not both of them…

Reading both ‘Pickman’s Model’ and ‘Dance of the Damned’ immediately informs the reader as to how diverse and far ranging the term ‘zombie’ actually is. For those of us who think that zombies can be neatly divided into ‘shamblers’ and ‘runners’ there’s a lot more to it, a lot more. Arthur J. Burk’s 1936 tale hearkens right back to a time when zombies were only really a part of Voodoo lore although ‘Dance of the Damned’ does attempt to bring science into the picture with a mad scientist kidnapping partygoers and killing them so that he can raise them from the dead.
Lovecraft’s ‘Pickman’s Model’ is perhaps a little more tenuous in calling itself a ‘zombie tale’ but the argument is there and it’s not a bad one either. Zombies are the ‘living dead’ or ‘undead’; what lurks beneath the streets of Lovecraft’s Boston is not only ‘undead’ but also quite happily makes a feast of the living. That’s a zombie in a nutshell if you ask me. Without giving too much away about the tale, Pickman’s model may not strictly be a zombie but shares enough of the same characteristics not to look out of place in this collection.

I spent a happy couple of hours, yesterday afternoon, totally engrossed in both ‘Pickman’s Model’ and ‘Dance of the Damned. Both tales had a lot to offer and kept me occupied until the little one woke up. If you were to find me in a week’s time though, which of the two tales would still be at the forefront of my mind? I would have to say that ‘Pickman’s Model’ would edge it here.

That’s not to say that there isn’t a lot to recommend ‘Dance of the Damned’. What we have here is a tale in the finest traditions of the finest pulp. There’s a terrible disaster that is being marked by a wild and rowdy party with our hero and heroine in attendance. A mystery unfolds in a wave of death and it is up to our hero to solve that mystery before any more people die. ‘Dance of the Damned’ is a fast paced affair with an underlying mystery that surprises on more than one front. Just when you think you’ve got your head around something quite simple Burk turns things upside down and leaves you with your mouth wide open by the very end of the story. A man can do what he is sure is the right thing but is it really? Our hero will never know for sure and Burk’s plan is that we’ll never be quite sure either. The problem is that that final surprise comes at the right time to dumbfound our hero but it’s maybe just a little too late to have the same kind of affect on the reader. ‘Dance of the Damned’ also chooses to focus a little bit too much on its characters and the atmosphere of the piece feels more like an afterthought than something that can really grip you. It’s not a bad story but ‘Dance of the Damned’ misses its opportunity to really grab you by the throat.

Not so with ‘Pickman’s Model’, a story that I’ll be pondering over for a while to come. I am in awe of ‘Pickman’s Model’ and its ability to unsettle on so many levels. You can’t help but be unsettled in the presence of the narrator who is so scared that he initially doesn’t want to tell the story at all. What an amazing hook to get the reader on board, it certainly worked for me. Lovecraft doesn’t stop there, mingling some of the more sordid histories of Boston with the activities of Pickman himself and how this is expressed in his art. ‘Pickman’s Model’ is certainly one of the more graphic of Lovecraft’s stories (that I’ve read anyway) with no detail spared the attention of the reader. This approach makes for some uncomfortable reading and this is very much deliberate. ‘Pickman’s Model’ isn’t just about a brief glimpse into the mind of an insane artist, it’s also about where Pickman gets that inspiration from. This is delivered in one of Lovecraft’s trademark ‘earth shattering final sentences’ and the affect really hits home. Our narrator doesn’t like the subway and his words will be lurking at the back of my head the next time I take the tube.

A couple of very good stories then and well worth a look if you can get your hands on either. If you can only get hold of one though, make it ‘Pickman’s Model’.

‘Dance of the Damned’ 8.5/10
‘Pickman’s Model’ 10/10

‘Sadie Walker is Stranded’ – Madeleine Roux (St. Martin’s Griffin/Headline)

As much as I try to be impartial here (and I do) there are certain books that I enjoy all the more because of the subject matter. Yep, I’m talking zombies again… :o) I won’t go into all the reasons why, I’m sure you know them all already, but suffice it to say that someone would have to seriously mess up a zombie novel for me to disappointed by it. Someone like Madeleine Roux? Well maybe that’s not quite fair. I loved the concept behind ‘Allison Hewitt is Trapped’ but it didn’t quite work where it mattered, not for me anyway. You can either read the full review Here or you can carry on here and read a couple of bits like,

‘…with Allison at times worrying more about the wireless connection, on her laptop, than what dangers might lurk in this new world.’

And,

‘…it just didn’t feel that dangerous to me as you know that Allison will be there at the end of the day to blog about it.’

As well as,

‘Allison Hewitt Is Trapped’ benefits greatly from its strong lead character but that ended up being almost the only reason I kept reading.’

Not a zombie book that I’d recommend to you guys then (although I do know others who have really enjoyed it). That being the case then, why did I pick up ‘Sadie Walker is Stranded’?

Well, the bottom line is that I liked the look of the world that Roux was building and I was interested to see how it would stand up without the ‘blogging perspective’ throwing things out of joint. Actually that’s not really the bottom line at all. I like zombie books, that’s all there is to it :o)
Having read ‘Sadie Walker’ though… I’m not sure that I would go back for a third helping. I do like what’s being done with the titles and would have a look at the cover to see what the next one is (‘Amanda Jones is having her large intestine pulled out and eaten by a walking corpse’?) but that’s about it…

Sadie Walker is a survivor in a world where those who don’t survive come back and try to eat those who have made it this far. Seattle is a safe haven for Sadie and her young nephew Shane; well… it is until trouble within the city brings those barricades down and floods the city with the walking dead.
Sadie and Shane manage to get the last boat out of the city but they are about to discover that the danger has spread out onto the open water… It’s not just zombies that they need to worry about either, other survivors have their own ideas about what shape this new world will take.

I really wanted to like ‘Sadie Walker is Stranded’, I really did. There was enough there to see me through to the end of the book but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who didn’t enjoy ‘Allison Hewitt is Trapped’. I said it last time and I’ll say it again, there are better zombie books out there.

I think the first hint, that things were most definitely not going the right way, came when Seattle was breached by the zombie hordes. Think about it, an entire city laid bare to the ravening masses of the undead. There has got to be scope there for harrowing scenes of death, panic and humanity at its absolute worst. Hasn’t there? Not if your heroine (you know, the person whose eyes we are seeing this all through) is unconscious for a large chunk of it. If that wasn’t bad enough, Sadie’s escape from Seattle (and what she has to do on the way) is a little bit too easy and makes a bit of a mockery of how urgent it’s supposed to be.
Now, you could say that’s how things can go sometimes; not everyone is going to have a tough time of it are they? I’d say that you’re correct but bailing your heroine out like that robs the story of it’s tension and lets the reader know that you’ll probably be looking out for said heroine over the course of the rest of the book. And that’s what Roux does although, to be fair, if you’re telling a story from a first person perspective then it’s a safe bet that your character is going to make it to the end of the book.
And Sadie was unconscious for what could have been some of the most amazing scenes in the entire book. I’m not sure I can forgive that…

It gets worse though.

Picture a world where the living dead outnumber the living by hundreds of thousands to one. Now picture yourself in that world, what do you do? Do you focus on the survival of you and yours? Or do you make eyes at that attractive looking guy in the group with a view to frantic sex on an island that you already know hides any number of zombies in the forest? You can probably guess what Sadie does…

All I could think was ‘oh, I guess things aren’t that dangerous after all’. They couldn’t be, surely, not if there’s time for a whole bunch of flirting leading up to a whole load of… well, you know. These moments really didn’t gel with the rest of the book and its talk of a zombie menace along with an unseen killer on the island (I liked that sub-plot actually, loads of questions with red herrings mixed in). It got to a point where I wasn’t sure what kind of a story I was reading; what is a tale of survival, after the zombie apocalypse, or was it some kind of weird take on paranormal romance? I don’t know…

‘Sadie Walker is Stranded’ is the point where this zombie fan jumps off the ride and looks for another. It’s not as dangerous as it likes to think it is (Zombies in the water? Well, don’t go in the water then…) and the attempt at introducing romance really doesn’t work at all. If you liked Roux’ first book then there could be something here for you, not for me though…

Five out of Ten

Zombie Quote of the Day!

I was in two minds about continuing with Madeleine Roux' 'Sadie Hewitt is Stranded' (and I'll tell you why when I review the book next week) until I came across this quote...

"I don't know, Andrea. Name me one thing worse than aquazombies. Go on, name one."
She thought for a moment, her head quirked to the side.
"Zombies with wings?"
"Jesus. That is worse."

Now I'm reading the book in the hope that I'll see winged zombies before the end. I know, I probably won't but a chap can hope... :o)

While we're here, can anyone think of anything zombie related that's worse than zombies with wings...?

‘Juggernaut’ – Adam Baker (Hodder & Stoughton)

I’ve said it before a number of times, here on the blog, but it’s always worth saying one more time. One of the things that I love the most (perhaps the thing) about reading books for the blog, and just reading in general really, is when I come across a book that just completely blows me away. It could be the characters, the plot or whatever; I’m just gripped for the entirety of the book and I’m practically gasping for breath by the time I put it down at the end. We’ve all read books like that haven’t we?
What’s even better is when it’s a book where I haven’t anticipated that reaction at all. We’ve all got our favourite authors where we’re guaranteed a great read but even those books can’t hope to beat a book that just comes right out of nowhere and flattens you with the tale that it has to tell. A book like Adam Baker’s ‘Outpost’ for example. I picked up ‘Outpost’ more or less on a whim (I love tales of the apocalypse and that was what was on offer here) and very quickly found that I couldn’t have put it down even if I’d wanted to. You can read my review Here if you like but here’s a couple of quotes that sum the whole thing up…

‘I really couldn’t put it down for a whole number of reasons, to the extent that I didn’t want to talk to people until I’d finished it. I finished it, put the book down and thought, ‘bloody hell...’ In the best possible way that is, any book that can put me through the wringer like that more than deserves praise.’

‘Outpost’ is a gloriously bleak read that offers you everything that a good apocalypse should and then proceeds to go one better in every area. You should read it, you really should.’

If you haven’t read ‘Outpost’ by now then I highly recommend you go and read it as soon as possible but I’m digressing.
I’d already made my mind up to check out more of Baker’s work and the arrival of an advance copy of ‘Juggernaut’ gave me the chance to do just that. What really sealed the deal for me though was the realisation that ‘Juggernaut’ was in fact a prequel to ‘Outpost’; I was really excited at the chance of finding out more about the Virus, where it originally came from and so on.
I got my wish but at a cost. ‘Juggernaut’ is a compelling read but not in the same league as ‘Outpost’…

It’s Iraq, in 2005, and seven mercenaries have just found themselves with a chance of becoming very rich. They have a guide who will take them into the desert and straight to a hidden cache of Saddam’s gold, enough to set all of them up for life. Their luck is about to change though and very much for the worse…
The team finds themselves marooned in ancient ruins with traitors in their midst and a shadowy government agency suddenly taking a keen interest in their activities. What’s far worse though is the army under their feet that is suddenly waking up; an army that will do anything to get their hands on fresh meat, an army that just won’t stay dead.

‘Juggernaut’ is not ‘Outpost’, of course it isn’t; ‘Juggernaut’ is it’s own book and very much does it’s own thing. A lot of what was good about ‘Outpost’ doesn’t seem to have found its way to ‘Juggernaut’ though and that’s a real shame. Like I said, ‘Juggernaut’ is a great read but I couldn’t help thinking what could have been…

Whereas ‘Outpost’ pretty much drops you in the middle of an already impossible situation (and has it get worse), ‘Juggernaut’ takes the approach of gradually building up to the big payoff. The problem is though that it takes just that little bit too long to get there and the transition from build up to full on action is choppy to say the least. ‘Juggernaut’ is not a smooth read, in that respect, and it really needed to be with the approach that it took.

What I also found odd was that for all the time it took to set up the mission, get to the ruined temple and so on, I never really got much of a feel for who any of the characters really were. To be fair, the frantic second half of the book doesn’t leave you a lot of time to get to know people but what about the long trip into the desert in the first half? Surely that was the time for introductions? There’s a very definite line drawn between ‘good’ and ‘evil’ but you can’t really root for the ‘goodies’ as you don’t know them. Contrast this with the characterization in ‘Outpost’ (which was very good) and you’ll get why I wasn’t too happy this time round.

When things do kick off though, you find yourself forgiving the bits that weren’t so hot earlier on. There’s a double-cross that you know is coming but at least two more that you don’t and this is what keeps the book fresh and engaging. Yeah, I could have done with more of this earlier but better late than never I guess.
The virus possessed ‘zombie’ soldiers make for some gripping reading as well. They are remorseless and the slightest scratch from one of them spells a demise that makes a regular zombie bite look like a wasp sting. No-one is safe and Baker does a great job of getting that fear across. The two mercenaries left must fight their own comrades as well as a vertaible horde of possessed soldiers that just will not stop coming. Baker does a superb job of drawing you into those moments of quiet and then, when it’s far too late, showing you that it’s not so quiet after all…

Fans of ‘Outpost’ will also get a lot out of ‘Juggernaut’ for the gaps it fills in as far as the arrival of the virus, on Earth, goes. There is more going on in the background than you thought and it fleshes out the overall story more than satisfactorily.

That wasn’t quite enough to save ‘Juggernaut’ for me though. Once it got going I couldn’t put it down but its departure from the tried and proven formula that worked so well for ‘Outpost’…? That was where things fell down for me.
There is a third book in the works and you can bet on my being there for its publication as the overall story line is one that just has to be read. I’m hoping for more along the lines of ‘Outpost’ though…

Eight and a Quarter out of Ten

‘The Walking Dead: Volume 15, We Find Ourselves’ – Kirkman & Adlard (Image Comics)

So... For all my talk yesterday of how zombies aren’t just about the post apocalypse, I go and follow it up with a post about one of the best (and longest running) ‘post apocalyptic series featuring zombies’ out there at the moment. That’s how I roll :o) And it’s not only that, there have been a few little blips along the way but (on the whole) ‘The Walking Dead’ has been a consistently well written series that has given me a lot over the years. Full on zombie action with a healthy dose of the consequences of living in this brave (and slowly rotting) new world. This is one of a select few series where the publication of a new chapter means that I will inevitably drop whatever I’m reading and get stuck in. Maybe that’s about to change though...

I moved to London way back in 2004 and ‘The Walking Dead’ was already on its third volume (maybe even the fourth) by this point. That’s a long time for any series to be consistently putting out new content (notice that I’m not counting series that have been going far longer that have had breaks in between) and you can’t help but wonder when the tipping point will come. I don’t think it’s come quite yet for ‘The Walking Dead’ but the signs are there. I think.

After the events of ‘No Way Out’ (Volume 14) the community is trying to rebuild itself and look to make itself stronger for a safe future that Rick really wants for Carl. Will Carl see that future though? He’s in a coma and showing no signs of waking up. There are also ominous rumblings from longer term residents that the arrival of Rick and his band has spelt nothing but trouble for them. They were safe before but now they’re dying at a tremendous rate, Rick and his friends have to go... one way or another.
Will Rick be able to deal with all these new developments though? Rick is reaching his limits and cannot live with what he has become...

Long term readers of the ‘Walking Dead’ series will notice that there’s a well defined pattern to how the story plays out. Rick and his friends get settled, start to make a life for themselves and then it all comes crashing down in a series of violent events that will leave at least one main character eaten by zombies. Pieces are picked up and the whole thing starts all over again. This is very much what ‘We Find Ourselves’ is, a transitional piece where everyone gets a chance to take a breather before they start again. This time though, this approach doesn’t work nearly as well as it has done in the past.

The bottom line is that there is no real sense of danger to give the plot any urgency whatsoever. In the past, transitional books have been driven by the fact that zombies are still out there, often quite literally snapping at the heels of the survivors. Rick and his band have to find shelter before they can begin to recover.

This time, the gap in the wall is filled in and... That’s pretty much it. A small group of zombies is picked off with almost contemptuous ease and the one or two others encountered have been frozen, its winter, so can be picked off even more easily. You’re probably thinking that’s ok though; after all we have a rebellious faction within the community itself that should make for an interesting turn of events. That rebellious faction has potential but this is wasted by the fact that Kirkman not only uses them too soon but clearly doesn’t give them a brain cell to share between them all. They are also taken care of far too easily (having never really had to fight for survival like Rick and his friends) and the status quo resumes too smoothly for my liking.

The story really needs the walls of the community to come crashing down, in order to spice things up, but at the same time the logical step for the survivors is to make those walls even stronger so they can settle down and live. It’s an interesting conundrum for the series and one that suggests to me that the ending can’t be too far away now, however it turns out.

In the meantime, Rick’s introspection (and having to rebuild his relationship with Carl) doesn’t quite balance out the fact that nothing is really happening here. I get that you can’t have zombies all the time but you’ve got to replace it with something that keeps the story vital and interesting. There’s very little of that here, just hints for the future that don’t match what has gone before.

‘The Walking Dead’ hasn’t let me down, on the whole, so I am more than willing to be proved wrong as the story continues. Right now, things just felt a little lacklustre (including the artwork), like the story was just marking time instead of actually doing something. That doesn’t bode well for the future but, like I said, I’m willing to be proved wrong.

Seven and a Half out of Ten

Zombies in Speculative Fiction...

I’ve been reading John R. Fultz’ ‘Seven Princes’, over the last few days, and tweeted about an absolutely awesome scene (right at the beginning) involving my favourite decaying members of the undead community. Yeah, them :o)

This tweet got a reply from a favourite blogger of mine that went a little something like this...

Gavreads - @graemesfantasyb @AnnaGregson zombies??? In fantasy?? Nice!

My first thought was, ‘Gav doesn’t read a lot of fantasy does he?’ My second thought was, ‘maybe he’s being ironic?’ You see, the thing is, zombies are all over fantasy (and science fiction) like you wouldn’t believe. Ok, I might be stretching things a bit; I’m not a hundred percent sure what the difference between a zombie and a Lich is for example, or between a zombie and a Mummy for that matter. For the sake of this post, I’m going with a fairly loose definition of ‘human, recently returned from the dead with an overpowering desire to rend the living (and possibly eat them)’ ;o)

I guess the point I’m trying to make is that zombie fiction isn’t just about grim post apocalyptic survival (although this fiction is very cool). If you fancy seeing zombies in a slightly different setting then you could do worse than check some of these books out...

Anything from the Black Library

You’re a publisher that publishes books based around a tabletop wargame or two. Said war games give you the option to field armies consisting solely of the undead, you can guess where I’m going here... Yep, certain Black Library books are crammed full of zombies just waiting to be offed either by projectile weaponry or a dirty great big sword. Specific titles that I’ve reviewed include Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s ‘Cadian Blood’ and Nathan Long’s ‘Zombieslayer’. You could also pick up Mike Lee’s ‘Nagash’ trilogy (if you do, tell me what it’s like as I haven’t read it yet)

‘Seven Princes’ – John R. Fultz

I can’t not include this book as there would be no post without it! Zombie action has grown lighter, as the book has progressed, but the opening scenes culminate in zombies eating an entire city. AN ENTIRE CITY people! Now that’s putting the ‘epic’ back in Epic Fantasy.

‘Leviathan Wakes’ – James S.A. Corey

I loved this book anyway (looking forward to the sequel) but all the more so because it had space zombies that absolutely would not stop in their quest to take a big old bite out of humanity. Essential reading for fans of Space Opera or fans of Space Zombies :o)

‘The Forge in the Forest’ – Michael Scott Rohan

I’m taking things a little ‘old school’ here with a book that was published just over twenty years ago. An old favourite of mine as well, I highly recommend this series to any fan of well written fantasy. But what about the zombies? Well... What’s the one thing that’s worse than loosing all your travelling companions in the midst of a dark and forbidding forest? When they all come back from the dead to make certain that you join them... Those particular passages scared me back in the day and they still do now.

Abaddon Book’s ‘Tomes of the Dead’ series

I had to think hard about whether to include these books, or not, as most of them are either set in the present day or are tied to a particular point in history. As a whole though, the series deserves to be mentioned here so I’ll highlight Al Ewing’s ‘I, Zombie’ (sci-fi/horror), Paul Finch’s ‘Stronghold’ (historical background but the use of Welsh legend swung it for me) and Toby Venables’ ‘The Viking Dead’ (which I still haven’t read but the blurb merits its inclusion). Oh the hell with it, give ‘Anno Mortis’ a go as well.

‘Deathtroopers’ & ‘Red Harvest’ – Joe Schreiber

The universe of Star Wars is vast and, as such, there’s room for a little bit of everything... including zombies. A couple of chilling reads here that fans of zombies and Star Wars (but probably mostly Star Wars) will enjoy.

‘Shadow Prowler’ – Alexhey Pehov

Now here’s a book that was roundly slated when it was published in English; not by me though, it was a light fun read that proved to be just what I was after at the time. And it has zombies in it :o) Certain readers here might not know this but, as a rule, if there’s an deserted town or treasure filled crypt in fantasyland then you’ll find zombies lurking around all sorts of corners within. That’s what you’re looking at here and, possible translation issues to one side, it’s all done very nicely.

And now I’m starting to struggle a bit, serves me right for not making a list beforehand like I promised myself I would. Without going into specifics (because I don’t know any), D&D tie-in fiction has to be a massive resource for reading about the undead what with all those tombs etc waiting to be broken into (and evil necromancers doing their thing). I’m wracking my brains trying to remember if Conan has fought the living dead (any the pen of any author, not just Howard) but I’m pretty sure that Elric has.

Hopefully I’ve shown, a little bit at least, that zombies aren’t limited to the bombed out cities of apocalyptic fiction. Please help me fill in the massive gaps I’ve left by adding any further reading suggestions in the comments below...