Horror Books

I've been a fan of "real-world" fantasy fiction before I even knew the term, and as a queer male, I have to implore Tanya Huff to keep writing this series. I'm currently researching a potential series that I want to write, and I've found no one else who is willing to work within the "everyday life" perspective - I have flat out not found anyone else who has been willing (or able) to approach fantasy fiction from an "altered now" perspective. We've got several authors who are willing to retreat into a world of their own making, but there isn't anyone else brave enough to take a contemporary context into their writing. And the fact that Ms. Huff is able to write from the opposite gender-perspective for the romantic-relations? Outstanding! (I can relate-- most of my friends are dykes, hags, and bi-chicks - I try to excel at avoiding gay drama...) I hope that I'm equal at writing a conflicted (parallel) female heroine. I'd be a poor reviewer if I off-sited a review of the book ("say 'hi' to Library School") - but this series is a mega-read for queer-teens, and a gratifying and better-than-beach-novel-read (harder to find in sci-fi/fantasy genre) for inclined gay men, and (as a veteran of the original Henry Fitz-Roy series)something that as a now aspiring-writer & English Professor (adjunct) I'd be beside myself if Ms. Huff chose to continue. We can only be so favored... How much intelligent gay fiction occurs involving the modern world rather than someone's not-so-attached-to-current-reality world? This is where some of us want Hamilton and Harrison to go to...

(N.B.: if you haven't read the original series with Vicki Nelson, *read them*! - well worth it! - mh.)

Interesting characters, witty humor and sex scenes done right (which is to say, not overdone) the Smoke series really does it for me. The third book is definitely the strongest of the series and they have gotten progressively better. My only complaint is that I wish there were more in the recent future, as I'd much rather be reading more Smoke books than more Valor books as I much more enjoy the wit Smoke contains.

This is the last part of Huff's Smoke trilogy and also the best one. Whereas the first book was "only" interesting and the second one immensely suspenseful, the third one is one amazing ride, from the very first page to the last one.

To sum it up...
-> Tony's inner monologue is simply hilarious! I laughed so hard that there were tears running down my face!
-> Huff creates the best female characters, strong but not ornery.
-> There were no "empty spaces" where the reader would get bored, there was always something going on.
-> I love the relationship between Tony and Henry. They are ex-lovers but you don't feel bad about them breaking up because they actually didn't. Break up, I mean. Henry is still a huge part of Tony!s life and Tony wouldn't want it any other way.
-> Victory had a small cameo and she still kicked butt!
-> The CB Production's crew is a bunch of hilarious, lovable nutjobs with their own little oddities.
-> And lets not forget the budding relationship between Tony and Lee that progressed at the right pace, considering the mayhem in these three books!

Overall, a must-read and one of the best books that I read in years!

Another fine book by Tanya Huff. Interesting characters and a really dangerous enemy they face. I would not be upset if I see these characters again. Tony Foster seems to develop with each book, Henry Fitzroy stays the same, letting Tony look more impressive as the books progress

The third and up to the moment last book of the "smoke" series has left me somewhat unsatisfied.

As of now I tend to ascribe this to the plot, sort of a remix of the one in volume one, that is demons invading the world and Tony fighting them. I felt less suspense than I would have liked and even if I never got bored I am not able to say the usual "I couldn't put it down".

In spite of this rather annoying limit this book is quite fun all the same, an entertaining read.

Side characters here tend to step backward and spotlights close on Tony who is likeable to the point of being adorable, uneducated but now, finally, mature and the main tool for the author's puns: Tony's dialogues with himself are outrageously funny, those with Henry hardly less so.
Henry here is quite likeable too. Ms Huff slightly alters his general attitude and he turns from a possessive demon more concerned to safeguard his property from harm to an affectionate if not a little possessive ex lover. He cares for Tony a lot but in this volume he seems to have given up any hope of being with him again. Whether this was an author's deliberate choice or simply an inconsistency in characterization I cannot tell.
Even the romance between Tony and Lee takes a new turn. Gone is the angst of the first two book where Tony was caught up with Lee and the latter behaved ambiguously enough to make the reader scream.
Even in this case I got the very strong impression this was no more a meditated progress than Ms Huff's giving up consistent character development for the sake of building up a good story. I appreciate the characters here more than in the former two episodes but this also keeps me from giving a five star rating.

The writing is proficient and proficiently pushes the story forward: the 400+ pages flow unhindered to a nice if not really memorable ending.

Other reviewers keep on mentioning sex scenes: I have found them quite tame and unlikely to cause any reaction except from very prudish readers; a rather generous amount of four letter words again can only disturb above mentioned readers.
This book can be read by teens too, if mature enough even from the age of 14 or so. They will probably miss some of the interpersonal depth (especially the subtext of the relationship between Tony and Henry) but they will not miss the fun.

In ancient times, the keeper of the fire in human prehistoric tribes was the figure of the shaman. He or she channeled the powers of the spirits, and the Land, and of the human collective unconsciousness into lore that his or her people could understand -- mapping out a landscape in order to properly perceive, and therefore survive the world around them. As such, the shamanic figure was of necessity a storyteller.

As others have said, Voice of the Fire -- the essence of which the metaphorical storyteller gets his or her stories is not an easy journey, or vision-quest in any sense of the word. You, as the audience, have to follow the path set for you. It begins in prehistoric times from first-person point of view of a developmentally challenged young man who perceives language and therefore reality differently from those around him; to a cunning and cruel Bronze Age woman; to the time of Roman Occupation of Britain, the Dark Ages, the Renaissance, the witch-trials of the 1700s, Victorian times, a crime in the 1950s, and finally the more present day of 1995.

All of this takes place in England's Northampton. And as you follow the path from the prehistoric to the modern, in some ways the journey becomes easier and in other ways more difficult. The shaman, or elements of the shamanic are always ever-present, as is the mythology and history of the land. You can trace the pattern of history, and psycho-geography -- of the way the generations of people left their psychic mark on the land around them just as you can follow the tattoo paintings on a shaman's flesh. The beginning is full of almost pure metaphor and the core ideas are introduced by the narrator, becoming more direct, yet somewhat diluted in time.

As writer, as storyteller, as shaman in the intermediary sense of the word, Alan Moore channels the spirits of those that came before him, and that of the Land itself. It is the mythopoeic odyssey of people, and places. It is hard to follow, and it is unique. The reader must travel through the spiritual landscape, in a personal dream quest not unlike those of the characters around them. There is no other way. It is the only way.

Most comics readers have heard of Alan Moore, and EVERYONE working in comics has been influenced by him. So when he released his first prose novel several years ago (1995?) I bought a British import and read it in a few days. Devoured it. Savoured every concrescence manifesting through the man's words. Loved it.

And then the book went out of print...

Until Top Shelf brought it back! (yesh)

Watchmen? From Hell? Tom Strong? Swamp Thing? A Small Killing? Halo Jones? Naw, it's different from all of them. Here's a quote from a current Moore interview: "I'd like to think that if I've shown anything, it's that comics are the medium of almost inexhaustible possibilities, that there have been...there are great comics yet to be written. There are things to be done with this medium that have not been done, that people maybe haven't even dreamed about trying. And, if I've had any benign influence upon comics, I would hope that it would be along those lines; that anything is possible if you approach the material in the right way. You can do some extraordinary things with a mixture of words and pictures. It's just a matter of being diligent enough and perceptive enough and working hard enough, continually honing your talent until it's sharp enough to do the job that you require."

He does the same thing with prose, pushing the medium in surprising directions. The closest literary equivalent I know of is 'Ulysses' - but that takes place in one day. 'Voice of the Fire' covers a few thousand years. Both are equally dulcet and disquieting. It's a book worth owning. And rereading.

I think that Rebecca Scott explains the book best in her greenmanreview.com review. Here is an excerpt:

"If Voice of the Fire has a protagonist, it must be Northampton itself, because this is the story of the formation of the mythology of that place. It is a geological study of the strata of the collective unconscious of the area. Each of its twelve chapters is the first-person story of an individual who crystallized into the forming stones in the hill of tales, whose bodies fed its grass and trees. Their histories wind through that of the land, bringing us closer and closer to the present day.

Each of the chapters includes a full-color plate, a photographic character portrait by Jose Villarrubia (who contributed to the very fine graphic novel Veils). These glow softly, and have a painterly quality about them that makes even the grimmest a gem. Yet this is a text novel, not a graphic novel, and the words are the things. Very fine words they are, too: "Trust in the fictive process, in the occult interweaving of text and event must be unwavering and absolute. This is the magic place, the mad place at the spark gap between word and world." The language is vivid, graphic (sometimes too graphic for someone who reads while eating). Each chapter, each story, has a distinct voice, radically different from the others...

This book is a work of magic ... If you let it, it will work a change in your consciousness ... So come, climb this hill of tales in the night of myth, draw close to the flames, listen to the voice of the fire, and let it work its spell in you." -- Rebecca Scott, GreenManReview.com

This is a rather difficult book and it will not fare very well for a casual reading. It forced you to think, to look and rather more to feel what it is around you. It actually demand a lot from a reader, which is not a problem as long as the pay off is this good.
This is one of the most visual book I read. I think the writer have a picture of the events in his mind and describe it, rather than just thought of it as a prose. The think is, this will not work very well if the structure of the book allow it to be. And amazingly, I think it works quite well. The last chapter of the book make me look around in my dark room, feeling a breath of someone else on my neck.
Just don't read it when you are alone.

Alan Moore's first prose novel, which combusted onto the scene some ten years ago now, still has yet to receive much attention. This occurrence is strange, but understandable. The book, to give a brief overview, is a collection of twelve short stories taking place in twelve different time periods (stretching from 4,000BC to AD1995), all sharing the same setting of the central area of England that eventually becomes Northampton.

Moore, who is so famous I can trust to odds that you know the top three or four works he's most famous for, as revolutionized the comics industry in terms of storytelling, style, and tone time and again. And yet Voice of the Fire remains low on Amazon.com's list of books sold, its decade in the 84,450s list include the English Teacher's Book of Instant Word Games and a certainly captivating Dictionary of Financial Terms.

This, inasmuch as concerns what the public is fed through the New York Times Best Seller List, is unsurprising. Moore's book begins with a 40+ paged chapter about a Neolithic cave-boy's exile from his hunter-gatherer tribe. An emotional and moving story to be sure...if you can make it to the end. The story is told in the first person, using what Moore estimates to be less than five hundred words--his creative attempt at mimicking Neolithic speech and thought.

If you're wondering what to expect from the story: expect fire. And blood. Horror. Nightmares. And more fire besides. Be it ancient, Roman, Norman, or modern, Northampton has never been a very safe place to live, an issue Moore addresses personally as the protagonist in the final chapter, written in a stream-of-consciousness style.

Expect a smorgasbord of writing styles. Moore takes the driver's seat with his characters, and with a Dickens-esque talent to create new personalities the reader sees this single geographical area from such varied points of view as a murderess who plots to get rich quick, a Roman agent come to find a local money counterfeiter, and even a disembodied head upon a gate. Many of the novel's characters are based off of actual historical figures, giving the whole work a cryptic echo that weaves in an out of the story. This echo, this voice of the fire, is the most captivating part of the book, and for which reason I obnoxiously give this book its 5-star rating. Learning history is fun. Learning history within the context of history--even if it is fiction--is perhaps one of the most thought-provoking experiences one can have with a book.

I recommend this book to any reader who has an interest in history or anthropology. For writers, read this if you want to study up on character development or telling first-person stories in a myriad of ways. Moore fans, just read this; he's done it again.

Jack Ketchum is known for being extreme. What he doesn't get credit for as often is being insightful and original. RED is, relative to his more signifigant works OFF SEASON and THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, perhaps not the strongest material. But luckily it's Ketchum writing this, so rest assured the concept is maximized and extremely readable.

I recently read this and felt it shared a lot of common ideas with this years oscar-winning NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (and moreso compared to the excellent book). Both stories thematically focus on a man in his twilight years who should by all rights enjoying his golden years. Both stories are about how that ideal is shattered by an act of 'modern' violence that the man cannot understand coming from his old fashioned viewpoint.

RED is a story that you assume from Ketchum will end up like Death Wish, but then you would be underestimating Ketchum. He is far more creative than that, and knows when to exercise restraint. The culmination of the story is both where it is thematically bound to go but surprising to reader expectations.

I reccommend this book, but deduct one star from a full 5 only because it doesn't represent Ketchums greatest achievements.

First of all, I'm not a huge fan of Mister Ketchum's work . . . not saying it isn't powerful writing, it just isn't the kind of stuff I like to read. For example, "The Girl Next Door" almost made me punch a hole in the wall, and some of his lesser works (Off Season, The Crossing) seemed directed more towards folks who appreciate "shock" value.

"Red" was different.

Some of his fans have expressed disappointment with "Red", but I think -- with the possible exception of "The Girl Next Door" (which I did NOT enjoy at all, but respect Ketchum for having written) -- it is the best thing he's ever written.

Very understated, but he chooses his words -- and even the punctuation -- for maximal effect. A beautiful story about a man and his dog . . . well, a man and his dead dog, anyhow.

The Truth can be an ugly thing -- and Ketchum has seen the ugliness of our fellow men and turns that ugliness into realistic characters. This is a good story, and shows that you just shouldn't piss some folks off thinking that you can get away with it. Ludlow was a reasonable, and in my opinion NON-VIOLENT man. Many of the folks I've known would've handled things a bit differently -- especially after the initial encounter with the reptilian father -- but then we'd have a 20 page short story instead of a 200+ page novel. Best line: "You've had quite a day."

"Red" is followed by the novella "The Passenger" which has been printed elsewhere and, in my opinion, is rather silly -- but it has good elements. The crazy lady, Marion, was about as sane as my first girlfriend, and Ketchum realistically portrays her psychosis. The other characters, and the "Hole in the Wall" were like something out of a comic book though.

Those readers looking to follow up Ketchum's other novels - namely 'The Lost' and 'The Girl Next Door' - with something even more brutal should not look to 'Red'. While certainly heart-wrenching, 'Red' just doesn't contain the sort of stomach-churning violence of Ketchum's earlier works.

Instead, Ketchum performs a sort of slow burn with this novel, hitting you in the first few pages with the set-up and then letting the characters become so intertwined over the next two-hundred pages that, by the end, none of them can seem to breathe. It's not action-packed, but when violence breaks out, it is almost understandable in context.

It's a nice departure for Ketchum, though the back jacket of the book seems to portray the novel in a much more sinister nature than is actually true of the book's circumstances.

The book is actually touching and sweet and, though the themes sort of hit you over the head, they, too, play into what Ketchum is attempting to accomplish very well. Anyone who has ever owned and loved an animal can identify with the main character when the dog is killed, especially by the kind of thoughtless psychopaths in the book.

Fans of Ketchum will probably still enjoy this tale, though I wouldn't suggest you try to fill your gore quota by reading 'Red'. Try 'Off Season' instead.

Jack Ketchum has quickly became a favorite and I was not disappointed by this book. Highly recommended!

Avery Ludlow is a simple man, a plain man, a Korean war vet whose suffered terrible personal loss. But he's not a lonely man because he still has his faithful companion Red, an old mongrel dog whose his oldest friend. Av owns and runs a store in town, and in his spare time he likes to fish. One day while fishing, the old dog by his side as always, three boys wander into the clearing with a shotgun and bad attitudes. They threaten to rob Av and then, without reason or warning, shoot and kill Red. (all animal lovers will cry at this scene)

Av manages to track the boys down and visits their home, telling the father of the two McCormack boys of what they'd done, wanting nothing more than the father to punish the boys. But the McCormacks aren't simple folk like Av, the father doesn't believe Av and believes his boys when they lie.

All Av wants is simple justice for his old friend, an apology, a punishment, but it is denied to him through the families, the police, the DA, and the courts. When a short story is run on television about the tragic shooting of the dog, Av's store mysteriously burns down. Av is up against something greater than he expected. Av doesn't back down and things go from bad to worse.

During the course of the story we discover Av's past tragedies though his relationship with the television reporter, the tale making the death of the dog even more depressing. How far will Av go to see the right thing done? How far will the McCormack's go to protect their prestigious name and their precious boys? You'll have to read the book to find out.

'Red' isn't a particularly fast-paced book but its compelling enough to keep you up late at night to finish it. It's superbly written, a story of social class and human nature (both good and bad). A poignant tale of love and tragedy. Ketchum captures the soul of Av, and the soulnessness of McCormack to perfection. Highly recommended. Enjoy!

Tagged on the end of the book is a 93 page novella called 'The Passenger'. This is the story of a woman named Janet whose car breaks down at night. She's picked up by an old high school classmate named Marion who turns out to be a few cards short of a full deck. After getting into an accident with three cop-killers, Marion invites them in on the ride and the action doesn't stop from there. Murder, rape, and car-theft are the thrills of the day, and Janet is captive until she lures the killers to a place called Hole-In-The-Wall, a depraved camp where she hopes to exact her revenge. This novella has "screenplay" written all over it, obviously B horror movie fodder. While fast-paced and more typically Ketchum horror, I would give this story only three and a half stars.

I recommend this book, and the three-star rating I'm giving it feels a little harsh. (Three and one half stars, anyone?) Barb and J.C. Hendee have created an appealing protagonist, essentially a vampire slayer a la Buffy, but not a carbon copy of Whedon's creation at all. Her personality, background and hang-ups are certainly her own, not stuck somewhere in Sunnydale. Her companion, Leesil, has an interesting backstory himself, and such a thoughtfully conceived character earns his share of the narrative!
I also appreciate the fact that the authors have made the vampires three-dimensional characters, earning some empathy even as they wreak havoc.
The plot is a strong point here, which is unusual, as vampire novels often collapse into a soapy mess of blood-red roses and heaving bodices. Instead, the story is subtler and more interesting: the orbits of vampire and vampire hunter creep ever closer, a process born more of gravity and inevitability (dare I say fate?) than of any desire to fight.
So, all that and only three stars? I'm on the edge of four here. But one thing this book didn't do -- it didn't hook me. It didn't make me stay up way past my bedtime just to find out what happens. I think that some of the "in between" passages felt too static, the rhythm perhaps a bit unsettled as action and intrigue give way to exposition and backstory without keeping the blood pumping.
Before I spout another blood analogy, I think I'd better stop here and sink my teeth into the sequel: Thief of Lives.

The only thing that kept me moving through this book was that I wanted to find out what happened to the 2 main characters. I give the authors credit for that

Unfortunately, that's all they got right. The writing is unbearably flowery. Nothing is black or red or hot or cold. Instead, everything is "garnet" or "the color of freshly picked dill" or "as warm as a mother's kisses" or something like that, which is both awkward and not particularly informative. In one passage they actually say that a guy has hair "the color of black cornsilk"! Now come on, how is that different than black?

The passages having to do with the various characters' motivations are just as murky in meaning and over wrought in word choice. They take 20 words to tell you something, and then you're not sure what they just told you. In one section they actually take a 5 sentence, with very long sentences, paragraph to tell you that a guy is standing on a catwalk watching his workers work.


The actual story itself is 2 steps forward, 2 steps back, all the way up to the last 20 pages or so. Nothing happens. They fight some vampires, the vampires get away. The vampires ambush them, they get away. You realize things about 200 pages before any of the characters do, then they spend the whole book laboriously hinting at those same things you already figured out, only to stun you with it at the end of the book like you would have had no idea what was coming

All of that adds up to a book that was an incredible chore to slog through. It did get better towards the end, so I bought the next one in the series. I immediately regretted it, since it starts everything all over back at square one, and you have to go through all the boring hints and super descriptive language that doesn't actually describe anything all over again. So discouraging

Take a pass on this one, and on anything else by these two. You could literally teach a writing class on what not to do with their books as examples, that's how bad the plot and prose are

Pros:
-"Characters are not perfect"
The main characters have shady histories, secrets, emotions that present them as human which makes it easier to relate to them. For example, the half elf does not follow the goody-two shoe stereotype and has a drinking/gambling problem.
-"Vampires are not mindless"
Vampires aren't necessarily treated as another version of a zombie that wants blood instead of brains. They actually have wishes, desires, and each vampire has a personality that is different from the other presenting a non-cookie cutter character.
-"Character Histories are not obtrusive"
The histories of the characters in the story are presented in a way that doesn't jar the storyline.

Cons:
-"Predictable Events"
It's not hard to guess at what will happen in future pages as the story goes along.
-"Difficult to connect with the Villagers"
There are a few deaths that occur with the villagers that really didn't hold anything for me and yet I felt like they should to illustrate how dire the situation was for the town.

Other:
-"Welstiel - Felt slightly dues ex machina"
The way Welstiel pretty much walks in and out of the story at times with nary a clue to his background proved to be more irking than mysterious to my tastes in the way the story was written. I have not read the next two books of the series yet though. Depending on how Welstiel is presented in those books, reading them might change my opinion on this.

I'm not really much for vampire stories normally, but this is a well written set of books. the characters are compelling even the evil ones. The stories have a lot of action, but can get a little moody as is common in vampire and vampire hunter novels. Probably not for someone trying to break into the fantasy or vampire genre.

I really liked this book, the idea was different. I am always looking for new and exciting plot twists. I have since purchased the remainder of the books in the series and I have noticed that her characters and writing style has improved with each book. If you enjoy sci-fi I would recommend this as a good read.

My granddaughter, who just had her 8th birthday, enjoyed the book I sent her very much. She began reading it just as soon as she got it as a present for her birthday.

This is one of the few Goosebumps books that we've seen a recording of the television show that was made...and I have to say, in this case, the television episode was actually better than the book version. This The Haunted Mask is the story of Carly Beth just fed up with being wimpy, wimpy, wimpy...tired of constantly being teased, pranked, and scared by her friends Carly Beth is determined to get the scariest Halloween mask ever and show her friends that she's not such a wimp after all. As with all things in the R.L Stine universe, Carly Beth's quest to teach her tormenters a lesson comes with a hefty price.

On the night of Halloween, she just can't bring herself to put on the not-so-scary costume her mother's made for her, instead she runs out to a shop and finds "the perfect mask" in the back room of the store, unfortunately the owner is hesitant to part with it...ultimately she gets the mask and embarks on what she thinks will be the best get even Halloween scare ever...until she realizes that the mask much more than an ugly face to care her friends with and that she may become trapped inside as it begins to change her personality as well. Will Carly Beth get the mask off? You'll have to read to find out!

Not as enjoyable as I'd have liked...The Haunted Mask isn't a "bad" book, for me it boils down to feeling no connection to any of the characters...we don't get to know Carly Beth before we see her pranked, teased and scared constantly and the picture the reader gets is that if these are her friends, she sure doesn't need any enemies...they're downright mean, the goal seems to be to embarrass her more than anything else. I think young readers would enjoy The Haunted Mask, as a whole it is one of the scarier premises of the series but for me personally, this was a flop. I didn't think the interaction between the friends was indicative of "friend" behavior, it felt mean spirited perhaps if the build up to Halloween had been longer and we'd gotten to know the four friends just a bit more, this would have been a better read. Overall, I felt a bit let down, I rate this at three stars because the idea behind it is good, but the execution and character development was really lacking.

Sixth grader Steve Boswell has a problem, a very serious problem. He has been sentenced to coach a 1st grade soccer team as punishment for a prank gone wrong. As if losing every afternoon after school was not enough the team of 6 year olds seem determined to destroy him with their antics. Steve has decided to extract revenge by scaring them with a Halloween prank. His plans call for a particularly frightening costume, like the one a classmate scared him with the previous year. When he asked about the mask, however, his classmate was very reluctant to tell where she had gotten the mask. After Steve did manage to get the information she pleaded with him not to get a mask. Before Halloween was over Steve wished he had listened to her.

This is part of the popular GOOSEBUMPS series targeted to 9 to 12 year olds (Reading level 4th grade). As with the rest of the series this one is rather scary and very gross, totally appealing to it's pre-teen audience. Also attractive to this group is the organization of the story into short cliff-hanger chapters urging the reader to continue. The book itself is quite short, only 124 pages - most adults would be able to finish it in less than an hour - making it likely to hold the interest of even a reluctant reader until the end.

This book in not nearly as good as the first Haunted Mask by the same author. It never tied up the ending of the first book by explaining what happened to Karlie's brother. The rest of the story was too predicteble.

I JUST LOVED THE BOOK. IT ALMOST SUCKED ME INSIDE IT.

Most definitely not one for the squeamish. A hell of a lot of shooting off of heads. Gunfights are fun I suppose when you are an indestructible manic vampire lord. Some strange meta commentary interspersed throughout that I am not familiar enough with the product, industry, publisher, author, or whatever, to appreciate enough. That distracts from this somewhat. Not that deep or interesting, but if you want to see carnage, this is absolutely a volume for you.

Holy wow! Coming from reading american comix and watching a lot of Anime I had a few preconcieved notions getting into Manga but all of my expectations were exceeded. This series is a must.

Interesting story with the evolution of the zombies. It's drawback is that it's very slow in parts.

Very slow, predictable story. Barely gets going by the end of this first volume - presumably free to get you hooked into the following ones. About a fourth of the way in I found myself skimming through it, looking for some action, and actually rooting for one of the whiny, petty main characters to be done in.
I highly recommend the chilling and far more original "World War Z" over this.

This was my first taste of Mr. Moody's writting. I am now a devout fan of his books. This is a book that should not be passed up by people who like zombie/apocolyptic books.

David Moody's novel Autumn is a realistic account of the emotional upheaval and responses that might plague the people who survive a quick-acting pandemic, and who must then struggle for survival against those who have risen after having fallen dead.

The dread from Moody's work is not the horror of blood and guts, but the slow, creeping psychological terror that must accompany being trapped within a structure while becoming increasingly surrounded on the outside by creatures that would like nothing more than to destroy you. The claustrophobia of the work is reminiscent of Romero's Day of the Dead and Matheson's I am Legend. Do not look to this novel for quick-paced action as this is not what this book is about, rather this is how the world ends for each person, individually.

I wanted to like this book; I can even admire the guy's tenacity and willingness to break the bounds of the genre. I don't have to have gore and violence in my reading.

But I do require two things: (1) Plot and (2) Good Writing.

In "typical" zombie books the plot is survival in the face of a terrifying, unfeeling enemy. But while the enemy in this book is unfeeling for certain, they're certainly not that terrifying (other than the whole rotting away aspect, but that's more gross than anything else). So, what's the POINT to the book? I know that it's supposed to be an exploration of the human experience, etc, but it seems just a way to open up a series. The main characters just drive around and are shocked. Which, hey, if it really happened, I would say would be fairly realistic, but this is FICTION and it features REANIMATED CORPSES, so it's not really necessary to be authentic to real life. Um, yeah.

But I can overlook all that. My biggest problem with the book is the absolute atrocious nature of the writing. Grammatically, it's okay. Quite a bit of passive voice and trendy use of fragments, but okaaaay, I'll let that go too. No, by far the worst part of the book is that you're being told a story--it's that age-old adage "Show, don't Tell" and boy does he tell. And tells and tells. He writes things like "The arrival of the second survivor brought sudden hope and energy"--that's telling us, not showing us. And really, the way he writes you, as the reader, are constantly aware of the writer's voice and the third person narrative. In well-written books, the author disappears and the reader isn't really aware of the third person. But between his endless paragraphs explaining the emotions of the characters while the characters just sit there two-dimensionally (which is a result of telling instead of showing) and his jumps between 1st and 3rd person, the audience can't quite get close to the narrative or to the characters--the narrator/author blocks the way at every turn.

All in all, if you're looking to buy a post-apocalyptic book about "zombies" that isn't necessarily blood, guts and gore, I would recommend World War Z by Max Brooks over this one.

Autumn, Purification, basically marks the end of a trilogy of zombie-focused books.

The story evolves around the same group of survivors that was featured in the previous, `Autumn, the City' book. The action starts exactly where it stopped there. The survivors are sheltered in an underground, army-occupied bunker. They take the decision to venture out of it after the shelter gets overwhelmed by a mass of zombies and all hope to stay safely in is lost. What follows is their quest for survival in a devastated, highly perilous world.

Without lifting the curtain off of the story plot, please remember that David Moody is a talented English writer who has decided to take his time to tell a very realistic tale of survival without any kind of biased opinion. Zombies are never called zombies, they are depicted as beings that used to be normal and that now suffer from their decaying condition. They don't hurt for pleasure, or without reason. The military is shown as a group of very different characters. They are not described as a stereotypical, 2-bit group of dumb-minded, orders-obeying robots. Some of the survivors are selfish and meet their end without judgment, while it becomes clear that their attitude is actually dictated by their incapability to feed their hope any longer. Some others are brave and courageous, but also subject to doubt. Boredom is shown as an implacable enemy. The fragility of hope in people's heart is demonstrated over and over. Only a handful of people get to see some kind of light in the gloom of their everyday life.

Moody seems to be willing to get away from any kind of judgment on the zombies' conditions, hence it becomes difficult to really feel disdain towards them. Rather, their evolving attitude becomes logical and, from them, less of a threat, more `acceptable'.

Overall, action is continuous and logical. The whole book is a real pleasure to read. It concludes with class and smoothness a fine trilogy of books that really deserves any reader's attention.

David Moody, Autumn: Purification (Infected Books, 2004)

The third entry in Moody's popular Autumn quartet, Purification picks up where The City left off, with the survivors being driven out of the military base by hordes of the (still not flesh-eating!) dead and scrambling to find some place more permanent to make their last stand.

Simply by dint of the fact that Moody's not bouncing back and forth between two unrelated storylines, Purification starts off stronger than The City, and the momentum keeps up throughout the book. The undead continue to evolve, which keeps both the survivors and the reader guessing, and the human relationships between the main characters evolve, as they should. (The minor characters are, for the most part, still cardboard cutouts, however.) The ending does put one in mind of another novel whose ghost has shadowed the entire series, but I figured that was going to be the case.

Quite enjoyable. ***

I've read all the books from the Autumn series. Really good stories, but at times it was hard for me to force myself to pick the books up. For more on this check my other review for the first book of the series, Autumn.

I have read and reviewed the first 2 "Autumn" books and I am probably sounding like a broken record. There is not enough of the over-the-top Zombie gore that I enjoy so much. There is however more action in this book than the first two in the series.
The books are well written and interesting. The problem I have, besides the absence of extreme Zombie gore, is that the books focus mainly on the characters. The Zombies almost seem secondary to the story.
I enjoyed all three books, but this was my favorite so far. The suspense is tight throughout almost the entire book. You get a possible explanation of what may have caused most of the world's population to die. The Zombies are more violent than ever, and the feeling of despair is at an all time high. Then the mood changes, there may be hope!
These books wouldn't be my first choice in the Zombie genre, but they are entertaining. The story does lure you into wanting to know how it all ends. I have read the first three in the series and plan to read all five books.

Overall I recommend this series of books for those who like zombie stories. I've read all four and have enjoyed each one.

However, I do have a few issues.

1. David Moody should do a little more research on modern military technology. The military does possess protective suits like those used by the soldiers in his books. However, they protect only against a chemical attack. They do not filter out airborne biological agents. Bacteria is just too small. Viruses are even smaller. You would probably have to carry your own air supply. While it might be possible that the government anticipated this event and created suits customized for this particular bioligical agent, I just had a hard time buying it.

It seems like the survivors are mostly idiots. I can think of a number of ways to fight the zombies that were never even tried in the book.

1. Your in an airfield or some other enclosure and there are so many zombies around that it is difficult to get in an out without letting loads of them in. What do you do?

a. Create a "zombie lock." Think of an air lock on a space ship. You have an smaller enclosed area around the entrance to your large enclosed area. You can use fencing or just create a circle of cars. When you need to let someone in or out, have a crew of guys with baseball bats at the ready. You open the get and let your people out/in. When that happens many of the zombies are going to get in as well. Your bat boys jump in and start smashing skulls while you close the gate. Any zombies that get in are contained in the zombie lock. Then your bat boys kill them all. If there are really lots of them, get .22 rifles and pistols and start shooting them in the head to bring their numbers down.

b. When the number of zombies surrounding your safe haven get too numerous, send out people in tough vehicles to simply do laps around the perimeter while mowing them down. Sure this will make a lot of noise, but I bet you could kill them faster then they could show up.

c. Create a diversion. The zombies are attracted to noise and activity, so have a brave crew of people set up a noise maker at a location farther away but still within earshot. Put a CD player with fresh batteries on a roof top of a nearby building. Have the player loop so it will go on constantly. This will draw the zombies away from you and toward the distraction. Then you can get in your vehicle and start mowing them down.

2. You want a safe haven where you can have food and water as well as the conveniences of the pre-catastrophe world without having to worry about getting trapped by too many zombies.

a. How about a boat? Go to the coast, or even a large lake or a large river and get in a house boat. Go a short distance from shore and drop your anchor. You can stock the boat with all the food and water and fuel you will need for a long time. On board you will have electricity, running water, flush toilets and safety. If you are close to shore you can expect the zombies to gather at your launch point, but you can just travel to a different harbor to get resupplies. The only real worry is bad weather.

b. Just keep moving. There is pleny of gas and vehicles. Do what Mike and Emma did and get a motor home and travel the country. Camp in remote locations and when there are too many zombies around, just step on the gas. Not as good as the boat idea because you will have to be very quiet whenever you stop for a while, but still workable.