Review of Pat Douglas’s “Epidemic of the Undead”
Chris Commons is a folk rock singer on the way to a gig in Beaumont, Texas with his cousin Mark and friend Steve, who are the other members of his band. The venue they’re supposed to play in appears to be abandoned when they show up a few short hours before the show and it looks like their concert has been cancelled on them. But when they head over to a nearby coffee house and see what’s on the television, they discover that the abandoned venue is the least of their worries. The boys have landed in the middle of the zombie outbreak on the road with nowhere to go as the undead begin showing up in droves outside. Cut off from their van, they do their best to find safety with the coffee house clerk in tow, but soon discover that there isn’t any place left that’ll protect them from the undead.
Epidemic of the Undead is a bare-bones no nonsense zombie apocalypse thriller with a passion for blood, guts, and a high body count. The reader is given no explanation of how the plague got started and no explanation is needed as we role through the first few hours and days after the dead have risen. This is all about the action, gore, and the characters efforts to come to grips with the fact that everyone is turning up dead (and undead) all around them. The zombies are traditional slow movers with all the regular strengths and weaknesses. The story sticks to Chris’s perspective throughout and his goals are simple: don’t get bitten, stay alive long enough to get back to see his parents in Tennessee, and perhaps discover if Stephanie, the coffee house clerk, is more interested in him than Steve, the lothario of the band.
The story moves at a fast clip and while I had some issues with some of the dialog being a bit stilted in places and the fact that there were some typos along the way, the action and gore were more than up to snuff, with some of the descriptive details of the trauma the undead had suffered leaving me a bit queasy (which is a good thing for the zombie fan). I was rooting for Chris and his chances with Stephanie-the author didn’t overdo the romance angle given the type of story this was, but it was a nice touch, and added a bit of normality to the insanity of the world crumbling around him. Chris isn’t any sort of hero, just another guy trying to survive, which made him someone I could identify with. Just a regular guy trying to figure out how to use a gun for the first time and make sure all his friends don’t end up dead. Pick this one up if you’re looking for a fun undead escape with plenty of gruesome action.
Epidemic of the Undead can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Epidemic-Undead-Zombie-Novel-ebook/dp/B0088KAWN4/ref=la_B006XWFXBU_1_4_title_1_kin?ie=UTF8&qid=1338856202&sr=1-4&fb_source=message
My article over at Indie Inside has gone live!
I’d mentioned that I’d written a brief article for Pat Douglas, a fellow author, over on his website, http://indie-inside.com. It has gone live now, and I hope you’ll click on the full link and head on over there: http://indie-inside.com/the-joys-of-the-other-stuff-guest-blog-w-patrick-dorazio/. For anyone who has become a writer and believes that when they get published that they can just sit back and bask in the glory of being famous, this article is for you. It’s also for anyone else who ever wonders how you can get the word out on a writing project. Whether you self-publish, get with a smaller publisher, or manage to swing for the fences and get with one of the big publishers out of New York, much of the promotional work responsibility is in your own hands. There is tons you can do to help promote your stuff, and my article goes over just a small smidgen of that. So pleased check it out…it might make you cringe, but perhaps it will bring a smile to your face…because I tried to be funny (just a little bit-probably failed, but give me a B for effort).
Cover to “Zombies Gone Wild” Anthology released!
I’ve wanted to show off this wacky cover for some time, but it just became official. I don’t really have a good explanation for this anthology, as far as all the types of stories it includes, but I know that my story, “What’s Eating You?” is a pretty twisted and darkly comedic zombie tale not for the faint of heart or squeamish. So my guess is that since the publisher indicated that my tale was just the type they were looking for that this book is filled with a plethora of twisted and darkly comedic zombie tales. Well, you can look at the cover and see that much, right?
More details to come, as the table of contents should be released fairly soon for Zombies Gone Wild.
Review of Craig DiLouie’s “The Killing Floor”
Craig DiLouie took the traditional infected/zombie tale and expanded upon it (and turned it on its ear) with his release of The Infection. The Killing Floor, the second book in this series, carries on where the last book left off, with surviving characters trying to comprehend the costly victory they had at the bridge, where they prevented a flood of infected from crossing the Ohio River and tearing through the refugee camp in nearby Defiance, where over 100,000 survivors live. Ray, one of the survivors from the battle, has been infected but has yet to turn. He is given a mercy by Anne, who allows him to crawl off to die on his own instead of getting a bullet in the head. But Ray doesn’t become your typical infected, instead turning into something like a Typhoid Mary, or a carrier of the infection, instead. This is the centerpiece of this book, with Ray trying to understand what his purpose is as the military and the militia, led by Anne, race to find him with the hope that his blood may hold the cure or to kill him, even as his new found capabilities make him even more dangerous than even the monsters or the infected.
We are introduced to two main new characters: Dr. Price, who is one of the only scientists that believes the infection is not manmade. He manages to escape the White House and is hidden in an underground bunker, but as the story unfolds is given the opportunity to go after Ray and perhaps find a vaccine or cure for infection. Rod, the other new character, is a soldier in the field working to clear out Washington D.C. of the infected when he and his men are assigned the task of bringing Ray in, dead or alive. Along with the remaining cast from the first book, we are given an impressive slew of characters whose stories intersect and come together for the exciting conclusion.
As the second book in what is likely a trilogy, the actual novelty of the infected are has worn off a bit, meaning we get to delve even deeper into the characters here and focus less on the different creatures that have come about with the advent of this plague. Even with some of the secondary characters there is plenty to sink your teeth into, as most of them do not come off as hollow cannon fodder, but real people. The author also does an excellent job of making the military aspects of this story believable without overdoing the jargon and technical areas of the story. The writing is crisp, sharp, and the story itself is intriguing-it does not rely on the unique nature of the infection (with its wide array of different life forms that appear to have the goal of not just running amok but its apparent lust to wipe out all other life forms) to carry the story forward, but the characters who give the tale its terrific depth.
The Killing Floor is a well-crafted follow up to The Infection and has me anxiously awaiting the third chapter in this saga.
The Killing Floor can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/The-Killing-Floor-novel-Infection/dp/1618680757/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1339807021&sr=8-3&keywords=the+killing+floor
A cool website to check out.
Just a quick note here on a website a friend and fellow author, Pat Douglas, has put together. He gets a lot of traffic there because he puts up interesting articles and all kinds of cool stuff, along with promoting his own writing, naturally. An article I wrote will be appearing there tomorrow, and I hope any new or aspiring writers find it interesting. Just a few thoughts on the writing world in general and promotion in particular. You can check out articles from plenty of different folks in the writing world there. Just hit the link and mark it as one of your favorites: http://indie-inside.com/
Review of David Houchins and Scot Thomas’ Zombie Apocalypse Preparation: How to Survive in an Undead World and Have Fun Doing It!
Zombie Apocalypse Preparation: How to Survive in an Undead World and Have Fun Doing It! is sort of the goofy alter ego of Max Brook’s Zombie Survival Guide, which kept a straight face throughout its overview of weaponry, tactics, location scouting, and other related areas of interest when dealing with the inevitable outbreak of zombie mayhem. These days, with people getting their faces eaten off, children rising up out of their coffins, and a veritable cornucopia of other events happening that hint at a possible zombie apocalypse, checking out a guide or two on undead preparedness is not a bad idea. ZAP, as this guide is called for short, provides an amusing approach to taking the steps necessary to insure you survive the end of the world not only with the goal of making it through alive, but making it through alive in style and with a smile on your face.
Parts of this book are fairly routine survivors fare, covering the topics of weapons, shelters, locations, vehicles, etc. But the author’s snappy commentary adds entertainment value to the routine evaluations of different options you have available. Pop culture references abound and while not all of them will resonate with everyone in their audience, many of them brought a smile to my face.
One of the key elements of this book that does stand out as different is the final section, where the authors have come up with a wide array of zombie-related games to pass the time for those bored with the everyday routine of survival during the undead apocalypse. The detailed drawings add punch to the outrageous descriptions given. I won’t spoil the fun by listing out these different pastimes, but suffice it to say that they take traditional games and some new and unique ideas for games and make versions that will keep you on your toes…with risk to that part of your anatomy as well as many others if you decide to play them with actual zombies.
Overall, this is an entertaining survival guide. I thought the comedy was a little light in certain sections, and the use of some references got a little redundant after a while, but overall, a well done, fun read for the dedicated and not-so-dedicated zombie fan alike.
Zombie Apocalypse Preparation: How to Survive in an Undead World and Have Fun Doing It! can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Zombie-Apocalypse-Preparation-Survive-Undead/dp/1618680269/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339221769&sr=1-1
Review of Patrick and Chris William’s “Dead Meat”
Dead Meat is a zombie apocalypse tale told from the perspective of Gavin, a young man living in River’s Edge when an outbreak of what the media claims is rabies spread by rats has already overtaken the town. The military has been called in and at the start of the story it’s clear that this is no normal case of rabies. Gavin meets Benny, who is hiding out on the roof of a convenience store, a couple of days into the mess the ‘bees’ (what Gavin dubs the undead/biters, because they tend to swarm together when they attack) have created. Together, they try to make their way to Gavin’s sister and parents who live in another town, but naturally there are a tremendous amount of obstacles in their way, including the military, who are exterminating the living along with the undead with extreme prejudice in an attempt to control the plague.
While this story is in the traditional Romero mold with slow moving undead, this first person, present tense tale takes a different tact than many stories I’ve seen. You would expect this story to be about survival, which it is, and about dealing with human drama, which it also is about, but it really burrows down deep into issues of trust and how being a survivor changes a person much more than most. We go deep into Gavin’s paranoia and trust issues, as well as how tortured he is by what he is forced to witness and do to stay alive. While the story is about Gavin, it is Benny’s tale too, along with Rickett, an old recluse they happen upon, and Henry (Henrietta) a girl they also find during their trip. But the dynamic between Gavin and Benny is the highlight here-how difficult and ugly it is for them to gain one another’s trust and yet still not trust each other, how it seems that they’re at each other’s throats most of the time while still having to rely upon one another. It is a complex relationship and one that I was intrigued by from start to finish. The key element with this story is how each of the characters feels real, not limiting stereotypes with no depth, or even a meager attempt at giving them depth. Gavin is the main character but that doesn’t make him extremely the hero of the tale-his paranoia tends to get annoying at points, as does his mistrust of almost everyone around him. Benny seems to be an unapologetic sociopath at times, while at other times it’s clear that he hasn’t lost his humanity despite all the inhumane things he has been forced to do and seems to revel in. This story is as much a character study of these two as it is a saga of the zombie apocalypse. We see it all through Gavin’s eyes and so the outside elements are limited-we know nothing of the military except for his limited perspective, nothing about what is going on outside of narrow sphere of his experiences, and as such a lot of minor details slip to the wayside while the dynamics of his relationship with Benny, Rickett, and Henry are explored in tremendous detail.
Since I tend to favor zombie tales that devote most of their energy to the human relationships in them and how people are twisted and changed in a survivor tale, I found this story to be a highly entertaining entry into the zombieverse. It also has plenty of violence and action to spread around, making this something for pretty much all zombie fans to enjoy.
Dead Meat can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Meat-Patrick-Williams/dp/1618680242/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339033247&sr=8-1
Review of Tonia Brown’s “The Cold Beneath”
The Cold Beneath is a tale of doomed high adventure, written from the perspective of the last survivor of a journey, sharing what came to pass in his diary shortly before he plans on willingly embracing his own death at the hands of the tormented crew who traveled with him.
Philip Syntax is a British inventor who has relegated himself to the American south in the latter half of the nineteenth century as a form of self-imposed exile after an invention of his was credited to his former mentor. Arriving at his estate with a proposal for a great journey is Gideon Lightbridge, a former U.S. Colonel and a great explorer who has need of Philip because he is using the very invention Philip had stolen from him years before-a pair clockwork legs that serve the amputee better than his original ones did. Lightbridge wants Philip to maintain the legs in sub-zero temperatures because he plans being the first explorer to make it to the North Pole. They will be traveling in a helium Airship called The Northern Fancy.
Philip regales the reader with the story of his journey, leading up to his ultimate fate at the hands of the crew who were possessed by a strange and nightmarish sickness in the Arctic Northern extremes.
The Cold Beneath is a very entertaining steam punk tale tinged with the flavor of a seaborne mystery. While the crew guides the ship upon the air, it felt almost as if they were on the high seas, though the seas in this book are the frozen wastes of the far north. This is a zombie tale, and much of the fun of this story lies in the creative usage of the undead here, which are blue tinged nightmares that are somewhat Frankenstein-ish in appearance and actions. This is also classic Gothic type horror told in diary form. It would be easy to imagine this story being turned into an old Hammer classic, with devious deeds and plenty of dark mysteries afoot throughout. There is also romance in this story, though even that is intriguing and riddled with twists and turns. The author blends all these different styles together flawlessly and makes them all fit together nicely.
Tonia Brown has created a terrific voice for her narrator that puts the reader in the story and made me appreciate every crisp detail as it is revealed. Philip Syntax is a thoroughly realized character, as are the other members of the crew of The Northern Fancy who play a major part in this tale such as Lightbridge, Albert, the Chief Mechanic, and Geraldine Goode, a former flame of Philip’s and the doctor on board the air ship.
If there is any sort of failing with this tale, perhaps it lies within the diary format. By nature, things are revealed in advance of a full description and the reader knows things, such as the ultimate fate of the crew from the very beginning. Still, surprises abound and as with any good mystery, I found myself guessing at the answers that reveal themselves in a highly satisfactory way within the last few pages of the book.
The Cold Beneath is a great bet for anyone who enjoys Gothic horror, mysteries, steam punk, or intense zombie action. The characters are colorful, the pace is excellent, and the undead are some of the creepiest I’ve seen in quite some time.
The Cold Beneath can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Cold-Beneath-steampunk-zombie-ebook/dp/B0086VRXY6/ref=sr_1_4?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1338389299&sr=1-4
Review of Steven Pajak’s “Mad Swine: The Beginning”
Mad Swine: The Beginning is a first person zombie apocalypse tale that takes place during the initial days of infection and the downfall of civilization. It begins in the city of Chicago and the moves out into the suburbs where the main character, a University Administrator and former military man, takes charge of the people in his neighborhood to defend against both the infected and the living. The zombies in this tale are actually not the living dead, but more accurately infected/still living, though the author essentially turns them into zombies by applying the same rule as you have with undead: you can shoot them repeatedly, but unless you get them in the head, they won’t go down. There is an interesting slant in that they still sleep, which makes for some interesting situations when the characters come across a few snoozing undead.
The story moves at a fast clip, with very little build up before the introduction of panic and mayhem enters the main character’s life after he has reported to work one morning. The infected are fast movers, so the infection, which seems to come out of nowhere, spreads like wildfire and makes the first few chapters an adrenaline soaked nightmare for Matt, our main character. It doesn’t take long for the reality of this uprising to hit home with personal loss which carries over for him as he manages to make it back home to the suburbs. He discovers that several communities have banded together to protect one another from the “crazies”, as Matt has dubbed them, and given his military background he is called upon to take the lead in his own gated community. Matt comes prepared, with a veritable arsenal and a brother who lives with him who also has military experience. Together they take charge and plan for the well being and safety of their people. Mad Swine: The Beginning takes place within the first few days after the apocalypse. It reads fast and easy and while much of the zombie action takes place prior to Matt’s transition to suburban leader from urban refugee, the focus on human confrontations is a priority from then on. I enjoyed some of the confrontations that offer up hints as to what is to be expected in the next book of the saga, including the clashes between the different neighborhoods and how they are forced to deal with one another.
Overall, this was a fun, entertaining zombie read. It doesn’t necessarily bring much new to the table with the zombies or the setting, but the main character is solidly developed and his story made for an interesting ride. While the book cuts off abruptly, the closing chapters set the stage for some potentially interesting developments in the second book of this saga.
I do my best to point out any concerns I have with each story I read and as is the case with every book, there were things I took exception to with Mad Swine. My main concern here has to do with what I would dub the chaos and the calm. By the chaos, I mean that the infection happens so quickly and spreads with such vigor that the world falls apart entirely around Matt in what seems like minutes. Things are such a blur at first that there is virtually no appearance by either the police or military in this story. The city falls to pieces almost immediately and the crazies rule the streets within hours. And by the calm, I mean how dramatically different it is within the suburban conclaves where Matt and most of the other characters in this book live. Everyone there seems to be on the same page, willing to fall in line with the new regime that Matt creates without questioning it or anything for that matter. Certainly, there is conflict between different neighborhoods, but it is limited and (at least in this book) fairly civil, all things considered. The transition from the chaos of the first part of the book to the calm of the latter portion is abrupt and would have made more sense had the chaos Matt sees in the city bled over into the ‘burbs a bit more. While Matt, would seem like a natural choice as a leader for his neighborhood with his military experience and rather excessive arsenal, the fact that everyone within his gated community goes along with that decision without question or any who appears to be reluctant about such an idea seemed a stretch to me.
Despite this concern that I had with the story, it remains a solid, action filled apocalyptic saga with interesting characters and a storyline that has me intrigued and curious about what happens next. I look forward to checking out the next book in the series when it becomes available.
Mad Swine: The Beginning can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Mad-Swine-Beginning-Steven-Pajak/dp/1618680013/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338266426&sr=1-1
A few changes on the horizon for my books…
I wanted to make a brief announcement at this time, which will be a prologue to a more important answer coming up in the not so distant future. Instead of having some sort of big build up, I’m just going to come out and say it. I have acquired the rights back to my three novels from the publisher, Library of the Living Dead. This decision was made with a great deal of careful consideration on my part, and is based more on where I feel things are going for me in the future rather than anything that has happened recently, or in the past. Let me put it another way. Michael West, aka Dr. Pus, the owner of the Library of the Living Dead Press has been a spectacular partner for me over the past few years. He is a man who genuinely cares for the authors who work for him and have aligned themselves with the Library. The Library is, and always will be, a home away from home for me. The people who have been involved with the Library’s message boards over the years, as well as the other authors, editors, and artists are all fantastic people. So this departure is only for my books, not for me, and it will not change anything else. It is mostly due to the fact that at present, Doc is not moving forward to publish new books as he takes a break from that for a time. Unfortunately, time stands still for no man, and since my plan is to produce two more novels in this series, I needed to regain control of them so I can be sure they are in a home where the opportunity exists to publish the new chapters in this saga.
So for everyone out there who has purchased my books in either paper or electronic form, I thank you, as does Doc. All three books were top sellers for the Library, which makes me very proud and sort of stunned at how well they have done. If you have the paper versions of the three books, or want the first editions, my suggestion would be to grab them fairly soon, as they will no longer be available (at least new copies) very much longer. The ebook version of the trilogy has already been taken down and is no longer available on Amazon. The next time you see them, it will be very likely they will look a bit different than they do now.
As I mentioned, I will likely have another announcement to make about these books in the not so distant future, as well as where I go from here with my work. So stayed tuned for that.
Review of Monique Snyman’s “Charming Incantations: Enticed”
Not too long ago, I was approached by an author friend of mine with a request to help promote their new fantasy novel on my blog, which I did, happily. I tend to write reviews of horror novels, but I thought that since I am a big fan of fantasy as well I would also read her book, and not just promote it. So here is my review of her book, which I would say fits nicely in the realm of young adult fiction, with both fantasy elements as well as a bit of horror-with werewolves and vampires playing a prominent role.
Charming Incantations: Enticed tells the story of Lisa, a young woman whose parents were tragically killed in a fire, which thrusts her into a world she never knew existed: one with supernatural creatures that expect her to do her part as the surviving heir to the human representatives on a council that works to keep the world safe from darkness.
While the story provides a prolog explaining the alliance between the six races: human, werewolf, vampire, shape-shifter, witch, and banshee, the first chapter of this tale bypasses Lisa’s initial realization of what she must do or any revelations she has that there is an entire world that has been hidden from her. Instead, her tale begins with her knocking on the door of the meeting place of the six representatives of the six races. There she meets the five other generals, or leaders of the armies that hold back the evil known as goblins from taking over the world. One of them, Romulus, the leader of the werewolves, will take her in and protect her from danger until she can be trained to protect herself and take over her duties as a leader.
Lisa faces a great deal of challenges, not the least of which is the fact that she is falling hard for Romulus while she is trying to grasp this new world that surrounds her. She fears these supernatural races but must come to terms with them all so that she can insure that her status as protector of humanity comes to pass.
This tale is part romance and part fantasy adventure. There is magic here, and I am sure there will be passing comparisons to Twilight, but this is a tale on a far grander scale. Lisa is learning about this new world as we learn about it, and is forced into battle even though humans are deemed the weak link in the alliance. She cannot raise her own army of humans because the secrets of the other races must be kept, so the burden is even greater for her than for her counterparts. In some ways, this is a coming of age tale as well, with Lisa doing her best to find her place in a world that is scary, exciting, and quite dangerous.
This is the first book of what I believe will be a series, but this story can certainly stand on its own as a tale of a young woman coming into her own in a world filled with both dangers, delight, magic, and mayhem.
Charming Incantions: Enticed can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Charming-Incantations-Enticed-Monique-Snyman/dp/0987874721/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336631184&sr=1-1
Review of Jim LaVigne’s “Plaguesville, USA”
Plaguesville, USA tells a tale set in a world several years after much of the human population has been wiped out by a lethal virus. The timeframe is in the late 2070’s, and much of the United States has turned into a desecrated land filled with survies, as they are called: gangs, small fiefdoms, cannibals, mutants, and a few people trying to maintain some sense of civilization. We are introduced to Dr. Justin Kaes, an epidemiologist from the CDC in New Atlanta who has found himself in charge of a mission to prevent the “Sick,” as the plague has been dubbed, from reinventing itself and destroying what is left of the meager human population. He has been sent to collect the one man who has survived the original iteration of the plague and whose blood might help them create a vaccine for whatever new iterations may come about. He is Howard Lampert, a crusty, cranky old man of 102 who lives in Minnesota. The story picks up after Justin and his team have picked up Mr. Lampert and are on their way to San Francisco, where there are doctors waiting who have the resources to craft the potential vaccine. The doctor and his team’s massive RV has run out of fuel down in Oklahoma, where they are surrounded by gangs and religious zealots who also happen to be cannibals. We are introduced to Teresa, a member of one of the local gangs, who’s interested in hitting the bricks because she has grown weary of the Blood Claws (not to mention that more than one member of the gang has tried to rape her). She crosses paths with Justin as he and the others are trying to figure out what to do to keep moving west and the duo form an unlikely partnership. The story tells of their adventures, which include an onslaught of virtually every post-apocalyptic danger imaginable, except perhaps for zombies, as they try to complete an almost impossible mission.
Plaguesville gives the reader a thoroughly realized post-apocalyptic world that isn’t set in our time, but over a half a century in the future. Each chapter provides a nice little beginning blurb giving the reader a small taste of the world before the fall, with advertisements about the food, entertainment, and culture that adds additional flavor to the story. As readers will note, this tale has an interesting arrangement with the characters. Justin is the main character and we see the world through his eyes in many ways, but as Mr. Lampert comes from our day and age (he would be around 38 right now), it is easy to identify with him and his perspective on a bombed out, shell shocked world of plague and Mad Max sensibilities. Justin is a doctor on a mission who finds himself attracted to the barbaric and yet incredibly enticing Teresa, and Mr. Lampert brings an old fashion sensibility to the story that is entertaining and somewhat humorous in spots, while getting dark and gruesome in others. While Justin the voice of ethics and morality in a world with very little of such things, Lampert is the grumpy voice of reason and sanity in a world gone mad.
The story runs its cast through several different adventures-they meet the good, the bad, and the ugly that remain in the world, and there are quite a few secondary characters’ stories told that intertwine with the main cast as the tale runs toward its completion. Again, the author has done a good job of laying out a detailed post-apocalyptic world and gives us a saga with plenty of action and adventure. Time and again, Justin’s mission is on the brink of oblivion, but he continues to maintain hope and believe that as long as Lampert remains alive they can resolve things. In some ways, it felt like there were almost too many near misses in the story, but it kept things moving at a fast clip. Overall, this was a fun read, with a few gentle messages that weren’t too heavy-handed about corruption, craving for power, and man’s undeniable lust to cause his own destruction. The growing attraction between Justin and Teresa is handled with a deft hand that made it feel believable and touching, despite the fact that these two people were worlds apart in so many ways. If I have a criticism of this book, it would perhaps be that the story does not feel complete. We are only introduced to the CDC team once they’ve broken down in Oklahoma and not when they set out from Atlanta, pick up Mr. Lampert, and make their way through so many other adventures leading up to that point. Granted, the book is already a healthy 350 pages, but I felt as if there were more stories to be told. Even with this minor complaint, this is an entertaining and robust post-apocalyptic tale with entertaining characters and a setting that was quite compelling.
Plaguesville, USA can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Plaguesville-USA-ebook/dp/B0078FN0RA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1336273247&sr=8-1
A fantasy anthology, for a bit of a change of pace.
Well, I’ve been doing my best to expand my writing horizons with the stories I choose to write, though many of them have been zombie tales, just like my novels. Still, I have managed to produce other types of horror, comedy, bizarro, science fiction, western, spy/action-adventure…so it was only a matter of time before I got back to my roots and decided to dive into the realm of fantasy once again. When I would write as a youngster, that was the type of stories I wrote: fantasy tales that transformed into fantasy adventures during my days of role playing. It was rough stuff that I didn’t want to share with anyone else, which was okay, because publishing was not on my mind back then-it was for the pure joy of writing. I still have some of the dust covered stories buried in a paper file, because back in those days I was using a typewriter. Yep, in the days of yore we didn’t have the arcane sorcery of computers to save our work, we got a paper copy of it and that was pretty much the best you could do. Fortunately, that means that none of my more atrocious early attempts at writing are circulating around on the internet. Now as for my more recent atrocious attempts at writing…that is a different story.
Anyway, I digress. I saw a posting perhaps six months ago calling for traditional tales of swords and sorcery in the style of the classic Conan the Barbarian stories and that potential authors should draw inspiration from paintings of Frank Frazetta, among others. In other words, plenty of pounding base lines, thunderous orchestras, spurting blood, voluptuous maidens, heroes NOT with six packs, but with eight or ten packs at a minimum. We were to have fun with it and flavor our tales with plenty of fearless, steely-eyed warriors who fight nasty monsters and perhaps a dark god or two, thrown in for good measure. It was to be entitled, appropriately, Tough As Nails.
I didn’t start out with a plan to write for this anthology. I loved the idea, and thought it would be great to dive back into the fantasy pool, as it were, but I was focused on some other projects at the time, and this one had a due date that was out past the horizon, in the new year. So I put it at the back of my mind and as time has a tendency to do, it sped up and flew past me to where this submission call had perhaps a month left before the deadline. I still was hesitant until the editor, someone who I have worked with before, started asking me if I planned on submitting something for the anthology. He wanted me to do so, because he knew I loved the concept and for some odd reason he’d liked my work in the past. So there I was, scrambling to come up with an idea. I initially crafted the first scene, which takes place in a tavern (the classic locale for the start of many an adventure tale), and gave my story a name, just because I liked how it sounded: “The Sunken Lands.” It sounded cool, and I knew I could wrap a quest around the idea of my hero/anti-hero needing to get to such an ominous place.
So I kept on writing, adding one scene after another, and introducing my different characters, putting them in harms way, etc. It occurred to me about five or six thousand words into this thing that there was no way this story was going to qualify as a short that would fit within the word count guidelines set up by the editor. At that point, I was in too deep, and told him that I planned on writing this tale whether it was acceptable for the anthology or not, since I was back in the mode of writing fantasy, with all the intricacies that go along with that, including all the behind the scenes “stuff” (that is the technical term) you have to put together to make the world you have crafted in any way believable. This stuff usually starts with a map, then you add history, cultures, alliances and enemies, the habitats of strange creatures, what those strange creatures are, etc. etc. And believe me, there is a lot more than that to it, but you get the idea. Fortune smiled upon me, and the editor, Matt Nord, encouraged me to write the story to its completion and he would look at it regardless of whether it fit the size limitations he had put forth (8,000 words) or it went significantly beyond that, because he wanted to see what I had come up with.
Well, as fantasy tales have a tendency to get expansive (as anyone who has read any of the more involved fantasy series out there can testify to) and it was fast becoming clear to me that this story was in no way, shape, or form going to end up being considered a short story. The only thing short about it would be the fact that it would be shorter than a novel by a good stretch. But at approximately 23,000 words, this was definitely in novella territory. Having that high a word count was the only way to effectively tell the tale in my humble opinion (for better or for worse) and also presented me with a cast of characters who could carry on in more tales of this world I had created, if I so chose. Matt did take a look at it and I think the fact that I broke the story into two parts gave him the flexibility he needed to fit it into the book. So despite the fact that I crafted something almost three times as long as what the editor wanted, he somehow liked what he saw and took it anyway. Actually, he really liked it, which was great, because I wasn’t so sure, which is pretty normal for me as a writer. I tend to never be all that sure whether what I have written is worth a damn. I had other folks read my story before Matt ever got a look at it, naturally, and got some good constructive criticism from them, which helped shape and transform it into a sharper story than the original. They liked it to, so I am hopeful others will as well.
Below is the cover of the book, and while I have absolutely LOVED the covers of my novels and most of the anthologies I’ve been in, the idea of something I’ve written being in a book with fantasy cover art makes me as giddy as a child.
More details to come as the book is released. I hope some of you fantasy lovers out there will check this one out when it hits the shelves.
Review of Sean Schubert’s “Infection: Alaskan Undead Apocalypse”
Infection: Alaskan Undead Apocalypse takes place mainly in Anchorage, and begins with a family of tourists from Minnesota who are traveling to Alaska on vacation. The younger boy, Martin, has brought along a friend, Danny, and the family plans on spending time out in the woods at a cabin near a glacier. Almost immediately upon arrival at the cabin, Martin, his sister Jules, and Danny discover what appears to be a dead body stuck in the melting glacier. Thinking it is a caveman, they pose next to it, taking pictures. When the caveman turns out to be a thawed zombie, and Martin gets bitten, the family races back to Anchorage to a hospital as Martin’s health rapidly deteriorates. All hell breaks loose when the boy ends up dying in the hospital, gets back up, and attacks everyone around him.
Things rapidly spin out of control from there, with a plague of undead spilling outside the walls of the hospital and onto the streets of Anchorage. Within a matter of hours, the entire city is under siege by a horde of fast moving undead devouring and infecting everyone in their path.
Throughout the course of this book, the first in a planned trilogy, we are introduced to the people that make up two main groups of survivors. One group is led by Dr. Caldwell, who was treating Martin at the hospital, and the other lead by Neil, an office worker who witnesses one of the first zombie attacks outside of the hospital (and the two surviving children-Jules and Danny-end up with him as well). The pages telling the story of these characters are intermingled with various graphic scenes of carnage as Anchorage is ripped to shreds and the police and military are unable to do much to stop the tide of death rushing over them.
Infection: Alaskan Undead Apocalypse is a fun, fast-paced tale of zombie mayhem that barely gives you time to breath, and zombie fans who crave plenty of gore and undead action should enjoy it. The main characters are well developed and give the reader a few folks to root for as well as one in particular to loathe, which keeps things interesting from start to finish.
As I always try to do, I point out areas of concern with a story, and I have a couple of them with Infection.
The first is a minor point, but one that I feel deserves mentioning. Alaska appears in the title of the book, and as such, I expected this story to bring some unique elements to the table based on the locale. Unfortunately, while the author knows Anchorage like the back of his hand, the city felt no different than any other place on the map. Perhaps the sequels will insert more of the distinctive ‘flavor’ of Alaska in them that will make this story stand out more.
My second issue has to do with one particular character, a police officer. I felt that he would have been far more intriguing character if he wasn’t a cop, but I found it hard to buy into him being an officer of the law. From the beginning, he makes no effort to take a leadership role in a crisis situation, letting Dr. Caldwell handle that role in a non-medical crisis. All I know is that if I were trying to flee from the impending apocalypse and I was in a group with a police officer, I would be looking to him for direction, not a doctor (even as you are racing down the halls of a hospital). But strangely enough, no one calls him on this until well into the book, and by then, I was wondering how this guy ever passed whatever psychological test is required to become an Anchorage cop in the first place. Again, he would have been a far more interesting character were he not a cop.
Overall, I felt that this story has the potential to be a solid zombie trilogy. Infection doesn’t really bring anything new to the table-there are no big surprises to be had for zombie fans here-but my hope is that the author turns things up a notch in the sequels to give this story a flavor of the northlands that leaves a lasting impression.
Infection: Alaskan Undead Apocalypse can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Infection-Alaskan-Apocalypse-Sean-Schubert/dp/1618680161/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335667874&sr=1-1
Review of Matthew Warner’s “Blood Born”
Blood Born starts out as a horror mystery, where victims of rape in the Washington D.C. area are all impregnated and the gestation period is accelerated to the point where it is forty times faster than normal. In other words, these women will produce a full term baby within one week. The case is being handled by Detective Christina Randall and we are introduced to her and Margaret Connolly, the mother of one of the rape victims, who also happens to be a fertility specialist working for a local fertility clinic that also does genetic research.
As with any mystery, we are given hints and details as to the M.O. of the rapist as the due date on the first few victims draws near and it becomes clear fairly quickly that the rapist is not quite human. The pieces of the puzzle begin to fit together, but then the book took a dramatic change.
This tale becomes an entirely different type of horror novel somewhere between a third and halfway through, where monsters run rampant, annihilating everything in their path. The transition was jarring, to say the least, though I don’t necessarily mean that as a negative. But be forewarned that while the mystery continues to unravel all the way up until the end of this tale, it takes a backseat to the violent and graphic action that dominates the second half of this book.
This story has a flavor of a patient zero type apocalyptic tale, with a significant build-up to the point where all hell breaks loose. When it does break lose, the story turns on the afterburners and blasts ahead at a hundred miles an hour. The author does a solid job working to explain the science behind the beasts in the story, though I was left with plenty more questions about them and how they would co-exist with the rest of the world. That is the challenge with diving into the science of something like this-there are often a lot of questions that are difficult to answer vs. making the creatures in question a complete mystery.
Overall, this is a fast paced book with a lot of surprising deaths and plenty of gruesome action. With rape being a key part of the story, it probably won’t appeal to certain chunk of audience out there, but it is a well written scientific tale of horror. While I was expecting it to be a more subtle mystery throughout, when the gears shifted and story changed from that to an adrenaline fueled nightmare, I was able to adapt my expectations. The author keeps things moving at a good clip throughout and this was an easy and entertaining novel to read. I do sense that there is a distinct possibility of a sequel based on the ending, though this book can definitely be considered a stand-alone tale.
Blood Born can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Born-Matthew-Warner/dp/0979234638/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335452721&sr=1-3
Review of the movie “The Divide”
The Divide is a bare bones apocalyptic tale that starts moments after the world dies. Nuclear bombs have been dropped on Manhattan and several people living in an apartment complex rush to the fallout shelter the super has created in the basement. The Super’s intention was to go it alone, but his tenant’s force their way in as everyone above is dying from the blasts. Almost the entire movie takes place in this shelter with the survivors initially planning on waiting until the radiation has died down before they check things out on the surface. They have food, water, and power, so things seem to be okay at first-the best they can be based on the circumstances-but things begin to erode and there are various struggles for power and control among the characters.
There is a nudge from the outside world as soldiers invade the shelter and disrupt the relative calm early on in the movie. The audience is given little information on these soldiers, what is going on up above, or why they end up doing what they do to the group. The movie’s focus is on the dynamics of the nine people in the shelter and injects external influence only in two small, somewhat confusing doses.
The name of the movie is apropos on several levels. There is the obvious divide between the world above and world within the shelter, the multiple divides that occur with the group as it changes and morphs over the course of the movie, and the divide among viewers of this film on whether it is a realistic portrayal of people trying to survive under nearly unthinkable circumstances or is gratuitous and over the top in many ways.
This movie is a grim, dark, and dank experiment where the characters are put in a box and the audience gets to watch their humanity dissolve. There are power struggles to control resources, trust issues, alliances formed and broken, and the continuous erosion of any sense of civility from start to finish of this film. This story revolves around choices-how far are you willing to go, what depths are you willing to sink to…what will you do not only to survive, but to maintain control over yourself and those around you? It pulls no punches, showing the dark, ugly side of what we all have the potential of becoming under nightmarish conditions.
The Divide is a mixed bag. I can’t say that I bought into the Roseanna Arquette character and her rapid transformation from loving mother to willing rape victim, and some of the other characters were a stretch as far as believability, especially as the tale progressed. I was somewhat confused by the soldiers and why it was necessary to bring them into the story-the influence they had could have been handled by the group, for the most part. I also felt that at two hours run time, the movie could have sliced out about twenty minutes or so and still presented the same tale-it seemed to drag in places. Even with these complaints, the movie drew me in and kept me interested as the characters warped from being normal people to survivors buried deep in a hole and knowing they will never break free of the prison they’re in. It’s not a film that I think I will ever have the urge to watch again, but I will remember it for a long time come.
The Divide can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/The-Divide-Lauren-German/dp/B007549W62/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1335307402&sr=8-3
Review of Tonia Brown’s “Railroad!: The Three Volume Omnibus”
Railroad! is a hard book to categorize. Certainly, it would be easy to say that it is a steampunk tale of the old west, but that seems like a limiting description. I am the first to admit that I haven’t read a tremendous amount of steampunk literature, but I would venture to say that this book has elements that make it somewhat unique in that genre, combining fantastical elements along with the technological, turning this story into something utterly unique.
Tonia Brown, the author, wrote this tale as a serialized adventure, releasing a chapter at a time online, and then releasing each of the three different volumes separately. This book has all three volumes thus far: Rodger Dodger, The Dogs of War, and The Trouble with Waxford. The story is told from the viewpoint of Rodger Dodger, a man curious about an ad posted that is looking for a hired gun to work aboard a steam locomotive. The setting is the old west of the 1870s, and while Rodger has a mysterious past as a gunman, everything else about him seems rather normal. So when he meets up with Professor Dittmeyer, Ched, and the rest of the crew of the Sleipnir, a steam powered locomotive that requires no tracks to run on, he is as baffled as we are. And things just get stranger from there for the man with a mysterious past but a far more intriguing future as the hired gun for an wild band of adventurers.
Of course, the wondrous technology that the author describes with great delight is quite fascinating, and gave me pleasant reminders of my youth, when I used to watch repeats of ‘The Wild, Wild West.’ I do, of course, mean the classic television show starring Robert Conrad and not the atrocious movie starring Will Smith. You will find gadgets galore here, including guns that fire multiple rounds at the same time, horseless carriages that allow one to travel at speeds near a hundred miles per hour across the desert, and trains that need no tracks to make their way from place to place. But that is only the beginning. The author allows us, alongside Rodger Dodger, to enter a world filled with the fantastic-with ghosts, vampires, and genetic mutants filling its pages. As it is described within this tale, the strange, cursed, and fantastic seems to follow Professor Dittmeyer, owner and inventor of the Sleipnir Steam Locomotive, everywhere he goes. After all, he hasn’t been banned from 90 different countries for nothing.
The characters are colorful, detailed, and fun getting to know. And when it comes down to it, this story may be best described as a weird western steampunk story, but it is the characters that keep things interesting, and kept me glued to each page. A well-crafted, entertaining story that is a lot of fun, Railroad! is a trippy ride.
You can find Railroad! here: http://www.amazon.com/Railroad-The-Three-Volume-Omnibus/dp/1468185543/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335136282&sr=1-9
“Read The End First” now available over at Amazon!
Another project I worked on and am very excited about has come to fruition and is now available over on Amazon. Read The End First has the unique premise of showcasing 24 different tales of the end of the world, each based in a different time zone. Because of the nature of the project, this was an invite only anthology, and each author had to pick a particular time zone and write a story that would make sense given their location on the globe. My particular story takes place in Bethlehem and is entitled “What Rough Beast.” You’ll just have to guess at what the story is all about.
So check this one out, there is a great list of authors involved, including Stephen North, Suzanne Robb (who edited it), Michael S. Gardner, Rebecca Snow, A.J. French, Craig Saunders, John McCuaig, David Dunwoody, Wayne Goodchild, Adrian Chamberlain, D.A. Chaney, Hollie Snider, William Todd Rose, and many more that I apologize I can’t remember right off the top of my head.
So click on the cover and head on over to Amazon to check out your very own copy of Read The End First.
Patrick D'Orazio's Blog 