Review of Tony Monchinski’s “Eden: Crusade”
Eden: Crusade is the sequel to Tony Monchinski’s first novel, Eden, which was essentially a murder mystery set in the community of Eden, a walled and barricaded sanctuary in New York City during the zombie apocalypse. The saga continues in book two with several of the key characters who survived Eden, and the primary story in Crusade is of their journey north, out of the city, toward a place that promises to be a safe haven for them. We are also introduced to a sizable group of other survivors who end up connecting with the characters from the first book toward the end of this story. The novel is book ended by chapters that take place in the future, where Bear, one of the key characters of both book one and two, taking it upon himself to start a crusade to destroy every last one of the undead in existence.
Overall, the storytelling style of Crusade is similar to the first book. The author is unapologetic of what happens to his characters, taking them in whatever direction serves his story rather than parceling out mercy or softening his touch anywhere along the way. He gives each character, minor or major, tremendous depth, which is impressive given the volume of people the reader is presented with in between these pages. We gain new insights into the old characters from the first book, but newer characters like Steve, Eva, and Sonya are also fully formed and felt very real and vital to me. Tony Monchinski has the knack of creating characters that revel in their shades of gray. What I mean by this is that it appears that almost anyone is capable of doing anything good or evil, given the means and motivation, and Tony is willing to explore that, no matter how sentimental the readers may be about a character they have gotten to know. That may be tough to swallow at some points in this story, but it is something I respect a great deal, because it shows a willingness to push and keep pushing as far as is necessary to get the storytelling job done.
As I try to do with my reviews, I bring up what I felt didn’t work for me along with what did. With Crusade, surprisingly, what didn’t work for me was in the first chapter. The book begins with a massive and lopsided battle pitting two characters against a mob of the undead that numbers in the thousands. I felt that it went on longer than was necessary, with an extensive description of all the weapons used, every tactic examined. I think it had a visceral appeal to it, but after a few pages, it felt repetitive to me. It could have been condensed and had the same impact on the story in my humble opinion. I thought it was certainly a powerful opening, but again, could have been shortened and still worked quite well.
With that one minor gripe out of the way, I consider this book an excellent sequel to Tony’s impressive debut. Again, I say that this writer has a talent for developing characters that are fully formed and razor sharp. He also gives his stories a gritty realism that is unapologetic. I am excited to see what the third book of the Eden trilogy holds, and look forward to reading it with great anticipation.
Eden: Crusade can be found on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Crusade-Eden-Book-Tony-Monchinski/dp/1934861332/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282884119&sr=1-1
Review of Tonia Brown’s “Lucky Stiff”
Peter Lyles has the misfortune of having friends on spring break who can’t tell the difference between sleeping pills and ecstasy. So when he ODs after they give him five pills of the latter when he has never taken a drug in his life, this nerdy virgin looks like he is going to have a pretty unimpressive obituary after leading a very dull life. But that is before he hooks up with Madam Sangrail. One of Peter’s friends knows the Madam, who is a New Orleans Voodoo priestess that has been known to raise the dead (among other things) and they take Peter’s body to her with the hope that she can work her charms on him. Given that she is a Tantra priestess, Peter not only rises from the dead, other parts of him rise as well.
This is the story, told in first person, of a insecure, intelligent, nerdy teenager who has the fortune of dying and coming back for the erotic ride of his unlife. Madam Sangrail not only turns Peter into an intelligent zombie, but she teaches him how to control the hunger for flesh that comes with being undead by feeding off the sexual energies of the women he beds. She tutors him in how to avoid the inevitable rot and unattractive appearance of his dead flesh with a combination of magic and clean living that will allow him to use his endless sexual appetite to his advantage. Understand, this is not a story where the reader is regaled with an endless series of conquests Peter has after leaving the sweet company of his Madam, but instead are treated to the highlights of his journey, which do admittedly include some of his key conquests, but also tells a tale of frustration, sadness, the search for happiness, understanding, and love as he grows to maturity as a man.
I haven’t read much in the way of erotica, instead, I have an affinity for the undead and all sorts of stories about them. I have never limited my intake of different creative approaches to the zombie genre, and this book is a great example of a writer really mixing things up in a wonderful way and giving us something entirely new. Tonia Brown has done a nice job of melding the voodoo and Romero variants of undead for this story. Peter is a zombie, but his brain is just fine-he is intelligent and can function as a normal human being as long as he takes precautions and realizes that he must always feed-he has to devour the sexual energies of his partners or he will end up devouring their flesh. It’s a nice twist and provides us with a story with plenty of twists and turns as we learn about the unlife of Peter, an undead gigolo with a romantic streak a mile wide and a non-beating heart of gold.
Peter, in many ways, is the ideal lover. He never grows weary, has unlimited stamina, and seems to genuinely appreciate woman for both their inner and outer beauty. This is no rogue account of the lusty conquests of Peter, but more of a coming of age story that allows a boy to become a man. A man who must remain in temperatures below seventy degrees so his body parts don’t start to rot off, mind you, but a man never the less.
This is a well written, entertaining novel that will give the fan of romance and the fan of the undead both something new and creative to enjoy.
Lucky Stiff can be found at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1452833974/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1SMSKB3G2JDV3W2D5S8B&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846
A modest plug for The Zombist
Well, I have learned that it is not good form to write reviews for anthologies that you contributed to-at least not in places like Amazon, where the reviews are scrutinized for any affiliation to the author(s) of a book and anything that appears to be biased is treated as less than sincere, unfortunately. I do understand the logic there, though I am a compulsive reviewer, at least of every zombie book I can get my hands on. I don’t feel the need to review everything I read, but certainly those books that are near and dear to my heart are ones I like to review, and The Zombist certainly falls into that category.
I just got finished reading this massive tome, which clocks in at more
than 450 pages of tales of zombies in the old west. Twenty nine authors provided stories for this book, and the amazing Dr. Pus, publisher for The Library of the Living Dead, couldn’t resist bringing out something that was heavy enough to bash a zombie’s brain in rather than breaking it into two separate volumes. So anyone who is a fan of zombie fiction is going to have a lot to entertain them and get a great bargain in the process. We get a pretty good cross section of creative stories in this book, with the traditional Romero slow movers and speedier creations that have become more popular more recent years, zombies sent from hell, zombie ghosts, and the voodoo zombies as well, which are sprinkled through out this book and offer a nice change of pace from the regular flesh eaters (don’t get me wrong- I LOVE my regular flesh eaters!). My own story “The Woeful Tale of Dalton McCoy” is one such story, and I have to say I enjoyed creating a bit of voodoo and setting it in the area of the country I grew up in.
Quite a few authors I have gotten to know over the past year contributed to this book, along with many others I wasn’t familiar with, but loved discovering them through their stories in this book. Many, if not most of the stories in this book stood out as excellent, and the one that really stuck with me was probably Michael C. Lea’s “The Hot Springs Zombie Incident of 1875” which gets some big bonus points for creative use of a zombie as well as leaving me torn between laughing and cringing by the end of his tale. A lot of the other stories were just as entertaining and some were even quite touching, as the occasional zombie story tends to do. Most folks who don’t read this sort of stuff tend to think it is all about the gore and the zombies themselves, but those of us in know enjoy zombie stories because of the compelling human element of them. I think that is what sets the zombie genre apart from most other monster based horror genre tales-the monsters aren’t the stars of the story, the human beings are.
Another writer with an excellent story in this book is Jamie Eyberg, who unfortunately passed away, along with his wife, in a tragic accident this week. My sympathies go out to his family on their loss. It is my hope that Jamie’s memory will live on through the wonderful stories he has created and that this may provide his loved ones some small comfort in the years to come. I know that at least a couple more of his stories will be appearing in upcoming Library anthologies. Jamie, you will be missed.
I am very proud of my work in this anthology and even more proud of the fact that I am sharing a Table of Contents with such a tremendous group of writers. I won’t be writing a review of the book on Amazon, so instead, I offer this: if you enjoy westerns, and enjoy horror, then The Zombist is right up your alley. You get a huge value with such a massive tome of twenty nine different tales of undead mayhem, along with six guns, shamans, Voodoo Priests, and even a few historical characters, like George Custer, thrown in for a bit of added flavor. Go check it out-you won’t be disappointed!
Getting Comes The Dark for your E-Reader…as well as many other titles from The Library of the Living Dead.
Did you know that you can order various books from Library of the Living Dead Press in pdf format that you can read on your computer or upload to your e-reader, like the Kindle, Nook, and others?
Just another way to access Comes The Dark along with a ton of other great books with ease.
Check out this link for details on how to do it:
Comes The Dark and virtually every other book that can be found at www.thelibraryofthelivingdead.com can be ordered this way.
Review of Brian Kaufman’s “Dead Beyond The Fence”
Kevin and Angel have survived in his apartment during the first month of the zombie apocalypse with a group of other survivors who are living, essentially, in denial. The zombies are getting in despite the insistence of others that they cannot get in. Even though they have barricaded the place pretty tightly there are less and less of living souls as the days go on. So the duo pick up and depart the complex, heading toward the mountains nearby, with the hopes of steering clear of the mass of the undead in the city. Before they get too far, they end up at a university research facility which still houses several scientists and a few others who have decided to continue on with their research in an effort to discover the cause, and possibly a cure, for what has caused the dead to come back to life. Unfortunately, they are all working at crossed purposes and none of them except a security guard named Janet seems to care about what is out beyond the fence. The undead have mostly left them alone and no one really seems to like it when Kevin rocks the boat by suggesting that they take a more serious approach to defense, since all they have is a chain link fence to protect themselves and more and more zombies seem to be gathering at the gate every day.
This book is broken up into the main story, which is novella sized, and then a short story that is almost novella sized, that finishes things up. I do not want to give away much of the plot, but I will say that this book does take a different approach than many other apocalyptic zombie books that you will see out there in how things occur, especially with the novella tacked on to the end of it. The writing is solid and well edited, with very few typos, but the story itself may not appeal to all people, especially those who have faith that in the end, humanity will win out. I was frustrated at points with certain characters and how they acted, but not because I didn’t think what they did wasn’t realistic or anything of the sort-it is more like getting frustrated because some of the characters who buried their heads in the sand, or seemed willing to give up on things too easily, remind me way too much of how some poor souls act in real life when faced with challenging or harrowing situations. You almost have to shake your head at them and curse under your breath. If it was a movie, you would scream at the movie screen and tell them to wake up. Does that mean I disliked how the story unfolded? No, I think this was a grim story and none of the characters came across as heroes or heroines…just people sleep walking through what little remained of their lives because they don’t really know what else they can do. Despair has gripped them all, and it is difficult for them to hope for better in the future.
This is perhaps not the most upbeat tale of the apocalypse (which sounds like a contradiction in terms), but perhaps one of the more realistically brutal ones. The senselessness of it all rings true in this story-Kevin and Angel do what they have to care for one another, but cannot truly love each other-they need to hold on tightly, but cannot feel much in a dead world. It is perhaps a matter of understanding HOW to survive, but perhaps not really knowing WHY to survive.
Dead Beyond The Fence can be found at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0615345786/ref=cm_cr_thx_view
Another anthology that I will be in!
I had never taken a swipe at Bizarro fiction previously, but decided to take up the challenge when a submission call was put out earlier this year for Bizarro Horror Short stories. I came up with a little piece of oddness called “Consumer’s Paradise”, which appears second in the Table of Contents of this book. It has not been released yet, but as you can see, the cover has been designed already. Hopefully, it will be out soon, because I can’t wait to check out the rest of these strange stories.
For those not in the know, Bizarro is defined as:
1. Bizarro, simply put, is the genre of the weird.
2. Bizarro is literature’s equivalent to the cult section at the video store.
3. Like cult movies, Bizarro is sometimes surreal, sometimes goofy, sometimes bloody, and sometimes borderline pornographic.
4. Bizarro often contains a certain cartoon logic that, when applied to the real world, creates an unstable universe where the bizarre becomes the norm and absurdities are made flesh.
5. Bizarro strives not only to be strange, but fascinating, thought-provoking, and, above all, fun to read.
6. Bizarro was created by a group of small press publishers in response to the increasing demand for (good) weird fiction and the increasing number of authors who specialize in it.
7. Bizarro is Franz Kafka meets Joe Bob Briggs, Dr. Suess of the postapocalypse, Japanese animation directed by David Lynch.
Very excited about this and will definitely be posting something once it has been released.
Another Anthology I am in has been released! The Zombist.
Yep, ladies and gents, I am pretty excited about this one, which has both zombies (awesome) and the Wild, Wild West (kick ass!). So if you love zombies, cowboys, and indians, then you will love this sucker.
Oh and did I mention, it’s HUGE. Twenty Nine stories from twenty nine different authors…this sucker is one thick book of gunfights, bloodbaths, and gruesome old west fun.
Check it out here: https://www.createspace.com/3422384
It will be on Amazon and other online stores in the next couple of weeks, and on the Kindle as well in a short while too.
Review for Tony Scaab’s The G.O.R.E. Score Volume 1
I have written quite a few reviews on Amazon. Most of those reviews have been of zombie related books. I have tried my best to be both detailed and honest, giving the reader an honest overview of the content of a book without (hopefully) giving away too much of the plot or providing spoilers that would take away from their enjoyment of the book. I have done all this because I love the zombie genre and appreciate both the good and the bad when it comes to zombie fiction. Originally, I just started pounding away on my keyboard without any consideration for a larger zombie “community” out there, some of which can be found here on Amazon in the Community section-people who are like minded, sharing their thoughts on books, movies, games, and any other zombie related…stuff. Naive as it may sound, I hadn’t popped around the web looking for websites created for and by people who have this addiction to the rotting buggers. As time went on and I got to know some of the authors and other folks in the community, I started to discover a group of folks who actually have websites dedicated to zombie…stuff, and in particular, reviewing zombie stuff. That is how I stumbled upon Tony Schaab’s website and his very unique and creative scoring system for all things zombie.
Tony has done a bang up job with creating a system (G.O.R.E. stands for General Entertainment, Original Content, Realism, and Effects and editing) that gives you a thoroughly detailed guide when it comes to zombie…stuff.
Now I will admit that I am happy to receive a few favorable votes here on Amazon for my reviews. When I get a comment now and again about someone saying they appreciate my effort to give them a fair overview of a book. So I say this with all sincerity: The GORE Score puts my reviews to shame, hands down. Tony not only gives his opinions, which are based on a strong appreciate of zombie lore, but does his research so that he can provide little tidbits and details on a particular book/movie/etc, that he is reviewing. It’s not only about the score, but about what the product has to offer, and what it will mean to the zombie aficionado. Now understand that his reviews are straight from the perspective of someone who is in love with the undead (and not in pervy sort of way), so while most of the reviews are of zombie-centric products, he does take a swipe at a few things where zombies are not the central figures.
I think the bottom line with any book that claims to be a source for review material of a particular topic is whether or not you find the reviews intriguing enough to take a look at a product you either had no intention of acquiring or gives you some more hesitation on a product that you were certain that you would like, but after reading the review you realize it may have been a waste of money. I think the GORE Score does this quite well, as there are several books, movies and even a piece of music that I am going to be checking out after reading this compilation that would have never crossed my mind before. Tony Schaab is articulate, funny, and gives you the lowdown in an easy to read and understand format. Good stuff for all the zombie lovers out there.
The G.O.R.E. Score Volume 1 can be found on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/G-O-R-E-Score-Review-Things-Zombie/dp/1453654194/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280107483&sr=1-1
Review of Tim Long and Jonathan Moon’s “The Apocalypse and Satan’s Glory Hole”
Dip yourself in whatever numbing agent is your preference, strap yourself in tightly, put on some welding goggles, and then perhaps you might be able to absorb this little slice of delightful insanity, brought to you by two authors who apparently have a strong fetish with glory holes, demons with, shall we say, impressive dangly bits, some very odd and phallically shaped bugs, feces, LSD, the “F” word, and anything else you can think of that might disrupt the sensitive minds of virtually everyone on the planet.
The apocalypse is here, and everything is screwed up. God the father has decided to take a hike to another universe and start all over, while the angels and demons are waiting to get the party started. Jesus is tired of being taken advantage of, the four horsemen of the apocalypse are mostly all around incompetents, the Antichrist is a no show, and Satan…well, Satan is rising out the desert, ass first. And none of them hold a candle to the main characters in this truly freaked out story.
We have an assortment of people who are all trying to sort things out during the apocalypse, whether they are trying to prevent it or get the party started, including a General who strives to find new and fun ways to curse like a madman, a Sheriff and one of his deputies who just came from the orgy to end all orgies and are dressed appropriately in a g-string and ball gag, a man who can best be described a narcissistic, delusional, drug addled blogger who has a one armed, heroin addicted ape for a pet named Phil, an employee of a sex shop whose beverages have been spiked with so much LSD that he can only speak in what can be described as porno-linguistics, and a militant lesbian who seems to be the most sane person amongst them. Oh, and we can’t forget Goatboy…the half man, half goat who speaks with a British accent and can’t stop telling dirty jokes.
This book is a riot of psychotropic incidents and disturbing imagery…and yes, plenty of glory holes. For me, the most visually intriguing scene had to be the battle between the angels of heaven and the half man/half demon that occurs in the sex shop. It was also one of those rare moments when I am reading where I virtually laughed my butt off. I couldn’t help myself. But to say that this particular scene came even close to being the most outrageous, the most jaw-droppingly absurd in the book would be stretching it quite a bit.
Do not read this book if you do not a) have a strong stomach b) a mind willing to be twisted into little pretzel shapes, then allowing the salt on said pretzel shapes to be licked off by goats and various farm animals with questionable morals, and c) don’t have a great fascination with feces and the sexual practices of demons. You have been warned. Everyone else, come on board for a strangely compelling mind-F of the highest magnitude.
The Apocalypse and Satan’s Glory Hole can be found on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Apocalypse-Satans-Glory-Hole/dp/1452862036/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279596785&sr=1-1
Review for Wayne Simmon’s “Flu”
Wayne Simmons has returned with another tale of the apocalypse that transports the reader back to the streets of Belfast, Northern Ireland, much like he did with Drop Dead Gorgeous, although this tale is very much distinctly different in its approach to the dead who rise up in the story. IN DDG, the undead are VERY unique and take most of the story to appear-perhaps they are not even undead, as it were, given how they act and react. Much will be revealed in the sequel to that tale, I would gather, as the reader is left with something of a mystery on their hands after book one as to what to expect from them…a good, intriguing mystery, mind you.
Flu is, in many ways, a more ‘traditional’ tale of the dead rising. The premise here is a flu that rips through the populace, putting down almost everyone as it goes airborne. The police cannot handle it, nor the army, but they are doing their grim best to quarantine the initial victims of the outbreak in a way that I found to be quite disturbing. Those afflicted by the flu don’t rise immediately-at least not at the beginning of the story, but it does not take long for it to be clear that we are dealing with a zombie outbreak as we see one body rise in a tenant where the police can barely contain the rioting citizens. After that, we skip ahead six weeks and discover that the city of Belfast is a wasteland, with few survivors and undead numbers growing exponentially.
Wayne brings the reader back to his little corner of the world and makes it as detailed and vital as he did in DDG. We again are introduced to characters who were immersed in the ‘troubles’ of that area-policemen, the military, and a member of the IRA, whose past existences haunt them and impact how they try to survive through this horrible reality they find themselves in. They are not the only characters, as Wayne doesn’t scrimp on the introduction or development of others, including a heavily tattooed and pierced character named Lark and his buddy McCall, who inject some color into this new world of death and mayhem, alongside the beautiful Geri, who share time with cops George and Norman and Pat, an IRA operative who has taken it upon himself to protect a naive girl he’s found in the aftermath of the apocalypse, Karen. We also get to see some things going on behind the scenes with the military, although our time with Major Connor Jackson and Dr. Miles Gallagher, two men at crossed purposes, is limited in this book-just enough for us to guess at what grim possibilities await the other survivors in a sequel to this novel.
The bottom line is that this is a richly developed story with characters that you can love or hate based on the depth with which they are developed. My criticism, which is minor, has to do with the fact that the action is limited because of the detail with which all the characters are given. Don’t get me wrong, the story moves forward, it is just not at a lightning pace. I am guessing that the author is setting the reader up for a thrill ride of a sequel that is less heavy on character development and more on action, as is often the case with sagas such as this. Honestly, I can’t say it is really a criticism that is heavy, because I think when this tale is complete, after two or three books, we will see something that is vibrant with characters that fascinate as well as action that resonates. Good stuff, and again, Wayne Simmons does not disappoint.
Flu can be found at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1906727198/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=00GQ22E3DTS4YD6FT7JS&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846
First review of Comes The Dark!
The first full review of my book has show up out on in the world! That along with the news that the book may be ready to go within a week or two if the proof looks good have me feeling quite giddy at the moment.
Matt Nord, aka Zombie Custodian, posted a review of Comes The Dark on his blog that can be found here:
http://zombiecustodian.blogspot.com/2010/07/review-of-comes-dark-by-patrick-dorazio.html
Review of J.L. Bourne’s ‘Day by Day Armageddon Beyond Exile’
Day by Day Armageddon was one of the first books I read when I became interested in zombie literature, to go hand in hand with my fascination with zombie movies, almost exactly four years ago. As is the case with many people who enjoyed its personal approach to the apocalypse as told by an active officer in the military, I have waited all this time for the long hoped for sequel. Since J.L. Bourne is himself an active member of the military, my guess is that he was only able to write bits and pieces of this update of the saga between active tours of duty. While it may have been frustration for us fans of the first book to have waited this long, I have to say that the wait was well worth it.
An issue that some people had with the first book was perhaps the intentional diary approach to the book, with typos left in and even the text a bit rougher than you would get from a traditional novel. That is no longer an issue, as the format of this book is more traditional, with no errors in the text, intentional or not. I myself had no issues with that previously, but with it gone, it is one less point of criticism that someone may have with this type of storytelling. We once again get a diary of a military officer facing down the zombie apocalypse and this one picks up where the last journal ended, under ground, in the nuclear missile silo the author has dubbed Hotel 23, shortly after an attack by hostile survivors that failed to penetrate its defenses.
This is once again a personal journey of one man, with other people entering and exiting the story at different intervals. The characters in the first novel that are with the main character in Hotel 23 remain, but do not play a pivotal role here. The story has more dramatic swings to it than the previous tale, where it was mainly one man gathering who he could with him to find any place they could to survive. In this story, the military is reintroduced and play a huge role in the goings on of this tale. This allows the story to progress beyond what could have amounted to a group of people just trying to hide out underground for the duration of the apocalypse. Instead, the main character is required to make tough decisions and take on new responsibilities that will lead him away from H23 for the bulk of this tale and once again make this a intriguing saga of one man’s path, out in the open, during the zombie apocalypse.
My favorite character, and one which I am gathering much more will be revealed about in a future journal, is Saien, who our main character meets during his desperate travels and appears to be equally as capable (if not more so) than the main character at surviving in zed infested territory. His background is perhaps not completely shrouded in mystery, but it is clear there is more to the man than what the diary indicates. Suffice it to say, he is an interesting addition to the characters in the book, and the only one that shared a great deal of pages with the main character.
While there is a bit of romance afoot for our hero, it is certainly not a significant part of this journal. Personal interactions like that are kept to a minimum, with some character commentary that reveals bits and pieces, but the action is what the author targets, as is natural in a journal format such as this. While there is a great deal of military terminology, the author goes to significant lengths to make the layman, like me, feel comfortable with the equipment and hardware being used in the story. This is not a story about an every day guy beating the odds and surviving, but about someone who has gone through survival training, has a great familiarity with weaponry, hand to hand combat, and battle tactics most of us are not privy to, which makes this book fairly unique among most zombie stories written.
I personally enjoyed the gritty, personal perspective that this book and the previous novel have. A journal format does have its weaknesses: minimal dialogue, limited perspective, and by necessity, we know that the person who is penning the journal is okay because they continue to write about their exploits day after day. But done well, it is a compelling format, and it is hard to say that anyone out there does it any better than J.L. Bourne.
Day By Day Armageddon: Beyond Exile can be found on Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/143917752X/ref=cm_cr_thx_view
Review of Eric S. Brown and Jessy Marie Robert’s Kinberra Down
Eric S. Brown and Jessy Marie Roberts have created a faced paced and slick little tale of war, aliens, and mayhem that is packed tightly into 80 pages that go by even quicker than you would think. This novella starts out fast, with the Kinberra, a human warship, getting assaulted immediately after coming out of void space into a war zone. Humans and Darians, a cat-like race, are fighting in the system, and before the Kinberra can get annihilated like the rest of their fleet, the ship takes a blind jump into void space…which sends them to a mysterious ice planet with some very dangerous indigenous life forms, where they are forced to crash land and make a desperate attempt to repair their vessel before they get annihilated by the giant ants that swarm the snow drenched planet.
This book barely gives you barely enough time to breath, as we get space battles, hand to hand combat, gruesome ant like enemies, mutiny, and even a bit of a love story jam packed into this very quick read. I devoured this one in one quick sitting and enjoyed it a great deal. This could easily be part of a much bigger saga of the war between the Humans and Darians, and we even get to meet a Darian that is a prisoner aboard the Kinberra, so the reader gets a taste of these enemies and how the fight.
My only real complaint has to be that this book is so brief that we don’t get too much of a chance to really get to know the people involved in this tale in any depth. This is true in particular of Jordon, Rebecca, and Xar, the Darian prisoner who is forced to fight alongside the humans against the menacing ants. I would have liked to seen more of them. This is a brief jaunt into space that gives you action that is fast paced with absolutely no filler, though, which marks it as a blast in my book.
Kinberra Down can be found on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/161706016X/ref=cm_cr_thx_view
Origins Game Con…helping out a friend promote his book
This past Saturday, I ventured up to Columbus and the Origins Gaming Convention, where my friend Ben Rogers and his wonderful PR Queen, Beth LaFond, had a table set up and were promoting Ben’s book, Faith and The Undead. This was the first experience of book signing for Ben, and was for me as well. I consider it something that will allow both of us to lay the groundwork for future cons, and more specifically, conventions that are more targeted toward the audience we are selling to.
Origins is what I suppose is a typical gaming convention, with a huge array of colorful characters walking around in costumes that consist of armor, spandex, leather, and a wide assortment of other materials that perhaps are not what you would typically see on the street these days. It was entertaining watching so many people dressed up as their favorite fantasy characters, although the Ghost Busters crew was also interesting. I can’t deny that the corsets and woman dressed in the naughty nurse outfit weren’t just a tad bit distracting, but some of the apparel was also highly amusing. But hey, I figure a convention like this gives folks a chance to let loose and have fun. My guess is that when I attend Horror Realm in September, chances are that I will be garbed like a zombie at least for one night, so who am I to judge?
Since I was only there on Saturday, I did get a taste of the convention experience, but I am sure that Ben and Beth are worn out after being their Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, where as I only had to show up and chat with some folks who came by the booth to see what Ben’s book was all about for a few hours. I don’t think either of them were thrilled with how the convention managers set up the authors (there were four that were supposed to have tables, I believe, but only a couple of them were there, and typically only for an hour or two, with very little product to promote to the convention goers). Ben had the table decorated and had quite a few books ready to sell to interested conventioneers. It was nice hearing him and Beth describe the book and give the audience an understand of what it is all about. What was also interesting was going to Ben’s reading of his book that afternoon. He actually read a few chapters and then some short stories and poems in the hour he had. He did an excellent job. I myself have been giving presentations my entire career, but somehow the idea of reading things of my own creation instead of speaking about some manufacturers new product or a new solution for a customer makes me feel like when my time comes, there will be plenty of butterflies.
Overall, I would have to say the experience was a blast. Given that we writers tend to live in our own worlds part of the time (that is inside our heads), and our connections to other members of the writing community tend to consist of message boards and on occasion Skype conference sessions late at night, it was terrific meeting a couple of people who I have not interacted with previously on a face to face basis. I feel like I am definitely part of a bigger thing than myself when we are all trying to get together and help one another to promote our books and “pimp” our stuff. There is a cohesion there because of our shared passion and that makes all the difference. As you may or may not have surmised, I do not spend my days and nights with other people who like zombies or give them much thought. The same goes with horror…science fiction and fantasy has been a bit more prevalent in my life, since I grew up with friends who enjoyed those genres immensely…but even with that, much of the interaction with others of a like mind is with people not in my own physical world. I am sure I could find a community of zombie fans here in Cincinnati, and my understanding is that Horror Hound is a convention occurring here probably in August that might be interesting to attend, but it was almost surreal having several people to chat with, face to face, about zombies and seeing that there passion is as great as mine on the subject. That was new, and probably the most exciting part of being at this convention.
Great experience and I can’t wait for my next convention…hopefully after my book comes out so I have something of my own to promote alongside Ben and whoever else I am with.
Ben Roger’s Book Signing at The Origin’s Game Fair this weekend
My good friend Ben Rogers will be signing copies of his recent release ‘Faith and The Undead’, this weekend at the Origins Game Fair at the Columbus, Ohio Convention Center Friday (10-6), Saturday (10-6), and Sunday (10-4) and I will be in attendance along with Ben’s publicist and another good friend, Beth LaFond. I can only be there on Saturday, but am really looking forward to the opportunity. I am very excited about helping out a friend while he promotes his book and because it will be a learning experience for all of us. This is Ben’s first show and mine as well. Given that my book is not released yet, I will get the chance to ‘pimp’ Ben’s book and learn from the experience.
Having been to trade shows on numerous occasions in the past for various jobs I’ve had, I have a inkling of what something like this will be like, although I am guessing it will be a lot more fun and passionate audience than you typically get at a Security & Alarm or telecom industry trade show. Getting the chance to meet up with die hard fans of multiple genres like horror, science fiction, and fantasy should be a real blast. I want to really help Ben and Beth make this show a success for them and learn some tips on how to grab people’s attention at events like this one.
Since my book isn’t out yet, I’ve created a flyer that I can hand out to people who take look at Ben’s book. I have also created some business cards as well, which will give me the chance to promote Ben and give folks a little reminder of my stuff, since they are already checking out an excellent zombie novel from a fellow author. This trip will be all about Ben though, and I am there to support him and get his message across. He is a great guy with a tremendous novel and I’m excited to do my little part to help his book get the attention it so richly deserves.
Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated
For Immediate Release:
Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated Screening and Panel at Comic-Con
Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated ( http://www.notldr.com ) has proven itself to be one of the most experimental projects to hit the horror genre in recent memory. Taking the existing film, Night of the Living Dead (1968), gallery curator/ experimental animator, Mike Schneider, extended the invitation for anyone in the horror community to take scenes from this seminal work and respond to them through their art. As Schneider explains, ‘We, as fans, accept the film as an absolute. Changes would be alienating and copying would be pointless. Instead, what we have done is what artists have always done.. responded to the world around us and offered others the chance to see it as we do.’
With nearly 150 artists and animators taking up the cause, thousands of pieces of art and segments of animation were created through media ranging from oil paintings to comic illustrations and digital animation to sock puppets. Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated forgoes the dubious comforts that a singular style may provide for the chance to showcase the wide spectrum of visual media. The resulting collection was then hung directly on top of the original film leaving the its audio track and story completely unmodified.
Since it first screened in September 2009, Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated has shown in venues including film festivals, theaters, colleges, cinema bars, museums, horror conventions, and even in virtual spaces like the Facebook Comic-Con and in the Phantasmagoria Theater (a virtual movie theater build within the MMORPG, Second Life). Perhaps most notably, Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated has quickly become a favorite amongst TV and web based horror hosts with many of them presenting it to their local audiences via streaming and public access shows. As the project finally nears its long awaited DVD release ( http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003GUGB8G ), Neoflux Productions is pleased to announce Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated will be screening this year at San Diego Comic-Con ( http://www.comic-con.org/cci/ ).
Join a panel of contributing artists as they screen Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated on Thursday July 22nd at 9:30pm in Room 5AB at Comic-Con. Directly following the screening, the contributing artists will hold a panel discussion covering their varied media and involvement in NOTLD:R. They will also be taking questions and signing autographs. Confirmed panelists include : John Chesnut and Josh Barnett ( claymation and cut-out animation), Jacquelyn Bond ( watercolor paintings ), Grant Fuhst (mixed-media artwork ), Sean Williams ( hand drawn animation ), Zina Lahr ( toy modification/ experimental animation ), Brad Uyeda ( stop-motion animation ), Anthony Amos ( digital animation ), and Eric Schock ( comic book illustration ).
What Comic-Con event would be complete without swag to giveaway?
The giveaways at the screening/ panel include:
– Pre-Release Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated DVD’s by Wild Eye Releasing ( http://www.wildeyereleasing.com )**
– DVD’s of Monster Madhouse presents NOTLD:R ( http://www.monstermadhouse.com )
– DVD’s of Friday Night – Fright Night presents NOTLD:R ( http://www.fridaynight-frightnight.com )
– DVD’s of World of Weird Monster Show presents NOTLD:R ( http://wowmonstershow.com/ )
– LTD Edition NOTLD:R Teaser Poster 1 ( 
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– LTD Edition NOTLD:R Teaser Poster 2 ( 
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– LTD Edition NOTLD:R DVD Poster ( 
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– Special Edition (SDCC Exclusive Cover) Comic: ‘Sick as a Dog’ Mike Schneider/ Terry Callen
– Buttons, Pins, Keychains, and other NOTLD:R materials provided by contributing artists
Please note, many of these giveaways are in strict limited editions so get there early and stay alert as they will be given away throughout the event. So remember, the Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated Screening and Panel is Thursday, July 22nd at 9:30pm in Room 5AB at San Diego Comic-Con.
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**Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003GUGB8G
Produced by Neoflux Productions
Released by Wild Eye Releasing
Release Date: 7/27/2010
Night of the Living Dead: Reanimated is a collaborative artistic mash-up of George Romero’s cult classic. Nearly 150 International artists and animators chose their favorite scenes and re-envisioned them through their own artwork, with no restrictions on style, media or process – resulting in an eclectic ‘art show’ interpretation of the seminal 1968 film, all placed over the original’s audio. With work ranging from oil paintings to comic illustrations and sock puppets to CGI and stop-motion – NOTLD:R not only pays the respect due to this most important work in horror history, but encourages viewers to experience the film in a brand new light that bursts with the humor and horror of a new generation of artists. Art is dead…yeah, it’s all messed up.
DVD Special Features:
– DVD Cover Art by Mike Schneider
– DVD Label – Functioning Phenakistoscope ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenakistoscope )
Layout: Mike Schneider Animation: Calum MacAskill
– Liner Notes by Peter Gutierrez ( Rue Morgue )
– DVD Hosted by Legendary Horror Host, Count Gore De Vol ( http://www.countgore.com )
– Commentary 1: With Guests Peter Gutierrez and Stoker Award winning author, Jonathan Maberry ( http://jonathanmaberry.com/ ) ( Patient Zero; Zombie CSU; Marvel Zombies Return )
– Commentary 2: With Guest Corpse S. Chris ( http://www.horrorhostgraveyard.com )
– Documentary about the various PD releases of Night of the Living Dead entitled ‘Boxart of the Dead’ by Rob Hauschild
– Surreal Animated Short, ‘Silo’ by Anthony Amos
– Zombie Cartoon, ‘ Ape of the Dead’ by Andres Silva
– Pacman Parody, ‘ Night of the Gaming Dead’ by Voodoo Velvet
– Demonstrated Animation Processes by Calum MacAskill, Mike Boas, and Ryan Sigg
– Zombie Encounter Panel with horror authors including Jonathan Maberry and Dr. Kim Paffenroth ( Gospel of the Living Dead )
– Artist Slide Gallery
– Call-In Messages from 28 of the Contributing NOTLD:R Artists
– Select Uncut Scenes
– Short Horror Comics (by NOTLD:R artists)
– and more…
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Contact press@notldr.com for interview, questions, or review copies.
Contact robjh@wildeyereleasing.com to inquire about the NOTLD:R DVD.
Contact screenings@notldr.com to setup a screening near you.
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Review for Iain McKinnon’s “Domain of the Dead”
Domain of the Dead begins with a group of survivors living in a warehouse that was stocked with food when the zombie apocalypse began. There were 27 survivors at one point but they are down to a handful of them and one, Sarah, has decided that it would be best to end it all, because their food is about to run out after being tucked away in this place for as long as they all have. She climbs up to the roof, ready to jump, and sees a helicopter off in the distance and the decision is quickly made to try and make a break for it to the helicopter, rather than starve to death by the few people left in the warehouse.
A few of them survive the quick and violent trip to the helicopter, with the help of the military personnel who had set down and were patrolling the area. Some are left behind, because the helicopter doesn’t have enough room for all of them, and they fade out of the story for the most part, as Sarah and a couple of other warehouse survivors: Nathan and a little girl named Jennifer, fly back to a ship where the military is running experiments on zombies, trying to discover a cure or vaccination against the mysterious ailment that causes the dead to rise. Not long after that,things go a little nuts and a breakout of the zombie virus has the survivors fighting for their lives as the ship becomes a graveyard of the undead.
The book is a fast paced, quick zombie read that clearly intends to have a sequel based on how the story ends. I thought it was unfortunate that the people left behind on the mainland were not returned to the spotlight in this book after the helicopter returns to the ship, and the entire focus was on what was happening on the ship. The author provides some interesting suggestions based on science as to why the dead were rising and a good chunk of the book is spent on that discussion in the second act. Unfortunately, that felt like a slight disruption to the plot, as we start out with a high octane beginning to the book as the survivors from the warehouse are rushing to escape the hordes and get to the helicopter and then there is a lull until the action starts again towards the final third of the book. While that is a bit of a criticism, as well as the lack of connection to those left behind back on the mainland, the story itself is entertaining and does provide some good zombie gore, guts, and action. I think this series of books, whether it is two or more, could be quite interesting, as the fate of those who remained behind will likely be revealed pretty early on in a second book and things certainly will be different for the survivors who had been on the ship. I just wish they had remained a part of the plot of this first book.
Domain of the Dead can be found on Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1934861278/ref=cm_cr_thx_view
Review for T.W. Brown’s “Dead: The Ugly Beginning”
Author T.W. Brown indicates that this will be the first of at least five books in his Dead Saga. All I can say to that is: when is the second volume coming out?
This is the beginning, and so we are introduced to a wide array of characters. It is the beginning of the zombie apocalypse, the beginning of the end for the human race, and the beginning of some incredible and wide spanning journeys for characters both big and small. We are provided with two main stories in this book. One is told from the perspective of Steve, a guy living in Portland, Oregon when the infection begins, although he is soon on the road, picking up a neighbor girl on the way as things quickly unravel around him. The other story is of a group of geeks in Norfolk, Virginia who are also attempting to cope with the apocalypse and get on the road almost immediately, to start heading west to an area they hope is lacking enough in population that it will be safe. The author doesn’t stop there with the characters, adding chapters entitled Vignettes, which share the stories of others, both survivors and the not so lucky, as they live and die throughout the country (and in a couple of cases, in other areas of the world). Some of the characters introduced through those chapters will continue to play a role in the upcoming books, or at least the sequel, although many face their doom rather abruptly in this story.
This is a very traditional Romero zombie style story, which means that you shouldn’t expect the zombies to be demonic, speedsters, or intelligent. These are the slow moving, inevitable shamblers that inhabit nightmare not because you can’t run away from them, but because they never stop coming for you, in greater and greater numbers. You have time to pause and consider your fate as they close in, slowly, awkwardly, knowing that they will get through the barricades in time because they will never stop until everyone is devoured and turned into what they have become.
The key to a story like this one is to have compelling characters, which is what Mr. Brown has created. Whether they’re one of the main characters like Steve, Kevin, or Mike, or any of the multitude of more ancillary characters, there are very few “extras” in this tale. Even those who have been bitten in the vignettes that you know almost immediately are about to die are provided with a compelling enough storyline to make it so I cared about them as a reader. There are good and evil people, as there always are in these stories, but more important, the good guys can and do make mistakes, which means that while you are rooting for them, they are still human and still apt to make a monumental mistake that gets someone killed. The author has developed “real” characters, which is why I am looking forward to see where they end up going in this story, even if it is always in doubt as to whether or not any of them will be able to survive until the very end.
Dead: The Ugly Beginning is on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Ugly-Beginning-T-Brown/dp/0984537201/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274811322&sr=1-1
“Zombonauts” An anthology by Library of the Living Dead Press
Zombonauts goes where no anthology has gone before. Okay, so I am not 100% sure of that, but I personally haven’t see an entire anthology dedicated to stories about the undead in space. Vince Churchill’s “The Dead Shall Inherit the Earth” was my first exposure to zombies in space, and “Barren Earth” by Eric Brown and Stephen North is a more recent offering, but this jams 30 stories into one book about the undead buggers doing it in zero G.
We get a wide assortment of the undead here and while many are of the traditional Romero variety, there are some very interesting slants on what you would expect when it comes to a zombie story, with voodoo zombies, non-zombies that have zombie-like characteristics, and a few mysteries tossed in that simply make you wonder. The novelty here is not only that all of these stories occur in space, but that we get some very unique tales of apocalypse and even a few bitingly satirical stories as well(pardon the pun).
Given the volume of stories here, there was bound to be a bit of overlap as far as plot and progression with some of them, but there are ample tales that stand up as unique and intriguing in this volume. A true test, in my mind, of a short story is that it leaves me craving for more from that author and more of the particular story I just read. There are several of those here, which makes this anthology not only a unique read but also a very entertaining one.
Zombonauts can be found on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Zombonauts-Undead-Universe-Dr-Pus/dp/1449916147/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274810857&sr=1-1
Review for Derek J. Goodman’s Machina
Derek J. Goodman has crafted four very different and very intriguing fantastical stories about machines that seem to spring straight from his imagination onto the page.
The first, Dea Ex Machina, mixes the grim metallic future of a world filled with humans that are essentially factory slaves, working on machines as if they too are machines, but it also has magic in it as well that goes beyond the simple metal and zombie slave mentality that shackles the workers in place.
The second, a novella, Twister Sisters, was the story I enjoyed the most, more than likely because I have not been exposed to much steam punk and this was a rousing introduction to the genre. The depth of the society the author developed was exceptional. Here we are thrust not only into a world where steam and machines allow humans to take flight in massive contraptions, but also is a place where women, for the most part, rule and men play a secondary role due to their penchant towards violence and machismo. I enjoyed this swashbuckling tale of high adventure and would not mind re-entering that world once again.
Those Were The Days, the third story, was something I, as a kid who grew up on 80s teen and sci fi stories could appreciate. The author’s notes confirmed that he shares similar sentiments with me about movies such as War Games, amongst others. Revisiting and updating a lost tale from the 80s allowed me to grow nostalgic for a story that never actually existed, though it seemed quite familiar to me.
As Wide As The Sky, And Twice as Explosive was the shortest and in some ways, the most interesting of the four stories found in this book. A boy who finds the sky dwelling and warring giant robots far more fascinating and intoxicating than his earth-bound human counterparts is not all that different than things we have seen before, but the extent to which he takes that fascination definitely new. We are given a taste of something that perhaps might leave you wondering where a story like this could lead to if it was expanded, and wondering whether you would be interested in taking such a journey.
Overall, I enjoyed the diversity of machine related stories the author has lined up in this book. I could really get into a larger volume of steam punk either in the world of Twister Sisters or a brand new one from Derek Goodman. I also have a feeling the author has many other worlds he could show us with machines in them that are just as fascinating as the ones he has shown us here.
Machina can be found at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Machina-Derek-J-Goodman/dp/145155351X/ref=cm_cr-mr-title
Review of Tonia Brown’s ‘The Blooming’
The Blooming is a story of a group of documentary film producers who take a trip with a botanist to a remote island in the Pacific so that he can record his search for a very rare bloom that he has been searching for most of his professional life. The scientist only reveals that myths indicate that those who touch these blooms will assume the power of the gods. What he does not reveal, but becomes apparent to the crew very rapidly, is that those exposed to the golden, shimmering pollen of these blooms are gripped by a lust like nothing they have ever felt before. Where this lust turns to is revealed in this erotic tale of lust and violence that hits fast and leaves you gasping for air (or gasping for more, dependent on your mood as you read this story).
As a fan of zombie fiction but someone has admittedly not read much in the erotica genre, I have to say that this story definitely titillates as you flip the pages, dreadfully waiting for what you know is coming: the all consuming lust turning into an all consuming need to feed. This combination is potent and left me as a reader feeling vulnerable in a way that other zombie stories haven’t made me feel, because of the potency of the mix. Zombies are very freaky monsters to begin with, but combining our carnal passions with cannibalism almost seems a very disturbing combination. We speak of our desire for flesh as it relates to lust and say we want to eat someone up. We nibble, we bite, we are consumed with passion for both our partners as well as our food. Tonia Brown has made the figurative literal with this story, and if the idea of being cannibalized by zombies had you feeling disturbed before, the idea of being devoured, both literally and figuratively, by your lover should have you pretty much freaked out (or turned on…once again, if that is your thing).
The only complaints I could come up with here is that there were a few typos, which were minor and didn’t distract from the story, and the fact that this story was short. The latter isn’t really a complaint, but I have to say that I wasn’t ready to let go so quickly with this story that I read so quickly and enjoyed quite a bit.
The Blooming can be found on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Blooming-Tonia-Brown/dp/0615362281/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274810423&sr=1-1
Patrick D'Orazio's Blog 