Category Archives: zombies

A Look at Weird Tales 362

weird-tales-issue-362-front-coverBefore I start the review, I’d like to thank Doug Draa for the review copy and apologize for taking so long to get the review posted.  The review  copy is a PDF file, and I’d intended to read it while traveling over the summer.  For some reason, my ereader (a first generation device) wouldn’t open the file.  Anyway, since I hate reading for fun on a backlit screen (which I do enough of for work), it was a while before I managed to read it.  So thanks and apologies, Doug.  I promise to do better in the future.

There are a total of seventeen pieces of fiction, five poems, a tribute to Parke Godwin by Marvin Kaye,an interview with Joyce Carol Oates, and a look at how one of the illustrations was developed by Jeff Wong.

Overall, I found this issue to be a strong one, though not without a few stories which weren’t to my taste.  The theme for this issue is The Undead.  And no, not all of the themed stories are about zombies.  Just some of them, which is good because I’m not a big zombie fan.  But overall I found this issue to be a great read for Halloween. Continue reading

Darkness Falling, A Review of Peter Crowther’s Latest Novel

Darkness Falling
Peter Crowther
Angry Robot Books
US/Canada 27 Sep 2011
400 pp trade paperback $12.99 US/ $14.99 Canada
UK 6 Oct 2011
464 pp B-format paperback    L7.99
ebook 27 Sep 2011 L4.99/$5.99

As and editor and publisher, Peter Crowther has few peers.  His accomplishments in these fields have overshadowed his work as a writer.  He tends to write primarily in the horror genre, and this latest novel is no exception.

The publisher classifies it as science fiction on the book’s webpage, and I have no argument with that designation.  However, I’ve chosen to review it here rather than on Futures Past and Present, my science fiction blog, because as a scientist I’m a little skeptical about some of the things that happen.  Since Angry Robot classified Roil as a fantasy and I reviewed it as science fiction (which I maintain it is), I figure this just evens things out.

With Halloween approaching, this book fits the season well.

This is basically a zombie novel with a dash of vampiric photo-phobia thrown in.  There are echoes of the original Night of the Living Dead as well as allusions and references to other classic horror films, not the least of which is Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Most of the population disappears in a Rapture-like event, a flash of bright light in the middle of the night.  Only a few people are left.  That’s about as far as the similarities to the Left Behind books goes.  Twenty-four hours later, there’s a second flash of light.  The bodies of the people who disappeared are back.  Only they’ve changed.  And they’re not friendly.

I have to admit my initial impression of this book wasn’t exactly positive.  Two of the characters turned me off completely.  The first was Ronnie, whose marriage is in trouble.  He’s on a plane with his wife, and he’s ogling every female of legal age in sight.  He doesn’t disappear, but his wife does.  Also on the plane with him are a little girl named Angel, who happens to be clairvoyant, and the navigator, who doesn’t really know how to land the plane.  It’s only when Ronnie begins to be a father figure that he becomes a likeable character.

The other character, Virgil, is a serial killer.  What I didn’t care for was the detail into his past we were given, specifically the sexual abuse he experienced from his mother.  He never becomes a likeable character, but then he’s not supposed to be.  He just suffered from too much information in the early chapters.

After a few chapters, though, I found myself being hooked.  With the exception of Virgil, all of the other characters are appealing, eventually if not immediately.  The fact that they don’t all survive adds to the suspense.  Not all of the characters are together in the beginning.  By the end all the viewpoint characters have joined up and have formed a plan, which will be implemented in the next book.  Crowther is a talented writer, and the prose flowed.  The market is somewhat saturated with zombies right  now.  This one is the cream of the crop.

Being a type of zombie novel, there’s plenty of gore in places.  While that might turn some readers off, I didn’t find it excessive.  There’s enough mystery about what happened to keep me reading, even if I’m not entirely sure I buy everything in Crowther’s scenario from a scientific standpoint. 

There are two more volumes planned in this series, with release dates in the fall of 2012 and 2013.  I’ll be looking for them.

How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse, Viking Style

viking deadViking Dead
Toby Venables
Abaddon Books, 351 p. $9.99

We’re rather fond of vikings here at Adventures Fantastic, so when I saw this in the store, I knew I had to at least consider giving it a try.  After reading a sample in the middle, I took it home (after paying for it, of course) and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

While I’ve not gone in much for the current zombie craze, that might start changing, especially if I can find more stuff that’s this well written.  For a first novel, Toby Venables sets himself a hard act to follow.

The story concerns a grew of down on their luck vikings, led by a man named Bjolf.  The book opens with a raid on a small village.  The only problem is a rival crew of vikings got there first.  Bjolf and his crew end up fleeing for their lives, but not before acquiring a stowaway, a thirteen year old boy from the village named Atli, who just wants to escape his overbearing father.

Pursued into a fog, Bjolf and and his men lose their bearings and are only able to find land after a raven lands on their ship and they follow it to shore and into a fjord.  They’re not sure where they are, but it’s no place they want to be.  This is something they quickly discover when one of the crew is attacked by a draugr, an animated dead body.  Seems the woods are crawling with them.

Still pursued by their rivals, they managed to escape both the draugr and the other vikings.  Fleeing into a tributary of the fjord, they end up at a stockaded settlement, where they are welcomed as heroes come to rescue the people.  That’s not quite what they had planned to do.

Bjolf and his first mate, Gunnar, have two continuing conversations throughout the book.  The first is what would be the best country (i.e., one without a price on their heads) in which to settle down on a farm with a large farmhouse and a large woman in the door.  (I’m not being sexist; Gunnar, a large man, actually says that at one point.)  The other conversation concerns whether a man controls his own destiny or is at the mercy of fate.

The people are led by Halldis, daughter of the former chieftain, who was killed by his slave Skalla shortly after the draugr began to plague the people.  Skalla now demands tribute each month from the remaining villagers.  He’s working for some masters on an island further up the fjord.  These masters are viewed as sorcerers and as the source of the draugr infestation.  Of course, Bjolf and his men eventually do stay to help.

This is a book with many stories contained within the larger story arc.  For Atli, it’s a coming of age story.  For Bjolf and Halldis, it’s something of a love story, although given the situation, that never develops into a major plotline.  But mostly it’s a story about friendship, loyalty, and sacrifice.  And fate.  And heroism.  Oh, and did I mention sacrifice?

Venables does an outstanding job of balancing a large cast of characters.  The crew is more than just window dressing and red shirts, to be killed off when convenient to the plot.  About a dozen of the crew are given personalities and histories.  And while many of the ones we get to know don’t make it to the end, at least not alive, their deaths aren’t just for cheap shock.  The men feel each loss, and the reader does too.

On the other hand, juggling so many characters is a difficult trick.  Venables doesn’t always pull it off.  His viewpoint character shifts not only from chapter to chapter, but often several times within a chapter.  The chapters are short, and this can be a little disorienting at times.

This being a zombie novel, and a viking one to boot, there’s a pretty high gore factor.  If you’re squeamish you’ll want to keep some Pepto handy, because this book is worth reading.  It’s not one long zombie fight, although there should be enough to keep most zombie fans happy.  Instead the focus is on the characters and how they change throughout the course of the novel.  Venables keeps things from sliding into silly most of the time, although I did find the flesh-eating ants to be a bit over the top.

One thing you should be aware of, though.  Your understanding of the situation will change completely within the last fifteen pages.  Some readers might feel cheated a little by the twist at the end, when the identity of the masters is revealed.  Be prepared to have your chain yanked.  I don’t want to spoil the ending for anyone, so that’s all I’m going to say.

Viking Dead was a fun read.  Toby Venables will have a bright future ahead of him if he continues to write like this, especially if he improves throughout the course of his career.  If you like a bit of zombie mayhem with some depth; if you like vikings; or if you like both, then you’ll definitely want to give this one a try.  It’s part of a series called Tomes of the Dead.  They’ve got a novel by Paul Finch in the lineup, so I’m going to at least have to try that one.  I have yet to read anything bad by him.  There are several others in the lineup that should appeal to fans of heroic fantasy.  Abaddon Books is a British publisher, and from what I can tell a subsidiary of Solaris Books.  Seems like our friends on the other side of the pond are publishing some good stuff.