THE DEAD TIMES

RATING:

ZOMBIE RATING:

DESCRIPTION:

A heinous serial killer named Homer Gibbons is being executed by lethal injection at a prison near the small township of Stebbins County. However, currently unbeknownst to the outside world, what this evil murderer is being injected with is not the usual cocktail of poisons. Instead, this vial will keep Homer's consciousness awake, alive and fully capable of feeling all pain while his useless body rots in the grave. That was the plan but the drugs had unforeseen side-effects and the body was not immediately buried as promised, allowing Homer to arise completely, body still functioning to some degree. Now he is hungry, infectious and really pissed off - the world will end, and he will end it!

MY VERDICT:

Dead of Night is an exceptionally good Zombie book that I highly recommend. The story starts very quickly and moves ahead at pace; there are no boring sections detailing the everyday life of characters before the apocalypse. This does not mean, however, that characters are under-developed as - assuming the characters survive long enough - you get more insights into their personas as the story progresses. A key highlight for me was the massive amounts of tension built up in the opening section due to the local police force, after having stumbled into a brutal crime scene (unbeknownst to them, the scene of the first Zombie attack), treating it as a normal case and trying (but failing) to explain it using normal crime analogy. The Zombies are also slightly different than the usual brain-dead shufflers of the Romero mould but not so different to be outlandish or clearly not undead humans - the majority still stumble along as best they can for example, rigor mortis stiffening their limbs. Highlighting this uniqueness, there are chapters that give one individual Zombie's point of view which is a welcome break from the relentless human struggle. My complaints are petty and minor; the book feels a bit long, especially in the mid-section when the initial tension has broken and the situation for the survivors appears hopeless. The ending also seems anti-climactic; more of a build-up for a sequel than a hard-drawn end.