review by Stephane Martin
In an effort to properly attend to the 4 distinct stories/quatrains that make up this collection, this review has been written section-by-section [by sitting], in the order as presented by the author.
First sitting; [first quatrain]-
The author goes to fair lengths to explain why the pandemic survivors [and main characters] in these stories call zombies "junkies". Supposedly this can be ascribed to their similarity to "drug addict junkies/crack heads". I am as yet uncertain if this is an attempt at simple humor or if it is a parallel that the author has himself drawn from his [limited] interactions with heroin or crack cocaine addicts...
"They trembled. They shook. Their words were a slur of noise when they tried to speak. They didn't so much as run as throw themselves at the target. Everything they did had a frantic desperation about it."
…however I would have to guess the former, as the given description seems more suitable to... [ahem].....ZOMBIES....than to any junky or drug addict. [Excepting the element of "frantic desperation", which is admittedly an ever-so-slightly clever parallel distinction.]
Other than as a device to make his own stories distinct from other zombie horror, this metaphorical trick so far serves as little but a confusion; when a character refers to "a group of junkies", this reader imagines a group of disheveled heroin-addict/crack head panhandler types, loosely chanting "spare some change mister? I haven't eaten in 3 days" carrying an assortment or cardboard signs, jingling paper cups with a few pennies in them, and drinking from half empty Listerine bottles. Then one of the rambling group bites a chunk of flesh out of some unsuspecting citizen, and suspension of disbelief whispers quietly: "pssst- ZOMBIES." Oh, right, right....carry on then.
This must be what it's like to read a book where vampires are called lawyers and politicians are called parasites. Wait.....oh never mind....
Ignoring [or attempting to ignore] this creative mislabeling, the first story details the journey of 2 female survivors through the post-pandemic area of Hollywood California. They encounter a few zombies....er....junkies... a group of scavengers, almost have a lesbian make-out scene, and deal with an infection in a somewhat predictable way. If the lesbian make out scene had actually happened, and were a fair bit longer [say, the length of the current story], it may have forgiven the shortcomings of this particular adventure...well, for some men and possibly a few lesbians, anyway.
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| Junkies or zombies? |
This chapter/story deals with a group of "outsiders". The notion of outsiders was briefly mentioned in the first story, but not detailing the fact that "outsiders" are basically nomadic scavengers. This particular group is on a mercenary mission to retrieve medical supplies.
SO, the story goes something like this: point A to point B [oops...we made a mistake, we're supposed to be at point C], point B to point C, then point C to point D [insert interaction with 2 characters from story 1], Point D to minor slaughter fest, then from slaughter fest to Point E [end of story].
Third sitting; [Third quatrain]-
A history of the viral pandemic, and a few revelations as to its origin. This quatrain has interesting, well written dialogue and some well thought-out plot points, unfortunately all in the midst of the same type of predictable set pieces and storyline montages which characterized the previous segments of the book: point A to point B to point C and so on, as dictated by the necessity to flee/hide/escape etc.
Fourth and Fifth sittings; [Fourth quatrain] and afterthought-
I have to admit, I found the authors’ prologue to be a bit misleading. By my interpretation I was lead to believe that this was a collection of short stories, written in no particular order, and arranged in the given sequence purely by matter of chance [a “roll of the dice”, as the author puts it]. Given the culmination of events to the final quatrain, I find this very difficult to believe, unless there was a good deal of re-writing involved after the fact: too many untied ends are tidily answered for such random chance, such that if one were to re-arrange read the quatrains in a different order, one might be mightily confused. This is all to say that pointless, wandering, and arbitrary as some of the characters and events may have seemed in the prior 3 quatrains, the fourth does a respectable job of creating an entertaining read and summarizing the world as a whole through a slightly unexpected character heretofore only hinted at.
In fact, the final quatrain does redeem the failings of the previous stories; and for their condensed length does lead to the feeling of a vindicated read. I will hasten to point out though, that the fourth quatrain, unlike the others, does stand firmly on its own as a cohesive story, and if anyone were to want a brief, enjoyable read, without wading through so much fluff, they might be best reading only the fourth quatrain of this collection.
