"Autumn: Purification" by David Moody

"Autumn: Purification"
by David Moody
Published by Thomas Dunne Books
329 pages

I'm continuing in my excursion into the Autumn series by David Moody, and with the third book out of the way, I'm more convinced that this is NOT a zombie series.  Although the walking corpses do prevail in these books, the series is more about survival on a post apocalyptic world than just the horror of walking dead.  Ever since book one I've been wondering why these meatbags haven't been eating the living, but at the same time with the constant despair and need to survive guiding those that were immune to the virus, this series is just a good story.  My love of all things zombie got me interested in the books, but it was the excellent storytelling by David Moody that kept me reading.

In the first book, "Autumn," we were introduced to Michael and Emma as a mysterious virus struck nearly 90% of the world's population dead.  The deaths happened within seconds after contracting the virus.  Michael and Emma were among the few survivors that grouped together in a small town community center.  The two met up with Carl and decided that they had pretty much the run of the world since there nearly everyone else was dead.  When the bodies of those struck down by the virus began to rise and walk around the 3 decided to head off and find safety in an abandoned farm.  The bodies then actually started to attack, not eating the flesh of victims but just the mere mass of lots of bodies was enough to bring harm.  Carl tried to go back to the Community center but found it overrun with bodies and he finally fell to the horde.  Michael and Emma took off to find somewhere safe.

In book two, "Autumn: The City," the story runs parallel to the first book but this time from the view of survivors in a large city.  This second book also throws in that the military had a bit of a warning of the virus and military personnel were immediately sent to bunkers before the virus struck.  The survivors in the city are holed up in a university but the crowding from the walking cadavers soon makes it obvious they need to relocate.  When the military decides to send out a scouting party to determine what has happened and the current status, two of the soldiers are left behind when the troop transport is overwhelmed by walking dead.  One of the soldiers has his protective gear removed and dies within seconds showing the virus is still in the air.  The second soldier, Cooper, discovers he is immune and finds the survivors in the University.  Eventually with the help of Cooper the survivors escape the University to find the underground military bunker, on the way to the bunker they meet up with Michael and Emma in a motor home.  The few survivors get into the bunker but not allowed past the decontamination area, now safe underground.

Now for book three, "Autumn: Purification."  We join all the survivors as they continue to exist in the bunker.  Problems arise in the bunker when the now aggressive walking corpses are blocking the vents which feed air into the bunker.  The undead are blocking by sheer masses of bodies in the area, attracted to the living that are in the area.  The military tries to clear the vents but each time they go out they attract more bodies.  On the final attempt to clear the bodies, something goes wrong and the survivors must leave, able to save a few of the soldiers after the main bunker is closed to the outside.   In a convoy of the motor home, a prison bus and a troop transport they stop in a nearby town to regroup.  After clearing out a few animated bodies, the survivors spend the night in a relatively secure area.

The next morning a helicopter arrives in town and lands in the secure area.  The survivors from the bunker are told by the pilot of a plan to go to safety.  The safety comes in the form of an island which had a small population.  Once the few bodies are cleared the island should be a haven of safety compared to the mainland.  The survivors then only have to drive to the airport where the pilot is stationed and then, using the chopper and one airplane go to the island.  Not as easy as it sounds, especially with the dead becoming more self-aware. 

What I really liked about this story of survival, is that David Moody uses the normal person as the main characters.  Not like other zombie movies.  Have you ever noticed how in other zombie movies your everyday average person suddenly becomes an expert marksman when zombies attack?  Not so in this book.  These people panic, don't shoot straight, and often double think their movements.  Basically what your everyday normal human would do when struck by the sudden terror of not only being one of the last humans alive but also the terror of the dead walking around.  

Now for the fourth and final book in the series, "Autumn: Disintegration."

"Autumn: The City" by David Moody

"Autumn: The City"
by David Moody
Published by Thomas Dunne Books (2011)
330 pages

It's back to some zombie action once again.  This time around I'm continuing in a series written by David Moody, one of the best zombie horror writers, I've read.  The funny thing is, the zombie word has yet to appear in this series and this is the second book.  Sure there are reanimated corpses, cadavers, bodies walking around, but no one ever brings up the "Z" word.  There is once that one of the characters compares the walking corpses to those in the movies their kid used to watch.  But Moody is able to bring you the horror of zombies without the word or even flesh eating monsters.

Sure the gore is still there with rotting flesh and dead people walking around and looking decayed, but they don't attack, at least not at first, and then when they do, it's more a matter of the numbers of dead bodies, than the fear of being eaten or worse turned into one of the living dead.  This makes the horror a deeper more emotional horror and plays on a different side of fear. 

Being part two of what is a four part (so far) series, I'll give you a little bit of a background, but one thing I noticed was that this book could easily be read independent of the first book, which was titled, "Autumn."  Both books basically run parallel to each other until later in the book when a couple of characters from the first book show up and blend in with this story.

In "Autumn" the same as this book it all starts out with a day like any other, people on their way to work when all of a sudden many are struck with a sudden illness that within seconds leaves them dead, choking on their own blood.  In the first book a few survivors meet up in a community center all dumbfounded that suddenly everyone they know is now dead.  In fact all the deaths happen so suddenly that the roads are jammed with wrecked vehicles, and bodies.  Not knowing what to do the few group in the center just simply trying to make sense of it all.  After a couple of days the dead bodies begin to get up and walk around.  Not threatened by the slow ambling bodies, the survivors ignore the bodies walking around not able to cope with this new horror.  The bodies simply walk until something is in the way and then change directions.  After another couple of days the bodies begin to respond to noises made by the survivors.  Still not threatening but nonetheless horrifying, Three of the survivors including Michael and Emma decide to head out of the small town and out into the country where there will be less bodies walking around and try to make a new start of it. 

They find a farm in the middle of nowhere and begin to set up house trying to begin anew in this strange new world.  The problems begin when the dead bodies begin to get more aggressive, the walking dead soon begin attacking, and with their sheer numbers and being attracted to the living, drive the survivors out of the farmhouse and Michael and Emma return to the town to find the rest of the survivors.

Now for this book, "Autumn" The City." The beginning parallels the events in the first book but this time around the survivors are in a major city.  With the higher population of the city the sheer numbers of walking cadavers soon overpowers the survivors who are holed up in a local university.  The thing that makes this book a little more different and interesting is that Moody introduces the military into the mix.  At the beginning of the book a strange alert goes out and all local military are shuffled off to a hidden underground base.  The military is forgotten until after the point when the walking corpses start to get a little more aggressive.  At this point the hidden away soldiers decide that after a few weeks and no communications with the outside world a scout party needs to be sent out. 

A troop transport is loaded up and some soldiers venture out into the city to find out what has happened to the world.  Mistaking the walking dead for infected citizens, they stop and try to find out what is going on.  The undead soon attack the soldiers causing all to leave, two soldiers are left behind as the transport leaves back to base.  When one of the left behind takes off his mask he soon succumbs to the disease and dies instantly.  The other soldier, Cooper, decides not to take off his gear and seeks out shelter from the infected. 

Soon some of the survivors decide they are no longer safe in the University and need a plan to escape to somewhere where there are not millions of walking corpses attacking.  When Cooper shows up at the University they realize the base must be the place to go.  But first, transportation is needed and then to escape the millions of dead in the city. 

Lots of zombie horror, but not the typical flesh eating terror, rather the survival and psychological horror of the end of the world.  Now on to book 3 "Purification."

Audio Drama podcast based on "Autumn" By David Moody

Audio Drama podcast based on "Autumn"
By David Moody
Multicast performance
produced by DarkerProjects.com
Approx 3 hour podcast.

Recently I listened to the audio book "Hater" by David Moody and I really enjoyed the story and the original concept behind this horror story. I decided to look into the author's other works and found some really cool stuff on this David Moody. He's published most of his books on the web and offered them for free and it looks like it has paid off. He now has movie companies interested in turning his books to movies. During this research I found the website DarkerProjects.com. Darker Projects is a darker audio drama company who present original projects such as Tales from the Museum, The Byron Chronicles, and The Falcon Banner in addition to other popular Star Trek and Doctor Who interpretations. All you have to do to listen to these creative works is, download audio or subscribe to their podcasts. One of their projects is to take this book by David Moody and turn it into one of their audio dramas.

All in all the production was some very good listening. They sound effects and music were very well mixed with som pretty decent acting. My biggest complaint is that it lacked narration. Many times during production there would be a series of events happening and all you heard was sound effects and some small dialogue. I found myself wondering what was happening, the sound effects were enough to tease but not enough to tell the story. There were some moments with narration but not nearly enough to tell the story. Once the story got rolling along the dialogue between characters would keep the story going, but when moments of action I was left wonder what was happening. It would be like listening to a television cop show car chase with your eyes closed, you hear the sounds but don't know who is gaining on who. Aside from that the dialogue and acting were enough to keep me interested. Don't get me wrong, the sound effects were very well done for the most part, but without that extra narration I would get frustrated. There were some "Dukes of Hazzard" sound effect moments that made me giggle but nothing too bad. By "Dukes of Hazzard" sound effect moments I'm talking about the tires squealing on a dirt road effect. But I still enjoyed the story.

Okay as for the story the book and this audio drama are about zombies. Zombies can be a fun genre of horror. In this story a plague kills off about 99 pecent of the population. The stricken immediately choke to death and die. The survivors in this story are few and as humans do seek out other survivors. Keep in mind the dead are not zombies, yet, they are just dead bodies that died instantly and the land is covered by them where they fell. Soon many of the living come together in a community center and begin to "survive." After a day or so some of the dead bodies begin to get up and walk around. Nothing threatening, just walking. Some members of the group decide it would be safer in the country and leave the group. After a few more days the dead become full blown zombies and begin to attack.

I will definitely have to pick up this book and give it a good read after this thrilling introduction. "Autumn" by David Moody is book one of a 6 book series with a bit of an original take on the Zombie Genre. Also I'm going to be checking out some other productions by Darker Projects.

By the way the movie based on this book is slated for release in 2010.