Autumn: Purification (Paperback)

Influenced heavily but Romero’s zombie films, the book takes on many of the ideas and situations tackled in his “Dead” series. We meet another set of survivors who have access to a helicopter and a plane. And we finally see the survivors pulling together (well, not all of them) to try and make a future for themselves.

Perhaps the best written of the ‘Autumn’ books, ‘Purification’ uses many styles and techniques to encapsulate the harrowing experiences that the survivors go through. The book often jumps to an almost diary-like first person view-point for a chapter, to then go back to the standard third-person style. The author spends a large amount of the time submerging the reader into the emotions and mental stress of each character producing some beautiful characterization that draws you into this almost believable scenario.

The zombies take on new and interesting changes, which are detailed throughout the book. It’s almost as if they are evolving, which brings a nice twist on the classic zombie genre. The book ends in a hopeful, yet still with a dark and slightly negative tone, that concludes the books nicely. The final book of the series is “Autumn: The Human Condition”, that is a companion book which brings to an end the Autumn saga.

“Autumn: Purification” is a truly superb novel that will appeal and indeed please every good fan of the zombie genre. Original, dark, fast-paced and in-depth; the book is a fantastic piece of horror fiction.

The novel is released through David Moody's own publishing company 'Infected Books' and runs for a total of 287 pages.

Like all my favourite zombie stories "Dawn of the Dead, "28 Days later" and "I am Legend" (which although not technically a zombie story it contains a lot of similarities), Moody understands that the best zombie stories are not about the blood and gore (although there is enough to keep the gore fans happy) but about the people. Exploring how real people cope with extreme situations where everything has been lost and struggling to find a glimmer of hope in a seemingly hopeless situation.

I have been hooked from the first page. The series is wonderfully apocalyptic, with moments of tremendous tensions and excitement as well as moments of genuine grief. Moody managaes to make you feel for every single one of the characters even the 'bodies'.

Never predictable, there are moments of extreme surprise, you are compelled to keep reading in order to find out the fate of the various characters.

The mixture of writing styles (1st and 3rd person) adds to the story and the pace, whilst bringing the reader even closer to the characters. The endless supply of characters ensures that this could run and run. I for one will never tire of Moody's Autumn world.

Read Autumn, read the rest, spread the 'infection'.

Highly recommended!

In this third book in the series the action moves up by several gears. Forced to flee the relative safety of an underground military installation the survivors soon get a real idea of the future they face and how powerless even the army are to protect them from the hordes of re-animated bodies.

This is British apocalyptic fiction at its best and is reminiscent of the works of Wyndham and Christopher.