Review of Autumn by David Moody
A.E. Jackson Review Score: 3 / 5 Ravens
How was this review scored?
Autumn is a modern classic. David Moody has revamped the British zombie apocalypse tale with updated social commentary and some reaction to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.
Readers are treated to a rapid apocalypse onset. What caused the zombie outbreak? Who knows. Little more than survival matters now.
The narrative begins from Hellen’s deep point of view. There is a lot of exposition to wade through. Her internal thoughts break up the explanation just enough to keep moving the story forward.
Then there is a quick change to an omniscient narrator. Then the story introduction wraps up, and transitions focus to a group of survivors on Day 36. Readers continue from Vicky’s point of view.
Two months prior to these events, billions of people died from a deadly germ. Then they rose up again in massive numbers. Since that time, cities around the world have become rat-infested, germ-filled hellholes, ruled by the living dead.
In London, a group of survivors are trapped in the rotting heart of the city. They are hopelessly outnumbered. Rumors of a safe haven to the north begin to spread. However, the decaying ruins of London are vast and sprawling, and they're going to need an army to escape this place.
Can enough of the people hiding in the shadows band together and make a difference, or has the entire world already been lost to the undead?
Autumn Dawn is the first book in a standalone trilogy set in the nightmare world of David Moody's international best-selling AUTUMN series. It is the original epic British zombie saga.
Readers will learn how to survive the zombie apocalypse, along with the main character. Vicky fumbles along, makes mistakes and survives close scrapes. Moody uses the incidents to demonstrate to readers the horrors and hurdles of the new world in which they’ve arrived. It doesn’t take long for the reader to spot trouble a mile away and want to scream into the pages “turn back!”
Throughout the book, the character focus changes to the most active individual facing the most trouble or highest-stakes. It is a fun and interesting way to progress the story. Once separated from a group, the question of the other members’ fate lingers, but survival outweighs those concerns.
While there is lots of exposition from start to finish, and an omniscient narrator, the tale is told at a fast-paced break-neck speed. Little clues along the way remind the reader of the very first character and her thoughts about luring the dead to a stadium using music. As well as her idea to torch all of London in order to stop the dead from advancing.
There are lots of small problems to resolve by individuals, small groups, and large gatherings of people. The primary question is whether they should stay in London or move on to rumored greener pastures.
In time, a small group of people move across London and meet up at the Tower of London. What was rumored is confirmed as real and David Moody sets up the plot for book two and an entire series.
David Moody is from the United Kingdom, and first self-published Hater on the internet in 2006. Without an agent, he succeeded in selling the film rights for the novel to Mark Johnson (producer, The Chronicles of Narnia film series) and Guillermo Del Toro (director, Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth). With the publication of a new series of Hater stories, Moody is poised to further his reputation as a writer of suspense-laced science fiction and horror.
Read more from David Moody at https://www.davidmoody.net and find him on social media at Facebook(@davidmoodyauthor), and Instagram(@davidmoodyauthor).