Review: Infection, by Craig DiLouie (by DeadVida)

INFECTION

By Craig DiLouie

Paperback: 296 pages

Publisher: Permuted Press

Pub date: February 22, 2011

ISBN-13: 978-1934861653

Imagine if you will standard (almost) zombie fair – outbreak, unexplained violence, mass chaos, group of unlikely survivors banding together – only the story is somehow the unlikely lovechild of THE BREAKFAST CLUB and H. P. Lovecraft. In that description I offer praise, as well as some criticism. There is a lot to like here and the overall story and pacing engaged me as a reader. Some of what I found original was also some of what frustrated me, so make of that what you will.

The story starts with 20% of the world’s population screaming and then going into comas. A few days later they awaken and begin attacking the rest of the population. We then meet a group of survivors, and their stories are told in flashback as the novel progresses. This was handled well and the flashbacks even managed an organic, at times nightmarish, feel. We meet Ethan, the high school math teacher, dealing with his missing wife and child; Paul, the former reverend, who is searching for god; Anne, the most inscrutable character at first, who is carrying more baggage than most; Sarge, an Army man just back from Afghanistan and fighting a new war he understands even less; Wendy, a young cop from Pittsburgh unsure of herself; and Todd, a high school junior who seems to cope better than most because of his age and ability to disassociate and skill with FPS games. Together, they attempt to find safe haven and eventually flee Pittsburgh in Sarge’s Bradley tank as the city burns.

The survivors go against zombie movie conventions and attempt to take refuge at a hospital. It is here that the book kicks into high gear and deviates from the standard viral zombie storyline. At the hospital we learn that there are “things” now infesting the earth – worms, parasitic monkey-like creatures, and “demons.” The characters offer theories, but these are never explained and their “otherness” felt Lovecraftian to me. I couldn’t tell if I liked this and the possible explanation or if it was superfluous. Regardless, they are creepy. I mean, as if fighting deranged, infected humans wasn’t enough! Furthering the creep factor is that children aren’t infected – they are simply killed and eaten.

Each character has had his or her purpose in life destroyed or altered, and DiLouie attempts to show the characters as they struggle with this new reality. They each try and find reasons to live, knowing they have the very real option of just giving up. The individual characterizations were decent, especially given the amount of action in the book. It often seems that authors choose one or the other. In my option, action is meaningless if there is no investment in the characters.

It is dealing with who the characters were and who they are now, as well as the almost forced intimacy that steers this into THE BREAKFAST CLUB territory. I mean, we all know that they went back to ignoring each other on Monday, right? These characters had nothing in common before and the sense that they were one big family after two weeks felt contrived. As individuals, DiLouie put a great deal of effort into their characterizations. I wish he would have done the same with the individual and group dynamics.

This passage is a good example of what many of the characters are going through, “We try and live with as little pain and as much pleasure as possible. But pain makes us realize we are alive. We truly live one moment to the next when we live with pain. When pain stops, we become afraid. And we remember things that we do not wish to remember that are themselves painful.”

I am curious if there is a sequel planned and if certain things will be explained. Overall, this is a worthwhile addition to the genre. 

Review: Aftertime, by Sophie Littlefield (by DeadVida)

Aftertime
By Sophie Littlefield
Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Luna
Pub Date: February 15, 2011
ISBN-13: 978-0373803361
 

I’ve got a thing for well-written damaged characters, as well as unreliable narrators. They make you work a little harder, and for that they usually tend to force you into their worlds. In AFTERTIME the damaged physical and psychological worlds Sophie Littlefield has created are adroitly crafted.
 

Cass Dollar is a Grade A damaged character surviving in a broken world. She is a survivor in every sense of the word. She survived a childhood of abuse, an adulthood where she self-abused (with alcohol and sex), and now the Aftertime, filled with violence, death, and famine. She has been sober for a while, so she is aware of her addiction, but at the same time the reasons she felt the need to numb herself are still there, still demanding succor.
 

Creating a realistic world after cataclysmic events is harder than it looks, and Littlefield’s earth walks that fine line of familiarity and unknown. Bio-warfare has caused massive world-wide famine and ecological destruction with plant species of all kinds wiped out. This leads  the government to try and help by creating genetically altered plants with complete nutritive values. That goes awry and one of the plants, the blueleaf, leads to fever, madness, and cannibalism. Those who live past the fever are called Beaters and they are just one threat to the existence of the survivors.
 

The behavior of the Beaters is genuinely disturbing. Within the first few pages I realized that the content was going to offer some real horror when Cass watched a deranged woman appear to start to kiss someone. “The woman shook her head and only then did Cass realize she’s sunk her teeth into the man’s flesh and was tugging at it. Tearing at it. Trying to rip off a shred.” The Beaters like to eat flesh and usually start by eating pieces of their own. Nibbling at their own arms.
 

Cass awakens and struggles to remember what has happened to her. Miles from home, she begins a dangerous and solitary walk back to her small town and eventually meets survivors. Again, as a complicated character she vacillates between wanting to reject everyone who comes near her and wanting acceptance, between strength and self-doubt. Her primary goal is to find her daughter, whom she had already lost once in the Before. The four miles between the school the survivors have made home and the library where Cass last saw her daughter are dangerous, and the enigmatic Smoke offers to escort her. As is often the case, the society of the “living” is as dangerous as that of the zombies (not actually dead in this case, but still zombies in my book).
 

Smoke is a little too good to be true at times and slightly two-dimensional. I hope that in the subsequent books he is given as much complexity as Cass. Overall, this was a worthwhile, compelling read and a world I look forward to exploring further. Recommended.

Review: FUKITOR & SATANIC TERROR (by Dread Sockett)

FUKITOR & SATANIC TERROR
By Jason Karns
Website with galleries of art on display: fukitor.blogspot.com
fukitor@gmail.com

    Jason Karns’ FUKITOR and SATANIC TERROR take me back to the days when I gathered my lunch money and hoofed it downtown to this one bookstore that was crammed with every damned type of periodical imaginable. Stuff was haphazardly arranged and shoppers could find something from five years prior sitting on the shelf next to something stocked that day. You never knew what was buried underneath the piles. Comix-wise, I got my introduction to undergrounds during one of these treasure hunts. While my friends were yacking about SPIDER-MAN, I’d suck the air out of conversations when I’d mention (even then old) titles like FANTAGOR or FAT FREDDY’s CAT.
 

    Fast-forward a few years…I had hoped with the whole indie/zine thing I’d be just as awed by the crazyass worlds only small press-type books could deliver. Those individual slices of creativity, unfettered by profit, that you could turn to remind you there was someone out there who was still willing to think outside the box. Unfortunately, I came into zines (from fanzines – and yes, there is a difference) during the big autobio comics period where everything was about someone’s trip to the grocery store or their ruminations at the coffeemaker. Yawn.

    There is none of that shit here. THANK. FUCKING. GAWD. Take a look at the titles and if you can’t get past them, then leave now. Like an insect with bright warning markers on display, if you tread past the titles and get stung, you have no one to blame but yourself!

    So believe it or not, I have actually wondered, in one of my more... uhm.. “creative” mindsets, what would happen if someone threw Fellini, Burton, (old) Waters, some Euro-trash-exploitation-sleaze, a generous amount of Horror and straight-up porn into a blender…and goddammit if Jason Karns didn’t do just that!

    In FUKITOR #3, the “SICK FUCKS AND SLASHERS” issue, we have “TOMB OF THE SICK FUCKS,” where greedy treasure hunters get more than they bargained for when the dead rise and do more than get their revenge. Guts get chewed, heads shorn off, and blood sprays everywhere while they get their maggot-spewing grooves on. In “SUBURBAN SLASHER MASSACRE,” an escaped mental patient goes on a rampage at a sorority as the girls scream, “Like, oh my fucking god!”

    In FUKITOR #1, the two-part “POSEUR HOLOCAUST” blasts metalheads and Goths and in “DUNGEON OF BLOODY DEATH” a couple gets captured by undead monks who bring back the Inquisition, and what a show it is indeed.

    SATANIC TERROR #1 is my favorite issue, next to Fukitor #3. I mean, damn, how can you not love something titled “THE THING WITH TOO MANY DAMN EYES”?? It doesn’t even matter that those eyes are each attached to toothy penis-like tentacle things that attack people and do “other things” to them after stupid scientists open a portal. In “BLOODY BUTCHERS OF THE DAMNED” watch NAZI ZOMBIES rise and wreak more bloody havoc on some party kids.

    ARTWISE: Karns has his stuff nailed. If we were talking some action/drama stories I’d want to see much more refinement and better composition. Here, he illustrates everything perfectly; I wouldn’t want to see anything different. His production is tight, with color covers and interiors(!), something I’d usually be all over (especially being so rare in small press), but here, I’d LOVE to see his compositions in B&W just to view his line work. Karns’ work is chaotic and hyper-detailed, with his characters’ expressions reflecting just the right look to add whoompf! to punchlines. The bumped-up production values actually work against his art’s presentation at times by obscuring details. That’s my one bone to pick.

    As I re-read this, I kept imagining Karns’ at his drawing board chuckling his ass off and channeling a wink into his pages because he’s clearly having fun with his comix and readers. I would definitely recommend Karns’ work to lovers of REALLY offbeat fuck-you comix that don’t give a damn. They’re offensive, definitely NSFW, but clearly aware of themselves so that you can’t help but chuckle along with the surreal, absurdist world they plunge you into. Once you’ve read one, you quickly realize that the Underground is indeed still alive and well – you were just too distracted by all the other poseurs and their tales of coffeemaking.

Cover for Rigor Mortis #4

 

Issue #4 will be out in April. 

Pre-order now:

http://www.leekinginc.com/rigormortis/rm4.htm

Review: Feed, by Mira Grant

Feed

By Mira Grant

Review by DeadVida

Website: www.thefeedbook.com

I’ve been pondering this review for several days. Feed isn’t your typical zombie novel. In fact, the name is a clever nod to the content, which has less to do with flesh eating than one might think. No, this is a zombie novel of very little zombie action, not much gore, and a world that manages to cope with zombies.

Unlike most zombie novels, Feed takes place 25 years after the start of the infection. For the majority of the novel the zombies are largely secondary to the plot. It is the changes that the zombies have had on society, politics, and the media that are the focus. The universe and characters that author Mira Grant creates are so detailed and well-conceived that suspension of disbelief was a breeze. The meticulous research on virology, media, and technology pays off and is well used. Furthermore, the narrator is a woman whose power comes from simply being strong, smart and doing her job. No superhero antics, no silly lingerie scenes, no rape threats because the author didn’t know how to otherwise infuse drama, no random comments about her boobs, and no denying her gender. There aren’t pointless action sequences to keep the pubescent mind interested – yes, Jonathan Mayberry, I’m looking at you. There aren’t any goofy gimmicks that distract and detract from the slipshod writing – yeah, that’s a shot at you, Brian Keene. No, here you have actual character development and a writer that carefully crafts a solid back story alongside the current narrative.

Her post-infection Earth of 2039 was oddly realistic. In 2014, scientists developed cures for cancer and the common cold. Unfortunately when the two cures meet, the Kellis-Amberlee virus is created, which in turns causes people to get sick, die, and reanimate in order to spread the virus. The virus infects everyone; it is just a matter of if and when it goes active. Death is an automatic cause for viral amplification. Being bit, scratched, or bled on by an infected person will also cause someone to turn. Standard zombie stuff that remains effective in the right hands.

Set in 2039, the new world has changed beyond the obvious. There are zones of varying degrees of safety, Alaska has been abandoned to the dead, and mammals above 40 pounds are also carriers. As the outbreak in 2014 occurred, traditional news media “protected” people by denying what was happening. This caused the expected deaths, outrage, and backlash. Bloggers on the other hand got online and told the truth as they saw it and, in some cases, saved lives. By 2039, old media has been shoved aside and bloggers are the dominant media. Grant creates a comprehensive and well-realized description of this new structure.

The main protagonists are George (Georgia), a “newsie” blogger, Shaun, George’s brother and “Irwin” blogger, and Buffy, a “fictional” who writes poetry and provides their IT support. And yes, there are some well-utilized pop culture references in the book. The trip is selected to report on the campaign of a presidential hopeful. It seems like the opportunity of a lifetime for the young reporters.

There are elements of political thriller, but the world in which Feed is set makes this a zombie novel. The unfolding of the storyline and pacing offered a slow burn of tension that ultimately paid off. As I said, there is little in the way of zombie action, but when it does happen it is swift and merciless.

As I completed the last of the 600 pages I wanted more. I wasn’t ready to give the characters up yet. The good news is that this is the first book in a trilogy and book 2, Deadline, is set to release in June 2011. Highly recommended.

Review: Pat the Zombie

Pat the Zombie

Review by DeadVida

I am a fan of Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland, gallows humor, and ridiculousness. That said, I find the current wave of zombie humor books rather revolting. They are tired and sad, and for the most part appeal to the pabulum tastes of non-horror fans. Also, as Dread Sockett so eloquently put it in his magnum opus to Nazi zombies in the last issue, “usually when genres are at the point of spoofing they’ve exhausted other means of expression.” Personally, I just want to kill this crap and get back to the scary shit and heady sub-text that zombies can, in fact, offer.

When I saw that yet another zombified classic was coming out, in this case Pat the Zombie (a spoof on the children’s classic Pat the Bunny) I groaned inwardly. It just seemed like the jump the shark moment zombies have been building toward the last couple of years.

A couple of weeks ago an unsolicited review copy of Pat the Zombie landed in my mailbox. Again, I love zombies, funny stuff, and am familiar with the source material. I opened the box with as much impartiality as I am ever likely to muster. It is from 10 Speed Press and the packaging is spot-on. The press release promised me, that as a mother, who hates the “saccharine sweetness” of children’s books, that I would find this a “guilty pleasure.” Let me disclose right here that I have watched Chasing Amy and Simon Says (staring Crispin Glover!) with my pre-schooler. You would think I would be their target market, right?

Wrong. This would have been funny as a panel in Cracked. As an actual book/gift product it is just stupid. The whole joke is on the cover. From there just becomes someone laughing at his own joke, but with a really grating laugh, and then over-explaining the joke.

My fear is that this means we are just a short step from the dreaded sexy, yet misunderstood, teen zombie. Gag me with a femur bone.

RIGOR MORTIS REVIEW EXTRA: ZOMBIE HOLOCAUST (1980)

RIGOR MORTIS REVIEW EXTRA: ZOMBIE HOLOCAUST (1980)

By Dread Sockett

While researching and going through endless VOODOO ZOMBIE films for an upcoming article in Rigor Mortis #4, I came upon a delicious little gem, Zombie Holocaust. It was originally going to be included in the VZ piece except, well, there's no Voodoo in it. I was so smitten with Voodoo overload, I went so far as to write this damn thing as an entry and then realized I'd been so distracted by boobs, latex guts, and general crackassery that it didn’t even belong in the damned article.

So because we're all generous and stuff here at RM, and because there's oooh, only about a zillion other reviews of this half-baked film and ok, fine, because it was already written,  I thought I'd toss this in for tits...erm...SHITS & giggles.

Look at it as a freebie-preview of the upcoming article…even though it won't be in it…and, uhm, has nothing to do with the subject of said article. Hell, it's the thought that counts right? Just shut up and think of this as a bloody valentine from all of us at Rigor Mortis.

There’s a lot to love in this hot…messy…piece of work. Just don't hate me for recommending it because I'm telling you from the start, it's so bad it's good. Director Marino Girolami can’t be bothered with such trivial nonsense as narrative coherence and other technicalities in his film, but this is what makes ZH an entertaining romp. Not only that, but viewers will have déjà vu when locations and sets, as well as some of the actors, "reappear" straight from from Fulci's Zombi 2. It’s the Italian version of Hammer Films’ THE REPTILE/PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES film shoot that did the same thing by way of recycling not only the same sets, but actors as well, though with much classier and coherent narrative results.

We have something of a genre mix here. Not content with merely aping the Romero zombie model, the filmmakers pillage themselves and drop in a dose of the cannibal jungle exploitation scene, topped off nicely with lots of over-the-top gore. ZH’s strongest point is that it is clearly exploitation, nothing more or less. Hell, it doesn't even worry about aping the cannibal jungle genre that well. It just starts flinging familiar things at viewers and all they hafta do is open up and say ,"Aaah!". I sat recalling films like JUNGLE HOLOCAUST thinking damn, that was actually a good movie now that I've been exposed to (one of) the bowels of the cannibal film scene.

THE SORTA STORY: Body parts show up missing at a hospital. Not only that, patients are in their bed and fine one minute and the next suddenly missing internal organs, to the horror of the nurses. This little inconvenience gets the staff in a tizzy, naturally. This reaches its apex when one of the help gets caught ravenously chewing away at some poor sap's heart like he's trying to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. In an eyeball rolling scene that thankfully occurs at the beginning of the movie, said cannibal hospital staff gets caught but manages to escape out a window. The only problem is the window is, oooh, several stories up and as he hits bottom, his stand-in dummy's arm clearly pops off only to miraculously reappear in the real actor's next scene. This dear reader, tells you the madness that awaits you. And if you can get your groove on with that interesting editorial inclusion (or oversight) then ZH has yer name written all over it.

Diva-doctor Lori and Peter set off for the remote island Kito to follow the clue left behind from each body part theft: a mysterious symbol. They arrive with their expedition team and are immediately set upon by the cannibalistic natives who are so hungry for flesh that when they catch victims they don’t even bother to make sure they're dead, but immediately start ripping them apart and consuming them. The director bathes in the gloriousness of his native exploitation by not only featuring them running about spitting out a bunch of native "language" (read: gibberish), but he makes sure you know they're cannibals by giving us lots of lingering shots of them chewing away at various internal organs ripped from the kindasorta deceased. The film certainly delivers the gore in this respect and fans of excess will love it for this. The ridiculousness of the native portrayals not so much. But hey, if this was a PC film, there'd be no point in watching, right?

The natives continue to pick off the expedition team to the horror of the Asiatic "help," who thanks to the usual wonderful Italian post-dub rant on in a combo Pidgin English and Asian-something, I think. Nice. It's one of those scenes where you just know if filmmakers had Black natives, the dub would consist of variants of "ooga-booga". But not to worry, those of you who insist on subtext. One of the expedition party,  the lead in fact, who happens to be Black, is named... get ready for it... Mulatto. No, really. I had to replay that just to make sure I heard right and now, you won't hafta bother. We're helpful like that here at RM.

The zombies show up and this eventually leads the remaining crew to a mad scientist conducting experiments with brain transplanting out in the jungle…. in a shack. Our diva doc gets captured but I’ll let you discover for yourself the what-the-Hell wrap up to that segment. Though I will say, the meaning(ish) of that mysterious symbol is revealed and the filmmakers, not ones to miss an opportunity, show us in very revealing angles how the symbol relates to the now nude Diva doc. Think of the questionable POV swimming scenes in ZOMBIE LAKE and you'll get the idea.

The zombies are pretty interesting. I wouldn't say they're as awesome as the creator's seem to suggest. Nor do I think the Italians really revolutionized the Zed scene the way that angle gets pushed. But still, for a gore and zombie combo, it works. Even when the Zeds are seen running around trying to stab people. The high point though has to be when a zombie gets his head ground through with the blades of a motor boat engine, followed closely by the brain transplant-scalp scene earlier.

Even compared to contemporary standards, ZH holds up well with the gore thrown at viewers. Camera angles lovingly frame every bloody consumption for full impact. And when that silly thing called a “story” threatens to get boring, the film throws in not only boobies of our lounging, barely clad diva, but also works that native thing so viewers can argue about the PC-ness of their handling. The natives would almost be hilarious if their depiction didn’t give viewers an “Oh no they didn’t” response. I couldn’t help but think back to those Mondo Cane type exploitation films. If you want what amounts to a hot mess of a film, here’s your answer.  Just don't ever say you weren't warned.