Review: (3 / 5) 30 Days of Night is a 2002 horror comic written by Steve Niles, illustrated by Ben Templesmith, and published by IDW Publishing. The story was initially written for the purpose of film, however after several unsuccessful attempts, was turned into a graphic novel. The story was ultimately adapted for film in 2007 under the same name.

Goodreads (3.8) and Amazon (3.6) rate the story high, so my review may comes as a surprised for some. I’ll start by saying that I’m not typically a fan of comics, in fact I don’t read them at all. I came to this reading with an open mind, but in the end, I looked at it just as every other zombie book. About the only twist in the story is Sheriff Eben, however even that isn’t enough for me to boost the score.

30 Days of Night takes place in the town of Barrow, Alaska during the winter months when the sun sets for thirty days. The zombies come out during that time to feed on the townspeople as a means to gain strength. This is against their plan of seclusion, and it brings out the elder, Vincente, who ventures out to address the group. He is met with the local sheriff who devises a plan to rid the town of the walking dead.

About the best thing in this story was the illustrations. I’m sure this post will be met with alot of criticism; perhaps it just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Review: (4.5 / 5) Relic is a 1995 horror/thriller novel written by authors Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, and the first in the Special Agent Pendergast series. I was first introduced to Preston and Child by my MFA program mentor who recommended I read Cabinets and Curiosities as part of my research for my thesis. From there I went on to read Reliquary, and now Relic—yeah I went backwards.

The story begins in the Amazon Basin where a research crew is studying one of the lost tribes, and their god, the Mbwun. The book then jumps ahead several years and the rest of the story is set in New York City at the American Museum of Natural History. Preston and Child get straight to work with the murder of two young boys, and it’s here where the investigation begins. Lieutenant D’Agosta of the NYPD takes on the case, and shortly thereafter, FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergrast of the New Orleans Field Office is introduced. The two get along fine as they try to determine who killed the children.

The story goes on for a total of 480 pages, and early evidence suggests the killings took place at the hands of a large cat, however DNA later proves to be from some unknown origin—part man, part reptile. Timing couldn’t be worse for the museum as they prepare for the Grand Gala, and the opening of the new Superstition Exhibition. Agent Pendergast makes the decision to suspend the event, however the museum director goes around the agent, and the case is soon handed over to the local field office in New York City. It is here that Special Agent Coffey assumes the lead and the kickoff for the exhibition goes on as planned, but not without a sleuth of conflict.

The book is filled with twists and turns, and almost anything I say will come across as a spoiler. The Grand Gala is the beginning of Part Two of the novel, and is about one third of the way through. I found it difficult to put down at this point because the pacing never really seemed to offer a breather. Preston and Child keep the momentum propelling forward with constant scene breaks, jumping to another part of the story equally engaging. I found the only lull to be during the scenes with Margo Green and Dr. Frock hiding in the offices.

Relic is a great example for any writer looking for reading material on how an investigation unfolds. It’s loaded with conflict as the characters argue as to the best way to confront the beast. Speaking of characters, the cast in Relic is well-developed, giving the reader a three-dimensional view or each and making them come to life. We get a sense of each person’s origin, habits, and physical limitations.

If I had to choose something I didn’t like, I’d say it’s the epilogue. I rarely ready them, but since I enjoyed the book so much, it sort of left me craving more. I should have walked away at the end, because the epilogue was nothing more than telling of the origination of the beast, and a precursor to the second book in the installment, Reliquary.

Overall, my favorite read for the semester, and I’m glad I got the chance to get in another book with Agent Pendergast.

The Outside

I don’t even know where to begin with The Outsider. I read the story three times, and then listened to it a couple more times with an app that reads PDF files aloud. It wasn’t until after that, that I gave it one last read, that things came together.

I’ll start by stating that I struggled to grasp on, partially because of his extensive use of description. For some reason, he kept taking me out of the story. I’ll say equally that Lovecraft has a beautiful way of describing his scenes. If I had only a tenth of what he uses, I’d be set with my thesis.

As for the story, my understanding was that a ghost had returned to its home before death. It hadn’t seen itself for some time, and was taken back when it walked past it’s reflection and caught a glimpse of what it looked like today. So then it wasn’t a ghost, so perhaps some form of walking dead—a zombie perhaps. This of course is a weak review of the story, however that is the gist of it. As I mentioned before, Lovecraft does an excellent job bringing to life the scene, much so that I’ll shamelessly borrow from it on my short story.

 

Pickman’s Model

The second of the three assigned this week, and in my opinion, much better than The Outsider. Again Lovecraft does an excellent job with his descriptions as the narrator shares his relationship with the artist, Pickman.

Pickman’s Model is a short story told by his Pickman’s friend, Thurber. We learn from the first person POV of Thurber how Pickman’s who was one a member of the Boston Art Club became alienated by his peers for the graphic nature of his work. In the end, the Art Club would revoke his membership, and Pickman soon disappeared. Thurber tells of the time he toured the personal gallery of Pickman, and a strange events that day.

 

 

The Call of Cthulhu

The third of this week’s stories, and of course the longest story of the trio. I struggled to grasp on to this story, and like the first, I even tried using an audio version. Who knows, maybe it was just me, so I’ll have to see what my peers had to say.

The story begins with a first person narrative of a man who was the executor of the will of his great uncle. The items in the will consist of personal details of an underground cult involved in ritualistic killings of woman and children. Their callings, or orders for a lack of better words comes from this creature who lives at the bottom of the sea. This creature is humanlike in body, with the head and arms of an octopus.

It is actually an interesting story; however, I think I found it difficult to get in to with so much going on this week. I’ll say that I do plan to go back and read the Lovecraft stories again once the semester wraps up.

Review: (4 / 5) Snow is a horror novel written by Ronald Malfi, published in 2010 by Leisure Books. The book received favorable reviews, with Goodreads giving it 3.68, and Amazon readers scoring it four out of five stars. Its best rating was by Barnes and Noble at 4.25.

The story begins with Todd Curry and the rest of the travelers at Chicago O’Hare Airport become stranded due to a snow storm. Curry is on his way to Iowa to see his son for the holidays. With spending Christmas with his son in jeopardy, he meets a woman in the terminal named Kate who is heading the same direction as Curry and offers to split a rental car with him. They become stranded in the town of Woodson, and it is here that the story unfolds. Without going in to details, we get snow monsters, human takeovers, and plenty of gore.

Malfi does a good job with the story. Phantoms aside, the characters are well-developed and their stories believable. The characters drive the plot forward, and there’s plenty of twists and turns, and it’s loaded with tension.

So does anything not work? Not really, although I’ll say one thing in the story confused me. Malfi calls them snow monsters, however for all intents and purpose they are zombies. The monsters take over the skins of humans. My understanding of zombies is that they don’t do well in the colder climates, so I can’t help but wonder how this works. Sure it’s fiction, but I do think as writers we should stay within the boundaries of what we know to be the tropes.

Review: (4 / 5) World War Z is Max Brooks horror novel published in 2006, and reached number nine on the New York Times Best Seller in 2011. The book was a sequel to The Zombie Survival Guide (2003), and due to its success, a film adaptation was created in 2013. It was directed by Marc Foster, and starred Brad Pitt as the main actor.

Brooks took a different approach in the way that he wrote the novel, choosing to narrate the story as an oral history of the war. World War Z uses an agent of the United Nations as the protagonist to conduct interviews with leaders across the globe. The story begins with Patient Zero, a young boy from Greater Chongqing in a small village known by the people as New Dachang. They track the diesease as it progresses across the globe through travel, human trafficking, organ trade, and refugee camps.

We learn a lot about zombies, such as geographical areas where they thrive, and also where they struggle to survive. Brooks takes a global approach with the story, so we learn some of the tribal methods in dealing with the epidemic, as well as how the advanced countries deal with the problem. And there in my opinion lies one of my challenges with the story.

As previously stated, Brooks drives the story forward with the interviews. I found the book enjoyable for a weekend read, especially at times with the shorter scenes.  On that same note, I also found it challenging at times with the countless scene changes. Brooks hops across the globe from interview to interview, so having to conduct a deep read for this analysis became tough at times. I’d find myself deep into the story, only to change the page and be transported to a different interview. Forget about jumping ahead to continue the scene. It was near impossible to find with several interviews conducted within a given chapter.

Overall I scored the book high, especially considering most readers will pick up the book for nothing more than personal pleasure. If you enjoy the novel, Brooks has several short stories in various anthologies that focus on the zombie apocalypse.