If this had been survival of the fittest in the beginning, the characters would have been the first to die, because some of the stuff they did was so stupid it was utterly jaw dropping. There's a moment in the book when they're hiding out and realise they're being steadily surrounded by zombies. Why? Because of a loud 'constantly thumping' generator, the house being lit up like Blackpool and smoke pouring out the chimney from a nice hearty fire. When they realise they might have to forgo these things, they get sad because they can't imagine life without treats. The country in tatters, friends and family dead, dead people walking around and potential human extinction is something they all make an effort to get over, but no electric to watch DVDs? Unacceptable, apparently. The characters were infuriating. Apart from them boomeranging from one extreme personality to the next, they were such dull, one dimensional people I would have much preferred to go it alone than be stuck with them during the end of the world. One moment Michael is telling Emma that, regardless of her feelings or opinions, humanity is gone, never coming back, no use crying about blah blah blah, the next he's anxiously asking whether or not mankind can rebuild itself and what they can do. Carl goes outside, touches plenty of the zombies, Michael doesn't hesitate to hurtle through a crowd of them, then a few pages later they're too scared to go outside again and have to (alternately) talk each other round. I think the problem is they're never developed. The only one who does any sort of changing is Carl, and that's mostly downhill. You know how in Dawn Of The Dead when Anna steps outside to see the world gone to hell? I love that. I love the uncertainty, the fear and the adrenaline fueled mayhem as survivors battle to save their arses. There is nothing of the sort here. People literally just drop down dead and then it's 10+ pages of the survivors being too scared to go outside. I didn't dislike the way the people died, nor the order of things when they started getting back up, but, my god, give me something to sink my teeth into. Where's the carnage?! The chaos? Save for the odd pile-up and the constant references to 'decaying corpses', there's nothing new and exciting happening. One character just goes home and goes back to bed 'in a panic' when things kick off. The writing is very, very flat, not to mention fairly poor. It doesn't read easily and suffers from A LOT of repetition. The only way he can describe something is 'decayed/decaying', every character starts every second sentence 'Christ!' 'Jesus,...' or 'Bloody hell!'. The conversation goes round...and round...and round, no issue is ever resolved. The constant exaggeration wasn't really necessary, since it didn't add any sort of fear to an already dull plot. I think the author used it as a (cheap) ploy to make the situation appear a lot more dangerous but, for reasons I'm not really sure about, it aggravated me. I get that the newly quiet world means sound carries and causes a chain reaction but the 'thousands upon thousands upon thousands' of 'decaying corpses' find their way to a house the main characters had trouble finding just stinks to me. Especially since the zombies were supposed to have to attention span of a 6 month old. I did like the cycle of the zombies and how they became more vicious over a length of time. I also picked up on the enthusiasm of the author, which is always a good thing. I can't get away from the fact this book was published way before David Moody was ready, though. I know that it was put online for free when he was a 'frustrated writer', presumably when he had had no luck with traditional publishing houses. If so, reading through this shows that they were not wrong to turn him down. Saying that, I do realise this was written about 10 years ago and so I'm holding out for Autumn: The City to see if he's improved.
Ninety-nine percent of the population has died in less than twenty-four hours, most of them dropping dead wherever they happened to be when the sickness struck.A group of survivors makes its way to a flimsy community center. When some of the dead suddenly struggle to their feet and begin to wander about, three of the group decide they might be better off holing up in the less populated countryside. The others, forgetting what happened to the idiots who decided to wait for help in the dining room of The Poseidon Adventure, decide to stay put.This book is filled with characters who I DON'T WANT TO BE STUCK WITH IN ANY EMERGENCY. They show no foresight. True, they can be forgiven for not anticipating that the dead will become ambulators. Few people expect that to happen...BUT...no one even considered the possibility of marauding bands of armed and violent survivors coming to raid their meager food supplies? Yeesh! These people have no imagination whatsoever!The book has a long, s-l-o-w build up. The dead are pretty disoriented when they first stumble to their feet. Aside from the fact that they are CORPSES and they are WALKING AROUND, they're not scary at all. Anyone who thought last season's The Walking Dead was too boring, should probably stay away from this one. I, however, thought there was a great, encroaching creepiness, and I was kept pretty nervous waiting for the ax to fall. And then, with no warning, the dead turn nasty. While they don't seem to be hungry for brains, they ARE REALLY PISSED at the living, and you basically don't want to mess with them. And before you know it, things are quickly looking hopeless for our intrepid little trio.I'm torn between three and four stars. There is really nothing new here, but all the same, it kept me turning the pages. Apparently, there are sequels, but I probably won't continue with the series.
What do You think about Autumn (2010)?
I really wanted to like this... I really, really did. But after about a hundred pages, I just couldn't continue. The dialog was stilted, the actions of the survivors was *horribly* unrealistic, and there were little writing issues that I found incredibly jarring. I'm told that it does get better, but I'd long since stopped caring for any of the characters, and there's simply too many books on my plate to bother with this mediocre effort. For those looking for zombies, I'm sure you can find something in this book to love after you've plowed through most of the all-too-saturated market. But for me, I'm sure I can find another zombie book that'll fit the bill, and be a lot more enjoyable to read as well.However, since I literally couldn't finish reading this book, take my review with a grain of salt. Consider it a cautious warning, and do a little leg work before picking it up just to make sure it might appeal to you. I think you'll likely find there's much better alternatives out there, but, hey! Zombies!
—Gregory
Autumn bummed me out.To be fair, these zombie apocalypse books tend to fall into the category of depressing or action packed and so yes, it makes sense that Autumn bummed me out. It had nothing to do with the characters within the story, who I didn't form any sort of attachment to, but the overall mood of the book was quietly desperate and left me feeling heavy.David Moody writes beautifully. I'd heard beforehand that this book was terrifying and by the fifty percent mark I was scratching my head, trying to work out if some people scare very, very easily but then there's a shift and it is creepy. The haunting element to the book doesn't kick in until about halfway through and then it escalates. I won't say rapidly because there's nothing rapid about Autumn. Everything is slow, monotonous and subtle, but it is done well. There is a lot of repetitiveness to it however, which detracted from the experience for me and I think the whole thing could have been so much more powerful if the characters had been a bit more flushed-out or if it had felt like more was at stake. From the start, they're fighting for a life that clearly wasn't worth living so it's really the human race you're worried about, not the protagonists.And the main characters did some pretty bizarre things. The fence thing, not with-standing. If you had a working car, why not find somewhere that already had a decent boundary? And their obsession with electricity.... bloody hell. The writer paints a very vivid picture but unfortunately, it's a bird's eye view. I felt like I was floating over the whole thing, never getting close and to the author's credit, not wanting too because the undead get pretty ghastly towards the end. I'd recommend to anyone who who goes for the nitty gritty details of survival, rather than a wild ride.
—S.K. Munt
If there is such a thing as “a nice little zombie story” then Moody’s Autumn is it. It sticks fairly close to Romero zombie canon right down to the survivors barricading themselves in a farmhouse. What I did enjoy tremendously was Moody’s slow build. Some have found it annoying and dull – I was actually grooving it. First everyone drops dead – shock, horror! Then a third of the corpses gets up and begins to walk again. WTF!!!??? Holy Moses on a crutch! Then as if you aren’t PTSD’ing enough, the brainless, wandering, dumb-like-cattle corpses suddenly start to be attracted to noise, to light and finally to YOU. They’re slow, they’re stupid, but they’re determined and now seem to have a single-minded purpose. To grab at you. To pull at you. One of them coming at you is laughable. Twenty a bit upsetting. These zombies aren’t biting yet, gutting you and pulling out your insides, but a hundred can smother you. A thousand will crush you. Where do you go? How do you keep them away from you? And is such a world really worth fighting to survive?The zombies are never called zombies of course. I’m hard-pressed to think of a zombie apocalypse in fiction where the creatures already existed in popular culture when the real thing comes along. The only example that comes to mind is the classic, not-to-be-missed horror/comedy Return of the Living Dead. If you haven’t seen this movie yet, what the hell are you waiting for??? An actual zombie apocalypse? In it, the dead come to life and start lurching around screaming for brains and correct me if I’m wrong zombie-lovers, but this may be the first time ever on film that we get the now famous imagery of zombies hungering for brains. I think the whole “brains and zombies” thing definitely started with this movie. What’s more, the characters first try to kill a zombie by putting a pick-axe through its skull and then when that doesn’t work, chopping its head, which still doesn’t work prompting the following memorable dialogue:[image error]
—Trudi
