Autumn: The Human Condition (2013) - Plot & Excerpts
Autumn: The Human Condition is the forth book in David Moody’s post-apocalyptic zombie saga. The book is a companion book that explores various characters sub-plots during the time of the Autumn novels. The book evolved from the Autumn: Echoes series that has been available as a free download from David Moody’s website. The book draws reference to a lot from all three previous Autumn novels, mostly from the third instalment Autumn: Purification.From the very start of this companion book, the mood and atmosphere is very downbeat and dark, as the reader is taken through 35 vastly different perspectives of the end of the world. The book is broken down into time frames, starting with the horrific beginning of the epidemic to the final hours of the few survivors. A thoroughly enjoyable and in-depth read throughout, you get to follow the path of one particular zombie, allowing the reader to empathise and try to understand a little more of the stages that the zombies went through in the previous three novels.With the exciting news recently released of David’s next proposed Autumn novel, this book is a great piece of reading to take you further into his desperate world. There are a few chapters in the book that stand alone as fantastic pieces of fiction such as “Duck and Cover”, “Office Politics”, “The Human Condition” and “The Garden Shed”. Each give a very full and eventful tale from other survivors that were never visited in the previous books. There is also a final chapter entitled “Underground” that takes you back to the underground army bunker from “The City” and “Purification”, where you get to see the after effects of the devastating battle that was fought there. This particular chapter, in my opinion, is one of Moody’s most dark, horrific and gore filled chapters to date.The book ends with a few pages of character references that simply details and reminds the reader briefly of who and where the characters in the book appeared in the other original ‘Autumn’ books.The book is released through David Moody's own publishing company 'Infected Books' and runs for a total of 320 pages.
This collection of short stories centered around the Autumn universe, created by David Moody, is sometimes billed as "Autumn 3.5" so I decided that's exactly where I'd read it as I plowed through the series, between three and four. Now I'm wondering if I shouldn't have waited until the series was finished.This was less of a quick read than the other books in the series, partly because I found so many of the stories to be profoundly sad, and because a consistent action oriented plot wasn't at play. I did enjoy getting to see the backstories of some of the characters brought into the story in books 2 and 3. Many of these tales deal with minor characters, and one or two stories deal with characters not seen in the previous books at all. Those tend to be the saddest, mainly because through poor choices or misfortune they didn't make it far enough in this changed world to make it to any of the larger groups of survivors.You get to find out details of what happened at the community center from book 1, which was of particular interest to me, and at the military bunker once the survivors left. You also, toward the end, get a hint of what's going to happen on the island with Michael and Emma, and that's where I wish I'd waited. If you want to get on with the rest of the stories in this book mid-series, stop before the last one unless you want an abbreviated version of the Michael and Emma future. I'm kind of worried that I've ruined the rest of the series for myself, and definitely would have preferred to to be let in on one particular plot point that's spoiled by that last story - read at your own risk!
What do You think about Autumn: The Human Condition (2013)?
the human condition was the conclusion of David Moody's Autumn about a pandemic that swept across the globe killing almost everyone, only for them to come back to life as dangerous and curious zombies.this companion book does a good job about filling in the details of some of the characters in the book, survivors that were never discovered by the groups the book was following and even tries to offer an explanation as to how it all happened. there were a few sections of the book I had trouble with, only because of the content as it relates directly to children. other wise this was a fantastic book that goes great with the rest of the series.
—Albert Yates
I found this book to be very well written with an amazing and interesting twist on the traditional zombie apocalypse. With all those different points of views and characters intertwining, it was well organized. One thing that troubled me was nearing the end, when the solider finally emerges from the underground base to head topside. As the book mentioned, there must have been a battle that took place the wiped out many of the "zombies". But while he was walking through town he saw nothing and no one. I found that hard to believe that they all just disappeared and he was driven into a clear, yet ultimate decision to take his own life.
—Jackie
It took me a while to read this as it made me so involved with the characters that I had to go re-read the original books they were mentioned in. I love the way this puts meat on the bones of some of the characters we did not get to know in the original series, and reminded me how good an author Mr Moody is, as he draws you in to the situation and quickly makes you care about thse people. As a writing exercise, It's a great example of how authors should create well rounded create characters quickly, and demonstrates that a good author should immerse themselves in the lives of everyone in the books, even in they are not pivitoal to drive the plot along.I look foward to reading more of this talented authors work.
—Rebecca
