Product Description

David Moody brings the AUTUMN trilogy to a stunning conclusion.

The survivors from AUTUMN: THE CITY are imprisoned in an underground base, trapped between the door to the outside world and the sealed entrance to the airtight cocoon where hundreds of soldiers sit and wait.

The crowd of bodies on the surface continues to grow in size, drawn there by the heat, light and noise occasionally produced by the people buried underground beneath their rotting feet. The sheer mass of shuffling figures and decaying flesh above them begins to cause problems for the military with vents and exhaust shafts becoming blocked and useless. Soldiers are sent above ground to begin clearing the bodies away.

Encouraged by a relatively successful first strike which is met with little resistance from the corpses, the officers order their troops to the surface again, this time to destroy them all.

Trapped in the middle of a long and bloody battle between the military and the dead, the survivors' safety is compromised and they are forced to flee the base.

Exposed and vulnerable once again, the group run for their lives without aim or direction.

All hope is gone, but in the rotting shadows of the past they find the key to what remains of their future...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #618526 in Books
• Published on: 2005-01-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 280 pages

About the Author
David Moody is the author of the acclaimed AUTUMN living dead novels. A writer sick of square-jawed, all-American heroes and contrived happy endings, his books are unique and individual. Tried and tested horror and science-fiction themes are twisted and given a fresh perspective by this British author. Moody's characters are ordinary people - you, me, the man or woman next door or across the street - forced to survive the most extraordinary of conditions. It is this uneasy mixture of the familiar and bizarre that makes his stories such unsettling and disturbing reads.

Customer Reviews

An entertaining read
Overall I recommend this series of books for those who like zombie stories. I've read all four and have enjoyed each one.

However, I do have a few issues.

1. David Moody should do a little more research on modern military technology. The military does possess protective suits like those used by the soldiers in his books. However, they protect only against a chemical attack. They do not filter out airborne biological agents. Bacteria is just too small. Viruses are even smaller. You would probably have to carry your own air supply. While it might be possible that the government anticipated this event and created suits customized for this particular bioligical agent, I just had a hard time buying it.

It seems like the survivors are mostly idiots. I can think of a number of ways to fight the zombies that were never even tried in the book.

1. Your in an airfield or some other enclosure and there are so many zombies around that it is difficult to get in an out without letting loads of them in. What do you do?

a. Create a "zombie lock." Think of an air lock on a space ship. You have an smaller enclosed area around the entrance to your large enclosed area. You can use fencing or just create a circle of cars. When you need to let someone in or out, have a crew of guys with baseball bats at the ready. You open the get and let your people out/in. When that happens many of the zombies are going to get in as well. Your bat boys jump in and start smashing skulls while you close the gate. Any zombies that get in are contained in the zombie lock. Then your bat boys kill them all. If there are really lots of them, get .22 rifles and pistols and start shooting them in the head to bring their numbers down.

b. When the number of zombies surrounding your safe haven get too numerous, send out people in tough vehicles to simply do laps around the perimeter while mowing them down. Sure this will make a lot of noise, but I bet you could kill them faster then they could show up.

c. Create a diversion. The zombies are attracted to noise and activity, so have a brave crew of people set up a noise maker at a location farther away but still within earshot. Put a CD player with fresh batteries on a roof top of a nearby building. Have the player loop so it will go on constantly. This will draw the zombies away from you and toward the distraction. Then you can get in your vehicle and start mowing them down.

2. You want a safe haven where you can have food and water as well as the conveniences of the pre-catastrophe world without having to worry about getting trapped by too many zombies.

a. How about a boat? Go to the coast, or even a large lake or a large river and get in a house boat. Go a short distance from shore and drop your anchor. You can stock the boat with all the food and water and fuel you will need for a long time. On board you will have electricity, running water, flush toilets and safety. If you are close to shore you can expect the zombies to gather at your launch point, but you can just travel to a different harbor to get resupplies. The only real worry is bad weather.

b. Just keep moving. There is pleny of gas and vehicles. Do what Mike and Emma did and get a motor home and travel the country. Camp in remote locations and when there are too many zombies around, just step on the gas. Not as good as the boat idea because you will have to be very quiet whenever you stop for a while, but still workable.

The Walking Dead and the people who love them
Not the most technically sound writing in publication but very far from the worst. For zombie fans, there really is no such thing as a bad zombie story, but David Moody's work really is something special. Its not your run of the mill flesh eating frenzy type of story and that's refreshing. The Autumn novel's power resides not in their ability to disgust or in the description of violence, but in the psychological despair and utter hopelessness that would be felt by the survivors of a zombie apocalypse. Very emotional, very disturbing, utterly wonderful.

Zombie action, but no gore.
I have read and reviewed the first 2 "Autumn" books and I am probably sounding like a broken record. There is not enough of the over-the-top Zombie gore that I enjoy so much. There is however more action in this book than the first two in the series.
The books are well written and interesting. The problem I have, besides the absence of extreme Zombie gore, is that the books focus mainly on the characters. The Zombies almost seem secondary to the story.
I enjoyed all three books, but this was my favorite so far. The suspense is tight throughout almost the entire book. You get a possible explanation of what may have caused most of the world's population to die. The Zombies are more violent than ever, and the feeling of despair is at an all time high. Then the mood changes, there may be hope!
These books wouldn't be my first choice in the Zombie genre, but they are entertaining. The story does lure you into wanting to know how it all ends. I have read the first three in the series and plan to read all five books.