David Moody’s Autumn: Disintegration

If you have ever read one of the many interviews I have done over the past couple of years, you would have read that I have been a fan of the zombie genre for close to 30 years now. I grew up watching the movies and continue to do just that. One aspect of the zombie genre that I did not click with until somewhere around 2003 or 2004 was the literary side. Yes, you read that write, a zombie writer that did not read his first zombie book until sometime in the last decade.

Come on, you have to admit, there was not a whole lot available for us back in the “old” days. If there had been the selection we have available to us these days, I would have likely been reading a lot more of the genre before that time.

When I did discover the literary side, I found two books and immediately ordered them both from Amazon. Autumn by David Moody, and Monster Island by David Wellington. I remember very distinctly breaking into Autumn first and becoming hooked not only on the universe that David had created, but also on Davids particular style of writing. I wanted more, and I acquired more (including first editions of the next two books The City, and Purification) over time.

To say I have been a fan of David Moody and his work for several years now would surely not be a stretch of the truth. And yes, before anyone asks, I am a fan of David Wellington and his work as well, but this blog post is about Mr. Moody and his latest release, Autumn:Disintegration

Several weeks ago, I had a chance to watch the movie version of Autumn, and I immediately sent a tweet to David. I had followed him for a while but never really communicated with him. Anyway, I tweeted David and said I had just watched Autumn, and I was sorry the filmmakers had done to his book what they had done, and that as soon as I win the lotto, I will gladly buy back his film rights and do the movie right this time.

I got a response from David, and I thought that was pretty damn cool.

A short while later, I was able to get my name in the hat for a free copy of Disintegration, and I thought that was pretty damn cool as well.

Then a few days later, a friend of mine posted a link to an interview done with David where he not only mentioned my publisher, Permuted Press, but he also mentioned me and two other Permuted authors by name, and I about passed out. It’s not that I am some bleeding fanboy that can’t hold myself together, it’s that someone I respect, respects me enough to have mentioned me. Hell yeah that was cool.

So, I received my copy of Autumn: Disintegration, and just finished it this evening.  As I started the book, I was thrust immediately back into the Autumn universe with little to no introduction to the who’s, the how’s, the what’s, the when’s, and the why’s. This was clearly another tale in the Autumn series and not intended to be a stand alone novel. No sir, this one was written for the fans of the series and the writing shows it.

David dives deeper into his descriptions of the bloated and putrified decaying corpses that cover the landscape, sometimes quite literally, than he has in the past. If you have a weak stomach, too bad, Moody has little compassion for that concern in his readers as he pushes the envelope wide open for how much bile he can bring to the back of your throat with his descriptions of the corpses. I’m not kidding you, there are times you can almost smell it he has described it so well.

I don’t think highly of reviews that spoil the hell out of a well written tome, so all I will say is the book starts with a group of survivors that find themselves forced out of their stronghold because of their activity, only to find themselves in the stronghold of another group of survivors. Only thing is, this group of survivors has chosen a different tact of survival, that being silence, potential starvation and simply trying to outlast the dead.

Honestly, if I told you any more than that, it would result in nothing more than spoiling it. Seriously, just do yourself a favor, and go pick up a copy of this book.

For David, in case you come across this blog post, I have one question for you: When did you ever find yourself face down in eighteen inches of putrified corpses? I only ask because you wrote about it so well, you could only know from experience, and that’s just nasty.

Oh, and one more thing David, thank you. Thank you for being an inspiration, your respect, and for the Autumn universe.

Tony Faville

David Moody’s Autumn: Disintegration on Amazon