When There's No More Room In Hell by Ryan Travis

When There's No More Room In Hell by Ryan Travis

The dead are rising
eating flesh of the living
the world in chaos

Two police snipers
become friends in a basement
to kill the undead

Pandemonium
news anchor and her Flyboy
prepare to escape

Both groups join forces
utilizing all their strengths
in hopes to survive

Taking to the skies
in hopes to find a shelter
they land on a mall

Building a fortress
eliminating zombies
a shopping playground

Living like they’re kings
complete with an apartment
spotted by bandits

While re-enforcing
one cop is bitten on leg
turning to zombie

Renegade break-in
zombies and bikers unleashed
utopia gone

Zombie cop is killed
Flyboy is also bitten
becoming undead

Entrails are scattered
the dead feast on human flesh
escape must be made

Flying once again
black cop and girl reporter
search for safe haven

Down the Road by Bowie V. Ibarra

Ok, so I read about this book on the forums and thought I'd give it a go. Unfortunately as yet it's not available in the UK yet so I had to order it from the States which took about a month to get here, during which time I was thinking, "is it gonna be worth the wait?"
Well, was it worth the wait? In my opinion, Yes it was thankfully!

The plot centres around George Zaragosa, a school teacher from Austin, Texas, who after outbreak of zombies attempts to get back home to his family in San Ulvade.

Now the road trip is nothing particularly original when it comes to zombie novels (at least the few I have read) and for good reason. If there was an outbreak I'm sure there are many of us who would attempt to get to family or friends. So it's as good a starting point as any.

Is this road trip worth your while reading? Yes. The book is only 167 pages long so the story flies along at a good pace. The characters, especially George, are well written, his sense of loss during the story being brought across very well.

There is a fair amount of gore in the book, but it never detracts from the story, which I think was the goal here. There are also some nice touches I didn't expect such as race segregation within one of the camps.

I did have one or two issues with the book but nothing too annoying. One being that the story is set within the first few days of an outbreak, yet camps have already been set up (not just military either). I would have liked to see a little more chaos before these had been established.

Aside from a couple grammatical annoyances I thought this was a great read and have it with me at work now to read again! I would recommend this too anyone, and although I'm sure some will disagree with my review, I think more will possibly agree with me.
I for one am looking forward to Bowie's next book, more zombies please!

Overall 4 1/2 (out of five)

Oh yeah, loved the ending!!

Review by Pain (Jude Felton)

Risen by J. Knight

We are residing in the sleepy little town of Anderson. It's a town so sleepy as to almost render itself completely unconscious, and it seems as though a little zombie action is just what they needed. Enter town newcomer (if you've been there less than two and a half years, you are still fresh and ripe for harassment from the townsfolk) Brant Kettering, once a calloused journalist in the "big city", now running Anderson's weekly rag, just barely. Peg, a local waitress and mother of two. Her daughter Annie, who is about five and in a vegetative state following a car accident, and her son Tom, 17, who does what most 17 year olds do. He sits around a lot, being angry, and dreaming of someday blowing that town and heading for something bigger, better. Where he could make something of himself. Like a Springsteen song (I'm still trying to figure out if the whole book is actually just a metaphor for the exact type of thing).

It begins when battered wife Madge Duffy slits the throat of her rat-bastard husband John, thus murdering him as he slept drunkenly on the couch. That night, at midnight, after Madge is locked away and resting peacefully in her cell, John wakes up on a cold slab in the morgue. Healed and confused, he doesn't know much, but he now knows "Seth". From here it's a chain reaction of people dying. The more people that die, the more people they kill to bring into the whole Seth cult. The townspeople are shocked by this whole coming back from the dead business, yet seem to accept it easier than you'd think, most likely due to the fact that this is the most exciting thing that's ever happened in their town since…ever.

The story itself isn't too far a throw from your average horror story, the difference being made in the writing, which finds Knight capable. He creates a world not far from reality, where incredible things are allowed to happen without much question, and also without making you feel stupid for buying into it. This aids in one's suspension of disbelief, which is something that anyone who reads horror should be able to appreciate in a writer. Knight knows exactly where he's leading you, even if you don't---like being blindfolded and lead, you feel in front of you, afraid of bumping into something unpleasant. Regardless of that generally uncomfortable anticipation, he doesn't bump you too much, and he does keep you walking.

Now, I know what you're asking. How about the violence and gore? Well, lot's and lot's of people die, sometimes more than once (what a treat!) There is violence and there is gore, quite a bit actually. Again, the desired effect is achieved in the writing. Knight tends to kill his victims in first person, not third. While this might sometimes be bothersome in it's shifting, the result makes it less jarring and the actual death more effective. Maybe you're not affected by this whole first-, second-, third-person thing. Imagine watching a man drown in a lake. Now imagine drowning in a lake. I'm sure you'd agree that your own drowning is much, much worse. That's the effect.

Also adding to the overall heebie-jeebieness about this book is the feeling of paranoia, which begins in a subtle way with Brant, still considered an outsider, building to an all out, watch-your-back sensation, when no one, not even the reader, knows who is alive, who's dead, who doesn't know Seth and who does. You now find yourself living in a town where your loved one, who you just saw an hour ago, may now be trying to kill you. How can you tell what's happened to that person in the last hour? Maybe they died and came back. It's probably safe to assume the worst.

Is J. Knight's Risen a zombie story? Good question. The living dead, in this case, are never called "zombies", though they are dreamt of by one character and referred to by another stating, "This isn't some horror movie where zombies start eating peoples' brains." They are simply the "Risen". Regardless of how horribly they die, they are healed in coming back and seem to be much as they were before, with the exception of a shared, newly acquired belief and compulsion to follow a man, or thing, called "Seth." I am of the opinion that this is a zombie novel in the same way that Dead & Buried is a zombie movie. They're walking, they're talking, but it doesn't change the fact that five minutes ago, they were deader than, as they say, a doornail.

Risen is wrought with well formed characters, seemingly random acts of violence (that aren't random at all) and best of all…well…lot's of Risen. If you're not too particular about your zombies and are open to them moving in a slightly different direction, this book could very well be for you.

Footnote: I appreciate Knight's use of the Edmund Burke quote: "The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." I also like the fact that he chose the 1968 Charger over the more popular 1969 model. It's all in the details, you know.

The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia by Peter Dendle

I write in my book. I take a pen and mark the hell out of it. This isn't something I would normally do, especially in a book I shelled out $35 for. But I do and I can justify it. How else can I keep track of what I've seen, what I own, what I need to look for? And more importantly, how many more I need to go to catch up with this Dendle fellow? Sometimes you can see me, stalking the video shelves of my local video store, either with the book itself, or with a little scrap of paper, with a dozen titles I could never remember on my own. This is how useful this book has been in my quest to see what I can, as much as I can, good, bad, and ugly.

The back of the book (which features cover art that both repulses and delights at the same time) boasts more than 200 movies. This is not entirely true. There are 194, twelve of which are either shorts or episodes of television series. This error does not detract from the comprehensive guide. Face it. Dr. Dendle is one of the very few (and undoubtedly proud) people who have watched at least 182 zombie films. I mean, really, that is impressive. I have no idea how many zombie films are staggering around out there, but I assume it's quite a few. A complete reference would not be a book, it would be a numbered set. It would need it's own shelf.

After his acknowledgments, there is the Introduction, which consists of History and Evolution in five parts. The Early Film Zombie (1932-1952), The 50's and 60's: Tension and Transition (1952-1966), The Stabilizing of the Contemporary Zombie Mythos (1966-present), The Golden Age (1968-1983), and The Mid-80's Spoof Cycle. Sounds very academic, and it is, but fear not, zombie-lover, it's all perfectly understandable. From here he moves onto Significance, touching upon the zombie's analogous aspects relating to everything from Romero's fight against materialism in Dawn of the Dead to Re-Animator's suggested probing into certain concerns in medical science. Dendle then goes on to explain himself in Definition, Scope and Principles of Selection. This section, if read carefully, will clear up any questions or doubts you might have as to why some films were covered and some were not. There is a method to his madness.

The body of the book itself is The Films. It is listed alphabetically, including many alternate titles, which refer you to where you want to be. Hence, if you were looking for Bloodfeast of the Blind Dead and you are looking in the B's, you will find that it directs you to the N's, where you will locate Night of the Seagulls. Does this sound like work? Far from it. With films like Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue (listed under L for Let Sleeping Corpses Lie) having seven titles total, you'll be glad to have this handy reference. It might keep you from buying the same movie twice (or more!). Each film is provided with a list of director, producer, screenplay, cast, country of origin (if outside the US), production house and year it was made. If the film's title was originally in another language, that title is also provided. Dendle's reviews are straight forward easy to follow and very often funny. My favorite part of this guide, however, is the fact that each film has a zombie review. Yes, following a description of the film itself is a description of the zombie(s) within. From The Alien Dead's "zombie with perfect hair and his shirt tucked neatly into his pants" to Zombie Rampage's "the undead limp along stiff-limbed and contorted, suffering from an epidemic of apoplectic over-acting." From Garden of the Dead's "their favorite attack is a rather complicated sprint and pick-axe swinging technique" to La Cage aux Zombies "a transvestite zombie standing around in a bathroom pats himself on the stomach for maybe two full minutes while a woman (well, could be a woman) watches from a wheelchair." Some people like their zombies slow and starchy, while others like them fast and squishy. This guide will help you find the films you want to see.

When all is said and done, we are provided with two handy-dandy appendices, a bibliography and an index. Appendix A lists films by year from 1932 to 1998, while Appendix B lists them by country (Canada, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa, Spain and Thailand...the US is omitted, which might be a loss from those in other countries using this guide.) The Bibliography, which is a wealth of information for anyone looking to become an expert, is broken up into three sections: Horror Film Guides, Histories and Encyclopedias, Studies of Particular Zombie Movies and Directors and Zombies and the Living Dead: Folklore and Anthropology. So if there is something you feel Dr. Dendle has missed or excluded, there are sources for this information, but you'll have to do the work. And why not? He did.

I bought my Zombie Movie Encyclopedia four years ago and still use it actively today in my day-to-day search for zombie fare that I have yet to sink my teeth into. I was able to track down titles that I probably wouldn't have heard of otherwise. I can thank, or blame, Dr. Dendle, depending on what it is I find. The fun, though, is the effort to catch up to him!