Customer Reviews

Autumn: The City

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

In David Moody's follow-up to the acclaimed zombie novel, Autumn, we are introduced to several new characters. Donna Yorke is an office worker who went in early on that fateful morning when all the world seemed to collapse into utter desolation. Paul Castle was also at work when everyone around him died horrible deaths. Jack Baxter was coming home from work when the apparent disease hit. After hiding out in his home for several days, he ventured out into the vastly changed city where he meets up with Clare, a young girl who helplessly sat and watched her father die and has endured alone on the street while watching the dead rise again. Meanwhile, Doctor Croft and several others have found some comfort and safety hiding within a university accommodation block.

Cooper is a member of the military who has spent weeks in a secret base, hidden from the goings-on of the outside world. When he is ordered to emerge from the base to obtain a status report along with several others, what he finds is more appalling than anyone from that tucked away sanctuary had surmised. When Cooper's military reconnaissance troop leaves him behind, he eventually meets up with the group living within the college dormitories and they all quickly turn to him for some semblance of hope.

However, Emma and Michael, from the previous novel, also make an appearance. Since leaving the farmhouse, the two have been on the run in a motor home, seeking safety. When they come across the military vehicles entering and exiting the nearby hidden base, they decide to find a way into the shelter. It should be noted that these two do not show up until almost halfway through the novel.

Though still just as intriguing as the previous novel, I found many parts to be rather slow. In addition, it was both interesting and tedious to read about the whole ordeal all over again. I found reading about the death and disease from different viewpoints to be a fascinating way to begin the novel. Yet, it also seemed rather redundant in many respects for those who have read the previous novel to have to re-hash the previous occurrences. That does, however, enable people who have not read the novels predecessor to pick up this book without having missed much at all. Furthermore, Moody's zombies don't seem to have evolved much more in this book than they had in the previous one. Throughout the first novel, the risen dead are in constant flux, becoming more and more attuned to their surroundings and evolving ever-so-slightly with each passing day. In Autumn: The City, there seems to be little progression in this respect. Autumn: The City doesn't take the opportunity to build very much off of the foundation laid by it's predecessor.

It should also be noted that this is not a series in which you will find lots of action and gore. The scares and drama found herein are much more subtle. However, that is not to say that these books are any less worthy of a read. They are simply geared less towards the in-your-face splatter horror audience.

Though I didn't find this novel as enthralling as the first, I will still go on to read Autumn: Purification. Despite some minor qualms, I still highly recommend this series to anyone who is a fan of zombie fiction.

David Moody, Autumn: The City (Infected Books, 2003)

David Moody's Autumn Quartet continues on with The City, a book that starts out concurrently to Autumn. Don't expect to see your dysfunctional heroes from that book for a while, unfortunately; you've got a new crop of characters to think about here.

This is an ensemble piece, more than the last book was; there can't be said to be any real main character. There's a ragtag band of survivors who start off apart, mostly, but come together piece by piece. There's also a military installation who sally forth now and again to try and assess the situation, two of whose members get left behind during one mission. And, eventually, a few folks from the first novel show up, so we come full circle.

The book suffers a bit from middle-novel syndrome (Autumn was, remember, originally envisioned as a trilogy); we have new characters, but the basic situation is the same, and this isn't helped by the fact that we know what's in store for the first half or so of this book, having read the first novel. It picks up once the timeline merges with the end of the first book, and the ending was the strongest section of the book (it got me to pick up Purification immediately to find out what was coming next). So the series flags a bit, but a slow start leads to a strong finish. Don't give up halfway through. ***

I was a fan of the first Autumn book so I quickly bought this and the 3rd book Purification. I figured that the first book was basically a setup, a quiet before the real storm. Perhaps my expecations were too high for blood and gore and gruesome deaths because this series really isn't about all of that. Sure, its descriptive when it comes to the decaying zombies and what the world has become. But if you're looking for some Romero-style attacks, gore, killings, this series comes up a little short.

The City introduces us to some new characters since the first book, which is cool as you get to experience the zombie rising all over gain from completely different perspectives. Thankfully, our heroes from the fist book reappear, even if as a subplot.

What's good about City is the descriptive outlook of the city and the surrounding areas. Reading various people's reactions is interesting and things move at a solid pace.

What's not as good is that Moody loves to bog down the story in generic reactions (How many times can a character react the same, angry way to the situation?) and the story grinds to a halt at times as we wait for the characters who will fight to weed through all the whining and complaining of those who won't. Certainly its necessary to show all the reactions, but we got the point the first 7 times someone said "What's the point?"

If you enjoyed the first book, you're probably going to go for this one as well. And if you go that far, you'll want to find out what happens in Purification (a decent, if not thrilling, conclusion).

I was actually surprised when reading some reviews that said this book was slow... though I can now see where they're coming from, I didn't find any of the Autumn books slow at all.

While David Moody is rightfully considered among the most important writers in this genre, I think he deserves even more credit than he's given. His books are more character driven and shies from the outward gore found in other good books. I think his books are more realistic in a sense. Much of post apocalyptic fiction is about how ordinary people would react to the horrors of a collapsing world. While, we all love the heroes and the bad guys and the action that goes with it in other books, I think Moody's take is closer to home. Most of us won't go up against the enemy swinging a sword or blazing an automatic weapon. We will have our heroic moments and, with luck, we'll fight to survive; but there'd be a lot more personal break down, long quiet moments or days of fear and uncertainty while hiding as Moody depicts in his books.

Moody does give us a lot of action but I think some of the complaints are about the quieter scenes while exploring characters and atmosphere. His books are not about the gore and visceral scenes... but the way he describes murderous violence and exploring its origins is, to me, actually better. His zombies are not even flesh eaters but they will tear their victims apart just the same. They are just as menacing (... I never say scary or terrifying because no book has made me feel that...) and deadly. Moody also deftly explains why without doing the "writing from the zombie's perspective" which rarely works well. This is what I actually like most about Moody. If I want an all out gore fest, I know which books to read or can find new ones by the reviews. But if I want a guarantee of thoughtful writing about my favorite genre, then I know Moody will deliver.

The most striking thing for me about the Autumn series is the sense of hopelessness and the absolute need to remain quiet and undetected. The cities have fallen and when the sun goes down, its pitch black. Even the most faint sliver of light filtering from a small crack in your barricade will attract the undead. All it takes is one to notice, because others will follow the investigating ghoul and others will proceed from the sounds of each alerted ghoul in a domino effect and before you know it you're overwhelmed. You can't drive a vehicle in search of supplies because the dead stillness of a fallen city will amplify the motor's sound for miles around. Even simple footsteps or a raised whisper will attract attention. Some finally go mad after running out of food and water and unable to venture out for more... in the end, they run out from their hiding place in frustration and desperation; doing the very things they had agonizingly tried to avoid in attracting the undead all along. The irony being that doom could have been avoided if that person had planned and acted sooner. Its the calm and wiser ones who survive. Theatrics that may save you in other books will get you killed in this undead universe. That is Moody's world and no other writer had described such atmosphere as deftly as he.

Another thing that I really like about his series, is the "evolution" of the dead as they regain their senses and yet slowly losing them to decay. They are, at first dead for the first three days, they resurrect only to walk blindly about, then, just as the survivors become complacent to these "dumb" creatures, they slowly become aware and begin to attack... and the intensity and fever of those attacks grow. The sense of frustration, desperation and anger these creatures finally exhibit as they attack the living on an instinctual level... lashing out and destroying what they can no longer be, is described by the author with the subtlety and pace of a master. Very well written.

As time goes by, I think Moody will be appreciated even more than he already is. But for now, I'll give him five stars.

The book is the sequel to David Moody's excellent, deliberately slow-paced Autumn novel which set the stage for his trilogy.

Moody has us follow the patch of several groups of survivors in modern-day England after the outbreak of a terrifyingly fast virus that killed billions of people in seconds, without anybody knowing its origin or its purpose. The group of "countryside" survivors that we got to know in Autumn is featured in this sequel again. It gets back to the City it originally fled from and gets to merge with another group of survivors that got trapped in a university somewhere in the City -hence the book's name.

Moody is keeps delivering a number of messages to the reader in his book, just as he did in the first, and will be doing in the third (Autumn, Purification).

First, the countryside is no ideal place to hide and enhance the chances of survival when faced with a mutating enemy that relies primarily on sound detection, and gets increasingly "articulated". Out there in the open, while silence may be soothing, it may also become the deadliest betrayer too as any sound will act as magnet to those stench-generating masses.

Second, the Army is shown in its full "splendor", ie a mixture of immature conditioning in the face of unplanned threats, and power -when used and organized to take benefit of its very conditioning. Unlike in many other zombie books, the army is not depicted as a "yet-another-enemy-from-within" party. It features good as well as hopeless guys too, just like in the outside. The survivors get to benefit from the army without giving them anything in return, as we would have anticipated normally.

Third, the most intellectually "enlightened" characters of the bunch have no clue about what's happened to the world. Reciprocally, the army's might is barely sufficient to inflict any kind of substantial damage to their "total enemy", the rotting crowd. In other words, neither sheer intelligence nor brute force is a real asset in ensuring self-preservation. What we see clearly in Moody's depiction is the intrinsic value of constant adaptation. Those who can't adapt, don't make it alive.

Pretty good messages I thought. Sounds good to you too? Then read on.

Another finesse of Moody's work is the way the sick bodies evolve. In the first book, they were dumb, inarticulated, helpless, but moving towards the end to the beginning of a rational thought process translating into coordinated actions (banging on the walls, moving to a specific location. Aggressiveness was also starting to show.

In Autumn, the City, aggressiveness becomes the driving factor behind the rotten crowd's actions, making it each day more dangerous and difficult for the survivors to stay alive. This adds another, very effective layer of anxiousness, as the survivors cave in in makeshift shelters for extended periods of times without necessarily being aware of the extent of the dead bodies' mutation outside. That makes for interesting encounters when they finally all meet together again.

But still, the author still has not used the name "Zombie" a single time in this second book, making the pathetic living-deads not so evil after all. And we still don't know what caused this mayhem in the first place, will we ever find out? People we get attached too just die of stupid death (car accidents etc.), so who's going to be the next one? Also, what the hell are the living-deads doing when they get onto living survivors? Do they eat them? Do they just kill them as the result of hate, jealousy, something else? Will we, here again, know at all in the end? All of these very effective narrative and plot techniques are very good at keeping the reader glued to the book, wishing for the end (of the book!) not to come too fast.

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.

Autumn the City is both a sequel as well as a parallel story timeline wise to the original Autumn novel. You don't need to have read Autumn to enjoy this as a standalone read, in fact you may even slightly enjoy it more as if you have read Autumn you already know the stages the corpses will go through for the first two thirds of this book. However the downside to reading this without having read Autumn is that 2/3rds of the way through this the surviving main characters from the first novel have a cameo sort of storyline, so you'll know who survives Autumn which would make reading that later a lot less enjoyable. So what I'm trying to say I guess is read the books in order. The City also is a to be continued story which abruptly stops at a cliff hanger scene telling you to read the next novel Autumn: Purification. It's a good enough series that you'll want to but the to be continued aspect may put off some readers, especially as that fact isn't mentioned anywhere on the cover.

In City a few people on their way to or who have gone in early to work watch their colleagues and strangers choke to death in front of them. Each is terrified of what has just happened as in their minds they don't know if there is anyone else who has not been affected by this unknown virus, terrorist attack, or whatever has happened. The City revolves around these individuals stories as they eventually decide to go outside where they have sheltered and eventually run into others whose stories you are also reading. Meanwhile some of the corpses in the street are starting to become animated and are stumbling around enhancing the terror of the survivors. Moody never wastes too much time on any one survivor and some we follow for a while and never revisit. There's men, women, officer workers, students, a soldier and a wider variety of personalities than Moody used in the first novel. The zombies in the Autumn series are a lot more realistic than most others in the genre in that they are pretty harmless, easy to overpower and fall apart easy which is a disappointment to some who just want to reread the same flesh/brain eating corpses hunting the living time and time again. I do like this type of undead but I am still puzzled as to why the survivors fear so much something they can easily shoulder charge, or palm off and which even when a survivor's hand is in their mouth don't seem to actually do anything harmful to the humans. They're more like an annoying swarm of flies but I think that's what keeps you wanting to keep reading. With the dead evolving all the time, will they eventually become something the survivors should fear?

In Autumn: The City (follow up to Autumn), a new group of survivors is introduced. With transportation and communication lines down, they're essentially trapped within the city itself. Hiding in offices and other city buildings, they scavenge for food and fight to survive. When a soldier joins their ranks, they finally begin to see a bit of hope on the horizon, but the future of mankind is still uncertain.

The human element is such that while we want to believe that hard work and persistence will pay off, no one can deny that stress and limited resources would cause more chaos. The question that comes into play is whether the survivors in Moody's series can get through that and figure out a way to make it through or if they -- and not the dead -- will be their own downfall in the end.

The build in this series is interesting. Autumn started in one place with one group of survivors, The City introduces a new set. Without giving anything away, I'm definitely interested to see where the next one will pick up.

This was similar to the first book, Autumn, only amped up a few notches. The thing i like most about Mr. Moody's Autumn series is the different take on the zombies. They are Romero-like, slow and frail, but scary and move in large groups, making them extremely dangerous--like swarming piranha, except these undead don't bite, instead they maim, tears, and claw at human flesh. Any horror, zombie, or apocalyptic fan with love these books.

I read the first Autumn book while on holiday last year at Centreparcs, a deserted woodland that was just about the perfect place to read it. I enjoyed it, perhaps not as much as I was hoping, but the way that David Moody told a bleak and eerie tale struck a chord with me and I knew that I would have to get around to the sequel when it came out. Well, out it came in January and here I am a few months down the line finally getting around to it! I may not have been in the same surrounding to read Autumn: The City, but not only did I enjoy it more than the first book, I found that it gave me more chills too. Not good while reading it during the early hours of the morning at home, alone...

Autumn: The City starts in much the same way as the first book, Autumn, although a short prologue shows that at least some people knew that it was coming as an army unit is ordered to move to a secure bunker, just making it inside in time. From there we follow a handful of people as others around them die suddenly and the world changes in an instant, with very few surviving the event. We see these individuals dealing with life in the aftermath, trying to survive and seek out other survivors, and finally grouping together at the local university. But the cadavers have changed and are no longer simply stumbling around, the new aggression they show can mean nothing good for the survivors. And then there is the army, coming out from its bunker to see what state the world is in, and finding it worse than even they imagined.

Unlike the first novel Moody doesn't take his time in exploring the death event and the immediate aftermath, from mass death to the re-animation of the corpses, in too great detail, but instead does all of this in a smoother and quicker fashion. We still get a good look at how these people are trying to cope and survive, but it isn't a day-by-day thing, more of a general look at their lives over a longer period - it works much better as it doesn't bog the story down in mundane and boring events. This has a knock-on effect to the story as Moody has covered the time period of the first novel by the time we reach the half-way point, and then we get into new and more interesting territory, seeing how the behaviour of the dead changes as more time passes. It also allows him to follow up on the fates of Michael and Emma from the first book who make a welcome return to the story, keeping that story thread going.

Other than these two returning characters there are quite a few more to follow. With a few dozen holed up at the university Moody is able to select those that we follow, and each brings something different to the story. Moody uses the characters to great effect in Autumn: The City, telling the story through their eyes and their reactions as things start to changed. It works well, but I didn't find that any particular character stood out for me, rather they all had interesting stories and acted in a way I would expect. I was slightly annoyed by the two young men who wanted to find a pub/club and have one final night on the town, but when the end of the world comes I'm sure there will be people like that about.

Story-wise there really isn't too much I could tell you that you won't have seen from lots of zombie movies that are out there, but Moody has a talent for making you feel part of events. The descriptions he uses can be chilling and eerie, completely vivid and all too real. The novel does end rather abruptly, and it's one of the main issues I had with it. Autumn was fairly self-contained, but this sequel is clearly written as part of a larger story, one I'm very much looking forward to reading.

Autumn: The City is a step up from the first book and a novel I very much enjoyed. While many zombie stories tend to follow a similar path David Moody has shown that just because the idea is old it doesn't mean it can't be re-told, and in this case with great success!