Eden [Paperback]

Tony Monchinski (Author), Tommy Arlin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2008

Overnight the world transforms into a barren wasteland ravaged by plague and overrun by hordes of flesh-eating zombies. A small band of desperate men and women stand their ground in a fortified compound in what had once been Queens, New York. They've named their sanctuary Eden. Harris--the unusual honest man in this dead world--races against time to solve a murder while fighting to maintain his own humanity. Ultimately, the danger posed by the dead and diseased masses clawing at Eden's walls pales in comparison to the deceit and treachery Harris faces within.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Zombies. Guns. Chaos in New York. It's hard to go wrong in a zombie book where the hero is infected right from get go. --Bryce Beattie, StoryHack.com

About the Author

Tony Monchinski is a high school teacher, PhD candidate in Political Theory at the City University of New York Graduate Center, author of The Politics of Education (Sense), Critical Pedagogy and the Everyday Classroom (Springer), and a columnist/photographer for MuscleMag International. He and his wife live with their two children in New York State. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 268 pages
• Publisher: Permuted Press; 2 edition (September 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1934861170
• ISBN-13: 978-1934861172
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (74 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #621,877 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A high school Special Education and Social Studies teacher, Tony Monchinski grew up in Queens New York. He writes both fiction and nonfiction and across genres in each field. Originally self-published, his apocalyptic action-horror novel, Eden, has been reissued by Permuted Press, Random House and Simon & Schuster. Tony holds a PhD in Political Science and lives with his family in Peekskill, New York.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Solid effort, May 17, 2008

By 

J. R Weaver "A simple man." (SF, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Eden (Paperback)

Every six months or so, I go on a zombie-novel buying binge, and 'Eden' was one of the batch this time around. I generally don't expect too much from the self-published crowd - that may be elitist of me, but let's be honest here - it's hard to find gems among the slop. The only reason I subject myself to let-down after let-down is because I'm a zombie fan.

'Eden', while certainly not the worst novel I've ever read, is by no means the best, either. First of all, there's Monchinski's annoying fabrication of 'Tommy Arlin', the supposed author of the book. Do we really need a nine page preface telling us how cool Tommy Arlin is? Very strange. Then there's an acknowledgements page by Arlin 'himself'. More strangeness. Especially the sentence where he talks about how Hollywood has let us down once again with the most recent version of 'I Am Legend'... a movie that hit the theaters late last year, being talked about in a note by Arlin that's dated 2005. While I agree that the Will Smith IAL was a letdown, come on, let's at least cross-check our dates, shall we? :D

Another thing that really bothered me was the sentence structure used throughout large parts of the book. There's these brief, staccato machine-gun burst sentences that just look... weird. Like there's words missing. An example: "Communal baths erected on the opposite end of the block had hot water. Julie there now, showering." That just sounds odd to me, kind of like Tonto narrating a novel.

But all griping aside, 'Eden' actually turned out to be a fairly decent read. The plot was inventive; the idea of fusing that old flick D.O.A. with the zombie genre is pure genius. The characters are, variously, sympathetic, disgusting, sad, and most of all, human, with all the strength and weakness that implies. The gory details are handled well - there's enough description to make you cringe, but not so much to make you think the author threw it in just to fill up pages with 'yuck factor'. There's a bit too much gun-description-wankery for my tastes, but that's a minor quibble.

All in all, it was a solid effort, and I'll be curious to see what Tomtony Arlchinski writes next.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than Keene!, April 26, 2008

By 

J. Doller - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eden (Paperback)

I have been a fan of the Zombie genre since I saw Dawn of the Dead in a theatre at the age of 10. I have tried to read some novels (mostly by Brian Keene) but none of them seem to catch the true spirit of the genre...until I read Eden. Eden truly captures the horror of an apocalyptic zombie-infested world. The characters are real, the story reads quickly as you are soon drawn into their world, and the plot...I don't want to spoil it...is fantastic and (for once) believable with a Pulp Fiction feel to it as the time frame changes from chapter to chapter with everything neatly tied up in the end. And don't let the title fool you...there's no (at least none that I could find) religious undertones in the book unlike others I have read. I hope that the author is working on more!

21 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Had potential, if it had been professionally edited, June 11, 2009

By 

Hoc (Issaquah, WA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Eden (Paperback)

As others have commented, there are many typographical errors throughout the book. At times, it was like listening to a speaker who says "um" every 3rd word--you stop paying attention, and start counting the "ums."

Aside from the simple spelling/grammar issues, a professional editor would encourage a consistent style, pacing, and narrative flow. Portions of the book read as if they came from several different authors--vocabulary, style, sentence length, levels of detail, etc., are inconsistent.

I didn't find the non-linear structure particularly confusing (but can certainly understand the complaint.) The first few lines of flashbacks quickly establish themselves as being out of sequence with the preceding chapter/scene. I saw the flashback structure as perhaps a parallel of the hero's unraveling mental state. However, if that was the intent, it is muddled by flashbacks to events the main character did not witness or know about. Some of the flashbacks are unrelated to the main character, or even to the plot(some of the military/police scenes have little or nothing to do with the storyline.)

The book takes a new perspective of the usual zombie story, but doesn't follow through on its potential. An editor (or a better editor) could do wonders for the book, perhaps even make it viable for commercial, rather than self-publishing.