Customer Reviews

The Kill Crew

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This novella, is first of all overpriced. $6.99 for 76 pages is a bit excessive. Secondly, the story did not really entertain me as it did annoy me. The jump of perspective was not very clear or well done, when you leave the "main" character and go outside it refers to the character you know by name as "the man" which makes no sense because you are aware of what the characters name is. This book had a lot of potential and failed to deliver on any of it.

The post-apocalyptic thriller, for lack of a better description, always proves to be fertile ground to unleash unforgettable characters that endure hair-raising situations in order to live another day. From I Am Legend to ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, these beloved yarns are typically weaved with a healthy dose of social commentary that forces the viewer or reader to take a long, hard look at what the world has become - or could become (gulp!). Joseph D'Lacey's recent novella The Kill Crew stays true to these conventions while adding a few unique twists and turns. Is it worth your time and money? You betcha.

Barricaded into a city block called The Station, two hundred people have survived the apocalypse. Was it a bomb? A biological attack? Phase one of an invasion? No one really knows. What is known is that The Station is under constant threat and each day a lottery decides the seven members of The Kill Crew - a night shift of civilian soldiers with one simple mission: Extermination.

The extermination is aimed squarely at the once-human "Commuters", who are now infected with something that has forced them to go crazy and attack the normal folk. What's different about the Commuters compared to, say, the traditional Romero-like zombie is that this posse can emote. They long for something that has been taken from them and have no problem wailing, crying or weeping as they tear you to pieces. And the Kill Crew, aka, the "Stoppers" have become experts at disposing of them by "popping" them in the head with some pretty impressive firepower.

The unofficial leader of the Kill Crew is Sheri Foley, a tough-as-nails, take-no-prisoners kinda gal that sports two pump action shotguns, affectionately named Kane and Abel. She also carries the Paramedic - a .38 snub nosed used on fellow Stoppers for "total anesthesia."

The story is told primarily through Sheri's eyes and it's not a pretty one. Vegetation has been choked out and nearly replaced by a blackened, deathly plant life. A faint, mysterious green glow is ever present during the Kill Crew's night time excursions, when the Commuters like to make themselves known. It's a simple, yet very eerie backdrop for a cool story like this to unfold.

While we get to experience what it's like to survive a few head-popping, adrenaline-fueled excursions with the Kill Crew, (trust me on this, they are very intense) D'Lacey smartly avoids lingering on over-the-top gore and shocks to deliver a few nice twists and turns along the way. This comes to fruition about 3/4ths into the book when Sheri and fellow survivors Ike and Trixie stock up a Humvee-like ride and leave the now threatened safety of the Station. Miles and miles away from their sanctuary, the group finds out that rest of the world is just as messed up as the one they left. While the constant threat of the Commuters isn't as much of a concern, plenty of other things are. I won't divulge any more details because you should experience these twisted and heartbreaking developments on your own.

If I have one problem with The Kill Crew it's a selfish one: I want more. At 77 pages, D'Lacey has crafted one lean and mean tale sprinkled with unforgettable characters and a robust storyline that could easily continue for a few more volumes. I hope he gets the opportunity to do so. If you feel the same way after reading The Kill Crew make sure you let the publisher [...] know loud and clear. And don't forget to check out Joseph D'Lacey's other work, Meat and The Garbage Man which I also highly recommend.

THIS REVIEW WAS WRITTEN BY ME AND ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN ICONS OF FRIGHT [...]

This novella delves into the zombie genre in an unexpected way. It is rare to find literary prose exploring how survivors might really think and feel. Nor do we find in other works detailed thoughts an incipient victim might have. All this, beautifully told in an unexpected page-turning character-driven story.

When an event similar to a solar flare Carrington Event catastrophe happens, most of the population - Commuters, because they move at night towards the walled-in survivors - become dangerously deranged. A neat touch is that the afflicted seem to be mainly white-collar, middle-class people, though I suppose that would have included me. Survivors, with no real understanding of what happened or why they aren't victims, take refuge in a defended section of the city. They move out by day to scavenge, safe because the Commuters don't move at night. The survivors call themselves Stoppers because they are not Commuters, and return to stop in their refuge. Stoppers send out kill crews at night to keep the vicinity of their walled refuge clear of the zombies. The crew maybe different each night but they are `Seven on the crew again. Seven soldiers. Seven sinners. Seven stars.'

That's the initial part of the plot, but the story is driven by the three main characters. The main protagonist is Sheri, a feisty young woman, who has had to learn weaponry and develop a soldier's reflexes to survive. She is bitter about her man, Ike, who is easily dominated, unsure of himself, but knows he should stick with and by Sheri. Trixie is a younger woman - barely out of childhood, traumatized by what she'd witnessed. We are treated to a superb pen-portrait of Trixie with: `an island and there are no maps to tell you where her active volcanoes are situated, where her unpolluted streams are, her quicksand, her tribes of hungry cannibals.'

As the daytime scavenging is experienced, Sheri's observations of the brown vegetation, and the silence of Nature, hint at another cause of the disaster. Has Man driven the Earth's ecosystem into an unsustainable downward spiral that gave rise to a catastrophic dive? As Sheri leads her companions in an attempt to survive, you are invited to judge for yourself.

Lessons to be learnt? Yes, but the story is in itself a worthy exploration of the mind. I kept recalling Rachel Carson's Silent Spring while reading this. Send a copy to Obama.

In his new novella, British horror author Joseph D'Lacey turns his sights on the future, rendering a Bradburyesque (think "Martian Chronicles") tale of an apocalyptic world where the pleasures are few, and each day is a fight for survival. Perhaps it's his different take on zombies - the "hot" horror monster, at the moment - that makes this novella work, or the melancholic tenor of his prose. Either way, an author who's already displayed a deft ability at using genre conventions to deliver elevated thought comes through again.

The world is a box to Sheri Delgado. Literally, as it is to everyone else. Two-hundred souls, crammed into several city blocks, living a stripped down existence of bare essentials, and something else: their numbers keep dwindling, while those changed when the "Long Silence" began keep coming. It won't be long until the "Commuters" - those who've been changed - overrun them. It's just a matter of time, and not to pander to the cliché...but time is running out.

Sheri's on a "Kill Crew", a unit of seven who patrol their area, as far as they can...and eliminate Commuters. As many as they can, for there's no way to save or recover those changed...except for a bullet to the head. However, it's work, of a sort. It gives purpose. Instills a sense of duty. For Sheri, it's a dependable foundation to lean on: she's a "Crewer". It's what she does. It's what she is.

Everything changes when she almost dies in a vain attempt to save a fellow Crewer. That, and her relationship with Ike - normally so manageable - has gotten messy. Complicated. Also, a relationship has grown between her and a withdrawn, abused teen named Trixie, and suddenly, the once content Sheri is desperate to escape, to find a way out, to see if there's anything else beyond. Their escape comes in the form of an abandoned Humvee that miraculously still works.

Salvation, however...may still come in the form of a bullet. What the Commuters have is contagious, spread so easily...through anything organic of the outside world.

And Sheri has dared bring something in.

The world as everyone knew it is gone. Pencil pushers, programmers, secretaries and office executives have become Commuters, zombie-like creatures that come out at night and hunt. The rest of the world lives in The Station, a sealed fortress in the center of the city. The Kill Crew are the Stoppers, folks in The Station who go out at night and hunt the hunters. Things are changing though. The Commuters are becoming smarter and deadlier. Seven is a lucky number and the number of The Kill Crew. Some are volunteers while others are chosen through a lottery. Sheri is one of the seven that form The Kill Crew, a volunteer who is good at what she does - possibly the best. She's beginning to see the writing on the wall as The Station's numbers dwindle a little each day. Her goal is survival no matter what.

The Kill Crew has the flavor of a zombie story, mindless masses hungry for a small group of humans, but it isn't a zombie story. It is a story of survival, of beating the odds. It is a tale of where desperation can drive the human spirit. Most of the story is narrated by Sheri, a beautician turned warrior. She is a hard woman because she has to be - anything else would get her killed. This isn't a zombie story but I would recommend it to anyone who loves zombie fiction or anyone who likes a strong story brimming with emotion, adventure and horror.

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