Customer Reviews

Season of Rot: Five Zombie Novellas

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

While Season of Rot seemed promising, the writing is so hackneyed and cliched that reading the five novellas quickly turns into a chore. The stories themselves break no new ground, and the author has a tin ear. The zombies are much more lively than the prose or the paper-thin characters, and much of the stilted dialogue is unintentionally funny. Take a pass on this one and check out David Wellington's Monster Island trilogy instead.

I truly enjoy the zombie genre. There is something extremely creepy about the living dead. These five stories are fantastic (even though there were some typos). I know some people have said these are pretty traditional zombie stories, but I disagree. I thought all five of these stories were unique and had a different spin than the one before. If I was force to pick a weak link, then I think it would be the title novella, "Season of Rot". The strongest piece in the book would probably be the closing story. If you enjoy a good zombie story, then I recommend this book to you.

If you like gun fights and large numbers of zombies this is your book, but if you want anything else keep moving. Brown is clearly a master of the Zombie microcosm, but these stories feature horrible science (seriously, a radiation wave fries human brains but doesn't damage plants at all, then breaks on impact and flies back up out of our atmosphere and novas the sun??) next to no emotion and they are all the same plot with different causes for the zombies and different settings.

Once again Eric S. Brown drops another zombie book on us and shows us how it is done. The guy brings together 5 great short novels into a very neat package. I try to read stuff in order but when I opened this book I flipped straight to Dead West and read it in an evening. A western set after he civil war with zombies, how freaking cool is that?

The other stories are good but the last one is simply outstanding. Rats working for zombies was very original and in Eric's capable hands they become downright dreadful. This story is a real stand out in a book of already excellent stories. Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy, you can thank me later.

I have always considered myself a thorough person; when I receive a book to review I always read it twice before sitting down at my computer to write the review for it. Well, I'm on my fifth reading of Season of Rot and I had to tell myself (quite sternly) to "sit down and write the damn review, then you can go back to reading it again." It's that good; I don't want to talk about how good it is I just want to read it over and over again.

Season of Rot is a collection of five zombie novellas by highly prolific author Eric S. Brown. Mr. Brown has a slew of notches in his zombie belt including Cobble, Madman's Dreams, Unabridged Unabashed and Undead the best of Eric S. Brown (which features FORTY-TWO tales of gory zombie goodness!) But I digress; I must tell you about Season of Rot if I am ever to return to reading it.

Each of the five stories featured in Season of Rot all have a few things in common. Hordes of walking undead are battling against rag-tag groups of survivors in all five featured stories. Each starts off by grabbing you tight and once Mr. Brown is sure he has your attention he really starts to have some fun. Every story has twists and turns amongst the graphic zombie violence, giving the entire collection a page turning intensity. That is were the similarities end. Each of the five is unique in the cause of the plague of undead that is decimating the cast of characters in each. Viruses, strange alien energy waves, and bites from armies of rats raise the dead and propel these brutal novellas forward at a break-neck pace.

As an unabashed fan and writer of brutal horror myself, I can't imagine what kind of dreams Mr. Brown tries to sleep through to write apocalyptic horror as descriptive and terrifying as this. I imagine his insomnia is our (as fans of horror fiction) gain as each well crafted tale is more intense and violent than the last. I love the gory little details Mr. Brown throws in to give any given scene something extra to squirm about. The example that comes most vividly to mind is the zombie tied to a post and used as target practice / training for soldiers in the civil war era "Dead West" dripping gore onto the field as the soldiers walk away from it. Season of Rot is zombie fiction how it should be, harrowing and violent, graphic and gripping.

The opening title story tells of a group of human survivors running out of supplies in an abandoned hospital surrounded by an army of hungry zombies. They constantly search communication channels for other survivors of the zombie apocalypse, finally finding a mysterious man that claims he can offer more than the group can ask. By the time I realized what was going on I was hooked and couldn't stop reading if I wanted to.

The second story "The Queen" features rotting undead capable of thought and organization reeking havoc on the living humans. Mr. Brown ties several plot lines together in this quick paced story of survival from the mountains to the ocean.

In "The Wave" a blast of alien energy slams the planet Earth into apocalypse in the blink of an eye. The energy wave devastates communications world wide and begins turning people into ravenous crazies. A secret government bunker protects a group of survivors against ever more horrible twists until a fittingly brilliant ending.

I know I'm not alone in thinking "Dead West" is a rowdy and wild zombie tale (told freshly after the end of the Civil War) because Post Mortem Studios is doing a comic book series based on it.

The last (and my personal favorite) "The Rats" has so many twists and so much great bloody action you might end up dizzy by the end. The idea behind this one made me hungry for more of this particular tale, demons and zombies is right up my alley.

When I hear the phrase "Eldritch Horrors" I think of H.P Lovecraft, Robert Bloch, and August Derleth. When someone mentions "psychological horror" I picture Alfred Hitchcock smiling like a smug sociopath. From this day forward when someone says the phrase "Zombie Fiction" Eric S. Brown will be among the first three names that stumble forward. (David Dunwoody and Zombie Zak are the other two, for those of you that can't handle not knowing.)
There is your review, now I'm climbing back in my tomb and reading Season of Rot again.

Novella's, or 'long short stories if you prefer, were out of fashion for a long time but here's a volume of stand-alone zombie novellas - each of which offers a different take on the tale of humans against the dead which will help re-dress this balance.

One thing these tales are not is the same story re-told again & again. The element they do share is that in most cases, the living are just about hanging on.....this is nightmarish fare....

Season of Rot & The Wave are mini-classics & it each the `zombies' are not just your typical shambling idiots.

In all of these novellas, Brown plays with the idea of the zombie. You'll find thinking zombies, demonic creatures leading zombies, the dead building breeding camps for the living - in fact, there is a whole range of innovative stuff & he always manages to find something that will give you nightmares. It might be that last desperate stand; it might be the Rats at the centre of his twisted almost sci-fi tale of the same title. In Dead West, he mixes it up again by changing the time period.

I suspect everyone will have their favourite, I think depending on which of his scenarios you are most interested in. Popular opinion is that Season of Rot is a modern classic & it's hard to disagree but I will. My personal favourite was The Queen - which is not as I first thought some tale of an undead queen but rather it's a ship, possibly the last ship of surviving humans, plying the waves, constantly raiding the land, in their battle against an intelligent undead opponent. This novella should be made into a movie or tv series - imagine The Walking Dead on a ship....

All in all, with Eric Brown you will always get first-class action, tight writing & fast-paced dialogue. These novellas are all very original, each offering something new. Many have since been expanded into longer stories & novels so depending on which you like best, you can follow up on it.

Eric S Brown is becoming a major influence in modern zombie writing & these novellas are a giant step in this process.

I'm a big fan of the zombie genre and a sucker for a great undead story. Unfortunately, Season of Rot did not rise to that level. It's not bad by any means. The stories are well told and each contains at least a little twist on your tried and true zombies. I just didn't find any of the five tales particularly compelling. My favorite of the bunch is the opening hospital tale, but I felt that it ended abruptly. I think I would rahter have seen that story expanded and the others left out.
I wouldn't really recommend it unless you're a hardcore zombie fan.

Eric S. Brown impresses me with the versatility in his writing. These are 5 induvidual novellas and each one is distinctly diffrent and unique. His writing style is fresh and fun. All of the stories in this book offer a diffrent perspective on the "zombie" genre. It is a definate MUST READ for any fan of the genre! Thanks for writing this Eric and looking forward to devouring "Season of Death", this books sure to be awesome sequal!

All 5 of the stories here are masterfully written with a raw talent for the undead wonders of this, and any other world. From Lovecraftian creatures to your everyday garden variety of zombie hordes, this book will satisfy all of your fast-paced, flesh-chewing wants or needs. Now go and find yourself an old bomb shelter in the base of a mountain and snuggle up with your closest shotgun and read this book. The only complaint that I have to offer you is that I could have used another few stories to go along with with these. Wait a minute did somebody say, "Season of Death"...

-Zombies being held off west of the Mississippi during the 1800s!!...
-An outer space energy field that fries people's brains and turns them into zombies!...
-A super warrior who unknowingly carries a different strain of a zombie virus causing infected zombies to 'get smart'!!!...

Wow, fun stuff... go go zombie go.