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Rating:  -
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.
Rating:  -
David Moody's take on the old zombie stereotype comes from a very different direction than typical American, Romero style zombie fiction. His story focuses on developing the plot line, and pulling the reader into the characters, not on mindless gore. If you are fan of the genre, or looking for a good horror read - pick this one up. The first story in the series "Autumn" is always offered as a free e-book on his website. That's all it will take to get you hooked.
Rating:  -
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. ***
Rating: -
"Autmn:The City" is the second book in the "Autumn" series. You really wouldn't have to read the first to enjoy this book. I starts at the same time as the first just with different characters. I would recommend reading the first though. It gets a little more in depth with the day the world died.
In my review of the first book I talked about the absence of hard-core Zombie gore. These books are not Splatterpunk. They are character driven stories that focus on the humans coping with the end of the world as they know it. The Zombies are somewhat secondary to the story. I guess that is why I only gave 3 stars. Don't get me wrong the atmosphere of these books is very eerie and tense. The book is very well written, but there isn't enough gore for my tastes. This is just my opinion of course, I am going to read all 5 books.
The story follows new charaters from the first book for the most part. The setting is in a more urban area, hence the title "The City", which means a higher concentration of Zombies. The desperate situation the characters are in keeps the feeling tense throughout the book. there are a moments that make you feel hope and moments that you feel sadness with the characters. I had a more emotional reaction with this book than the first.
There are more personalities in this book. Like the everyday world some work together and some clash. The hopelessness of the situation magnifies the tension between the survivors. The appearance of the military also causes mistrust betweeen the survivors and soldiers.
I thought this book had more action than the first. I also found some moments in this book somewhat shocking, although mild for my tastes. Remember this is book 2 in a series of 5 so the end is not the end. I am reading the 3rd book now and enjoying it very much.
Rating: -
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).
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