Purification

September 15, 2011

The undead of Moody's popular "Autumn" series are unusual. They are never referred to as zombies, and they are not depicted as the evil, predatory cannibals so characteristic of zombie lit. Rather, these undead are diseased human beings who suffer from a debilitating condition. In the third installment, Purification, survivors from the previous book (Autumn: The City) are ensconced in an underground military base. The bodies amass on the surface, attracted by the commotion produced by the people underground. When the ventilation system becomes compromised by the milling crowd, soldiers are sent to fix the problem. The mission goes wrong, and the complex's inhabitants must run for their lives and find a new place to start rebuilding once again. In the fourth book, Disintegration, 40 days have passed since the outbreak, and the world's population has been decimated. The dead swarm everywhere, their decaying bodies deteriorating more each day. They have continued to become increasingly self-aware, violent, and regimented. A small group of survivors still endure through aggression and sheer ferocity. When their block of flats is breached by the dead, they flee and chance upon a hotel that appears to be an oasis of normality. Here, they encounter a second, very different group of people who have been using as survival tools intelligence and strategy instead of brute force.

Despite Moody's new take on the traditional monster, his elaborate descriptions of decaying corpses, rotting entrails, and foul bodily fluids leave no doubt about the genre of his novels. After a while these accounts become both repetitive and revolting. Nonetheless, Purification is certain to appeal to series fans as well as lovers of urban-military-zombie crossovers like Z.A. Recht's "Morningstar Strain" series and David Wellington's Monster Island. In Disintegration, the best installment, Moody ventures into Lord of the Flies territory. The juxtaposition of the two groups of survivors and the consequent tension between them produces excruciating suspense not seen before in the series. The ending is utterly chilling and seems quite final, although Moody's website indicates Autumn: Aftermath is in the works and will conclude the series.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2011
Moody's third Autumn book finds ostensible series heroes Michael and Emma subsisting on limited resources with other survivors in an underground military bunker. Essentially safe but trapped, they're forced to act when the aboveground exhaust vents crucial for air filtration and ventilation become blocked with bodies. The soldiers' attempts to burn and blast away the undead before the base is buried goes poorly, and Michael, Emma, Cooper, and a few others escape to search, yet again, for the ideal shelter. Luckily, a chance meeting opens up the possibility of a new life. Richard and his group, based out of an airfield with one working plane and helicopter, have discovered Cormansey, a tiny island that could be cleared of the undead. Still featuring a ceaseless array of undead attacks, this book improves on its predecessors by focusing more on group dynamics and moral complications, though like them it suffers from pacing issues, awkward writing, and bland, undifferentiated characters. This series doesn't stand out in a genre crowded with better books.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)