Book Rewview - Season of Rot by Eric S. Brown

It’s not often I read a book that I enjoy so much I want to review it; so, when I take the time to actually write about one, it’s one I really liked.  I often pick up novels and it takes me some time to get through them.  I don’t sit down and read a novel in one day, except on extremely rare occasions.  I will usually spread a large book out over a few weeks.  So, what I often find myself reading are magazine articles, short story anthologies or other collections of short works. 

With all of the time I spend with this type of writing, I had never read a novella before this collection of five novellas.  I really, really like the short form of this style, but at the same time, it sparks the one complaint I have about the stories: they get me hooked and then end too quickly.  Each of the stories in this collection could have been drawn out to fill an entire novel; however, I make this claim as a reader, not the author.  It’s very possible that if drawn into a full novel, each story would’ve become cluttered and not been nearly as well written. 

This is the first time (to my knowledge) that I have read Brown’s work.  He is a very creative writer, and his ideas are really what keep the stories going.  He writes dialog that sounds very natural, flows easily and captures his characters well.  He doesn’t spend too much time on details – these are novellas after all – though he gives you plenty of description to build the scenes, places and people in your mind. 

He uses lots of “to be” verbs which make the actions of his characters lack description they could easily have, but this is a fault of a lot of writers.  It could also say something about this concern in general.  It didn’t bother me at all that he used “is” more frequently than most college professors would suggest or allow.  Maybe this isn’t as big of an issue as one might think. 

I am a huge fan of post-apocalyptic fiction whether it be in movies, books or other media.  I don’t really care what the reason for the apocalypse turns out to be; instead, I just get really wrapped into the survival story that comes afterward.  I like to see people taken back to having to survive by their own means without modern conveniences.  Brown creates this world very effectively. 

Each of the five stories revolves around a zombie apocalypse event.   I am also a big fan of zombies.  That’s why I purchased the book in the first place.  Brown does something different with each story that makes it a little less predictable than the normal zombie tales.  Each story has some element that makes it unique. 

In the first story of the collection “Season of Rot”, we get a group of survivors trapped in a hospital with not way to escape.  Running low on provisions, the group is forced to look for escape.  They find help in the form of a lone soldier still able to communicate from his base of operations.  The problem is whether or not they can trust him, and if they’ll have time to decide before the organized undead breach their location.  This is probably my favorite story of the group.  The inclusion of the soldier character that isn’t quite what he first seems to be really made the story for me. 

The next story is “The Queen”.  Here we are introduced to a group of survivors living on a ship named The Queen.  The survivors face a world of zombies that think and act as human as their decaying bodies will allow.  Running from a zombie that’s toting a machine gun and driving a car makes things a little more intense.  The group has to deicide to keep on the move or find a place to settle down.  This story is possibly my least favorite of the five.  I still enjoyed it, but I just didn’t like the idea of the dead being able to use the things they had in life. 

“The Wave” finds some sort of cosmic energy wave making people insane and driving them to crave flesh.  The energy also sets back all of mankind’s technology.  A group of survivors find refuge, but how long will they be able to hold out.  This story puts two apocalyptic ideas into one: the loss of our modern convenience and bloodthirsty group of the undead.

“Dead West” is set a short time after the Civil War, and pits the American army against a much deadlier foe.  The American west has been consumed by a plague that threatens to cross the Mississippi and invade the far more densely populated east coast.  A journalist is sent to report on the progress of the fight against the zombies and finds himself caught up in the fight.  I really like seeing this journalist sent into the midst of battle.  We see that a lot today, but it still seems like an original idea for this piece.  Also, we don’t get many undead westerns; so, that was kind of refreshing, too.  I still couldn’t buy into this story quite as deeply as I did the others though. 

The last story in the group is by far the most original.  “Rats” is a different kind of zombie story.  The story involves demons and a war being fought all around the survivors making their way to what they hope is a safe haven amongst the madness.  The walking dead in this story are simply pawns in the war.  The perils the group faces outside seem to be a distant memory once they reach their destination, but how long can the safest place on earth remain safe?  I think this is by far the most creative story, and I really think this one could have made it into a full length novel.  The ideas and story Brown puts into place here are just so original.  I really enjoyed this one. 

All in all, I would completely recommend picking this up if you’re a fan of zombie or post-apocalyptic fiction.  Brown is a great talent, and he has a lot of other work out there I’ll probably be looking into myself.  Each of the stories is worth a read, and as a collection they’re really worth picking up.