REVIEW: Domain Of The Dead by Iain McKinnon
The world is dead, devoured by a plague of reanimated corpses.
In a crumbling city Sarah, Nathan, and a band of survivors barricade themselves inside a warehouse surrounded by a sea of shambling putrefaction. Days in seclusion blur by, and their food is nearly gone. The group is faced with two possible deaths: creeping starvation, or the undead outside the warehouse.
As Sarah stands on the edge of the warehouse roof preparing to step out into oblivion she spots a glimmer of hope. In the distance a helicopter approaches the city but is it the salvation the survivors have been waiting for? And do they dare attempt to fight their way through the mass of infected dead to reach it?
Domain of the dead is a fresh zombie novel that really puts life into the undead, and makes them walk. This is a fun read that you will not put down.
The writing is strong; Much stronger than the majority of zombie novels in circulation. Iain McKinnon’s writing is animated and it constructs a grotesque image of the apocalypse. The higher standard of writing that makes up this novel helps the image of the genre. A lot of people think that zombie literature is just a brand of horror that specializes in gore, and there’s this bad stigma that zombie literature isn’t well written. This is a misconception which is provoked by the size of the market, considering most people are influenced in judging books on how popular they are, which is just plain stupid. There are a lot of great books out there that aren’t popular. It’s books like Domain of the Dead that help prove that zombie literature can be well written, and to lay rest to that misconception.
Descriptions: Iain McKinnon’s descriptive texts are well composed. They paint a very grotesque and dismal picture of what the world would be like during the zombie apocalypse. He can bring forth a strong picture of the world around the characters and I admire his ability to do so.
Gore: McKinnon’s gore scenes would even please the insatiable hunger of the undead. His descriptions of gore in the first 30 pages of the novel will get you hooked. The gore would have been a problem if it continued without much pause, but he does give the reader a resting period which is much needed. I hate to read a story that keeps showing gore on every page, but McKinnon does use his gore appropriately.
Tone: tone is probably the most important element in any piece of writing. Tone can be reflected in word choice, pace and style. The tone of the story is established accurately within all three of these regions; his word choice being the most prominent of elements. His style is clean cut and unique. Referring to the Undead as Whiskey Daniels (Military Phonetic alphabet for W.D which is an acronym for Walking Dead) is clever and it adds more texture to the tone.
Realism: Again I put this as one of the most important elements to any piece of horror. McKinnon does make a realistic story. The post-apocalyptic world he perceives is accurate in its details. The only point I had a problem with was a certain scene involving Liquid Nitrogen. I suppose theoretically it was plausible, but it just seemed like a little bit of a stretch. ( I would rather not discuss what the scene was as to not spoil anything) but overall he keeps it real which makes it scary as hell, and still sends chills down my spine.
Horror: McKinnon wrote the horror aspect of the novel masterfully. The Story is creepy as hell. One of the only zombie novels where I was legitimately spooked between each page. The plot also added to the affect because is completely unpredictable and riveting.
The zombies are of a classic shambling nature. What is great to see in McKinnon’s novel is that he made the zombie itself scary again. What I mean is that the majority of zombie writers are trying to incorporate other things to add to the story to make it scarier (this influenced the birth of the running zombie) because they wanted to avoid writing another run of the mill zombie story, and a lot of authors will try and bring forth something fresh. I have no problem with authors doing this because it is good for the genre. ( as long as they don’t try and change the zombie!) Iain McKinnon does make the zombie scary again in a manner that would make Romero himself proud. He makes the Undead the main focus of the story and he’s able to make these things horrifying despite their ailments and frailty. This book shows you don’t have to change the zombie to make him terrifying; you just have to throw him in a different environment.
To Writers: This is one of those books that can teach an aspiring author a few things. You can learn a lot from how the plot is constructed, it will show you how it should be done to fully provoke fear within the reader.
Scientific elements: The author did something that many authors seldom do. He put in a scientific explanation of what created the W.Ds (Walking Dead) and he does it accurately. Most authors won’t even try to do this because it takes meticulous study to correctly draw a liable explanation, but it adds so much more to the story if the author does include this. I applaud McKinnon for taking this leap of faith to add more texture to the story, cause sometimes the scientific explanations can lose the reader and may even disinterest him. I enjoyed reading it because it was something different, but not all readers will appreciate it as much as I do, which might hurt the novel in the eyes of most readers ( which is a true shame)
Characters: The characters are all well drawn and presented well. The dialogue between the characters is strong and it really gives depth to them. The character of Bates is conceived and composed well; my personal favorite character is Angel. He presents these characters strongly and I admire his ability to juggle making personable characters while keeping the plot moving at a good pace. Kudos Iain.
Overall, This is one of the most enjoyable zombie novels I’ve ever read, period. It is creepy and eerie. I read the book a while ago, and I wanted to familiarize myself with it again by scanning through it so I can write this review. But I forgot how good the book was and ended up reading the damn thing again! That is a lot to say considering I seldom ever read a book twice. This is one of those rare books, that are as close to perfection as can be, but it is not given as much credit as it should.
When you read this book, you are entering Iain McKinnon’s Domain, and the only way you will get out unscathed, is if you shamble out.
