This week’s rant/essay/article (I still haven’t decided what I want to call it yet) is a call to action. A plea to everyone reading this who even remotely cares about the quality of the horror genre. There is a classic out there that deserves your attention. An under-rated series of novels that has stuck to the cult-classic shadows for too long. A modern masterpiece that should be on every horror junkies’ required reading list. An injustice that I hope to fix. Oh, and FYI, this will not be an objective rant. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

In 2001, a writer in England named David Moody self-published a novel called AUTUMN. You should understand that the market was different then. Self-publishing really had not become a viable option for many writers, and the internet was just starting to expand the way information gets passed around. Instead of schlepping the book to the hallowed halls of big-time New York publishing houses, he took somewhat of a risk and did all the work himself. He essentially gave his book away online, where it became a huge hit, building his name one reader at a time. Now, as someone who has read his fair share of self-published works (most of which are self-published for a reason, i.e. they suck), Autumn, and its eventual sequels buck the “self-publishing-sucks” trend by redefining a genre.

I’ll say this right now. Autumn deserves to be mentioned among the greatest novels about zombies ever. Notice I didn’t call it a zombie novel. More on that later.

Ever meet someone (and I know you have) who claim to know exactly what to do on surviving the Apocalypse? Someone who is confident they will be left standing when the music stops? Survivalists are notorious for this. Well, in Autumn, this isn’t an issue as 99% of the world’s population dies within the first chapter. You can prepare for the end all you want, but when it eventually comes, you are just another ping-pong ball in the giant bingo machine of life. If your number isn’t chosen, you are done. Survivors live by sheer chance alone. Autumn sets itself apart from all other genre offerings almost right off the bat. This goes beyond a traditional zombie story and becomes a new entry into “Survival Horror”. The people left standing aren’t action heroes. They aren’t well-heeled Survivalists who know what to do in the absence of Civilization. These could be anyone. You. Me. Just normal everyday people put into extraordinary circumstances. This is one of Autumn’s strongest components. Moody fleshes out these characters wonderfully, making you care about them and their struggles. When they die, you feel it, like a shot to the gut.

Autumn is NOT a zombie novel. Yes, the infected do rise and begin to track and kill those who still live, but this is not the main focal point of the story. This is Survival Horror. Reading it, you find yourself thinking what you would do in a similar situation. Moody takes the book out of the ranks of typical pulpy genre efforts, and raises it with a stark lyricism that puts it squarely in the ranks of “all-time classic.”

Moody handles his action sequences like a composer conducting a symphony orchestra. You are given exactly what you need to keep the story going. The prose is precise, stark and beautiful in its simplicity. The violence is brutal without being excessive, exploitative or gratuitous. Not that there is anything wrong with gratuitous violence, but let’s keep that to the more typical genre books. In Autumn, Moody hits exactly the right balance.

Usually, when a books hits sequel status, I get a bit nervous. I have read a few sequels in my day that swing and miss horribly, unable to capture the magic that made the original book so good. Autumn’s sequels AUTUMN:THE CITY, AUTUMN:PURIFICATION, AUTUMN:DISINTEGRATION and AUTUMN: AFTERMATH pull something off that is quite extraordinary. They continue the story without missing a beat. All the sequels are equal to Autumn in terms of storytelling prowess. There is simply no dropoff in story, pacing or prose. In fact, if you have not read Autumn yet, I recommend sitting down and reading them all front to back.

I hereby nominate Autumn as a classic in the horror genre. Sure, David Moody has achieved some renown as a cult classic, but he deserves more than that. What he was able to do by building his readership from the ground up is made all the more incredible when you realize exactly how GOOD Autumn truly is. The man is an inspiration to many authors, but I want Autumn to be more than just an impulse buy from someone who stumbles across his books by accident. When the subject comes up, I want David Moody’s name to be mentioned among the true giants of the field. Richard Matheson. Robert Bloch. Stephen King. David Moody is THAT good, and it is a crime that he isn’t a more well-known name. Maybe, with your help, we can fix this travesty. Thank you.

If you need a place to get started on his books Amazon has a David Moody page setup!