REVIEW: Dishonored Dead by: Robert Swartwood

If you’re expecting the traditional zombie genre canon, you won’t find it here.

Robert Swartwood’s Dishonored Dead describes a world in which zombies roam the relatively undead inhabited planet, live in cities, have families, drive cars and human’s, those that remain, are in hiding from the Hunters. Hunters are specially trained undead units whose sole purpose is to track down the living, whom they call ‘zombies’ and eliminate them.

The central part of the plot revolves around Conrad, the son of the most famous Hunter, who lives by the Hunter’s Code in all that he does essentially making him the last zombie boy scout. One night on a hunt he hesitates and doesn’t kill a human. Seen as a sign of cowardice, he is transferred to a secret agency that works with the living to better understand them. Tossed into the mix are marital issues, office politics, living sympathizers and Conrad’s son who is fast approaching his 10th birthday, Animation Day, which is a special time for all of the dead.

The introduction of a strange residual anomaly left over from the Zombie Wars which occurred decades in the past, known as a ‘Pandora’ adds an interesting plot twist. These ‘Pandora’s’ are some kind of earth force or the calling of Gaia, that attracts all the dead children shortly after their 10th birthday. If a dead child is allowed to be in contact with the Pandora they will become alive and targets for the Hunters. That is Conrad’s major concern interspersed with other real world issues like a manipulative sister in law, hostile co-workers and the family secret he keeps hidden.

Dishonored Dead is a definite page turner with lots of action, tension and suspense. However, it’s very formulaic and predictable with some issues telegraphed paragraphs if not chapters in advance. The entire storyline could be exchanged to depict cops versus robbers, CIA versus terrorists, US Army versus Taliban, etc. The only reason this story is listed as a zombie novel is that the main protagonists consist of decaying zombies who must apply lotion to their skin to slow down the rotting process and their hunt for living humans. As stated, those primary groups could be exchanged for any two groups of people and the story would still be an action packed, suspenseful, political thriller.

The characters are well developed, the action is tight and the storyline is smooth. A nice homage to some well known science fiction and horror authors is inserted that some readers might not catch.

Those readers seeking more traditional zombie conflict, beleaguered survivors fighting hordes of the undead knocking at the door, gore splatter, brain eating and flesh rending action, will not find that in this novel. Essentially, Swartwood has taken the genre and re-imagined it into a world where the undead are now thinking, somewhat feeling creatures with a home life and the humans are hunted down. It reminds me a little of Planet of the Apes.

Overall, Dishonored Dead focuses on the drama and tension created from keeping secrets and is more of a political thriller than a hardcore zombie survival tale like other works within this same genre.

Available at Amazon