Last year our reviewer James did a review of Robert Swartwood’s The Dishonored Dead that peaked my interest. It does include intelligent zombies but takes the idea of zombies with a brain to a completely different level. When the book opens we quickly learn that zombies lost a war and there is a group of hunters that are great warriors in society whose entire goal is to track down and kill zombies. The catch though is that the hunters are all undead and the zombies? Well the zombies are what are left of humanity. Humans are on the run and while there is a resistance humans also carry parasites which increase decay in the undead who run the world and this quickened death is to be avoided at all costs.
We are primarily following Conrad through the story. He is a hunter who is the son of the greatest hunter of zombies of all time. When we first start to follow him though he hesitates on killing a zombie. In the society of hunters that means he has lost his nerve to all of his fellow hunters and is no longer someone who is fit to lead. While this would lead to an end of a hunter’s career in most cases Conrad is instantly tapped for a transfer to a secret division which is where our plot truly begins.
In his new role we learn that there is a group of hunters that don’t go out and kill zombies but in fact have a group of them in their employ. Why would the undead have a use for zombies? Well there was fallout from the great war that rid the majority of humanity off the face of the Earth. There is a gem that keeps popping up from the ground which the government has called Pandoras. They keep their existence a secret from the entire populace because what they are capable of doing is turning the undead into a zombie, as long as the undead has just turned 10 years old. (Yes the undead can have children and grow old.) Why are humans needed for this? Humans hear a humming sound from the Pandoras (which is what children hear shortly after their 10’th birthday.) Conrad becomes quickly invested in this new venture. While he is distrustful of the entire layout of this aspect of the government his own son is about to turn 10 and he needs to keep his son safe from becoming one of the zombies that plague their society.
The concept is unique and with the focus on a world after the outbreak that has nothing do with with being post apocalyptic you are going to get a unique view on an undead outbreak. It is a fun concept and extremely well written with characters who you are going to be drawn in from being interested by if not able to fully associate with.
Available on Amazon
