Charnel House Reviews

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Image via Wikipedia - not quite "DEADWORLD" but better than I can draw !"][/caption]


...there was "DEADWORLD" (or so they tell me).  I bought the DEADWORLD OMNIBUS a few months ago based on the strength of the cover - it looked awesome.  There are a horde of water color zombies whose features are just barely recognizable.

Immediately "DEADWORLD" distinguishes itself from the typical zombie story.  King Zombie is free from Hell and looking for a specific man and a specific book that can help him to open wide the gates of Hell.  When that task is complete, all the horrors of Hell will walk the Earth and they will kill everything in their path.  Each book in the series adds new characters and new plot twists that keep the story engaging, and the reader guessing.

"DEADWORLD" really shines in its different artists.  Each book has been inked and created by a di…

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Image via Wikipedia - Throughout the book series I kept reading about a "balaclava" but had no idea what it was.  Apparently the versatile piece of headgear in these silly pictures is a "balaclava".  "][/caption]


I don't know which is worse - waiting for a new book to come out in a series, or having a great book end and wishing for more.  I guess it all depends on how close you are to the release of the next book, doesn't it?  I was lucky enough to find Joseph Talluto's "White Flag of the Dead" series early enough to not be too far behind, but late enough to get in two volumes before the third came out.  (Another caution:  If you bought the self published version - you're waiting for the second book.  If you're like me and you own the Severed Press editions, you are going to read "White Flag of the Dead", then progress to "Takin…

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption]


I have been looking forward to "The Rite" since I saw the first commercial.  Anthony Hopkins doesn't make bad movies...nor does Alice Braga (loved her in "Predators" and "I Am Legend").  This will be the first time I completely give away everything about a movie.

Based on the previews I thought it was going to be amazing.  Terror, possession, deep soul rending spirituality...the actual movie?  Not so much.  It took absolutely forever for the movie to get rolling.  I never thought it would end.  At first, I thought it was the kind of movie that you put on while cooking or doing homework, then I decided there wasn't enough plot to actually do that.

Here's the plot - kid with baggage grows up in his father's house which is attached to a funeral home (the family business).  His mother died when he was young, and he decide…

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="198" caption="Cover via Amazon"][/caption]


It seems to me that while teachers may not garner the respect they deserve in every arena in life, they are standouts in the zombie genre. Bowie Ibarra gives us yet another tale of an educator surviving the apocalypse long enough to be the main character of a book.

I had heard about Bowie Ibarra's "Down the Road" awhile ago, and it had been on my list to read.  It kept getting pushed back (I'm not sure why) until one day when I was looking at my e-mail.  Low and behold !  There is a second book.  My first thought was:  Damn.  I'm behind on yet another series.  Then I figured it didn't matter and purchased it - and I'm super glad I did !

The story follows the trials, tribulations, and heartbreak of George - a teacher desperately trying to reach his family.  The fact that he's stuck in a zombie apocalypse in the first place is at once…

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Cover of Empire: A Zombie Novel"][/caption]


I finished reading David Dunwoody's "Empire's End" a few weeks ago but haven't been able to post anything because I've been so doggone busy writing exams.  I feel rather bad about this because it really is a great book.

The first book, "Empire" was an impulse purchase at a local bookstore.  When I saw online that the second book had come out, my eyes bugged out and I immediately bought it.  It arrived in the mail pretty soon and I was able to start it tout suite.

I was surprised at how easily I was able to pick up on the story again, after having read the first story so long ago.  In many ways, "Empire's End" feels more like a prequel than a sequel.  There is more background on Eviscerato, the circus ringleader who becomes infected, as well as on the plague itself.  My edition of the book also included…

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="245" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption]


A little while ago I was reading an e-mail from Severed Press (I get them from time to time), and I noticed an author had started a conversation about a poor review he had received for his book "White Flag of the Dead" (Book 1).  I went and read the review, and I decided that since the reviewer disliked it so much that I just couldn't not read it.  I like to be in the middle of the fray anytime that zombie literature is concerned, so I replied to the thread and straightaway went to purchase the book from amazon.com.  The book arrived quickly, which was good because I was just finishing the last few pages of "Down the Road" by Bowie Ibarra and was ready for another read.  (Despite the dozens of zombie books I have laying around already.)

I have not been able to put the book down!  Thanks a bunch, Joseph Talluto, I'm now averaging about…