|
Lisa Morgan prevents a stranger, Ben, from committing suicide.
But, in the process of saving Ben, Lisa's sister is suddenly
and violently killed by an unseen and malevolent force. Lisa
and Ben are soon being attacked by the reanimated dead and
as if this wasn't bad enough, Lisa's life is about to take
a turn for the worse as the king of all the dead attempts
to claim what is rightfully his...
If
zombie movies still excite you after all these years - with
hardly an original twist in sight - then you will be itching
to get your hands on a copy of King of the Dead. If,
on the other hand you like you horror with a dose of intelligence,
you'll be hard pressed to find what you are looking for here.
King
of all the Dead could
have been a very good novel. Instead, due more to sloppy writing
than a poor plot, the result is a half-baked mismatch of ideas.
The trouble seems to be that the authors were internally struggling
with the final direction of their creation.
In
places the writing style is a little patronising - do we really
need: "she said, she asked, Lisa said" or "she
started" after every quotation? And in places (in a lot
of places actually) the characters respond unbelievably to
normal circumstances (OK, you can explain this one away once
you've read the entire book, but I still believe this is the
result of careless writing.)
But,
when the cards are down Steve Lockley and Paul Lewis pull
out all the stops. Their writing style works well when there
is action to describe, but they haven't quite mastered the
art of relaying banal events believably. The horror elements
are well told though, and this is what really matters.
Almost
filmic in places, this rather short (120 pages) novel is extremely
promising, but hardly original and its conclusion will probably
leave you feeling cheated.
There
was obviously something bizarre going on at the typesetters
too. For some reason most of the pages have missing hyphens
- with an extra space having been dropped in instead - very
shoddy.
While
King of all the Dead offers little in the way of originality,
it is still an interesting read and fans of the horror genre
will no doubt find it entertaining enough.
Nick
Smithson
Buy
this item online
We
compare prices online so you get the cheapest
deal!
(Please note all prices exclude P&P - although
Streets Online charge a flat £1 fee regardless
of the number of items ordered). Click on the
logo of the desired store below to purchase
this item.
|
|
|
£8.00
(Amazon.co.uk) |
| |
|
|
|
£8.00
(Bookshop.co.uk) |
All prices correct at time of going to press.
|
|
