Eric Bahle

This is the fifth book I've read in the sub-genre of zombie-western. I like the genre, and this one did not disappoint. Fast-paced and easy to read, I was hooked from the very start. The character development was very good, and the start prior to the zombies showing up reminded me so much of all those western movies I enjoyed as a kid.

It was nice to see a "traditional" zombie story, based on voodoo and a Bokor. Even so, it also has the Romero tradition of gory deaths with lots of blood and guts.

I'm looking forward to more adventures with Nathaniel Caine, zombies or not.… (mehr)

Imagine Clint Eastwood as an Old West Zombie Hunter.

That pretty much sums it up. Nathaniel Caine is a sort of high plains drifter, or maybe he's a pale rider. Either way, when the stage coach he's riding in stops at a way station for supplies, Caine and his fellow travellers get more than they bargained for. And from there on in, it's pretty much all zombies, all the time. This has all the usual suspects: the cocky young man, the timorous merchant with the beautiful daughter, the megalomaniac zombie priest, and of course, a stout-hearted cast of redshirts - the stable boys and coach drivers who give their lives for the furtherment of plot.

But what it doesn't have is anything new.

Don't get me wrong, what Bahle has done here he has done very well. The writing is crisp and confident, the gore is present but not overdone, and his zombies shamble with the best of them. But I believe each book in a genre should attempt to do something more than simply restate the classic themes of that genre. Show me a zombie who can fly. Or a voodoo priest with a heart of gold. Or have the plucky young waif girl turn out to be the mastermind. I don't sail with the zombie navy very often, so maybe I'm out of step with the expectations of all the real zombinistas out there, but from my perspective, Nathaniel Caine needs a bit more of the unexpected.

Yeah, that'd do it. Flying zombies. Put a twist like that in and I'll jump on that stage coach with both feet.… (mehr)