This Dark Earth
4/5
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Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
Welcome to Bridge City, in what was once Arkansas: part medieval fortress, part Western outpost, and the precarious last stand for civilization. A ten-year-old prodigy when the world ended, Gus is now a battle-hardened young man. He designed Bridge City to protect the living few from the shamblers eternally at the gates. Now he’s being groomed by his physician mother, Lucy, and the gentle giant Knock-Out to become the next leader of men. But an army of slavers is on its way, and the war they’ll wage for the city’s resources could mean the end of mankind as we know it.
Can Gus become humanity’s savior? And if so, will it mean becoming a dictator, a martyr . . . or maybe something far worse than even the zombies that plague the land?
John Hornor Jacobs
John Hornor Jacobs' first novel, Southern Gods, was shortlisted for the Bram Stoker Award for First Novel. His young adult series, The Incarcerado Trilogy comprised of The Twelve-Fingered Boy, The Shibboleth, and The Conformity, was described by Cory Doctorow of Boing Boing as "amazing" and received a starred Booklist review. His Fisk & Shoe fantasy series composed of The Incorruptibles, Foreign Devils, and Infernal Machines has thrice been shortlisted for the David Gemmell Award and was described by Patrick Rothfuss like so: "One part ancient Rome, two parts wild west, one part Faust. A pinch of Tolkien, of Lovecraft, of Dante. This is strange alchemy, a recipe I’ve never seen before. I wish more books were as fresh and brave as this." His fiction has appeared in Playboy Magazine, Cemetery Dance, Apex Magazine. Follow him on Twitter at @johnhornor.
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Reviews for This Dark Earth
38 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My first zombie book!!! Liked the characters; could definitly see some spin offs; missing some substance on minor plot lines; but loved the new words; "damily" and " a damnation of zombies" awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is now, and has been since I've read it initially (about 3 years ago) one of my absolute favorite zombie books.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Although this book was entertaining, a few things bothered me. First, the ending. Second, a love story with a minor and an adult ( it was obvious this was written by a man). And lastly, too many shades of The Walking Dead. I did enjoy reading from different characters points of view, but overall something just didn't feel authentic about the story and characters.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5excellent story, original plot, one of the better in this genre
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A rather enjoyable zombie novel. Who doesn't enjoy a good zombie apocalypse every now and then?
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Not “just another zombie novel”That was my worry, if I’m honest - like the Twi-hard copyists, there does seem to be a glut of zombie fiction out there at the moment. I’m not complaining and if it’s selling, good for them; whatever rubs your Buddha. And I’m not ruining the book for you by telling you this: there’s zombies in it it - lots and lots of zombies.What I liked about John’s second book was that everything changes when the zombies arrive and yet, everything stays the same. Humans don’t change over night into a bunch of plucky Brits battling the Hun during the Blitz (and frankly, there were bad apples during the war, too) and helping each other survive. Okay, there will be some, but there’ll be the opportunists and exploiters who ooze out of the woodwork at the slightest provocation, working out the angles and the best way to make themselves kings amongst the debris of the former world.I digress. Jacob’s second book centres around a young boy named Gus and his mother, Lucy, who’s a doctor. Gus is some kind of prodigy, with a brain seemingly uniquely adapted to coming up with ways to stay alive in a world where most of the population has turned into zombies. I’m also not giving away anything by saying he comes up with a unique idea for how to live without getting your brainz eaten by a zombie: build your new colony on a bridge. Or on the end of one. Seems like a good solution and John makes it work for him.I enjoyed this book, in much the same way I enjoyed his last, Southern Gods - if you haven’t read it, go buy it now - I took it on holiday and devoured it in a very short time. I like his characters and the way he develops them through the events happening in the book. It’s a subtle alchemy which I would love to emulate in my own work.Go on, stuck for something to read? Like well-written alternative fiction? Go buy his book now.