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Wet Work - The Definitive Edition
The shocking novel that captured the attention and praise of today's most acclaimed storytellers returns in an author-approved definitive anniversary edition. Wet Work will show you the final days of humanity, the beginning of the end. Award nominated author Philip Nutman will make you believe the dead will rise up--and walk the earth. The day the comet came, the whole world looked up to the skies. From that day on, there would be no rest, no peace. Especially for the dead. They are everywhere. And as their troops increase in size--and appetite--a new order is slowly established from coast to coast. A new order that leaves no room for the living.
302 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1993
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398 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
June 13, 2021
A comet streaks across the night sky, drawing people outdoors to view the celestial display. But its beauty hides a sinister secret . . . a mutant virus that spreads across the United States. The disease is fatal, yet its victims come back to life--with a voracious appetite for HUMAN FLESH!!
Right okay, this sounded awesome due to that summary and on the front cover of the book it says "The Most Acclaimed Novel Of Epic Terror Since The Stand"
BUT.. to make that claim is just plain silly, there's been way better books since.
Wet Work was a moderately good novel, it was a interesting take on the zombie genre, they're able to drive cars and make phone calls...yes seriously!!
It's not your traditional zombie story, it's more of a CIA/Military story and reads like an Andy McNab novel.
There's lot's of blood, gore, bullets and brains in this one but definitely a read-oncer.
Right okay, this sounded awesome due to that summary and on the front cover of the book it says "The Most Acclaimed Novel Of Epic Terror Since The Stand"
BUT.. to make that claim is just plain silly, there's been way better books since.
Wet Work was a moderately good novel, it was a interesting take on the zombie genre, they're able to drive cars and make phone calls...yes seriously!!
It's not your traditional zombie story, it's more of a CIA/Military story and reads like an Andy McNab novel.
There's lot's of blood, gore, bullets and brains in this one but definitely a read-oncer.
Want to read
September 16, 2018
Cover of the 1993 Jove mass-market (262 pages). I haven't had much luck with zombie novels, but I do remember enjoying the original short story from the Skipp & Spector-edited Book of the Dead anthology.
July 2, 2024
Entertaining and interesting take on the zombie apocalypse. Very well written and fast paced.
April 1, 2015
Thoroughly enjoyed this zombie apocalypse tale. Hadn't previously heard of the book or the author. Good, fast paced story with many twists and surprising events such as you grow accustomed to characters only to...yeah, you get the drift. Good amount of gore and blood and guts for the gore hounds but it's also a mixture of genres somewhat, living dead, crime thriller, slight political thriller and, well, also has a Commando (Arnie movie) slash kung full style showdown haha. Also marked as a book with a down beat ending which makes a refreshing change every so often :)
July 4, 2017
Meh. Once upon a time, a guy named Steven King wrote a post-apocalyptic book called The Stand that had a) a lot of shirfting POVs and b) a lot of POVs that got killed off. People have been trying to recereate the "who will survive???" experience ever since. However, they often miss that part where King made you empathize with a series of well-differentiated, flawed characters as he sorted them into the good, the evil, and the dead.
This is one of those books. It read like a wet dream about having the justification to kill off anyone you like, which is often a zombie problem, but especially so here. Logic/consistency runs short: it is both necessary that zombies be irrational (background characters) and rational (main character) in order to drive the plot. The end comes about as a deus ex machina. The POV characters are variations of the same guy, a guy with a cynical worldview, and who never learned to cope with his problems and isn't going to do so now.
It's not badly written. The elements of the story are all well done--but it feels like a series of excuses for suicide, drinking yourself to death, going postal, or deleting the universe. Sure, it's horror, and it's possible to write nihilistic books entertainingly and well, but they are generally more self-aware annd deliberate, a la Ligotti or Burroughs, or even The Cabin in the Woods.
This is one of those books. It read like a wet dream about having the justification to kill off anyone you like, which is often a zombie problem, but especially so here. Logic/consistency runs short: it is both necessary that zombies be irrational (background characters) and rational (main character) in order to drive the plot. The end comes about as a deus ex machina. The POV characters are variations of the same guy, a guy with a cynical worldview, and who never learned to cope with his problems and isn't going to do so now.
It's not badly written. The elements of the story are all well done--but it feels like a series of excuses for suicide, drinking yourself to death, going postal, or deleting the universe. Sure, it's horror, and it's possible to write nihilistic books entertainingly and well, but they are generally more self-aware annd deliberate, a la Ligotti or Burroughs, or even The Cabin in the Woods.
February 14, 2024
3.5 stars but I’ll be generous! Fast-paced zombie apocalypse, action/horror splatterpunk style. My full review:
http://toomuchhorrorfiction.blogspot....
http://toomuchhorrorfiction.blogspot....
August 4, 2014
Society collapses when the tail end of an aberrant comet emits radiation that infects the living and refreshes the dead.
Read this when I was 17 after I picked it up while facing a long flight layover in a Dallas airport. I remember being torn between boredom and paying an overpriced amount for this novel at the airport book store. In the end, my need to satisfy my appetite for zombie apocalypse won over.
I knew it would be a good buy, though, primarily because I was already familiar with the short story version of Wet Work by Philip Nutman
when he wrote for Skipp and Spector’s "The Book of the Dead" anthology (an AMAZING zombie anthology and one of the first of it's kind).
So, the title and author's name alone had immediately caught my eye.
Upon realising that Nutman had expanded it into a full sized novel, it wasn't long before I became easily convinced to go ahead and splurge. Was definitely worth it because i've read the novel a few times over since then.
It is certainly a quick and easy read and worth tracking down for sure, which i have had to myself since my dog ate my original '93 copy.
The story wasn't perfect and doesn't stick to normal zombie apocalypse protocal, but it was memorable and original.
So, take this particular zombie story lightly; it takes place in the course of presidency under George H. W. Bush, involves government cover-ups, black ops, there are thinking zombies, some dark comedy, some corny phrases and a shoddily written sex scene that I read with a grain of salt. But, if you can be forgiving, you just may enjoy the creativeness and perspectives in this zombie tale.
Keep in mind I give five stars for being innovative at the time of it's debut as much as I do for the nostalgia of when I first read it.
If you like zombie adventure, covert operations, plot twists and zombies that retain function and intelligence, check this out.
November 5, 2010
I was pleased to find this title on Amazon and get the book used through the site. I am trying as best I can to find as many zombie novels that have been made and certainly this work stands out as a quality work of the genre.
Philip Nutman wrote the short story Wet Work for 'The Book of the Dead' and expanded it into a full sized novel. It still has the feel of a up tempo fast paced story that pretty much takes place within a few days. Our two main characters are Dominic Corvino and Nick Packard, whose stories are seperate but intertwined through a zombie apocalypse caused by the effects of a comet that not only brings the dead back to life but excellerates common colds and other viruses so that victims die rapidly.
This work certainly had to have some influence on other tales of the undead such as 'The Rising' and 'Dead City', amongst others, with both its intelligent and truly malevolent zombies and the fast paced action that moves at a breakneck clip.
The basics of the story are that Corvino is a black ops operative who is trying to uncover who betrayed him during the first day of the undead uprising. Meanwhile, Nick is a rookie cop spending his very first days on the job dealing with the total chaos of a quickly unravelling Washington DC as more and more dead get back up and start attacking. His wife, Sandy, has gone to New York to deal with the last days of her dying mother and the two of them have to fight through this new nightmare world to try to find each other once again.
I had fun reading this book. It is a pretty quick and easy read and though there are a few lapses in the quality of the work (as another reviewer accurately points out, Nutman doesn't do that great of a job describing sex-it was a tad bit over the top) the writing was easily absorbed and entertaining. Another criticism that others mentioned was that the ending was far too abrupt but to me the pacing remained faily consistent throughout the entire novel-the story moves at a rather fast pace throughout. Overall, a book that is worth digging up if you are a fan of undead horror and fast paced action.
Philip Nutman wrote the short story Wet Work for 'The Book of the Dead' and expanded it into a full sized novel. It still has the feel of a up tempo fast paced story that pretty much takes place within a few days. Our two main characters are Dominic Corvino and Nick Packard, whose stories are seperate but intertwined through a zombie apocalypse caused by the effects of a comet that not only brings the dead back to life but excellerates common colds and other viruses so that victims die rapidly.
This work certainly had to have some influence on other tales of the undead such as 'The Rising' and 'Dead City', amongst others, with both its intelligent and truly malevolent zombies and the fast paced action that moves at a breakneck clip.
The basics of the story are that Corvino is a black ops operative who is trying to uncover who betrayed him during the first day of the undead uprising. Meanwhile, Nick is a rookie cop spending his very first days on the job dealing with the total chaos of a quickly unravelling Washington DC as more and more dead get back up and start attacking. His wife, Sandy, has gone to New York to deal with the last days of her dying mother and the two of them have to fight through this new nightmare world to try to find each other once again.
I had fun reading this book. It is a pretty quick and easy read and though there are a few lapses in the quality of the work (as another reviewer accurately points out, Nutman doesn't do that great of a job describing sex-it was a tad bit over the top) the writing was easily absorbed and entertaining. Another criticism that others mentioned was that the ending was far too abrupt but to me the pacing remained faily consistent throughout the entire novel-the story moves at a rather fast pace throughout. Overall, a book that is worth digging up if you are a fan of undead horror and fast paced action.
June 30, 2011
In 1993, Philip Nutman took his short story which had appeared in Skipp and Spector’s Book of the Dead anthology and expanded it into this novel. I haven’t read the short story, and frankly, I can’t imagine it from this novel, as the finished product is “epic” in the sense of The Stand (a comparison references on the cover): a whole buncha people, each trying to survive in a world in which the radiation from a comet’s tail sickens the living and revives the dead.
Despite coming before the current glut of zombified media, Wet Work fits right into the present-day milieu: Romeroesque living dead attack the living, and those thus killed reanimate to continue the cycle. Some people retain their intelligence once undead, but even that’s temporary. Society immediately crumbles, and everything goes to hell.
Unfortunately, at 262 in paperback, the novel’s just too short for its epic attempts. Instead of many full plotlines which eventually converge or illuminate each other, we have abortive subplots that become little more than vignettes that distract from the two main narrative threads. It’s a disjointed experience that needs either more length or fewer plot threads.
Despite coming before the current glut of zombified media, Wet Work fits right into the present-day milieu: Romeroesque living dead attack the living, and those thus killed reanimate to continue the cycle. Some people retain their intelligence once undead, but even that’s temporary. Society immediately crumbles, and everything goes to hell.
Unfortunately, at 262 in paperback, the novel’s just too short for its epic attempts. Instead of many full plotlines which eventually converge or illuminate each other, we have abortive subplots that become little more than vignettes that distract from the two main narrative threads. It’s a disjointed experience that needs either more length or fewer plot threads.
January 12, 2013
Dominic Corvino, covert assassin, and Nick Packard, a would-be alcoholic rookie cop, are two of the main characters in this Zombie epic, but neither of them are particularly appealing. You want to root for both of them, but only by default. Regardless, the slip from normality to ‘Hell on Earth’ is well done, with the right amount of disbelief and incredulity from the characters. The fact the some of the dead retain their memories from their past allows the change to be even odder, and harder for our characters to comprehend. There are some great depictions of Zombie gore, and other original touches regarding the New World Order, so despite some obvious short-comings the novel was worth the read.
February 17, 2015
One of the better zombie stories out there. It's a shame that Nutman didn't publish more work-he was quite the voice in the realm of splatterpunk. This book definitely isn't for the faint....I am used to detailed accounts of violence in my books and this one had me cringing a few times. My only complaint is the amount of characters in the story...Nutman was ambitious to create as large a world as he did, but after a while it became hard to keep track of who was who in some situations. But besides that this was a fun zombie gorefest. R.I.P. Phil
July 22, 2015
Growing up, this novel was one of my favorite books to read, I love the zombie genre and this one took it to a different place. Its characters are well written, and you feel for them, from Dominic Corvino the assassin, to Nick Packard, a rookie police officer with a drinking problem. You feel for their problems as they come up against the living dead, its only worse, most of the dead have all of their minds intact. Meaning they can set traps, trick people into thinking that they are still human, as they hunger for the human flesh that makes the pain... go away.
February 11, 2014
Billed as being on the level playing field with "The Stand", "Wet Work" is a hyper-violent Zombie Apocalypse thriller from the '90s with an odd twist that seemed to crib a great deal from Stephen King's earlier apocalyptic novel and the 1984 movie "Night of the Comet." Rather dumb, too violent and mostly vile, those that would label this book a horror classic haven't read very many good books. Fangoria let me down with this one.
July 31, 2021
I'm going to forego writing a formal review for Wet Work since we'll be having a spoiler-filled, roundtable discussion of Philip Nutman's book on an upcoming episode of Staring Into the Abyss. I would encourage you to find and subscribe to the podcast on your favorite app in the meantime, and maybe catch up on some past episodes while you wait. Keep an eye out for our Wet Work discussion in September!
December 11, 2007
This book has a decent amount of promise to it. It begins with a special operations action gone horribly wrong and ends with flesh-eating cadavers terrorizing the known world. The novel is pretty well-written and remains pretty solid with the action. To me, the ending didn't seem too well thought out. Maybe it was and it was just a bit disappointing to me.
September 27, 2021
A few derivative plot holes aside, I must admit that I throughly enjoyed Wet Work.
Nutman’s one full length novel takes pretty much every zombie and post apocalyptic cliche and sub genre, throws it into the literary blender and somehow pours out the perfect horror concoction. With hints of The Stand, Swan Song, Keene’s The Rising and Dawn of the Dead, Wet Work is a novel that’s incredibly hard to put down and hell of a lot of fun to read.
It’s also exceptionally dark with hardly a single moment of brevity or a break for benevolence…which, when you’re dealing with zombies and the end of the freaking world, is exactly the kind of mood something like this book needs.
It’s quite a surprise that Nutman (who apparently died in 2013) never published another full length novel. The world sorely missed out on talent…but it’s a good thing we at least have this one to remind us that zombie and nuclear weapons and comets can still be scary.
Nutman’s one full length novel takes pretty much every zombie and post apocalyptic cliche and sub genre, throws it into the literary blender and somehow pours out the perfect horror concoction. With hints of The Stand, Swan Song, Keene’s The Rising and Dawn of the Dead, Wet Work is a novel that’s incredibly hard to put down and hell of a lot of fun to read.
It’s also exceptionally dark with hardly a single moment of brevity or a break for benevolence…which, when you’re dealing with zombies and the end of the freaking world, is exactly the kind of mood something like this book needs.
It’s quite a surprise that Nutman (who apparently died in 2013) never published another full length novel. The world sorely missed out on talent…but it’s a good thing we at least have this one to remind us that zombie and nuclear weapons and comets can still be scary.
January 24, 2020
This is an excellent book that kept me thrilled the entire way. I could barely put it down as I whipped through it in just two days. The premise is taken straight out of Night of the Living Dead, a comet cuts close enough to Earth to cause havoc by allowing the dead to revive and eat the living. In fact, a short story version of WET WORK first appeared in the anthology BOOK OF THE DEAD.
But the book involves much more than zombies eating flesh. The characters are so realistic that you can recognize any of them as neighbors, friends and family. And they pull you in to their lives, sharing their problems, making you cheer them on while they try to solve their problems. Of course, not all the problems are solved easily; the zombies have to have someone to eat. However you will still find the book riveting and not something to be missed. I know that I need to hunt down more of Nutman's books and enjoy them. Oh yeah, an extra bonus for comic book fans is that many of the characters are named after well known comic book writers and artists. It doesn't detract or add to the story itself but it is fun to find out some comic book favorites are "in" the story.
But the book involves much more than zombies eating flesh. The characters are so realistic that you can recognize any of them as neighbors, friends and family. And they pull you in to their lives, sharing their problems, making you cheer them on while they try to solve their problems. Of course, not all the problems are solved easily; the zombies have to have someone to eat. However you will still find the book riveting and not something to be missed. I know that I need to hunt down more of Nutman's books and enjoy them. Oh yeah, an extra bonus for comic book fans is that many of the characters are named after well known comic book writers and artists. It doesn't detract or add to the story itself but it is fun to find out some comic book favorites are "in" the story.
December 8, 2018
It's been a little over twenty-years since I first read Wet Work, and it was with great trepidation that I cracked open this new edition by Overlook Connection Press. I fondly remember the original short story from the seminal Book of the Dead, and had vague memories of really enjoying the novel, so was hoping that it held up. Happy to say that it absolutely did. This is a fantastic reinvention of the zombie novel and stands right up there with The Rising by Brian Keene and Kirkman's Walking Dead. It also makes for a great thriller novel and was clearly ahead of its time. The less said about the plot the better, but I can highly recommend this one to all thriller and zombie fans.
January 7, 2008
This novel was an expanded version of a short story that was originally published in one of the BOOKS OF THE DEAD. Set during the 1st Bush presidency, it details a zombie outbreak from several different aspects, both living and dead. Not sure its still in print, but worth tracking down if you like zombie fiction.
April 17, 2011
An amazing story that I never put down. I was a kid when I finished this book. I thought that maybe my tolerance to handle this sort of story has changed, but then I went back and read it. It was cooler as an adult. Nutman gets you excited for his next words. Highly, highly recommend. Sorry, I want to say more, but I don't want to ruin anything for anyone who has not read this.
August 8, 2013
For some reason, this book appeared on several "best of" lists... it is an extended version of Nutman's short story of the same title. Extending the story to novel length was a mistake. I suppose if you're intent upon reading every word of zombie fiction ever published, you should read it, but only if there's nothing else left.
April 22, 2016
This was a great action/adventure, military/political, zombie sci-fi, apocalyptic cop crime story with a smidgen of true love and a whole lot of undead megalomania thrown in. It was the perfect amount of "must read-ness" meaning you could put it down to get on with your life and get some sleep but you also couldn't wait to pick it up again.
July 13, 2017
A different twist on the zombie tale, many of the zombies retain their thought processes, but must deal with the urgent need for human flesh. An interesting take on a post-apocalyptic situation, where different people's reactions are examined. It felt like it could be fleshed out more, and the female characters were non-entities, but points for originality.
July 1, 2021
There is a funny thing when it comes to literature, especially genre literature. That is, how do we define a classic? How does a classic obtain its status? If I were to ask for examples of classic horror novels, I might get responses such as It by Stephen King, Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, Swan Song by Robert McCammon, or even Frankenstein by Mary Shelly. However, what happens when a classic slips through the cracks, and becomes buried underground. It lays there waiting to be exhumed, read, discussed, and revived. The novel being unburied today is Wet Work by Philip Nutman.
If you want to know if Wet Work is worth reading, the answer is yes. Very much so. If you want to go into the novel surprised go on and buy it, it’s an incredible and fast-paced zombie novel. In fact, it’s one of the first zombie novels. The in-depth portion of this review will discuss themes and give content warnings. Before I continue, just know that this book has my highest recommendation. Now, onto the review!
CW: Violence, descriptive gore, torture, sexual assault, police brutality, abuse, alcoholism, suicide, and racism.
Wet Work is a 1993 splatterpunk novel by Philip Nutman, it’s an expansion from his short story “Wet Work” found in the anthology Book of the Dead by John Skipp and Craig Spector. This novel is a powerhouse of gory action-horror. Beautiful prose that reads as smooth as butter. Well-developed characters, and an interesting premise. The novel takes place over the course of a week. At the start of the novel, a comet moves close to earth and the planet is covered in its tail. This changes the earth’s atmosphere which does two things. One, it causes the dead to rise. Two, it weakens our immune system so even the common cold will kill us. The zombies in question are highly intelligent, can use weapons and communicate with each other. We follow hitman Dominic Corvino who does assassination work for the CIA, and Nick Packard, rookie cop who is a borderline alcoholic. We go back and forth between these two characters as the world descends into utter hell. This novel is a wild ride and highly entertaining. Being a splatterpunk novel, Nutman does not hold back from the gore and the darker side of humanity. We also see some good characters, so the novel does not drown in its own bleakness.
Nutman also has some important commentary about American society in this novel. Hot off the heels of the Rodney King riots, Nutman paints the cops as racist, bigoted, and blame the problems society is facing on the minority populations. The police in the novel give themselves full justification to harm, shoot, police, and kill minority characters. Our rookie cop, Nick, disagrees with this but ultimately joins in highlighting the gang of policing that was a problem back in 1993 and still a problem today. Nutman also has commentary criticizing those in power. As society falls into chaos, we see the government willing to sacrifice its own people just so those in power can stay in power. There is a major plot point where those in power turn the Pentagon into something they call “The Farm” and have the military round-up and arrest civilians, so the people in power can have meat to survive, while the poor and common people are rounded up and killed. It is a bleak book that shows humanity at its worst.
However, there are moments of light. Corvino, despite being a hitman, he is a good person, he has a dark past and was forced to become the person he is. But he tries to help people and tries to do the right thing. There are also side characters who put themselves in harm’s way to do the right thing and protect people. It takes an apocalypse to divide us, but also to unite us.
Overall, this book is tons of fun, fast-paced, and is severely underread. It’s currently available in ebook format through Amazon or through the publisher’s website at this link. Give this book a read and check out a fantastic forgotten classic that the horror genre needs to dig back up.
https://overlookconnection.com/catalo...
If you want to know if Wet Work is worth reading, the answer is yes. Very much so. If you want to go into the novel surprised go on and buy it, it’s an incredible and fast-paced zombie novel. In fact, it’s one of the first zombie novels. The in-depth portion of this review will discuss themes and give content warnings. Before I continue, just know that this book has my highest recommendation. Now, onto the review!
CW: Violence, descriptive gore, torture, sexual assault, police brutality, abuse, alcoholism, suicide, and racism.
Wet Work is a 1993 splatterpunk novel by Philip Nutman, it’s an expansion from his short story “Wet Work” found in the anthology Book of the Dead by John Skipp and Craig Spector. This novel is a powerhouse of gory action-horror. Beautiful prose that reads as smooth as butter. Well-developed characters, and an interesting premise. The novel takes place over the course of a week. At the start of the novel, a comet moves close to earth and the planet is covered in its tail. This changes the earth’s atmosphere which does two things. One, it causes the dead to rise. Two, it weakens our immune system so even the common cold will kill us. The zombies in question are highly intelligent, can use weapons and communicate with each other. We follow hitman Dominic Corvino who does assassination work for the CIA, and Nick Packard, rookie cop who is a borderline alcoholic. We go back and forth between these two characters as the world descends into utter hell. This novel is a wild ride and highly entertaining. Being a splatterpunk novel, Nutman does not hold back from the gore and the darker side of humanity. We also see some good characters, so the novel does not drown in its own bleakness.
Nutman also has some important commentary about American society in this novel. Hot off the heels of the Rodney King riots, Nutman paints the cops as racist, bigoted, and blame the problems society is facing on the minority populations. The police in the novel give themselves full justification to harm, shoot, police, and kill minority characters. Our rookie cop, Nick, disagrees with this but ultimately joins in highlighting the gang of policing that was a problem back in 1993 and still a problem today. Nutman also has commentary criticizing those in power. As society falls into chaos, we see the government willing to sacrifice its own people just so those in power can stay in power. There is a major plot point where those in power turn the Pentagon into something they call “The Farm” and have the military round-up and arrest civilians, so the people in power can have meat to survive, while the poor and common people are rounded up and killed. It is a bleak book that shows humanity at its worst.
However, there are moments of light. Corvino, despite being a hitman, he is a good person, he has a dark past and was forced to become the person he is. But he tries to help people and tries to do the right thing. There are also side characters who put themselves in harm’s way to do the right thing and protect people. It takes an apocalypse to divide us, but also to unite us.
Overall, this book is tons of fun, fast-paced, and is severely underread. It’s currently available in ebook format through Amazon or through the publisher’s website at this link. Give this book a read and check out a fantastic forgotten classic that the horror genre needs to dig back up.
https://overlookconnection.com/catalo...
July 11, 2024
A book that reads like a D-budget slasher film. A comet appears that makes the freshly dead come back to life with no further explanation. The story mostly follows three characters trying to survive the end of the world with a handful of micro-stories mixed in about other people's last days. Its hard not to compare this to "The Stand" by Stephen King which came out about a decade earlier and follows a similar plot and similar structure but greatly cut down in scope.
I would give it a one star rating because the book is little more then graphic depictions of gore, sex, and rape. I'm not squeamish or prudish but the vast majority of these scenes do nothing for the paper thin story. If you took out all the pointlessly graphic descriptions of gore half the book would be gone, if you took out all the sex you'd be left with about thirty pages of book. The only thing that gave it an extra star is because of the one interesting thing the story did.
Mild Spoilers ahead: One of the three central stories involves a character that gets killed and comes back as a zombie so about half his story is written from the perspective of the undead. Normally just a mindless set piece in stories like this the perspective of the zombie was the highlight of this story. The depiction of a glimmer of humanity who's now a prisoner of its new primal urges is one of the most interesting takes on the undead I've ran across. The epilogue is another micro story also written from the perspective of a now zombie president and was probably the best written scene in the whole book. Its a shame "zombie-vision" its such a small part of the over all story because it was the only piece that showed any originality or creativity in this otherwise completely forgettable gore fest.
I would give it a one star rating because the book is little more then graphic depictions of gore, sex, and rape. I'm not squeamish or prudish but the vast majority of these scenes do nothing for the paper thin story. If you took out all the pointlessly graphic descriptions of gore half the book would be gone, if you took out all the sex you'd be left with about thirty pages of book. The only thing that gave it an extra star is because of the one interesting thing the story did.
Mild Spoilers ahead: One of the three central stories involves a character that gets killed and comes back as a zombie so about half his story is written from the perspective of the undead. Normally just a mindless set piece in stories like this the perspective of the zombie was the highlight of this story. The depiction of a glimmer of humanity who's now a prisoner of its new primal urges is one of the most interesting takes on the undead I've ran across. The epilogue is another micro story also written from the perspective of a now zombie president and was probably the best written scene in the whole book. Its a shame "zombie-vision" its such a small part of the over all story because it was the only piece that showed any originality or creativity in this otherwise completely forgettable gore fest.
February 8, 2025
There's a lot to like here between the cheese. One of the main characters is a kung-fu assassin, to give you an idea of the vibe of this book. The other main characters are a seperated couple, trying to reconnect as the world implodes around them.
The story took awhile to get going. We meet a quick succession of thinly written supporting players, who come and go in the two main stories. There were a few standalone chapters, which I quite enjoyed, describing the zombie virus that is overtaking the United States in 90s America. Slowly, at first, but quickening as the story picks up steam and the gore and violence are ramped up to 11.
The too-often sexual violence is off-putting, and blaming "a different time" doesn't make the ick-factor any less hard to shake. It definately adds to the downer vibe this book doesn't shy away from. The author has a lot of big ideas. About war, abuse, addiction, politics, race. Reading him lacing them all together suggests a better novel somewhere that this one never quite reaches the height of.
Not when you can have undead zombies biting their cheating husbands where it counts and the kung-fu assassin shooting his way into a Pentagon overtaken by the dead.
The final chapters were the books strongest, in my opinion, and did freak me out. Not because of the drooling zombies but because it reaches for something more meaningful, and stays with me as I write this. When you are in a living hell is it better to fight or join the hoard?
The story took awhile to get going. We meet a quick succession of thinly written supporting players, who come and go in the two main stories. There were a few standalone chapters, which I quite enjoyed, describing the zombie virus that is overtaking the United States in 90s America. Slowly, at first, but quickening as the story picks up steam and the gore and violence are ramped up to 11.
The too-often sexual violence is off-putting, and blaming "a different time" doesn't make the ick-factor any less hard to shake. It definately adds to the downer vibe this book doesn't shy away from. The author has a lot of big ideas. About war, abuse, addiction, politics, race. Reading him lacing them all together suggests a better novel somewhere that this one never quite reaches the height of.
Not when you can have undead zombies biting their cheating husbands where it counts and the kung-fu assassin shooting his way into a Pentagon overtaken by the dead.
The final chapters were the books strongest, in my opinion, and did freak me out. Not because of the drooling zombies but because it reaches for something more meaningful, and stays with me as I write this. When you are in a living hell is it better to fight or join the hoard?
November 9, 2022
Philip Nutman’s Wet Work (yes, both the author’s name and title are accidentally hilarious) certainly doesn’t reanimate the zombie/plague subgenre of horror, but, at least, it does throw in a few new elements. One of the main storylines involves a covert ops group along with some double crossing and light political intrigue. The zombies come in different varieties, some smart and agile, others slow and remedial. And we get to see some of the later events through the eyes of a zombie, as he tries to grapple with his own insatiable hunger for human flesh.
Unfortunately, the novel’s structure has some problems. Instead of letting readers discover the cause of the living dead along with the characters, Nutman comes right out the explanation toward the beginning. It might have been fairly obvious anyway, but this early revelation feels unnecessary. And he just doesn’t establish the central storyline well enough before veering off into tangential ones, which undercuts some of the attempted emotional impacts he goes for later on.
But, if nothing else, this does allow Nutman to lean into the violence, which he does heavily. If there’s a way a body can be eviscerated, it’s probably in here.
Unfortunately, the novel’s structure has some problems. Instead of letting readers discover the cause of the living dead along with the characters, Nutman comes right out the explanation toward the beginning. It might have been fairly obvious anyway, but this early revelation feels unnecessary. And he just doesn’t establish the central storyline well enough before veering off into tangential ones, which undercuts some of the attempted emotional impacts he goes for later on.
But, if nothing else, this does allow Nutman to lean into the violence, which he does heavily. If there’s a way a body can be eviscerated, it’s probably in here.
April 19, 2021
Made it almost halfway through and the plot hadn't moved along. Book follows two main characters but nothing happens to them the first half the book, just in between scenes of their pathetic home life's and in between those are whole scenes of random people, their pathetic home lives, then their death scene, which are usually cut short for lame dramatic affect. This book came from a short story, that should have stayed a short story. Book sucks, read something else instead.
March 17, 2024
Brutal and brilliant!
Quite possibly THE best zombie apocalypse novel I have ever read (or movie I have ever seen!) George A. Romero meets Jack Reacher with a helping of The Stand and a twist of Swan Song. The narrative is fast paced and expertly written, the action is relentless and full on, keeping the reader turning one gore splattered page after the other. It is brutal, it is brilliant, it is beautiful!
Quite possibly THE best zombie apocalypse novel I have ever read (or movie I have ever seen!) George A. Romero meets Jack Reacher with a helping of The Stand and a twist of Swan Song. The narrative is fast paced and expertly written, the action is relentless and full on, keeping the reader turning one gore splattered page after the other. It is brutal, it is brilliant, it is beautiful!
January 14, 2025
Bonkers book, in the best way. But it takes a bit of time for it to ramp up and find itself before it lets loose. Interesting to compare to the story "Wet Work" by the same author that is in the much-celebrate Book of the Dead Skipp/Spector anthology. I think I might like the short story a touch more, but this was a very fun read.
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