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Dead or Alive
Zombies Invade the Old West!
Arizona, 1889: Two desperate brothers pull off a white-knuckled stagecoach robbery. They think their troubles are behind them when they stash the cash in a desert hideaway--but their misfortune is just beginning. The Smith brothers have wandered into a horror from the region's shamanistic tribal past, and when the dead start rising from their graves to stalk and consume the living, the Smiths find themselves fighting for their lives in an undead nightmare. Jailed and tortured in a dusty frontier town overwhelmed by zombies, the boys bust free and join a ragged band of townspeople for a gut-wrenching Old West showdown against the ravenous, shambling dead.
Arizona, 1889: Two desperate brothers pull off a white-knuckled stagecoach robbery. They think their troubles are behind them when they stash the cash in a desert hideaway--but their misfortune is just beginning. The Smith brothers have wandered into a horror from the region's shamanistic tribal past, and when the dead start rising from their graves to stalk and consume the living, the Smiths find themselves fighting for their lives in an undead nightmare. Jailed and tortured in a dusty frontier town overwhelmed by zombies, the boys bust free and join a ragged band of townspeople for a gut-wrenching Old West showdown against the ravenous, shambling dead.
210 pages, Nook
First published January 18, 2011
3 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
William Harms
88 books6 followersWilliam Harms has written for Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Image Comics, Top Cow, Sony Computer Entertainment, and 2K. He was the lead writer on Mafia III, which was widely acclaimed for its narrative and was nominated for several writing awards, including a British Academy Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Games Award.
His graphic novel series Impaler was nominated for an International Horror Guild Award.
He resides in Northern California.
His graphic novel series Impaler was nominated for an International Horror Guild Award.
He resides in Northern California.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 25, 2011
"Shaun of the Deadwood." OK, maybe not as comedic as Shaun of the Dead, nor as brutal as Deadwood, but you get the idea. It's violent, it's gory. And there were several times I laughed out loud. I love westerns, sci-fi westerns, old TV show westerns, steampunk westerns, wild west computer games, you name it. If it's Wild West, I'm there. Not so much a fan of zombies, but dang if this book didn't make me a fan of undead westerns! The novel has the same brisk, gritty style and clever banter as William Harms wrote for the award-winning video game inFAMOUS, which is so far my favorite video game of all time. OK, so now they need to make "Dead or Alive" into a video game. And a movie. Only one word of caution: Some content may not be suitable for young'uns. If it were a TV show, it would be on HBO and rated TV-MA.
March 31, 2014
The melding of genres is a tricky business. Too much of one and the reader can often be left disappointed. Too little of either and it all seems a bit pointless. William Harms in his western-zombie mash tries his level best to find the right mix between two beloved genres, and the result is a partially successful mixture of classic western tropes and typical zombie mayhem.
Dead or Alive follows John and Paul, two brothers who are chalk and cheese but have no-one other than each other as they attempt to get a little back of what Paul believes life owes them. They unwittingly unleash a wave of zombies on an unsuspecting small town and before long are forced band together with a number of the townsfolk in a desperate attempt to survive that which cannot be killed (except by a well placed gun shot to the head).
It's a promising idea, but one that struggles to blend both genres. The first half is pure western and takes an awfully long time before a zombie rears its decaying head. Once they do, things hurtle toward a final last stand, but through this fast-paced action, it becomes apparent that Harms expects the reader to care about characters who have no-more than one or two pages dedicated to their development. In fact, aside from Paul and John, no other character comes across as even slightly well-rounded.
Worse is his baffling decision to have the zombies retain certain levels of cognitive-functioning - such as speech - when it suits the story for them to do so. One moment, a zombie is having a back and forth conversation with a living character, and the next, the remaining horde are acting like shambling monsters who act on instinct and could barely manage to croak a "Braaiins!" between them.
Still, Dead or Alive is silly fun that knows exactly what it is and isn't trying to win any literary awards. It also has the courage to wrap things up with a certain degree of finality that is refreshing. Harms apparently writes for computer games, and this novel very much feels like it could be the basic storyline for a Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare type game.
In short, if you like Westerns, you could do far worse for a distracting read over a wet weekend.
2.5 Pesky Indian Curses for Dead or Alive.
This review and others like it can be found at Horror After Dark
Dead or Alive follows John and Paul, two brothers who are chalk and cheese but have no-one other than each other as they attempt to get a little back of what Paul believes life owes them. They unwittingly unleash a wave of zombies on an unsuspecting small town and before long are forced band together with a number of the townsfolk in a desperate attempt to survive that which cannot be killed (except by a well placed gun shot to the head).
It's a promising idea, but one that struggles to blend both genres. The first half is pure western and takes an awfully long time before a zombie rears its decaying head. Once they do, things hurtle toward a final last stand, but through this fast-paced action, it becomes apparent that Harms expects the reader to care about characters who have no-more than one or two pages dedicated to their development. In fact, aside from Paul and John, no other character comes across as even slightly well-rounded.
Worse is his baffling decision to have the zombies retain certain levels of cognitive-functioning - such as speech - when it suits the story for them to do so. One moment, a zombie is having a back and forth conversation with a living character, and the next, the remaining horde are acting like shambling monsters who act on instinct and could barely manage to croak a "Braaiins!" between them.
Still, Dead or Alive is silly fun that knows exactly what it is and isn't trying to win any literary awards. It also has the courage to wrap things up with a certain degree of finality that is refreshing. Harms apparently writes for computer games, and this novel very much feels like it could be the basic storyline for a Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare type game.
In short, if you like Westerns, you could do far worse for a distracting read over a wet weekend.
2.5 Pesky Indian Curses for Dead or Alive.
This review and others like it can be found at Horror After Dark
February 5, 2013
John and Paul are poor ranch hands just trying to make some money so they can one day own their own ranch. At least that is what John wants, where as Paul feels like everyone owes him something. After a run of bad luck, mostly caused by Paul they find themselves in jail. While locked up a sickness hits the small town and most everyone dies, only to rise back up to eat their neighbors.
I LOVE zombies, I'm the person that already has a plan for when the zombie apocalypse comes. If it has anything to do with zombies I'm watching it or reading it. So of course when I found a western zombie book I was tickled pink. I had only ever read one other book with this theme, and couldn't wait to get into another one.
It started off pretty slow, but it gave us a chance to find out how the zombies came along (can't blame it on some crappy vaccine in a western) and to get to know John and Paul a little better. Though I never really felt a close connection to the two of them. Paul was just a jerk, and John just followed Paul around even though he didn't like the way he did things. But I guess people do strange things when it comes to family. You get a few different point of views from different survivors and that was pretty neat. But for the most part they were not very developed, a few of them you didn't know anything about until they were getting chased down.
But what killed this book for me was the talking zombies. Call me old fashion but zombies should never ever talk, not even to give you the "bbbbbrrraaaiiinnnssss" line. It just makes me mad, I mean its a dead body, that okay yes came back to some life so it could eat you, but vocal cords should not be working here. . .that and they would be mostly brain dead anyway. I mean they laid there dead for a time with no oxygen getting any where before they stood back by to try and tear you to pieces. I can handle the running zombies, but not the talking ones. Given what some of them where saying was funny.
That and these zombies seemed pretty dang smart, I'm going back on the no oxygen thing here again, being about to use tools around them to get the job done. I mean more credit to someone that wants to try and make their own version of a zombie, but there is really only so much you can change about them before they aren't zombies anymore. If the author had called them something else I would have been able to handle all the changes a little better. Its just a zombie talking to me just doesn't work, not unless he is Bub.
Would I recommend this book? I'm on the fence here, everyone I know likes classic zombies and not insult slinging ones. So I wouldn't have anyone that would want to read it after I told them the zombies talked. But if I ever found someone that just didn't care I guess I would tell them to pick this one up
This is the same review I gave on Amazon, so don't be surprised if you read it again over there :D
I LOVE zombies, I'm the person that already has a plan for when the zombie apocalypse comes. If it has anything to do with zombies I'm watching it or reading it. So of course when I found a western zombie book I was tickled pink. I had only ever read one other book with this theme, and couldn't wait to get into another one.
It started off pretty slow, but it gave us a chance to find out how the zombies came along (can't blame it on some crappy vaccine in a western) and to get to know John and Paul a little better. Though I never really felt a close connection to the two of them. Paul was just a jerk, and John just followed Paul around even though he didn't like the way he did things. But I guess people do strange things when it comes to family. You get a few different point of views from different survivors and that was pretty neat. But for the most part they were not very developed, a few of them you didn't know anything about until they were getting chased down.
But what killed this book for me was the talking zombies. Call me old fashion but zombies should never ever talk, not even to give you the "bbbbbrrraaaiiinnnssss" line. It just makes me mad, I mean its a dead body, that okay yes came back to some life so it could eat you, but vocal cords should not be working here. . .that and they would be mostly brain dead anyway. I mean they laid there dead for a time with no oxygen getting any where before they stood back by to try and tear you to pieces. I can handle the running zombies, but not the talking ones. Given what some of them where saying was funny.
That and these zombies seemed pretty dang smart, I'm going back on the no oxygen thing here again, being about to use tools around them to get the job done. I mean more credit to someone that wants to try and make their own version of a zombie, but there is really only so much you can change about them before they aren't zombies anymore. If the author had called them something else I would have been able to handle all the changes a little better. Its just a zombie talking to me just doesn't work, not unless he is Bub.
Would I recommend this book? I'm on the fence here, everyone I know likes classic zombies and not insult slinging ones. So I wouldn't have anyone that would want to read it after I told them the zombies talked. But if I ever found someone that just didn't care I guess I would tell them to pick this one up
This is the same review I gave on Amazon, so don't be surprised if you read it again over there :D
December 17, 2012
This was definitely not the greatest read, barely two of the characters are even developed, but it was quite enjoyable. This book reads almost exactly how I envision the Deadlands rpg setting: intelligent malevolent zombies, crooked cowhands, crooked cops, lots of shoot-em-up and an apocalypse (a minor, localized one) created by Indian shamans out to fight back against white oppression.
It's fun, quick, a little silly, bloody. A nice romp. One negative distraction for me though, and it clearly dates me as a child of the 80s: the rotund, violent and corrupt sheriff who's after the law-breaking brothers in the story is named Rosco Trane--too big a Dukes of Hazzard reference for me not to eye roll.
B-
It's fun, quick, a little silly, bloody. A nice romp. One negative distraction for me though, and it clearly dates me as a child of the 80s: the rotund, violent and corrupt sheriff who's after the law-breaking brothers in the story is named Rosco Trane--too big a Dukes of Hazzard reference for me not to eye roll.
B-
October 17, 2012
Zombies that talk. And talk crap...took half the book of uninteresting characters to even see the first zombie. Lame, lame, lame.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews