Dead World

by Shaun Jeffrey

Long after a pandemic swept the world, society has crumbled. A remnant of human civilization ekes out an existence in a closed community called Sanctuary. To control their population, the ruling brethren use a lottery, the winners of which join the new gods that reside beyond the walls. But when her daughter is chosen, Anna Charles discovers the lottery is fixed by despotic church leader, Roman Quail. Now in a frantic bid to save her family, she flees into the hostile environment outside Sanctuary where only the strongest survive, and where all their gods are dead. Literally.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Zombies

74 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 25, 2012

About the author

Shaun Jeffrey was brought up in a house in a cemetery, so it was only natural for his prose to stray towards the dark side when he started writing. He has had five novels published, The Kult, Killers, Evilution, Fangtooth and Deadfall, and one collection of short stories, Voyeurs of Death. He has also had over 40 short stories published in places such as Dark Discoveries and Cemetery Dance. His novel The Kult was optioned for film.

Reviews

[M.A. Comley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having never read a zombie book before I can't tell if this book is a good example of its genre. Having said that the author created a very believable plot and succeeded in bringing his characters alive on the page. Oops, no pun intended. ;-)

I found myself rooting for Anna despite her minor mishap of wronging her husband.

A short read worthy of sitting on anyone's Kindle.

Can't wait to read one of Shaun's horror books in the future, when time permits.

[Nancy (The Avid Reader) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anna Charles and her family live inside the walls of a city called the Sanctuary. They have lived inside of these walls their whole lives. They have never seen what or who lives on the outside. They are told that the Gods live on the other side of the walls. They hold rituals to make room for newborns. A lottery is held in order to choose who will go out and live among the Gods and become immortal.

When Anna's daughter Lucy is chosen she knows that the lottery was rigged because Lucy is too young to be chosen according to the rules of the lottery. She knows that Roman one of the rulers of Sanctuary fixed the lottery because she broke off their affair. Anna knows that what they have been told about the Gods their whole lives is not the truth. When Lucy is sent to the outside Anna takes her two sons and goes after Lucy.

This group of people have been told a story, a fairy tell all their lives that the Gods live on the other side of the locked walls and that these Gods are immortal. The whole community believes this story because they have never seen another human being that was not from their community. They've been told this story from their parents, grandparents, great grandparents, aunts and uncles all down through the generations so it is all they know. They have never heard or seen another living human being that has never lived outside their little world. Its more than likely that the ones that knew the truth about the Gods in the beginning are all dead now.

I loved the whole concept, idea that is being portrayed in Dead World. It is not just about zombies or Gods in general. I love the aspect of telling a story with in a story. Shaun Jeffrey has an amazing, awesome way of telling a story. He is a brilliant story teller. To understand what he is trying to say you would have to have an open mind. The whole time I was reading Dead World I kept thinking that Shaun Jeffrey has a way of telling stories that makes me think of Stephen King.

[Lorraine Versini · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the way Shaun does zombies. His stories always come up with something original that makes them different to the usual zombie stuff. 
When I originally heard of the plot, I was really excited about it, and I've really been looking forward to the novella being released. 
It's got the usual awesome Jeffrey ingredients: action, suspense, gory bits, and once again visual details and story that fit the could-be-a-movie criteria. 
Can't help but feel that it would have benefited from a few more pages, or maybe it's just me needing a bigger fix each time, but all in all it was a great fast-paced read. 
And if you liked Dead World, you'll definitely want to read Deadfall

[Neil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anna and her family live in a place called Sanctuary, a former prison, which is controlled by religious leaders. Space is so tight that when a child is born they hold a ceremony/lottery to see which elderly person is to be immortalised by the gods (out with old, in with the new), who live outside the walls. When Anna defies the religious leader and finds herself outside the walls with her children, so starts a chain of dramatic events. There are other beings outside the walls that are far worse than the gods they worship.

A short and fast-paced zombie novella, with an unusual religious twist. Recommended.

[Chad Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good and fast-paced zombie story with an interesting plot. I liked the idea of zombies perceived as Gods by an isolated post-apocalyptic community and how a lottery is performed to "immortalize" members of the community when children are born. This story contains influences of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" but takes them further when a mother rebels against the lottery as well as the community as a whole due to her own mistakes and the consequences which result from fixing those mistakes (don't want to give the story away). An enjoyable read and highly recommended.

[Rosemary (grooving with the Picts) · Rating 4 out of 5]

There wasn't actually anything sparklingly new about this shortish novel, but the author wrote well enough that it didn't matter. Brief but effectual scene setting at the start throws the reader into a brutish future world where the new religion or government effectively controls the fate of the contained population. The descriptions were good and gave a good image of the author's world, and how one family reacts to this horror makes for a satisfying read.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a book I would normally have picked up pre-kindle, but my love for Indie Authors ensured that I gave it a go. I found it an impulsive read and sped through it as I was eager to find out what happens.
I liked all the characters, particularly Anna and I loved it when she got her own back on the horrid Roman.
An interesting story and one which makes me want to read more zombies and more Shaun Jeffrey!

[Faye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this snappy paced novella. It's a nice change to read a zombie apocalypse story with a different slant to it. Kind of complimented the Carrie Ryan trilogy - the Forest of Hands & Teeth etc.

[Patti (baconater) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-written treatment of a typical post-apocalyptic zombie novella. No surprises in the plot but a generally enjoyable read.

[Elizabeth A.]

When a top secret scientific project seeking to discover the key to immortality goes horribly wrong a pandemic is unleashed which decimates the world’s population. Those who survived banded into small, scattered pockets of civilization.

One such group, a walled commune known as Sanctuary, has managed to restore some semblance of order to their lives, but not without a cost. The community is only able to sustain a finite number of people, so once a baby reaches an age that suggests the child will in fact survive a ’space’ in the commune must be made for the new member… by expelling an adult.

Exactly who gets expelled is determined by a lottery wherein a name is chosen at random from all eligible members. Sanctuary’s ruling Brethren have been able to get the populace to willingly go along with the lottery by convincing them that the member who is expelled will join the Gods and become immortal.

When Anna Charles’s young daughter, Lucy, is ‘chosen’ in the lottery as retaliation against Anna because of an affair she was having, things start to unravel. Already suspicious of the Brethren’s teachings because of her Mother-in-Law’s cryptic preachings about the one, true God, Anna decides to take Lucy and her son and flee Sanctuary. Pursued by her husband and the manipulative member of the Brethren who fixed the lottery, Anna soon discovers how terrifyingly right her Mother-in-Law was; those who walk beyond the walls of Sanctuary are indeed immortal, but they are far from being Gods.

Shaun Jeffrey’s Dead World is a quick, entertaining read which will bring to mind both Shirley Jackson’s classic The Lottery as well as Logan’s Run by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson, with a little touch of the film The Book of Eli showing up as well. In somewhat of a departure for Jeffrey, who normally sticks with straight-ahead horror and crime fiction, Dead World has an undeniable religious undertone which questions the potential consequences of placing blind trust in spiritual leaders.

That isolated segments of a post-apocalyptic society would evolve different stories and rituals to explain the catastrophic circumstances which led to civilization’s collapse is not a unique idea, but Jeffrey’s incorporation of zombies into that, and the people of Sanctuary’s belief that the zombies’s undead state is a reflection of God status, makes for a nice twist on both the post-apocalyptic and zombie genres.

[Cheryl Landmark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nicely-written, fast-paced zombie novella (and, my very first ebook read on my brand-new Kindle Paperwhite, by the way!).

Mr. Jeffrey succeeded in creating a scary, creepy post-apocalyptic world in which zombies are viewed as immortal gods by the surviving populace. That is, until one brave woman, determined to save her children, questioned the priests' doctrine and discovered the horrifying truth. I really liked Anna and her gritty determination and courage, despite her unfortuate indiscretion that led to her rash decision.

If you like the zombie genre and a read that will leave you sitting on the edge of your seat, I would highly recommend this book.

[KitCat · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a free Kindle book, this was okay. It was a cool idea to make the zombies into a source of a religion that worships the seemingly immortals that are prowling the forest. Otherwise, it was a pretty standard, post apocalyptic story with zombies, slavery, cannibals and general bad guys everywhere. At the end, there was an attempt to get a moral out of the quest for immortality but it did not fit into the book very well.

[Brandyne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not something I would typically read; but wanted to give it a try. Dead World was face paced, and easy to get into.

[Eileen · Rating 3 out of 5]

So far, so good. It's short and sweet - but so far, well written and novel ideas.