Dead & Gone

Rot & Ruin #2.5

by Jonathan Maberry

How did Riot escape from the Night Church? How did she survive the Rot & Ruin—and the horrors of her own past? There’s only one way to find out....

Jonathan Maberry explores the origins of a fascinating new character in an exclusive e-short story set in the land of the Rot & Ruin.

Genres: Zombies, Young Adult, Horror, Post Apocalyptic, Short Stories, Dystopia, Fantasy

84 pages, ebook

First published August 14, 2012

About the author

JONATHAN MABERRY is a NYTimes bestselling author, #1 Audible bestseller, 5-time Bram Stoker Award-winner, 4-time Scribe Award winner, Inkpot Award winner, comic book writer, and producer. He is the author of more than 50 novels, 190 short stories, 16 short story collections, 30 graphic novels, 14 nonfiction books, and has edited 26 anthologies. His vampire apocalypse book series, V-WARS, was a Netflix original series starring Ian Somerhalder. His 2009-10 run as writer on the Black Panther comic formed a large chunk of the recent blockbuster film, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. His bestselling YA zombie series, Rot & Ruin is in development for film at Alcon Entertainment; and John Wick director, Chad Stahelski, is developing Jonathan’s Joe Ledger Thrillers for TV. Jonathan writes in multiple genres including suspense, thriller, horror, science fiction, epic fantasy, and action; and he writes for adults, teens and middle grade. His works include The Pine Deep Trilogy, The Kagen the Damned Trilogy, NecroTek, Ink, Glimpse, the Rot & Ruin series, the Dead of Night series, The Wolfman, X-Files Origins: Devil’s Advocate, The Sleepers War (with Weston Ochse), Mars One, and many others. He is the editor of high-profile anthologies including Weird Tales: 100 Years of Weird, The X-Files, Aliens: Bug Hunt, Out of Tune, Don’t Turn out the Lights: A Tribute to Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Baker Street Irregulars, Nights of the Living Dead, Shadows & Verse, and others. His comics include Marvel Zombies Return, The Punisher: Naked Kills, Wolverine: Ghosts, Godzilla vs Cthulhu: Death May Die, Bad Blood and many others. Jonathan has written in many popular licensed worlds, including Hellboy, True Blood, The Wolfman, John Carter of Mars, Sherlock Holmes, C.H.U.D., Diablo IV, Deadlands, World of Warcraft, Planet of the Apes, Aliens, Predator, Karl Kolchak, and many others. He the president of the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers, and the editor of Weird Tales Magazine. He lives in San Diego, California. Find him online at www.jonathanmaberry.com

Reviews

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, I'm not really a big fan of novellas or short stories. Too many times they don't feel whole and just seem like something to hold you off until the next full novel. Dead & Gone somehow manages to not feel like an afterthought, but like a fully thought-out story.

I really enjoyed this; especially being introduced to this new character (and faction? maybe?) as well as another group of survivors. It's immensely interesting to see that people are dealing with this post-apocalyptic world in different ways, as it seems to depend on what region they were originally from. Kind of like how one state can have different accents, people call the zombies different names and have different ideologies. It's all incredibly fascinating and adds a new color to the main quadrilogy.

[Karen’s Library · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this insight into how Riot became Riot!

[Michael Parrish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read any of the other reviews I've written about author Jonathan Maberry's body of work and you'll see I have an affinity for his unique brand of intriguing characters that find themselves in extreme circumstances that smack of the real or at least feasible world. He spends time crafting something that stays with you after you turn the Kindle off or close the cover on the last page - he's done it again in this e-book mini set in the YA world of Benny Imura (Rot & Ruin / Dust & Decay / the forthcoming Flesh & Bone). In this story, we spend time with Riot...a girl we're told we will meet in Flesh & Blood...who has an intriguing story behind why she's walking The Ruin --- what the survivors of the Apocalypse called the remnants of the former US. Sister Margaret to some, Maggie to others, and now Riot to the new-found friends she meets in the wastes, the girl is vibrant and real and Maberry works his usual magic with her. I learned a lot about her character in those 80 or so pages of the book - a great self-contained story and a good character study - and yet I couldn't wait to learn more. For someone who's mastered the telling of a chilling horror story (Pine Deep trilogy), a fast-paced tech thriller (the Ledger series), and horror-action (Dead of Night), amongst others, Maberry deftly presents a young-adult world accessible to both the target YA audience and those of us on the upper-end of the adult demo, with young characters that spring off the page and edge-of-the-seat pacing. The upshot here is that even if you have never set foot in Maberry's Ruin-universe before, the tale stands on its own, but you pick up lots of color and background for areas hinted at in the previous books. This e-book is a must-buy for fans and newcomers alike.

[Heather Faville · Rating 5 out of 5]

Make no bones about it, I am a HUGE fan of author Jonathan Maberry, especially the world he has created in the Rot & Ruin series. Dead & Gone is a novella within this world that introduces us to a new character Riot and a group of zealots who are attempting to get Riot back to where, in their eyes, she belongs. Along the way Riot meets some new, dare she say, friends and we learn quite a bit about Riot's past and maybe even a glimpse into her future.

I really enjoyed meeting some new characters and, of course, being a part of the rot & ruin again. Dead & Gone is filled with tons of action, both with threat from the gray people aka zoms and with those surviving in the ruin. We learn about a new faction of survivors that we can only assume with be causing Benny Imura and his gang a bit of trouble come Flesh & Bone (book 3) and I cannot wait to find out what leads them to act the way they do.

Fairly short review, as I don't want to give away anything, but trust me...if you have read Rot & Ruin and Dust & Decay, you will not want to miss Dead & Gone. I would even go so far as to say if you are curious about this world you could download Dead & Gone as a trial standalone to test the waters, but trust me...you'll be buying the series.

[Melissa Chung · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novella comes right after Dust & Decay and before you read Flesh & Bone. It's about Sister Margaret a young girl brought up in the Church of Night. She is raised to be a reaper. You would think that she was destined to kill zombies because in the Rot & Ruin that is the majority, but no. Her fellow church goers are actually hunting breathers. Living people that the church claim need to be given the "gift of darkness" especially the children. "Children should not have to suffer in this land of misery and woe".

Sister Margaret (aka Riot) is running away from this band of murderers and just wants to be left alone but is being hunted down as a deserter. While on the run she is rescued by two boys Gummi Bear and Jolt. They are apart of a group of orphans known as the scavengers and they don't kill living or dead. "There's been enough death in the world. We don't kill".

Riot joins this band of orphans and that is were the novella ends. I am hopeful we will see more of this kick ass little lady and her quick blades in the 3rd book.

[C Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Glad I read this before the 3rd book in the series.

In this short story, we meet Riot, a new character who's fighting and living alone in the vast openness of the former America, now called the Rot & Ruin. She used to be from the "Night Church", a bunch of righteous bastards who believe that "sending people and zombies to the darkness" is the path to peace, or to put it in understandable terms, killing them is God's will.

I'm once again pulled in by Jonathan Maberry's superb storytelling. The suspense never stops, one never knows if the character will die fighting or live another day. I'm wracked with emotions; some scenes caused palpitations, Mr Maberry painted a vivid picture on how to survive "out there in the wild", it's a little depressing. Another aspect I admire about his writing is the fight scenes, it's like watching it on film. He writes the scenes clearly unlike other authors. Sometimes I imagine it in slow motion. I can't wait to read the next books!

[*Suzy (ereaderuser)* · Rating 5 out of 5]

No compaints about this book! Well maybe one... I wish it was longer!

[Иван Величков · Rating 3 out of 5]

Всъщност това е един кратък епизод от миналото на Райът, от който не научаваме абсолютно нищо ново за нея, за мотивите ѝ или за църквата на нощта. Даже по-скоро поставя повече въпроси.
Все пак е приятна загрявка преди следващата книга. А, води се между втора и трета част, но не препоръчвам да се чете преди третата - разваля част от мистерията.

[Kreiden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone is part of the piece of the puzzle! I am awed and emotional about these characters in their own way of survival. A nerve-wrecking quick reads.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Working my way through Bits & Pieces, and this has been my favorite story yet. It’s been a while since I read the original quadrilogy, so it took me a smidge to figure out who our previously named Sister Margaret actually was in the canon. Solid story!

[Tom Britton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick read if enjoy Rot and Ruin . Not a zombie guy but enjoy this series. Little to religious with the Night Church that a turn off . But overall a quick fun read

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

U.

[Bhawana Dhandhania · Rating 5 out of 5]

Different from the rest but just as impactful

[Joan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is Riot's story before she teams up with Benny and the gang.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sadly, it has been too long and I don't recall who Riot is (so I must go re-read the other books..right? :-) But I did enjoy her story, and it did get me hyped up to read more in this series (some of them, again)

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novella takes place between Dust and Decay and Flesh and Bone and introduces us to a few new characters who I am assuming will show up in Flesh and Bone. Although I know technically all of these books are categorized as horror, they haven't felt like horror to me. This novella had me on the edge of my seat though. We are also introduced to an organization called the Night Church, and organization that totally scares me from what we little bits and pieces we learn about it in this novella (and that I assume will be a major player in Flesh and Bone). This definitely got me excited to read the next book in this series.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this is a mini-novella set between the second and third book of the Benny Imura Zombie series by Jonathan Maberry.

I still found myself struggling like I did with the second book with the "manga-esque" feeling I keep getting from the series. It was assuaged a little this time by me trying to put myself in the mindset that this is just the first zombie series I've read that takes place in a alternate fantasy world.

I'm not a fan of fiction books that are -mostly- set in our real world with just small changes like magic or what have you. That's why I'm struggling with this, because most zombie books are set as if a zombie apocalypse happened to our current world. But everything that happens in the book is too FREAKING AWESOME to be real.

I know this is nitpicking, especially with yanno, the whole zombie bit, but that's probably why I don't like it as much. I just got the third book in the series and I'll be plunging into that, and just trying to prepare my brain for the shift in mindset needed for this type of setting. It's mostly our world, everyone is just really awesome at what they do apparently.

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dead and Gone is a little novella set between Dust and Decay and Flesh and Blood. In it we meet Riot aka Sister Margaret. She is running away from the Church of Night zealots who want to return her to their life. Along the way she fights zombies and tries not to starve in the desert. Then she meets Jolt and Gummi Bear. They are survivors with a different mentality...they don't kill. They see the world and survival as a game to be played and enjoyed.

It was nice to meet new characters in the Rot & Ruin of the world. Riot was interesting in a very damaged sort of way. Not sure what I think of Jolt and Gummi...they are interesting and fun characters but their philosophy just seems strange in the world they are living in. I am sure we will find out more about the Church of Night as they cause trouble for Benny and the gang (which I am sure they will). Can't wait to read the next installment.

[Amy at bookgoonie · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are like me, I’m wondering who the heck is Riot? The characters in this novella expand our knowledge of the Rot & Ruin beyond the circle of Benny Imura. We really don’t learn a lot about Riot’s background other than she is a trained killer of the Night Church. She must have a moral compass, because she is trying to escape this CRAZY HATER of a cult. She is doing decent job until a zombie horde stumbles upon her. These hordes give me the heebie jeebies.

Luckily in bounces, Jolt and his trusty sidekick Gummi Bear. You will fall in insta-love with their carefree gypsy-ness. Not only do they help a gal out, but Jolt reminds us of Tommy’s philosophy…Hasn’t there been enough killing and death? Why not build a New World in love, community and understanding?

Jonathan Maberry gives us more characters to love out in the Rot & Ruin. I sure hope I see them again in Flesh & Bone.

[Gabrielle Neah · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was nice to meet few new INTRIGUING characters that will be in the 3rd book. Both showed extremely different philosophies- Riot that was running away from the night church, that hoped to kill its way to making a "quiet world" while Jolt and GummiBear were playful and alive to think that THEY DON'T KILL ZOMS they only ran and bike their way for survival. It was cool that riot joined jolt and gummi bear. It left me wondering how riot will adjust and how will they face the threat of the night church if they don't even kill.


though it was cut short -____- and left me hanging(especially on the end part, with benny falling and blah blah blah), i enjoyed it. It really made me expect that next book will be wild and bad ass.

[Malissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't rate books (extra content) #.5 or #1.5, but I'm rating this one. Maybe the difference is that I'm now waiting on bk 3's release and so this new character (who may show up in bk 3, right? Right?!) is fresh for me. Maybe it's that this short story was made to be a more complete, stand alone story since it was being offered for a couple bucks rather than free. Either way, I really, really enjoyed Riot's story and want more. Short as it is, it sucked me in faster than Rot & Ruin. That's probably partly because I'm already familiar with the world of the story now, but I'd happily take a whole book featuring this character.

[Nate · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed with this short story. For one, I expected 78+ pages of content, but it's more like 60 with some pages containing just 1 sentence and another 10-15 pages containing story from upcoming Flesh and Bone novel.

With regards to plot, this book amounts to Riot being hungry and on the run, then meeting characters more interesting than herself. I would much rather this story have been about Jolt and Gummi Bear. Or Maberry could have picked up Riot's story earlier in her life and painted a more detailed picture of the Reapers to build out the world of the Rot and Ruin more, not to mention making Riot's life more interesting to read about.

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read in the Imura saga that takes place between book two and three that pulls you right back into the rot and ruin. Maberry did an excellent job of introducing all new characters, but making it feel like you've known them and makes you want to root for them. It jump started my excitement for Flesh and Bone and I can't wait to see how these characters and developments are incorporated into the series.

[Marla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was expecting a short tale about Benny Imura, but what I got instead was a story about Sister Margaret, a runaway from a cult of hunters. Sister Margaret meets 2 boys who don't kill, not even zombies, and Riot joins their group. I am looking forward to meeting up with her in the next book, Flesh & Bone.

With reservations:
violence, death

[Brian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Blargle... I rampaged through the other books in the series, but this one felt like it took forever. There wasn't a good overarching anything (e.g. plot, set of characters). This felt like the author had some scenes leftover from writing the other books he didn't know what to do with and wrapped them up into Dead & Gone (aka Rot & Ruin: Directors Cut).

Maybe if you are a HUGE fan this will feel worthwhile, otherwise, save yourself the time.

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good short story. It introduced you to new characters who I am sure play a large part in the next book in the series. Additionally it tied in a character we already knew, Solomon Jones. It didnt give too many details but it included him so I am sure that it will play a part in the next chapter of Benny Imura.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this series! This look at how Riot became Riot is fun, exciting, suspenseful, and zombie filled - just like the rest of the series.

Mayberry has created an unforgettable cast of characters and a zombie adventure unlike any other in this series and I can't wait to find ou what happens next.

[Martha Washam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I too was very disappointed in this one. I am a huge fan, and my complaint really isnt with the novella so much as the lack of care by the publisher? Was purchased via BN in the packaged deal....I have pages and paragraphs missing in this one.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good. I had already read the first three books before reading this. I didn't have an ereader yet! But reading this after the third book made me understand Riot a bit more. Great writing, and Writer!

[Kathleen Lanman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this story to be too short to do more than set up a cast of characters that are then left unexplored. Are the characters Riot meets members of the group she is part of in the third book? Perhaps if I had read this before reading Flesh & Bone, I would have made some connections.