David Moody presents the final book in the acclaimed AUTUMN series.
The human race is finished. Mankind is all but dead and only a handful of frightened individuals remain. These people have survived through chance, not skill, and they are a desperate bunch: cheating lovers, workshy civil servants, permanently drunk publicans, teenage rebels, obsessive accountants, failed husbands, first-time cross-dressers, disrobed priests and more...
Experience the end of the world as seen from almost fifty different perspectives. Part-companion, part-guidebook and part-sequel, AUTUMN: THE HUMAN CONDITION follows the individual stories of these desperate survivors through their final dark days.
'The best survival horror since Richard Matheson's I am Legend' - Wayne Simmons, author of Flu and Plastic Jesus
'Moody is as imaginative as Barker, as compulsory as King, and as addictive as Palahniuk' - Scream the horror magazine
'Takes the genre in a fascinating new direction. If John Wyndham was alive and writing zombie novels, they'd read like this' - Jonathan Maberry, best-selling author of Patient Zero and Rot & Ruin
David Moody first released Hater in 2006, and without an agent, succeeded in selling the film rights for the novel to Mark Johnson (producer, Breaking Bad) and Guillermo Del Toro (director, The Shape of Water, Pan's Labyrinth). Moody's seminal zombie novel Autumn was made into a movie starring Dexter Fletcher and David Carradine. He has an unhealthy fascination with the end of the world and likes to write books about ordinary folks going through absolute hell. With the publication of continuing Hater and Autumn stories, Moody has cemented his reputation as a writer of suspense-laced SF/horror, and "farther out" genre books of all description.
These books. I had no idea what I was starting when I began this messed up journey. I truly hated the first book. But, I had bought a bundle at Hastings, so I read on! After book two, there was no getting rid of me! I'd have fought to keep reading. So on, and the series progresses..This last book just tore my heart out. Tossed it on the pavement and said "what?" Most heartfelt end ever. Thank you for that, Mr. Moody. Crushed.
I was really disappointed. I loved the series but this book felt totally unnecessary. It had snippets of characters-some telling before you encountered them in various books in the series. It also had short chapters of characters that never were. Why? I don't know. It's a little odd after reading through the whole arc of the series to then go back to the beginning and get some info-which is really useless. The only story I found interesting was that of Dean, the little boy. Also, this book does not address any of the how did the germ thing get released/started/etc.etc. Obviously there was some early communication because the military was notified to go into their bunkers. But other than in one book, the mention of the lab in one book, nothing. And that's not awful-it's just, if you are going to have an extra book-why not go there? So, if you have read the series, feel free to skip this one.
5 stats for HUMOR!! So I get to know more about some characters backgrounds, and I really loved the demented ones! Not everyone is going to react healthy I should say but... too many people..just give up!! So I felt like I went from.. who was this character, ..(um ps Julia made it on the helo to the island), to laughing to being so sad.... I loved Amy's view! But still have unanswered questions about the"cure/virus" that made everyone suffocate. I get the self preservation..which weirdly the unaffected didn't have much of. But as an answer to why the zombies were created...eh?? I don't know. I'm glad it was unique and full of meaning about life!! Not that many zombie books actually make you think.. still after reading them.
The human race is finished. Mankind is all but dead and only a handful of frightened individuals remain. These people have survived through chance, not skill, and they are a desperate bunch: cheating lovers, workshy civil servants, permanently drunk publicans, teenage rebels, obsessive accountants, failed husbands, first-time cross-dressers, disrobed priests and more...
David has done it once again. This is an amazing addition to the Autumn Series. All questions are finally answered and we revisit some of the surviors from the series.
All I can add is THANK YOU DAVID MOODY! I really enjoyed this book and while I am sad to see the series put to rest, I must say that you did an excellent job of putting it to bed. I will be having nightmares about this for a long time! :)
Autumn: The Human Condition is the forth book in David Moody’s post-apocalyptic zombie saga. The book is a companion book that explores various characters sub-plots during the time of the Autumn novels. The book evolved from the Autumn: Echoes series that has been available as a free download from David Moody’s website. The book draws reference to a lot from all three previous Autumn novels, mostly from the third instalment Autumn: Purification.
From the very start of this companion book, the mood and atmosphere is very downbeat and dark, as the reader is taken through 35 vastly different perspectives of the end of the world. The book is broken down into time frames, starting with the horrific beginning of the epidemic to the final hours of the few survivors. A thoroughly enjoyable and in-depth read throughout, you get to follow the path of one particular zombie, allowing the reader to empathise and try to understand a little more of the stages that the zombies went through in the previous three novels.
With the exciting news recently released of David’s next proposed Autumn novel, this book is a great piece of reading to take you further into his desperate world. There are a few chapters in the book that stand alone as fantastic pieces of fiction such as “Duck and Cover”, “Office Politics”, “The Human Condition” and “The Garden Shed”. Each give a very full and eventful tale from other survivors that were never visited in the previous books. There is also a final chapter entitled “Underground” that takes you back to the underground army bunker from “The City” and “Purification”, where you get to see the after effects of the devastating battle that was fought there. This particular chapter, in my opinion, is one of Moody’s most dark, horrific and gore filled chapters to date.
The book ends with a few pages of character references that simply details and reminds the reader briefly of who and where the characters in the book appeared in the other original ‘Autumn’ books.
The book is released through David Moody's own publishing company 'Infected Books' and runs for a total of 320 pages.
OK this was the 4th book in my Ultimate Undead Collection: Zombie Apocalypse Best Sellers. The description lists this as the final book, number 6, of the Autumn series. First of all, I don't understand why the 6th book of a series would be included in a set of different Zombie books, but whatever. After reading this book and a few reviews, I'm thinking it's really more of a companion book than the 6th book of the series, but again whatever. It's really just a compilation of a lot of different characters and snippets of their experiences in a zombie apocalypse. There was really nothing to care about in this book. There's no connection between the characters for someone who hasn't read the other books in the series; there's no real story. And the characters aren't likable at all in any way; most of them are stupid, or stereotypical, or completely forgettable. OK I take that back. There was one character who was likable. Just one. That's it. I'm honestly not sure why I even finished this book. Just stubborn I guess.
great ending to a great series. the different and untold stories of people who survived, did not survive and began walking again is a really great take on the situation. giving insight to how different people of different backgrounds and age deal with the situation, i definitely loved that psychological feel about it. i wish the author went more in depth about the dead and how they came to cower and hide from the living instead of follow them.nevertheless, it was still an excellent book. one of the best "zombie" books ive ever read
This book wasn't exciting like the others so far in the Autumn series. Even though the ebook was 237 pages long, it was a slow read. I just don't care enough about these characters to want to know what they were doing the moment the apocalypse hit, especially the random people who aren't in any of the other books.
A little over a year ago, I read Autumn a bleak and powerful tale of the walking dead by British author David Moody. Now, having read the first novel and subsequent four follow-up books, I have just finished Autumn: The Human Condition which purports to be the final book in this epic series.
For those not familiar with the author or the series, David Moody took a massive gamble when he unleashed his zombie novel Autumn on the internet for FREE. The gamble paid off and more than half a million downloads, a handful of sequels and movie deals later, Moody has the kind of acclaim that many authors can only dream of. Having read more than 1,500 pages set within the Autumn universe that Moody has created, I genuinely wondered where he could possibly take another entry in the series. Thankfully, the author delivers further high quality prose in The Human Condition, setting out almost fifty stories and weighing in at a mammoth 158,000 words; these are stories which narrate the untold experiences of survivors familiar to readers of the preceding entries in the Autumn series, new characters and also from an aspect less visited within the zombie sub-genre, providing a unique experience for fans of horror fiction.
Stylistically, the set-up for The Human Condition is slightly different to its predecessors in that this is a collection of differing tales with snapshots of survivor's stories, discrete tales unconnected with the characters from the Autumn universe; and explanations of what many of the key players from the preceding novels faced prior to coming to the reader's attention. Additionally, Moody provides the reader with something that fans of Autumn have craved for quite some time: the root cause of the downfall of mankind.
The strength of The Human Condition, as with all of the entries in the Autumn series, lies with the author's focus on what may be considered the ordinary. This is not a story about a scientist's race against time to find a cure for the zombie plague or of a unit of special forces taking down the walking dead or simply a collection of dialogue leading from one action setpiece to another; this is about how the apocalypse has impacted on "regular" people, with unsurprisingly differing outcomes. Replete with mental breakdowns, base emotions, murder, suicide and despair, The Human Condition is a suitably bleak addition to the Autumn series. That said, Moody does not neglect the more visceral and brutal aspects of this horror tome either. Death and dread are ever-present, disease is rampant and the hordes of walking dead continue to decompose, resulting in increasingly nightmarish cadavers plaguing the living and leaving behind unholy excretia and detritus wherever they roam.
It is difficult for me to look at The Human Condition objectively since I am such a fan of the series and feel that this title is a powerful and striking way to finish the overall narrative. I was concerned that a casual reader approaching this as a standalone title could perhaps be left confused by proceedings, having no appreciation of what has occurred in the previous five books. However, The Human Condition does offer an overview from the initial cataclysmic event to the tribulations of many of the key characters from Autumn, via some fantastic interludes illustrating the experiences of different people, some of my favourites being The Garden Shed, Angel and; Joe and Me.
Originally released in 2005, this latest edition of Autumn: The Human Condition contains fourteen new stories, developing further the dark and bleak universe that the author has created; garnering praise from many such as best-selling award-winning author Jonathan Maberry and will enhance the appreciation of Autumn from pre-existing fans and serve as a powerhouse of an introduction to the uninitiated.
Including his Autumn trilogy, this (prequel) novel, the fourth in the telling of the aftermath of a pandemic which first wipes out more than 99% of the population of England and then inexplicably resuscitates 1/3rd of its dead, is inhabited by even more insufferable cowards, quislings, momma's boys and whiny, ineffectual women; all of them so hopelessly incapacitated by grief, fear and habitual stubbornness and stupidity that death is merely a waiting game. The stalwart, survivalist hero cum superhero protagonist trope (be they male or female) so prevalent in the writing of the author's American counterparts in the genre are very much a rare breed.
And I've yet to decide whether or not this is welcome turnabout, because the vast majority of Mr. Moody's disagreeable characters compelled this reader to ration empathy in the same manner a survivor would have to ration fresh water after the collapse of modern civilization. While this could be regarded as a welcome respite from the usual Rah Rah American survivalist fiction, the majority of Mr. Moody's survivors placed considerable demands on this reader's patience; unless, of course, you're not like me and your tolerance threshold for fools and their follies is vastly higher.
I would add, however, that if you substitute a number of Mr. Moody's characters with various personalities from Eastenders certain stories aquire definite comic appeal.
There's no real reason to read The Human Condition. It's a disparate collection of short stories which seem to be chapters from the previous three books, modified somewhat, but rehashed none-the-less. So, with no new content, no singular plot, no continuity, there's little left to compel the reader. It's not a guide book either, since it offers very little new data. I'd struggle to find a reason to recommend this entry in the series, it's for Autumn fans only.
"Autumn: The Human Condition" works as the final piece to Moody's awesome zombie series. Recounting the final moments of countless people before the virus struck, Moody shows us that the human condition is not necessarily always noble and bright. There are mean, stupid, nasty people out there, and Moody writes them well.
Finished the last book of the Autumn series. I think this one was an add-on as the one before is described as the last of the series. This one is more of a set of short stories based on various characters, some of which we have met before, and various situations throughout the series. It gives more insight into the people and situation. I thought it was good and an entertaining read. It does start to get a little repetitive as you near the end as you read about of people's situations and actions at the time of billions of people dying. Same story just a different person. There's even chapters from the zombies perspective. I will say that the second last chapter was great as it is the story of how the zombie apocalypse (not really referred to as such in the book) actually happened. Very good chapter and a great "what would you have done" situation or "if you knew what would happen would you still do it" aspect. The very last chapter is a "Who's Who". The characters and situations that you read about throughout are then linked back to where or when they were in the previous books. I liked this but would rather have had that tidbit at the end of each chapter as I read it. So many names to follow; I remembered most but not all. I found there were more errors (typos and omitted words) in this book; I find that annoying. Overall a good book and a pretty good series!
Nice addition to the Autumn series giving an insight to the struggles of other survivors, a look back at the previously unmentioned exploits of survivors already featured, a sort of perspective from one of the undead and a finale from the island group. A most satisfactory way to end the series.
I really enjoyed the premise of this book. It went into the backstory of some of the main characters in the series, while also discussing characters and stories that were not in the series but added to the backstory. The only issue I had was editing/grammar errors that took away from the story.
I loved the Autumn Series but I really struggled to get through this book. The only part I really liked was the ending, as it gave some important info.
This collection of short stories centered around the Autumn universe, created by David Moody, is sometimes billed as "Autumn 3.5" so I decided that's exactly where I'd read it as I plowed through the series, between three and four. Now I'm wondering if I shouldn't have waited until the series was finished.
This was less of a quick read than the other books in the series, partly because I found so many of the stories to be profoundly sad, and because a consistent action oriented plot wasn't at play. I did enjoy getting to see the backstories of some of the characters brought into the story in books 2 and 3. Many of these tales deal with minor characters, and one or two stories deal with characters not seen in the previous books at all. Those tend to be the saddest, mainly because through poor choices or misfortune they didn't make it far enough in this changed world to make it to any of the larger groups of survivors.
You get to find out details of what happened at the community center from book 1, which was of particular interest to me, and at the military bunker once the survivors left. You also, toward the end, get a hint of what's going to happen on the island with Michael and Emma, and that's where I wish I'd waited. If you want to get on with the rest of the stories in this book mid-series, stop before the last one unless you want an abbreviated version of the Michael and Emma future. I'm kind of worried that I've ruined the rest of the series for myself, and definitely would have preferred to to be let in on one particular plot point that's spoiled by that last story - read at your own risk!
It took me a while to read this as it made me so involved with the characters that I had to go re-read the original books they were mentioned in.
I love the way this puts meat on the bones of some of the characters we did not get to know in the original series, and reminded me how good an author Mr Moody is, as he draws you in to the situation and quickly makes you care about thse people.
As a writing exercise, It's a great example of how authors should create well rounded create characters quickly, and demonstrates that a good author should immerse themselves in the lives of everyone in the books, even in they are not pivitoal to drive the plot along.
I look foward to reading more of this talented authors work.
the human condition was the conclusion of David Moody's Autumn about a pandemic that swept across the globe killing almost everyone, only for them to come back to life as dangerous and curious zombies.
this companion book does a good job about filling in the details of some of the characters in the book, survivors that were never discovered by the groups the book was following and even tries to offer an explanation as to how it all happened.
there were a few sections of the book I had trouble with, only because of the content as it relates directly to children. other wise this was a fantastic book that goes great with the rest of the series.
I started the series in 2007. I loved the whole series, and often reread the books! I had to special order them all, and have them shipped overseas!! lol It grips you in from the beginning and gets your mind going. You want the characters to survive, even though you know they won't all make it. And for some, you want them to get what's coming to them, even though you know they won't. It really made me think about what I would do in the same circumstances!!
I kind of wish it would keep going, as I feel invested in the futures of the characters! I would recommend this to anyone who is more interested in the Zombie STORY with more thinking behind it than all blood, guts and gore!!
I found this book to be very well written with an amazing and interesting twist on the traditional zombie apocalypse. With all those different points of views and characters intertwining, it was well organized.
One thing that troubled me was nearing the end, when the solider finally emerges from the underground base to head topside. As the book mentioned, there must have been a battle that took place the wiped out many of the "zombies". But while he was walking through town he saw nothing and no one. I found that hard to believe that they all just disappeared and he was driven into a clear, yet ultimate decision to take his own life.
With this novel I had come to expect soemthing great from this one given the fantastic storylines with the characters in the previous books.
Only a few of the characters were worth reading their stories while the rest were just boring. Breaking up the stories so you could start another characters story was just too confusing. By the time you get to another character you could have forgotten about what the first character was doing. For me it was easier to follow these characters seperately so I could understand their story much better.
If this book is ever relaunched I hope the characters story's are put in their proper order and not broken up, this book would be a better read.