Necromancer: Necropolis Rising II

by Dave Jeffery

The Lazarus Initiative was meant to be finished. The research lost, the terrible creatures it created, destroyed. A city was wiped out to make sure of it. But its legacy lives on. Deep in the belly of the super tanker Ulysses, a scientific city seeks to recreate the project that brings its unwitting subjects back from the dead. Corralled in a steel pit, The Risen wait for the sign from their Necromancer, a master who is thought to have died with the science that made him. Then, one night, The Risen hear his call ...

Genres: Horror

284 pages, Paperback

First published September 10, 2013

About the author

"Jeffery has a connoisseur's eye for the grotesque and mind-bending."—STEPHEN VOLK, writer of GHOSTWATCH and AFTERLIFE,


Dave Jeffery is a British Fantasy Award and The Bridport Prize Finalist. He is author of 19 novels, two collections, and numerous short stories. His Necropolis Rising series and yeti adventure Frostbite have both featured on the Amazon #1 bestseller list, while the A Quiet Apocalypse series continues to garner critical acclaim. His YA work includes the Beatrice Beecham supernatural mystery series and Finding Jericho. His screenwriting credits include award winning short films Ascension and Derelict.

Before retiring to write full-time, Jeffery worked in the NHS for 35 years specialising in the field of mental health nursing and risk management. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Mental Health Studies and a Master of Science Degree in Health Studies. His novel Finding Jericho is an amalgamation of his experiences of working with service users who have experienced stigma and social exclusion due to their mental illness. As a novel, Finding Jericho (Demain Publishing) has featured on both the BBC Health and Independent Schools Entrance Examination Board's ‘Recommended Reading’ lists

Jeffery is a member of the Society of Authors, British Fantasy Society (also as a regular book reviewer), and actively involved in the Horror Writers Association where he is a mentor on the HWA Mentorship Scheme and recipient of the HWA Mentor of the Year Award, 2022. He was also co-chair of the HWA Wellness Committee for a three-year tenure.

Jeffery is married with two children and lives in Worcestershire, UK.

Forthcoming Releases:

SEPTEMBER 2025

False Prophet: A Novel (Eerie River Publishing)

This Way Lies Madness Anthology (co-edited with Lee Murray, Flame Tree Press)

MAY 2026

Screams & Whispers Collection (Horrorsmith Publishing)

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Opening with a bang, as two people succumb to ‘something’ in wonderfully gory ways, this picks up some time after the events of the first book (the excellent ‘Necropolis Rising’) that left Birmingham a walled city, following the experiments of Dr James Whittington whose Lazarus Initiative aimed to create and control zombies. He died in the blast that wiped the city but his experiment, a young man named Thom, survived and he’s now a Necromancer, capable of communicating with the dead. He and two ex-soldiers, Suze & Gaz, are holed up in Wyoming, trying to stay under the radar of Phoenix Industries, who funded Whittington originally. They now have his daughter, Dr Barbara Cope, working for them, in a well funded zombie laboratory on a huge oil tanker called the Ulysses. I was a big fan of the original, which mixed brisk writing with good pulpy horror and thrills and it’s a delight to return to the universe and find the writer producing stronger work. Whilst this does still have those 70s-throwback rock-‘em/shock-‘em sequences, there’s more at stake here with the richly written characters suffering at every conceivable step of the way. The Thom story-line is gripping from the off, as the claustrophobia sinks in before moving through the wide open spaces of Wyoming to Miss Molly’s diner. There, in a tautly written and prolonged sequence, they and the diner patrons have a deadly encounter with a Phoenix Industries funded five-person SWAT-type force, all armed to the teeth. The action is brutal, the characterisation just right and the atmosphere is detailed and concise - you can see the diner and its furniture and feel the dust on your face as the characters walk around. The parallel storyline, as Cope conducts her experiments, revels in the claustrophobia of the ship location, in the middle of the ocean, with a zombie army gathering in the hold. It’s this section which features some of the best writing, as two characters - manager Harding and security chief Boyce - are forced to hide their love for one another, whilst the observance of such leads to the spectacular climax. Moving at a cracking pace and never once letting up, this is filled with characters you quickly care about and it’s safe to say that nobody comes out of the chaos unscathed in one way or another. The zombie action is minimal but it works better for that, the sequences where they’re on the rampage being brutal and brisk, whilst The Risen’s ability to retain information is well explored. Beyond all this, Jeffery knows how to write action and his major set pieces are all superbly staged, dragging the reader along in a tumble of incidents. A must for fans of zombie fiction, definitely, but also for those who like their horror to be well-written good fun. Featuring a suitably bleak ending, I really enjoyed this and would highly recommend it.

[Simon Fletcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Zombie genre was never one that I’ve really enjoyed. It always seemed to spend too much time grossing out the reader or viewer rather than telling a story. But if that’s what you like then that’s what you like. More recently though a number of writers, directors and producers, only too aware of the pitfalls and limitations of the genre, have started to play with it a little. Its therefore gratifying to see Dave Jeffrey's second outing in print.

This book, in what is now turning into a cracking little trilogy, takes up the action a short while after the end of the first. We find Thom, Gaz and Suzie hiding out in the middle of nowhere trying to stay anonymous and off the Phoenix Industries radar. This however is not the way things are going to go and, lets face it, its not the way we want things to go. We soon find, as do the protagonists, that things have a way of going bad very quickly.

The book is well paced throughout and maintains the tone and feel that I enjoyed so much from the first. The story fairly rips by and is entertaining throughout. Having said this though there are times when I found myself wishing he didn’t cut away from one set piece element of the story to another in an attempt to keep the time line continuous (I can cope with a little discontinuous storytelling.

My one real quibble though is Dave’s need to try to flesh out (if you’ll excuse the pun) all of his characters in an attempt to lose that one dimensionality of the genre. The problem with this though is that some of the characters don’t need fleshing out. They are the zombie literature equivalent of the Star Trek red shirt. They are going to die, we all know they’re going to die we only need to wait to find out where and how.

That said though I for one will be looking forward to the next instalment.

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great follow up to Necropolis Rising. Thoroughly enjoyable and fast-paced story. Will there be a III?