Trapped between the military and the dead, the remaining survivors carve out a fragile and uncertain existence. In a moment of madness their safety and security is jeopardised. All hope is gone, but in the rotting shadows of the past, they find the key to what remains of their future.
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.
"The balance of our world has been changed forever. Mankind is being cleansed from the face of the planet. Purification has begun."
Book 3 of David Moody's Autumn series comes to a well put together ending in this book Autumn: Purification. This is the final book of the main storyline even though there are two additional books in the Autumn world. The best aspect to this series is the consistency from one book to the next. This is not your everyday meat grinder zombie story where the heroes are all killing machines. This series main plot revolves around survival and coming to grips with loss. Loss of loved ones, of life's achievements, and of course loss of hope.
Michael, Emma, Cooper, Jack, Kelly, and Steven are all back in this final installment. The survivors from book two go through more trials and tribulations in their pursuit to try and find somewhere that they can be safe. A place where they can at least survive the new horrors of the world. They have all come to accept that they must outlast the decaying undead. Moody paints a bleak picture in this series and it is very easy to identify with this group of likable characters.
Moody's writing in this book is more polished, more descriptive, and down right just better written. He adds a great deal of feeling and emotion to this book with descriptive prose and also through implications of the unsaid as well. A good example of both is the following action scene:
"Ellis didn’t have time to think or speak, instead he concentrated on letting bullet after bullet fly into the rotting crowd. An unexpected arc of flame burnt through the air just ahead of him, illuminating the full horror of the scene for a few heart-stopping seconds. The twisted, grotesque faces of hundreds of corpses were suddenly exposed and Ellis found himself staring at them in disgust and revulsion, praying for the light to fade and the dark to return. The nearest corpses were less than ten metres ahead"
The corpses in this series, the undead, or zombies, are not like Romero's forever copied creepy shufflers. The undead in this series undergo a great number of changes, of which I will not add any spoilers by explaining what they are. These changes however, are mimiced and expressed in that of the survivors. I loved all the hidden truths and the gravity of the situation that our cast is exposed to and which they go through. Moody gives the reader a great deal to think about and to feel as this one comes to its conclusion.
The slow building of tension and danger of this book, coupled with the slow changes to the world and to the undead, after such an incredibly fast destruction gave this series an awesome feel. I really enjoyed these three books and am a fan of Moody's writing style and characterizations. To me, this series is a post apocapyltic must read. Great read.
"The balance of our world has been changed forever. Mankind is being cleansed from the face of the planet. Purification has begun."
I read this book right after the second one and enjoyed this one a lot more. This time Michael and Emma were in it from the get go and the book was all about getting to the place that could give them all a future.
There are more characters introduced who have some handy skills and knowledge but we still have Michael, Emma, Cooper, Donna, Armitage, and Croft. We learn from the new characters what caused this all to happen in the first place and the bodies keep changing. They are more aggressive and are an increasing threat on the security of the survivors.
There are more situations in this book compared to the others where the bodies are coming after the surviors, so there was a bit more heart pounding scenarios that made for a great read. We are really vested in several of these characters now and are rooting for them throughout this book. There are some choke up moments in this one as well.
Once again, Moody stays true to how the events would play out if this were to really happen. It is very believable and realistic. That is what sets this series by Moody apart from other zombie books and makes these more scary. It is like we are getting a glimpse of what is going to happen to is on the future and it ain't pretty. I thought Moody came up with the perfect ending to this third book as well. He left a lot of questions and makes you wonder and think about it even after you have finished reading it.
Highly recommend this series to anyone who likes zombie books or books about human nature in general.
I am a big fan of the Hater series by Moody and picked up the Autumn series thinking it would be just as good. I should, perhaps, reconsider how often I go around thinking. I managed to finished Autumn, Autumn: Disintegration and Autumn: Purification and am giving them all the same reviews here just so that I might save another bibliophile the same fate.
The Autumn series is slow, two-dimensional, filled with gawd-awful dialogue and generally a chore to read. The fact that I read the full three books is a testament to my own stubbornness and in no way should be seen as an indication that anyone else should read all three. I've given each title two stars because it is, in fact, an interesting premise. But nothing more.
This was a solid build-up of "creep." These zombies are changing and surely not for the better; and the humans aren't anything to sneeze at either.
Well-written story again from Mr Moody, and the zombies decided not to play second fiddle to our main characters. They have evolved...
...with the future so bleak, can our human survivors cope with these new changes? Is there any true escape, and if so; is it all physical? What happens now?
This story had me tense and on edge throughout; can't wait for the next book.
“Autumn: Purification” is the third book of David Moody’s four part post-apocalyptic zombie saga. Following on directly from where “Autumn: The City” left off, the reader should already be aware of all the main characters. Bursting with action from the start, the survivors are thrown once again into the dangerous rotting world of the undead, mixing horrific tension with the dark mental anguish that the survivors feel daily. Influenced heavily but Romero’s zombie films, the book takes on many of the ideas and situations tackled in his “Dead” series. We meet another set of survivors who have access to a helicopter and a plane. And we finally see the survivors pulling together (well, not all of them) to try and make a future for themselves.
Perhaps the best written of the ‘Autumn’ books, ‘Purification’ uses many styles and techniques to encapsulate the harrowing experiences that the survivors go through. The book often jumps to an almost diary-like first person view-point for a chapter, to then go back to the standard third-person style. The author spends a large amount of the time submerging the reader into the emotions and mental stress of each character producing some beautiful characterization that draws you into this almost believable scenario.
The zombies take on new and interesting changes, which are detailed throughout the book. It’s almost as if they are evolving, which brings a nice twist on the classic zombie genre. The book ends in a hopeful, yet still with a dark and slightly negative tone, that concludes the books nicely. The final book of the series is “Autumn: The Human Condition”, that is a companion book which brings to an end the Autumn saga.
“Autumn: Purification” is a truly superb novel that will appeal and indeed please every good fan of the zombie genre. Original, dark, fast-paced and in-depth; the book is a fantastic piece of horror fiction.
The novel is released through David Moody's own publishing company 'Infected Books' and runs for a total of 287 pages.
Having read David Moody’s original book Autumn online for free a bunch of years back and gotten The City a few months back with a Border’s coupon, I knew I had to pre-order Purification when it popped up as a suggestion for me on Amazon back in March. Mr. Moody’s portrayal of survivors among a billion dead makes for an astounding read. There are always those people you want to shake, or hug, or just leave alone. While reading the books, I couldn’t find a single character I could shrug off and not care whether they lived or died. Of course, there were some I just hoped would die, but I wasn’t apathetic about it.
His descriptions of the rancid population made reading the book by lantern light during a hurricane even more fun. I had to close the curtains to makes sure the wandering dead couldn’t see the light flickering in the window. No, I’m not kidding. It was creepy.
Great book in the series. Very, very creepy - the silence, the darkness, the hatred of the undead. Moody's Autumn series has a very different feel from the typical zombie book - quite obviously, there's no munching on body parts. But it's the silent creep factor that gets to you - so much scarier than most things I've read in a long, long while.
I didn't realize that this book was #3 to a series when I found it in a used book bargain bin--but I remember reading the first two books of this author's Hater series and liking them (not sure why I didn't finish off the series, will have to go back). This book featuring survivors going from underground military base to tiny island isn't really a standalone and suffers greatly. There's no real depth to any of the characters and when some of them inevitably get torn apart by zombies, you don't get why some grieve harder than others since there's almost no flashback or reference to what happened in the previous books.
I also found the main two characters and their romance deeply annoying and grosser than the zombies. The zombies really are the best part of the book--which something of a twist in how it's usually portrayed. One day, 99% of the populace fall down dead, and a few days later get back up with a hunger for brains--it's airborne, so deep military installations or people lucky enough to be in a hazmat suit (but how will they ever eat or drink?) and a tiny percentage who are naturally immune are the only ones left.
I guess I'll have to read the first two to get any insight to the tragedy (the source is hinted at in this book and found all the main people even more annoying since they didn't care or didn't seem overly interested in wtf happened). The people also deeply fail Zombie 101 to where I stopped caring () It's a fast and light read so not much of a time investment, but very weak on its own, which is somewhat my bad for hopping in midway.
Another book where issues could be avoided if a character just reversed a couple meters and went the right way. WHO is just gunna hope they can meet up with a convoy if they go through some random side streets???? Michael read like an authors self insert/mouth piece for when the author couldn't figure out how to show something. In fact, Michael often just predicts what's going to happen. It doesn't come across as being observant, but more like he has some sort of outside knowledge. Almost like he's mind melded with the AUTHOR. At the same time, he's deeply unlikeable and often comes across and snarky and cruel. You know the kind of guy at work or school who just has to point out shit you already know like you're some sort of idiot.
99 percent of the women are weepy and emotional and always putting people in danger. All the problems with the previous books just compound here. definitely will not be continuing with this series.
Il meccanismo è consolidato e chiaro: ad ogni episodio, l'autore ciccia fuori un trope sugli zombi e lo fa diventare il cardine della storia -si era partiti da quelli in stato di trance, a quelli aggressivi, e mo' siamo a quelli che cominciano a reagire... Continua l'apprezzabile gestione del cast, con pochi membri per ora intoccabili ed altri a cui pure ti eri affezionato e che ti schiattano sotto gli occhi. In questo senso, non sai mai cosa aspettarti, soprattutto quando la morte di certuni trasforma la sopravvivenza anche apparentemente più sicura in un problema delicato. E' giusto che i nostri siano ancora allo sbaraglio, con un filo di speranza sul finale, con militari ancora inutili e istituzioni eclissate. E' un mondo assurdamente difficile, dove tutto ciò che davamo per scontato non si può rimettere in piedi facile facile. Non con la minaccia principale che continua ad evolversi... Solito difetto: reiterazioni irritantissime quanto inutili. E, a livello di worldbuilding -pardon, UNbuilding, sorry ma dopo un paio di mesi scarsi per quanto il cibo fresco sia andato in malora, le infrastrutture non vanno a pezzi di certo, e procurarsi almeno i mezzi per saccheggiare supermercati e farmacie si possono procurare.
In my opinion, the third book in the Autumn series is the weakest of the first 3 books. (I've only read the first 3 so far). But with that being said, it's still a fantastic read. My main issue with this book, is I feel like the pacing wasn't nearly as good as it was in the first two books (Autumn & The City). However, I think this book has some of the strongest character moments in the series so far, too. So I I have a love hate relationship with "Purification."
It gives my favorite character a lot of time to shine, which I appreciated, but a lot of the other characters set up in "The City" are given harsh back seats. Character development definitely isn't David Moody's strong suit, and the little that's there doesn't feel like enough.
However, the setting, tone and atmosphere this book gives are enough to get me to read on. The rest of the Autumn series is definitely in my "To Be Read" list.
And I know for a fact David Moody is an incredibly strong author. Look to "Hater" for proof on that. These Autumn books are some of his earliest written published works, so it makes sense they wouldn't be as strong as his later novels. But I'm excited to finish the series.
The characters in the first book ran and hid from zombies. They met a some more characters in the second book who were running and hiding, and together they ran and hid. Purification (mis-labelled the last in the trilogy) offers little in the way of conclusion either. In fact the content is still composed of running and hiding, rinse and repeat. There is little in the way of character development from the survivors, a clear division exists between runners and fodder. That all said, Purification doesn't set out to be different, it's niche in the genre is to fulfil a bleak zombie-infested Britain and it does just that. Straight-forward and unsurprising Purification is an easy time-filler and stays true to the two previous entries.
Another good read. This is book 3 of 6 in the series. This book picks right up where #2 finished. Same situation and same characters continued on. This book has more gore and zombie interactions then the first two. You also get a better feel for many of the characters as we spend more time getting to know everyone. I did find that this book started to steer in a direction of something big and sinister happening but it didn't really develop as such. The zombies continue to change but I was waiting for some big changes that would lead to huge impacts on the survivors, but that never seemed to materialize.
The second book was rather boring and almost seemed like a copy of the first. But I decided to give the third a try and I’m glad I did. It was definitely a lot more exciting than the second book. The characters actually got out of their hiding places more and tried to do something, anything. Before it seemed like all they did was hide and argue. They still did that a little bit in this book but it wasn’t anything compared to the first two books. The “zombies” are getting more interesting as well. There was a lot more action, too. This book actually left me wanting to know what the characters will do next.
Loving this series and this has been the best yet. At last a possible cause is mentioned in the third novel although it may just be hearsay. The undead, or at least some of them, appear to be slowly adapting. Meanwhile our band of survivors are doing just that, surviving, despite the incredible numbers of zombies. This ends with some hope, albeit small, for the survivors this is focused on. Great writing.
En serio trate de seguir con este libro, pero no pude. Iba a la mitad y me hartó, me di cuenta que prefiero los libros post-apocalipsis con un poco más de acción.
Leí hasta la parte donde salen del búnker y de ahí me pase al final así que se como termina, pero no soporte seguir leyendo, tal vez después regrese a terminarlo, pero no creo. En definitiva se me hicieron libros aburridos, que no ofrecen nada nuevo al genero zombie.
I loved the book but some unexplained inconsistencies (like what happened to the 2 year old? It was mentioned that the 8 year old was the youngest survivor this book). Also, I wish there was a recap of Michael and Emma, a discussion with people from the airfield maybe, of their pasts. I forgot what both were doing prior to the event.
Overall, I was racing through anxiously and finished in two days. Solid story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Never thought I would become interested in zombie movies, tv shows and books but here i am. If you are a zombie fan, I highly recomened this series. I think this was so far the best of the 3. Looking froward to reading book 4. But taking a break from the anxiousness I get from these types of books. Also I like the changes of the of the zombies. This is how The Walking Dead should have had their Walkers (zombies) become over time like these in the book.
Última parte de esta trilogía en la cual seguimos la vida de los personajes que han sobrevivido a esta epidemia. Entretenida y más cercana a lo que podría ser un mundo liderado por muertos andantes, en un momento de los tres libros te explica como se produjo que es de agradecer. Recomendada a todos los amantes del género.
Es más 2.5*. La historia es repetitiva y en varias partes aburrida. Si bien tiene algunas características en los zombis que es diferente a otras, no las explora ni da más detalles. Tal vez su autor pensaba en una continuación. Si es así cortó la historia en un final abrupto y sin sentido. Si no hay segunda parte, pues peor aún.
Another solid addition to the series. The farther along we go the more the author takes into consideration and it's very entertaining to see the progression of the living and undead within this world. Looking forward to the next installment.
Fascinating continuation of the aftermath of the plague. There's more action in this one than the prior two books and lots more suspense-it's a real page turner. Off to the next one! Can't wait to see what happens next.
Me ha gustado mucho. Te tiene intrigado todo el rato. La forma de ser de los zombies me ha gustado, muy interesante y realista. Me ha dejado con ganas de leer más a este autor y su serie Septiembre Zombie.
I have thoroughly enjoyed this trilogy. I found it impossible to set down. The fact that the dead kept evolving was totally engaging. I found the action scenes to be well written and the main characters had substance. A great read!
Es la tercera parte de esta serie zombie. En España sólo están publicados estos 3 y la verdad es que cada uno me ha gustado menos que el anterior. La historia es aburrida, los personajes súper planos y la forma de escribir no me acaba de gustar.
Otro más, solo aventuras, buenas aventuras, pero lo único que innova, es el tratamiento que da a los zombis. No es la mejor serie de aventuras, pero tampoco la peor, una más.