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Dead Brigade
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- GenresScience FictionAudiobook
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
39 people want to read
About the author
James Lovegrove
151 books663 followersJames Lovegrove is the author of several acclaimed novels and books for children.
James was born on Christmas Eve 1965 and, having dabbled in writing at school, first took to it seriously while at university. A short story of his won a college competition. The prize was £15, and it had cost £18 to get the story professionally typed. This taught him a hard but necessary lesson in the harsh economic realities of a literary career.
Straight after graduating from Oxford with a degree in English Literature, James set himself the goal of getting a novel written and sold within two years. In the event, it took two months. The Hope was completed in six weeks and accepted by Macmillan a fortnight later. The seed for the idea for the novel — a world in microcosm on an ocean liner — was planted during a cross-Channel ferry journey.
James blew his modest advance for The Hope on a round-the-world trip which took him to, among other places, Thailand. His experiences there, particularly what he witnessed of the sex industry in Bangkok, provided much of the inspiration for The Foreigners.
Escardy Gap was co-written with Pete Crowther over a period of a year and a half, the two authors playing a game of creative tag, each completing a section in turn and leaving the other to carry the story on. The result has proved a cult favourite, and was voted by readers of SFX one of the top fifty SF/Fantasy novels of all time.
Days, a satire on consumerism, was shortlisted for the 1998 Arthur C. Clarke Award (losing to Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow). The book’s genesis most probably lies in the many visits James used to make as a child to the Oxford Street department store owned by his grandfather. It was written over a period of nine months while James was living in the north-west suburbs of Chicago.
Subsequent works have all been published to great acclaim. These include Untied Kingdom, Worldstorm, Provender Gleed, The Age Of Ra and the back-to-back double-novella Gig. James has also written for children. Wings, a short novel for reluctant readers, was short-listed for several awards, while his fantasy series for teens, The Clouded World, written under the pseudonym Jay Amory, has been translated into 7 other languages so far. A five-book series for reluctant readers, The 5 Lords Of Pain, is appearing at two-monthly intervals throughout 2010.
He also reviews fiction for the Financial Times, specialising in the Young Adult, children’s, science fiction, fantasy, horror and graphic novel genres.
Currently James resides in Eastbourne on the Sussex Coast, having moved there in August 2007 with his wife Lou, sons Monty and Theo, and cat Ozzy. He has a terrific view of the sea from his study window, which he doesn’t sit staring out at all day when he should be working. Honest.
James was born on Christmas Eve 1965 and, having dabbled in writing at school, first took to it seriously while at university. A short story of his won a college competition. The prize was £15, and it had cost £18 to get the story professionally typed. This taught him a hard but necessary lesson in the harsh economic realities of a literary career.
Straight after graduating from Oxford with a degree in English Literature, James set himself the goal of getting a novel written and sold within two years. In the event, it took two months. The Hope was completed in six weeks and accepted by Macmillan a fortnight later. The seed for the idea for the novel — a world in microcosm on an ocean liner — was planted during a cross-Channel ferry journey.
James blew his modest advance for The Hope on a round-the-world trip which took him to, among other places, Thailand. His experiences there, particularly what he witnessed of the sex industry in Bangkok, provided much of the inspiration for The Foreigners.
Escardy Gap was co-written with Pete Crowther over a period of a year and a half, the two authors playing a game of creative tag, each completing a section in turn and leaving the other to carry the story on. The result has proved a cult favourite, and was voted by readers of SFX one of the top fifty SF/Fantasy novels of all time.
Days, a satire on consumerism, was shortlisted for the 1998 Arthur C. Clarke Award (losing to Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow). The book’s genesis most probably lies in the many visits James used to make as a child to the Oxford Street department store owned by his grandfather. It was written over a period of nine months while James was living in the north-west suburbs of Chicago.
Subsequent works have all been published to great acclaim. These include Untied Kingdom, Worldstorm, Provender Gleed, The Age Of Ra and the back-to-back double-novella Gig. James has also written for children. Wings, a short novel for reluctant readers, was short-listed for several awards, while his fantasy series for teens, The Clouded World, written under the pseudonym Jay Amory, has been translated into 7 other languages so far. A five-book series for reluctant readers, The 5 Lords Of Pain, is appearing at two-monthly intervals throughout 2010.
He also reviews fiction for the Financial Times, specialising in the Young Adult, children’s, science fiction, fantasy, horror and graphic novel genres.
Currently James resides in Eastbourne on the Sussex Coast, having moved there in August 2007 with his wife Lou, sons Monty and Theo, and cat Ozzy. He has a terrific view of the sea from his study window, which he doesn’t sit staring out at all day when he should be working. Honest.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 8, 2023
Was intruiged to find a zombie novel at one of my libraries but unfortunately not my sort of story.
November 22, 2020
Book 14 in my Zombie-a-thon!
CW:
Well that was actually a pretty good novella! It raised some ethical questions about a body being a 'shell' or if the essence of the human still resides within. It also examines covert military experiments that are quite despicable and done in the name of protecting the country. I know some reviewers wanted more and I can see why as the concept is pretty interesting, however, I think the length was perfect (2hr audiobook). It was enough to feel invested in the outcome.
FYI: This is not a zombie eating people story.
CW:
Well that was actually a pretty good novella! It raised some ethical questions about a body being a 'shell' or if the essence of the human still resides within. It also examines covert military experiments that are quite despicable and done in the name of protecting the country. I know some reviewers wanted more and I can see why as the concept is pretty interesting, however, I think the length was perfect (2hr audiobook). It was enough to feel invested in the outcome.
FYI: This is not a zombie eating people story.
November 18, 2016
Another semi-random pick from the Library's digital audio collection. More of a short story than a novel. When "the end" rolled by I was so not ready for it. I wanted more story. This has a good world build that I believe could support at least a trilogy.
March 30, 2018
Short, sweet, but wish there was more of it. This universe has a lot of potential and while the story itself resolved very well for the narrator, it left me feeling like I had just read a cliffhanger.
April 11, 2024
Awesome read for such a short story! This book follows a soldier in the British army that is dealing with PTSD who has secluded himself to a desk job after witnessing the deaths of his troop in the war. He is offered a job that would help him further his career in the military leading zombies! No Spoilers but the ending is an "OMG" one! Highly Recommend this book! I really enjoyed it but wished it would have gone longer!
September 5, 2022
A short novel with a simple idea given away by the title, so no surprises here. Not much in the way of insights or character development. Fairly amateurish in execution. Stephen Crossley does a good job with the narration of the audiobook at least.
September 28, 2019
Read as audiobook. I adore this reader and have searched for other of his efforts as the narration is excellent. There were some lol moments here ... An entertaining wee read.
April 14, 2024
If this is satire - then it’s a 3* If it’s not, then it’s a 2*
April 22, 2024
For audiobook:
More of a short story than a novel. British military theme, nice way to kill 2 hours of your day, good narration.
I've heard this story before, but it was done well.
More of a short story than a novel. British military theme, nice way to kill 2 hours of your day, good narration.
I've heard this story before, but it was done well.
February 11, 2014
More a novella or a long short story than a full book. It can be read in 2-2.5 hours easily.
The idea of helpful and nice Zombies in war fare and crime fighting is novel and interesting. I felt the book would have benefited by being fleshed out a bit.(excuse the pun) The idea that the Zombies could think/feel/understand more than first thought needed more work. Also the protagonists emotional and moral issues with using the Zombies left me wanting for more.
The end is rather sad as although, set free neither the next generation of Zombies no our protagonist was helped by his solution. I felt a lot more could have been made of this book, and it had the potential for it.
The idea of helpful and nice Zombies in war fare and crime fighting is novel and interesting. I felt the book would have benefited by being fleshed out a bit.(excuse the pun) The idea that the Zombies could think/feel/understand more than first thought needed more work. Also the protagonists emotional and moral issues with using the Zombies left me wanting for more.
The end is rather sad as although, set free neither the next generation of Zombies no our protagonist was helped by his solution. I felt a lot more could have been made of this book, and it had the potential for it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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November 26, 2016A short zombie piece.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews