Dubaku

by Edward M. Erdelac

In 1760 somewhere near the Bight of Benin, an African shaman belonging to an obscure interior tribe surrenders himself willingly to an English slaving expedition. This man, Dubaku, has come in search of his wife, abducted and sold to another party of whites. Not knowing one ship from another, Dubaku boards the slaver hoping to find her. The captain, a cruel and careless man named Bryce, mistrusts him immediately, and when a rampant sickness takes its toll on the superstitious crew and their human cargo midway through the voyage to Jamaica, Bryce decides to offer up Dubaku as their Jonah. After a violent squall drowns the entire compliment of would-be slaves, Dubaku calls upon dark and terrible powers to enact a fitting vengeance on Captain Bryce and his men.

Genres: Zombies

48 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2009

About the author

Edward M. Erdelac is the author of thirteen novels including the acclaimed Judeocentric/Lovecraftian weird western series Merkabah Rider, Rainbringer: Zora Neale Hurston Against The Lovecraftian Mythos, Conquer, Monstrumfuhrer from Comet Press, Terovolas from JournalStone Publishing, and Andersonville from Random House/Hydra.

Born in Indiana, educated in Chicago, he lives in the Los Angeles area with his wife and a bona fide slew of kids and cats.

Reviews

[Wemple · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the fastest I have read a book this year, which definitely shows how much it sucked me in.

[Christopher Gadomski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Erdelac's first published novella is a short but thoroughly entertaining and disturbing tale of slavery, nautical life, the supernatural, and revenge. Not to be missed.

[Lincoln · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dubaku is a short (40-someodd pages), fast-paced horror story set on a 1790's slave ship. The protagonist, for whom the book is named, surrenders himself willingly to slavers in the hope of rejoining his wife, who had been sold into slavery by her own people as punishment for her marriage to Dubaku. A couple weeks packed into the ship's hold with hundreds of sick, malnourished, abused and dying slaves awakens him to a harsh reality: none of them are likely to survive, and his chances of rejoining his beloved are slim to none. He is spurred to action, either by spirits or his own twisted sense of justice, and the horrfying results aren't all that great for the ship's crew, or the slaves for that matter.

Erdelac's novella is expertly written, but for one small infodump near the beginning that probably could have been spread out a bit over the first half of the book. He does an excellent job of describing the misery of the slaves, the cruelty of the ship's crew and the greed of the ship's captain. The various indignities visited upon the slaves and Dubaku in particular are recorded in detail; I give Erdelac a lot of credit for choosing such an emotionally-charged setting and not shying away from the grim facts of one of mankind's darkest hours. The crown jewel of the book is Dubaku himself, a powerful African shaman from a family steeped in magic. At the beginning of the book he stands tall and proud, assured of his mission's success. He rapidly devolves into a man awakened to the truth of his situation, and he makes some dark choices that make it hard to consider him a hero by any stretch of the imagination. Whatever you think of Dubaku (the man) after reading Dubaku (the book), you can't argue with the logic behind his decisions: the slaves were doomed from the start, and those bastard slavers definitely had it coming.

4.5/5. I already have Erdelac's next work in queue and can't wait to get to it.