Horror Book Review: Autumn: Exodus (David Moody)

Autumn: Exodus is the final part of David Moody’s return to his apocalyptic zombie series, Autumn. The third and final story of the ‘London’ trilogy, alongside Autumn: Dawn and Autumn: Inferno.

Autumn: Dawn Review
Autumn: Inferno Review

It’s been a wild ride and with Exodus, it comes to an end… again. We’ve been here before though. Few readers ever expected David Moody to return to his dead world, so the fact that we’ve got three more Autumn books is a reason to celebrate alone. That each, including this latest book, happen to be phenomenal, is the cherry on top.

Autumn: Exodus continues the London based story that began with Dawn. Except, as the title suggests, it’s time to move on.

Now, be warned… there will be spoilers for the previous novels in this review. It can’t be helped. Go and read Dawn and Inferno!

So…

The tower of London has fallen, the inferno ripping through the city of the living dead. The survivors scattered, lost and feeling hopeless. The dead just keep coming and staying within the massive metropolis is no longer an option. It’s time to head out, into the country, where a more isolated community might finally be the safe haven they need so badly.

There’s a lot of England to cover though, a lot of towns and cities to pass through. The dead continue to be a major problem, but for these homeless wanderers, the threat from those who betrayed them at the tower is just as big too.

Realising that we were about to leave London left me feeling a bit concerned. A major draw of this new Autumn trilogy was how it was set in my city. The city I have lived in, worked in, eaten in, got drunk in, and so much more, for a major part of my life. The locations and detail that is a staple of David Moody’s writing style felt more vibrant and real than ever because I knew where and what he was writing about. It made this trilogy feel so much more personal.

I felt their disorientation and sense of confusion in this new, dead world. Even though I have experienced the wider story of the original Autumn series. Call this a ‘road trip’ trip entry in the trilogy and we, the reader, are along for the ride. Passing through locations that will be familiar to many, along the way. Lakeside was a nightmare before the dead ever rose.

All that being said, if you don’t have the London connection that I do, that doesn’t mean you’ll struggle to get into this story. David Moody once again tells a masterful horror tale that oozes atmosphere and delivers high tension throughout. Here, throwing in the fresh threat of evil human behaviour, anxiety is at an all-time high. Like the survivors, we never know what is around the corner.

David Moody’s delightful and intense descriptive style makes every stop, every threat, every dealing with the dead, as real as possible. It’s not hyperbole to say that we can smell the rotting flesh, feel the freezing cold of winter, and taste the fresh air of England’s isolated countryside. It’s this aspect, and the explorative nature of this novel, that makes Exodus another exceptional entry in the Autumn series. This trilogy hasn’t just lived up to the expectations set by the original series, at times, it has improved upon it. Namely, in how characters are better defined and by allowing us to see just how a major city would have been affected by the arrival of the dead.

If David Moody never writes another Autumn novel again, we can be bloody grateful that we got this trilogy to compliment the original series. Nobody writes apocalyptic ‘zombie’ horror like him and Exodus is a super-satisfying conclusion to this latest experience.

Links

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