Autumn chronicles the struggle of a small group of survivors forced to contend with a world torn apart by a deadly disease. After 99% of the population of the planet is killed in less than 24 hours, for the very few who have managed to stay alive, things are about to get much worse. Animated by "phase two" of some unknown contagion, the dead begin to rise. At first slow, blind, dumb and lumbering, quickly the bodies regain their most basic senses and abilities... sight, hearing, locomotion... As well as the instinct toward aggression and violence. Held back only by the restraints of their rapidly decomposing flesh, the dead seem to have only one single goal - to lumber forth and destroy the sole remaining attraction in the silent, lifeless world: those who have survived the plague, who now find themselves outnumbered 1,000,000 to 1...
Autumn is one of those rare books that works well both as a standalone novel and part of a series (this one being book one of a five-book series, the first three following these characters, the last two being "spin-offs" for lack of a better word). It keeps you wanting more, but you also don't necessarily need to know what happens next.
David Moody does not take his time in the set-up - that is, the contagion that wipes out 99% of the population and leaving handfuls of people, some of whom join together (including those that make up our group of heroes for most of the novel). While the disease took up maybe 20-30 pages at the beginning, this book takes its time setting up the zombie aspect of the novel, and as it edges on and on, the creep factor edges up and up until you are waiting for the other shoe to drop. This is a survival novel, not a contagion novel. David Moody does tension well, almost fooling you into a false sense of security. I went into this book expecting something along the lines of World War Z or something along those lines, but I got something more akin to the movie Contagion with zombies. Instead of being a straight-up horror with bloodthirsty (or brainthirsty, I guess), with blood and guts, it was a psychological thriller that relished in upping the stakes.
As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, this is a survival novel. Most of the book is the main three, Emma, Michael and Carl trying to survive on their own, and trying to evade the bodies that have become re-animated. This is basically how I hoped I Am Legend (the book, not the movie) would end. While it is slow, it isn't ever boring, quite the opposite, actually. There is always tension and suspense and kept me on the edge of my seat. I loved how David Moody set up the atmosphere. If a zombie apocalypse ever occurred, I feel like this is a realistic portrayal of how it could happen. I really like that this book doesn't rely on shock and gore horror, as media tends to do with zombies (looking at you, The Walking Dead!) - suspense and character-driven.
Speaking of which, that's one thing that this book does well - character development. None of these people are heroes, they are normal everyday people faced with the direst of circumstances. I found myself connecting to each of them, and found myself asking "If I was in this situation, would I do things similarly to them or would I do something else?" They each have personalities and their motivations are both clear enough to be relateable and also shrouded enough that they are still mysterious.
Autumn is a unique novel about dystopia and zombies, but more so, it is about the people that survive the contagion that caused the dystopian setting, which is a nice change over seeing more zombie-focal pieces of media in the past. David Moody creates a tense, suspenseful and atmospheric world in Autumn. The build-up is slow but the payoff is well-done. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and it is a vast improvement upon the last book I read. I think I will continue reading the series at some point, and will give this 4.5/5. If you like character-driven, psychological thrillers with slow, suspenseful buildups leaving you wondering when the other shoe is going to drop, you will like this book.
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