Derek J. Goodman

My original The Contamination of Sandra Wolfe audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

Pleasantly surprised with this one. It has a Sci Fi twist that goes very well with the zombie apocalypse.

Sandra is just like any other girl that just woke up. Except for the fact that she looks like a zombie and smells. And she can do things other survives of the zombie plague cannot even think of two weeks after waking up, much less two hours!

What’s interesting about this is that people really do not know why they woke up. They have memories of when they were human but cannot really remember turning zombie. Or can remember just a few glimpses that horrify them too much to delve into. The majority of the population still hates zombies, obviously) so the Z7’s are in hiding, worried what the world will think of them.

Then Sandra comes in. Her abilities are far beyond what anyone has every seen. She’s just a teenaged girl that is confused and upset. And frankly doesn’t know how to make good decisions. This is one of those books where I was a tad worried how far the author was going to take the drama. There is just so much of it! It all makes sense though and surrounds Sandra and her abilities. Never did I feel like he pulled any punches, nor did D.J. push too much violence, although do not take that to mean that there is not graphic violence because there is! Fabulous news for those that love blood and guts and zombies eating brains.

A lot of the drama in this actually comes from humans. I think this is how it would really be. Humans are just as crazy as zombies when it comes down to it. In the end it is whether or not we see the monstrosity inside of us that counts.

The narration, done by Coleen Marlo, was fantastic. I was easily able to tell all of the characters apart. Coleen also is able to create small pauses in her story telling that allows for the horror to really sink in before she moves on. It’s like white space in art, without it there isn’t a picture! I absolutely love this and want to read (or listen) to more of this series.

Audiobook provided for review by the author.… (meer)

http://alookatabook.blogspot.com/2009/10/25-of-2009-apocalypse-shift-by-derek-j....

I have an appreciation for all things indie. Since my middle school days, I’ve had a fondness for DIY publishing ventures, from photocopied zines to chapbooks to local music tapes. For a while, once the Internet really took of, it seemed to me like sources of homebrew goodness were drying up.

This year, ironically due to the Internet, I found several small press publishing ventures that are not only alive but thriving. Permuted Press and Library of the Living Dead put out some very awesome books, and I’ve recently had the awesome opportunity of meeting in person or talking online with several of these very cool authors.

I picked up a copy of Derek J. Goodman’s horror-comedy novel The Apocalypse Shift at Horror Realm, a local zombie-themed convention here in Pittsburgh. It’s out under Library of the Living Dead’s Library of Horror imprint, a section of the catalog dedicated to all things non-zombie in horror literature.

Caleb works the night shift at the local OneStop convenience store in the middle of a section of the city called the Hill. On the Hill, some (hell, most) of the residents are a bit unusual. Most of them aren’t even human. Vampires, werewolves, zombies, tentacled demons and others roam the streets at night, sometimes as regular residents and OneStop customers and sometimes as something a bit more sinister. The night shift is always full of supernatural mayhem, but when Caleb’s penchant for keeping “trophies” from their battles backfires, the crap hits the fan in such a way that life on the Hill may never be the same again. Now it’s up to Caleb, his zombie-loving coworker Phil and their former-coworker-turned-stripper Gloria to track the trophies down before they’re used to nefarious ends. All this, and Caleb has to keep from annoying Gloria enough to get a second date.

It’s a shame that horror and comedy aren’t blended together more often. When done right, it’s absolutely amazing, and that’s exactly what The Apocalypse Shift is. Imagine what Clerks would be like with an extended cast of supernatural freaks and weirdos, minus the donkey sex and sodomy jokes, and this is what you would end up with. It’s a wild, hilarious ride that grabbed me from the first page and kept me from putting it down until I was finished. There were places in the book where I could not stop giggling, and anyone around me while I was reading it probably assumed I’d gone a bit off my rocker.

Like most indie/DIY publishing efforts, The Apocalypse Shift has a grittier appearance than your run-of-the-mill corporate publishing venture. Library of Horror uses a font that’s slightly larger than I’m used to, and there are the occasional issues with spacing between words and subtle word choices that caught my eye. However, this did little if anything to detract from the overall experience, and anyone with a love of indie publishing knows their appeal is in the innovative storytelling and not the overall polishing of the package. Hell, some of my own best short stories have been published in magazines employing little more than a Xerox machine and a brightly-colored sheaf of heavy stock paper for a cover, and I still cherish them to this day. Typesetting aside, Library of Horror goes all out with the size of their books. Apocalypse Shift (and all of the other Library titles that I’ve seen) are published in a nice trade size, with high quality paper and attractive, glossy covers.

Copies of all Library titles can be found on Amazon, as well as some on shelves locally at Joseph Beth Booksellers.

For anyone with a love of horror and humor, I can’t recommend The Apocalypse Shift enough.… (meer)