Eric S. Brown has published many short stories, including here at Dark Fire, but Cobble is his first novel, co-written with another short story writer, Susanne Brydenbaugh. In the Afterword, Brown explains a little about how the book came to be. The two authors met at a horror conference, and subsequently wrote the book over 8 months, swopping ideas and text by email.

It's not obvious from the cover, but as people familiar with Brown's work might guess, Cobble is a zombie novel. Zombies are familiar territory for Brown, and he writes them well. George Romero is thanked as an inspiration, and the endless dead Brown conjures would certainly fit right into Romero's films. Or into the British film 28 Days Later, with which it shares many plot elements.

The story begins with a timeline detailing the progression of a plague that causes reanimation of the dead. Finally, only months after the plague first appeared, the living are largely reduced to one final bastion, an island called Cobble. Onto this island comes a military unit, determined to hold out against the dead, and maybe find a cure.

We are introduced to the islanders and military, and another: a strange being with violent powers... From there the story focuses on the conflict between the locals and the military invaders until all chaos breaks loose as the dead finally manage to get a grip on the island. It culminates in a final battle, the execution of which I found a little odd, but satisfying enough.

The book also contains a bonus short story titled: And the Dead Shall Rise which could easily act as an extra epilogue to the novel.

Brown's short stories are usually tight and well-formed (I have to admit to not having read any of Brydenbaugh's work), but this hasn't entirely translated across to this longer work. It feels like an extended short story, padded out with not entirely relevant character interludes. I think this is a function of the length of the piece -- at 108 pages long, it is really too short to make anything of these little character excerpts, or to follow them up properly in a way meaningful to the storyline. However, having said that, it is a great extended short, full of creepy characters and gore-splattered action, and with an alarmingly high death count. There's a lot to be said for a book that can be read to its entertaining finale good and quickly!

Cobble is available now from Mundania Press.