This article is a review of two of Eric S. Brown's novellas, The Wave and The Queen. For those of you who aren't familiar with his writing, Brown's speciality is zombies, and he writes them well.

The Wave begins with an energy wave hitting the earth. As a result, anything electrical no longer works. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the radiation from the wave also begins to affect humans, the continued exposure turning them into violent, mindless creatures whose only instinct is to destroy. Nobody knows if the effects are permanent—but that might not matter anyway, as if the wave continues on to hit the sun, it would likely trigger a premature supernova, which would be the end of everything anyway! The story follows some of the ‘survivors’ as they gather together and try to figure out what has happened while fending off the mindless zombies. Brown’s apocalyptic vision is well written, with good pace, encompassing love, loss and enemies within. If the ending isn’t happily ever after, well, it is the end of the world, after all.

The Queen is a former cruise ship, now converted to carry refugees trying to escape from the menace of the walking dead. This story is very recognisable as one authored by Brown, and features a favourite of his: intelligent, capable zombies. I like them too. A bad guy should be able to put up a fight, and not just through force of numbers or utter undying persistence. The scenario in The Queen is that the dead have suddenly emerged from their graves and carry on, often much as they did in life--only they now have a hunger for human flesh. This has led to breeding centres being established, where live humans are held captive and bred in order to 'grow' food. The Queen follows an escapee from one of these centres, a family fleeing for their lives, and of course the crew of The Queen as they raid ports for food and fuel. The pace is fast and it's short enough to be a one-sitting read full of tension and zombie-fuelled battle, with an unsurprisingly downbeat ending.

Eric S. Brown can write good zombie stories; there is no question of that. The transformed Earth he relates is alarmingly realistic and the zombies, whether dead or merely changed, are often proper characters in their own right. I can certainly recommend these two novellas, short, bittersweet and entertaining. Go get em!

The Wave is available now, published by Naked Snake Press, and The Queen can also be bought here or here, ISBN: 1411670639.