ZOMBIES ON A SPACESHIP!
Chief Engineer Madison Whitehawk suspects foul play when a series of small anomalies occur aboard the ark ship Freedom. But Madison’s fears are nothing compared to the impending disaster heading their way.
As the team of scientists, engineers and crew take their precious colonist cargo towards New Earth a deadly parasite has found its way onboard.
Soon Madison, Second Officer Crichton and colonist Syra Connor are fighting for their life’s against trusted friends and former lovers.
What is the parasite that changes the minds and behaviour of those it infects? And how can the crew of the Freedom destroy the darkness within?
Dark bleatings, my shambling tribe. You know, it’s actually been a while since I read a zombie book, even though I absolutely love zombies and would marry them if I could. I went through a patch where I read loads and loads of them and then I think I got a bit fatigued with the subgenre. But then this novel came along…
I had SO much fun with this book, a surprising amount, honestly. Firstly, it’s a horror fan’s dream because of the sci-fi horror references (not too fan servicey, but present enough to raise a smile where they came up). It’s also just…well, it’s just an absolute hoot.
I assumed it would be a typical zombie story set up, in space, but still a typical set up, nonetheless. I assumed some sort of virus or pathogen would somehow get on board and start turning the crew, leaving but a few or even one person left to put a stop to it. And it does follow that basic formula, so though that sounds a little predictable, I have to insist that the details of how things played out was highly entertaining.
The other thing this story did so well was utilise its sci-fi conventions and it’s spacey setting. There’s a lot of potential for this subgenre taking place in space and surprisingly, despite my obsessive compulsion for consuming zombie fiction, I hadn’t really come across something quite like this before. It would be easy for someone to assume that not a lot of effort would be needed with this combination, but the author put much more thought into how to marry all the elements together than expected.
And, of course, there’s the horror element. I was delighted with this too. As certain crew members are afflicted, the way this became apparent was much creepier than I’m used to. The pattern with zombies is that someone gets infected and then usually they get very sick, burn up in a fever until death, and then return all bitey and such. This took a different approach that creeped me out and made me suspicious of everyone.
All in all, I really had a great time reading this and would definitely recommend it to zombie fans. If you’d like to check out the book or the author, I’ve popped some links below for you:
Bleeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
Leave a comment