Review: A rootin' tootin' space zombie shootin' mashup.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 6, 2013
Brace yourself: this is a rootin' tootin' space zombie shootin' mashup the likes of which you've never seen.If the title wasn't forewarning enough, one look at the book's cover will tell you you're in for a quirky, campy read, and the author delivers. In a nutshell, we've got an African American cowboy gunslinger-turned-author who's the only man standing between salvation and the utter destruction of the planet from zombies from space terrorizing a Mississippi backwater. But unlike the bargain-budget space-horror movies from the 1950's, Black Redneck vs Space Zombies is good. Actually, really good.This is going to sound ironic, but the book is both a quick read and a slow read at the same time. It's a quick read because the action is tight and the chapters short. As a result, the reader can breeze through large swathes of text in what feels like no time. This speaks to the author's admirable skill at keeping his audience engaged. That said, the book is also a slow read because the plot takes roughly half the book to set up. A lot needs to happen before we get to see what we came for, but the payoff is worth it.Before the halfway mark in the book, we learn plenty about Jefferson Balladeer (the titular character), and get a smattering of sci-fi, but nothing actually resembling zombies, whether from space or otherwise. Jefferson is the self-styled "Black Redneck." We learn how he grew up in the Mississippi backwoods and left for good when he became an adult, returning only to attend to the final affairs of his recently deceased brother.But that's only half of the equation: with a title like "Black Redneck vs Space Zombies," one expects to see some zombies (and a fair amount of sci-fi, given the "Space" part). As if on cue for the book's second act, zombies start to make their appearance in the latter half of the book -- and are they ever horrifying. They're not zombies in the traditional sense of shambling brain-eaters. They're fast and effective pack hunters working together with a coordinated hive-mind. Terrible as they are, they pale in comparison to the tentacled Lovecraftian monster that's churning them out.Endearing characters, fantastic gunplay, witty quips of dialogue and narration, and a stallion that's smarter than the average horse make for a whirlwind of a story you don't want to miss. And zombies. Lots and lots of zombies.As an aside, the latter half of the title sounds like it may have been inspired by a classic song by the Misfits, "Astro Zombies." That's just my speculation, but I couldn't help but think that.