A satisfying prequel that is sure to please fans and strangers alike...

For the last decade, British author David Moody has given the post apocalyptic fiction market, and in particular the zombie genre, a much needed shot in the arm. Back in 2001 he unleashed the first of five novels in what was to become his Autumn Quintology (hey, if Alien can have a Quadrilogy, then Moody can have his Quintology), taking the undead into previously uncharted territory and focusing not so much on the carousing cadavers themselves as the human survivors of the somewhat mysterious event that turned rush hour into hush hour.

Over the course of these five innovative and entertaining offerings, Moody never explicitly explains the cause of the zombie apocalypse, something that very much worked in their favour, as it does with The Walking Dead comic book series (but which the television show took a slight misstep with when it tried to rationalise the infection in the latter part of season one). There is a very brief mention of some kind of global biological airborne security net that went awry in the third book in the series, Autumn: Purification; and the opening short story in Autumn: The Human Condition collection (the unofficial sixth book of the cycle that is now out of print but which may be reanimating as an eBook later this year) takes place in the first moments of the outbreak and mentions an incident in Vancouver, suggesting that this may be where Joe & Me is set. Until now, Moody has remained evasive about the genesis of the apocalypse, but that looks set to change in his latest release...

In Joe & Me, his new chapbook published in a limited edition of 500 signed copies in association with the This Is Horror website, Moody takes us back to the beginning of the end. Joe & Me is the tale of an eight year old boy, the titular Joe, with a stay at home dad and a working mother who just happens to be a scientist on the cusp of creating something that could save the world. Of course we know how this story ends, but as a long time Autumn fan this is both a satisfying coda and a prequel, made even more special by the limited nature of this edition.

In common with the rest of the Autumn series (and indeed his Hater trilogy, the film rights for which were snapped up by none other than Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), directed by horror supremo Guillermo del Toro), Moody breathes a realism into the Huxtable family that makes us hope against hope that the terrible and inevitable outcome of this story can be averted, and then breaks our hearts when we bear witness to the impossible choice that Joe’s father has to make...

One suspects that this is Moody’s final word on the Autumn universe, and if it is, then it’s a brilliant and poignant encore and one that fans of the series should rush to pick up in this extremely limited edition chapbook while they can; because, like the human race in any zombie apocalypse, once it’s gone, it’s gone...

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