Last Stand in a Dead Land

by Eric S. Brown

Undead hordes and Bigfoot. Oh my!

"Last Stand In A Dead Land"  left me  flabbergasted!  This is one audacious story, indeed !   The story is a series of encounters by individuals that are trying to escape the zombies that show up everywhere they turn.  It focuses on on character in particular, Elijah, who manages to collect different sorts of survivors as he goes along.  Readers might want to keep a close eye on this character because the author hits with a big wallop at the end.  It even has a character named Lori in it.   Isn't that name becoming something of a staple for female characters in zombie related entertainment?  She's fairly level headed, by the way, and a fine female lead character.   It has a few other characters that are just as amusing including a farmer with a good survival strategy.   The part that "threw me for a loop"  was the appearance of a well known legendary creature and he isn't the peaceful shy creature that he is expected to be. Who knew that Bigfoot could be like that? 

Don't expect a whole lot of in-depth character development with this tale. . We do get to know a bit about them and their basic personalities, but the story doesn't get bogged down with unnecessary details. The reader isn't given a huge back story for them and I think that would just be a distraction. I think that it's more how the characters survive every zombie horde they meet. The personal conflicts between the characters are brief and were a welcome respite from constant bickering found in apocalyptic fiction.  They have some very wacky dialog too. There were tons of  unexpected events that were far out in left field and were beautifully bizarre!   The narrative was very descriptive and made the many scenes from the story easy to  visualize.  The story moves fast and the zombie scenes are tension filled and gripping.  The scenes with Bigfoot were very brutal and madcap at the same time .  It's a weirdly fun story to read.