Island of the Dead
Brian Keene
Apex Book Company (October 15, 2024)
Reviewed by Andrew Byers
Brian Keene needs no introduction to most readers of horror fiction, who will likely know him from his The Rising series, a chronicle of a zombie apocalypse, or similar works. In Island of the Dead, Keene has transposed the idea of a zombie outbreak to a traditional swords and sorcery setting. This novel was originally released via Amazon’s serialized fiction line, Kindle Vella, though now that the novel has been collected into a unified whole, it no longer appears to be available in serial format.
This is the story of Einar, a barbarian adventurer who has been enslaved as a galley oarsman. A courageous escape and a lucky storm leaves Einar and a few companions washed up on an uncharted tropical island filled with giant ants, a former Atlantean colony, as well as the scattered survivors (guards and slaves alike) of the shipwreck. Oh yes, along with what I can only describe as a sorcerous biological weapon that instigates what becomes a massive zombie problem.
Given Keene’s past zombie efforts, I had expected this one would be far gorier than it turned out to be. Any fan of either sword and sorcery or zombie novels can reasonably expect solid fight scenes, in this case Einar and company mostly fighting either human soldiers or zombies. They won’t be disappointed here, but I will say that Einar tends to—wisely—avoid combat much more than I had expected. Battles are satisfying enough, but this is decidedly not a story about a mighty thewed barbarian hewing down scores of undead opponents with a broadsword or a battleaxe.
The setting is left only briefly sketched out and no names for any locations are provided. Einar himself is resistant to revealing anything about his past; we can only infer that he is a mercenary and adventurer of significant experience. The novel ends on a cliffhanger, which I assume Keene plans to address via a sequel. I’ll be curious to see if Einar and his world are fleshed out to a much greater extent over time. Big things seem to be afoot in Einar’s world, we just don’t yet understand what they portend.
If you are a fan of sword and sorcery and zombies, then you should check this out. I’m looking forward to seeing Keene deepen and enrich the character and setting in future installments.
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