Dead Earth: The Green Dawn by Mark Justice and David T. Wilbanks

Do yourself a favor and skip the introduction to Dead Earth: The Green Dawn. In a nutshell, it says that Dead Earth is a fine postapocalyptic novella, makes a couple of comparisons to explain why that isn’t such an easy thing to achieve, and then proceeds to ruin two of the three strong points in the story in order to explain its uniqueness.

However, the introduction’s writer, Gary A. Braunbeck, is quite correct. This is a good story—neither exactly on the “post” side of apocalyptic, nor on the “fine” part of world literature, but still a fun read. In it, authors Mark Justice and David T. Wilbanks tell the tale of Jubal Slate, a deputy sheriff in the small town of Serenity, New Mexico, and how he reacts to his own world collapsing. This is the story of the Apocalypse; while it’s not too clear to what extreme of world-ending, humanity-destroying events the world has actually reached, the story focuses on the way Jubal’s world has begun to end as a mysterious epidemic hits his town, and he seems to be one of the few people left uninfected. The rest of the Apocalypse, the part outside of Serenity, is not necessary for Dead Earth. It only serves as background for Jubal’s memories and tragedies.

However, while the story does have its poignant moments, readers should remember it’s still a zombie story; the Guns & Gore get their moment in the limelight. The second half is a traditional zombie rampage, with the usual shotgun head-shooting, body eating, and shuffling hordes. The action is as bloody as can be expected, sometimes too much so.

Sadly, the execution isn’t perfect; the authors have a tendency to tell us about their characters’ feelings instead of showing them, just as the explanation of how Jubal can stay strong in front of the zombie hordes sometimes does a disservice to the first, more dramatic part of the story.

The authors’ intention, what they hope that the reader will feel at every part of the story, is easy to understand, although not always achieved. Still, while the story doesn’t always succeed in the “dramatic” or “funny” parts, when it does, it does it with gusto, and the story’s strong points (the reasons why you shouldn’t read the introduction) are well worth the wait.

Perhaps because of the lack of delving into the events that occur outside of Serenity, the outside world, with its green dawn and occult events in Nevada, isn’t as mysterious as it seems it’s supposed to be. [By the way, this is the first book I’ve ever read that makes a direct connection between string theory and zombies—you can take it as a flaw or a merit. For me, well, it just made me laugh.] The bottom line is that Dead Earth is a fun story. While it’s not a real thinking man’s zombie story, and it’s not particularly memorable, it’s still well worth the (approximately) three hours to read if you’re looking for a bit of braaains with your zombies.

Publisher: PS Publishing (Oct. 2007)
Price: £50.00 [$100.00 USD]
Paperback: 94 pages