David Dunwoody's Empire and Treatment of Characters: A Book Review

*Full disclosure: an e-book of this novel was provided by Permuted Press.

Author: David Dunwoody.

Empire is author David Dunwoody's first novel, while previously appearing in various horror anthologies. Dunwoody proves himself to be an ambitious and creative writer in this first novel; however, an overabundance of characters and ideas breaks down the focus of the read. Soon, the attention wanders, while the threat of zombified animals briefly brings back the attention.

Starting on the positives, there are no shortage of ideas in the novel, including: a platoon of soldiers fighting under the banner of God, a plantation set in a life reviving swamp, the death inducing character grim reaper makes an appearance, a Christian cult is introduced...etc. Unfortunately, not all of these elements come together and some of the plotlines are divergent. However, let us stick with the positives. Dunwoody has no lack of imagination, as the zombie plague rages in the future, after a hundred years. Understandably, the novel has its violent streak, which will sit well with some readers.

Other readers might get bogged down by the twenty plus characters, who generally only have a lifeline of a few chapters. Characters and situations even change within chapters, which creates for a confusing time. Focusing on a core of 3-4 people would have really helped this reader become more invested in the novel. Still, a few more detractions show their evil heads.

There is simply too much emphasis put on violence. This is a strange thing to say coming from a B-movie fan, but it is the truth. Too many situations are solved by offing one of the characters and soon the reader might be seeing the characters as something without value. Characters need to overcome challenges, in order for the reader to identify with them. Offing them, simply puts one in a: who cares, type of a mind frame. This is not a good mind set to have with 150 pages to go.

This reviewer will end here, so as to stay away from picking the book apart. The grammar was 99% in tack, but the poor treatment of characters, mentioned above, really made Dunwoody's novel a difficult read and very hard to follow. There is some Christian mythos added to the story. However, the philosophy of the novel does not balance well with the constant action: "Dunwoody brings a bit of this philosophy into the novel, but not enough to support the continual gore" (Faust). The end result is a zombie filled universe, with characters acting as target dummies, rather than protagonists moving the action forward, in a believable fashion.

Overall: 6 out of 10 (few grammatical problems, lots of action, too many characters, the novel drifts back and forth between themes like a boat lost in a storm, there is no early direction in the first 150 pages, too many characters, some interesting ideas).

Visit Dunwoody's site for further novels, which have likely helped improve his writing and focus:

David Dunwoody's Official Website

Another review of this book at the Fear Zone (Gabrielle S. Faust):

David Dunwoody's Empire Reviewed at Fear Zone

It would be best to try Dunwoody's follow-up to this novel, Empire's End. Now a year later, Dunwoody has had some time to polish his writing style, with several more published novels:



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Posted in: 2011,bloodshed,book review,characters,david dunwoody,empire,empire's end,future,permuted press,sci-fi,zombie novel book review