David Moody's Blog, page 72

Post-apocalyptic movie club: LIFEFORCE

Tobe Hooper’s unforgettable 1985 horror/science-fiction movie LIFEFORCE has been in the news a lot recently. Based on the 1976 novel SPACE VAMPIRES by Colin Wilson, the film recently received a stunning blu-ray release through Arrow Video in the UK and Scream in the US (more about that in a moment), but it also hit the headlines when it was announced that a new TV series is in development based on the original Wilson novel. Sadly, mere days after the TV deal was announced, Colin Wilson passed away at the age of 82.

For those of you unfamiliar with the movie, check out the brief synopsis, watch the trailer, then click the link below for my thoughts.

A mission to investigate Halley’s Comet discovers an alien spacecraft. After a deadly confrontation, the aliens travel to Earth, where their seductive leader begins a terrifying campaign to drain the life force of everyone she encounters. Her victims, in turn, continue the cycle, and soon the entire planet is in mortal danger.

Where to begin? Lifeforce is crazy – a supremely odd film. There’s chaotic story-telling, outrageous acting, copious nudity, some excellent special effects and makeup… it’s a film which, for me, is truly greater than the sum of its parts. At times nonsensical and cringe-worthy, it’s a B-movie with a blockbuster budget (for the time). Thing is, it’s also wonderful fun.

Those of you of a certain age will no doubt remember Cannon Films. For a period of time in the 1980’s Cannon produced a huge number of movies and made (then lost) a fortune in the process. The Cannon logo became synonymous with a breed of films reminiscent of AIP B-movies of the 1950’s – dodgy scripts, laughable special effects, questionable acting. And yet, in the same way as those magical black and white B movies, Cannon films were often incredibly watchable.

Lifeforce was directed by Tobe Hooper and was his first film after the massive success of POLTERGEIST. Budgeted at $25 million, it boasted an impressive array of talent both behind and in front of the camera. The cast includes Steve Railsback, Patrick Stewart, Nicholas Ball and Frank Finlay. The script was written by Dan O’Bannon (ALIEN), special effects by John Dykstra (STAR WARS), music by Henry Mancini (PINK PANTHER)… need I go on?

Actually, I do. Because there are two aspects of Lifeforce I haven’t mentioned, and they’re part of the reason why I’ll always hold this movie dear. First, the last quarter of the movie is magnificent. It veers unexpectedly into zombie movie territory and the scenes of chaos on the streets of London are excellent, like a bizarre collision of 28 DAYS LATER and QUATERMASS. Second, Mathilda May. Ms May plays the aforementioned seductive leader of the aliens, and though you might think my mentioning her is a cheap excuse to talk about nudity and include a picture or two, you’d be wrong. Okay, so I’m happy to talk about nudity and include a picture, but there’s more to it than that. She gives an impressively unabashed performance here, often fully naked, and it’s well worth listening to her interview if you can get hold of the special edition, because it’s clear it wasn’t as comfortable an experience as she made it look. More than anything else, though, Ms May has, understandably, come to personify this film to a large extent. Ask anyone about Lifeforce who remembers it first time around, and they’ll more than likely end up talking about the beautiful leader of the space vampires!

As usual I’ve said very little about the film itself, and to an extent that’s been intentional. Watching Lifeforce is an experience like no other, and once seen, it’s hard to forget. It’s definitely worth shelling out for the recent Arrow/Scream blu-ray release I mentioned, because as well as two version of the film (the truncated US cut and the vastly superior International edit), the set includes an enormous amount of additional material, much of it specially shot for this release.

Lifeforce is a very strange movie. It didn’t recoup Cannon’s massive investment at the time, nor did it do particularly well with the critics. But as I said, it’s a huge amount of fun to watch and I’d very much recommend you check it out.

Post-apocalyptic movie club: LIFEFORCE is a post from: David Moody - author of TRUST and the HATER and AUTUMN books

An update and an announcement

I did say at the beginning of 2013 that you probably wouldn’t hear very much from me this year and I was right. Apart from the re-release of AUTUMN: THE HUMAN CONDITION, I feel like I’ve hardly put my head above the surface. That’s going to change in 2014. Remember this image I posted in September?

Left to right: the 17 DAYS, STRANGERS and STRAIGHT TO YOU manuscripts in various stages of completion!

These three manuscripts have taken up most of my year, but I’m pleased to say they’re now finished. STRANGERS has been through the beta-read process and come out the other side (thanks to those who read it and provided feedback), and 17 DAYS is currently with my agent. But it’s STRAIGHT TO YOU that I want to talk about today.

One of the things I’ve been doing since I finished both the HATER and AUTUMN series last year has been revisiting my older work to try and bring it up to scratch. I felt a real need to clear the decks of older material before moving onto anything new. When I signed with Thomas Dunne Books back in 2008, these novels fell through the cracks and I didn’t want them to be forgotten. The rewritten version of TRUST was released in July 2012, and this year saw AUTUMN: THE HUMAN CONDITION back in print in a completely revised and newly expanded edition. Now it’s the turn of the final ‘missing book’ – STRAIGHT TO YOU – to get a lick of paint, except on this occasion the changes are more than just cosmetic.

I’m planning several posts about the book over the coming weeks. I’ll tell you about the substantial differences between the old and new versions, why I’ve rewritten the book, the adventures I’ve had with approaches for the film rights, why I’m re-releasing it now and how that’s going to happen, and more besides. But for today, I guess all you need to know is this: the re-written, re-edited and repackaged STRAIGHT TO YOU will be released through Infected Books on 14 February 2014 (yes, I’ve gone for Valentine’s Day… what better date for a heartbreaking apocalyptic romance?). It’ll be available as an ebook and trade paperback.

“The sun is dying. The temperature around the world is rising by the hour with no sign of any respite. It won’t be long before all life on Earth is extinguished. It might be weeks, it might be days… we may only have hours. Society is crumbling. The burning world is rapidly descending into chaos.

Steven Johnson’s wife is hundreds of miles away and all that matters is reaching her before the end. He has to act now, no time to stop and think. Every second is precious. Tomorrow is too late.”

If you’re a fan of the original book, don’t worry. The spirit of the story has definitely been maintained. Even though it’s very nearly twenty years since I began writing the first version of the book and it’s my lowest selling title by some margin, people still regularly stop me to talk about STRAIGHT TO YOU. The story still holds up today, perhaps even more so than back in the late nineties. I don’t mind admitting that I still cried like a baby when I typed the final scenes this time around! I’m looking forward to giving the book the release I think it deserves and bringing it to a much wider audience in early 2014.

An update and an announcement is a post from: David Moody - author of TRUST and the HATER and AUTUMN books

PLASTIC JESUS by Wayne Simmons

By now Wayne Simmons should need no introduction. He’s a good friend, my industry partner in crime, and a fine writer. His new novel, PLASTIC JESUS, was recently released by Salt Publishing, and it goes without saying that I’m going to recommend you read it. But I’m not just saying that because Wayne’s my mate, I’m saying it because PLASTIC JESUS is an original and thought-provoking novel and it’s a damn good read. The book has a wonderfully realised setting (more about Lark City in a minute), and a cast of genuinely interesting (and hopelessly flawed) characters. Here’s the blurb. Click the link below to find out more.

Plastic Jesus grabs you by the throat. From the opening paragraph, without warning, it plunges you into a world of fear and confusion and visceral emotion. When it spews you back out again, you are left dizzy, overwhelmed – and desperate to read more. And it’s then that you take your first fearful steps into Lark City…

It is the near future, following a devastating Holy War. Once part of the US colonies, Maalside, the New Republic, now stands alone in the Pacific, separated from the heartland by 200 miles of salty ocean. Lark City is its capital, watched over by a 50 foot, pouting, stiletto-heeled and garter-belted ‘Miss Liberty’, a crude parody of the famous landmark across the water.

In this brutal neon jungle, Code Guy Johnny Lyon writes a Jesus social networking AI, to rebrand religion following the war. But something goes wrong; a virtual hell breaks on the streets of Lark – a violent, surreal and uncontrollable social breakdown.

Caught in this terrifying web of danger are Sarah Lee, Johnny’s co-worker, drug lord Paul McBride who is determined to exploit the chaos to wipe out his enemies, and McBride’s junkie daughter, a prostitute called Kitty.

Now, only Johnny can save Sarah, Kitty and the city.

The first thing which strikes you about PLASTIC JESUS is the setting. Read any of the reviews dotted around the Internet and you’ll see comparisons being drawn with BLADE RUNNER and William Gibson’s NEUROMANCER. Such comparisons are justly deserved, because Wayne’s created a rich and vivid world here. I asked him to describe Lark City to me, and he said: “It’s a sprawling noir cityscape with echoes of burlesque and 1950s style. Tomb Street is where most of the action takes place. It weaves like a snake through the centre of Lark, soaking up style and clientele alike from all four quarters of the city. Its main landmarks are the Penny Dreadful whorehouse, the city’s favourite bar, Vegas, and strip club, Route 66 (where the guys get their kicks, reads the tagline). An endless troupe of colourful dancers and street performers file through Tomb Street like tattooed marionettes.”

Those of you who know Wayne and I and have heard us speak will know that we often talk about labels within genres. With PLASTIC JESUS, Wayne has taken the cast of an old-school pulp crime novel, equipped them with the basic skills they need to survive (or not), and catapulted them into the future. He describes the book as a tech noir/cyberpunk novel, his “love letter to William Gibson and Ridley Scott as well as a host of noir and neo-noir writers through the ages such as Lawrence Block, Day Keene, Donald E. Westlake, and Christa Faust.”

But, for me, it’s those characters that make the book such a rewarding read. At first you feel like you’re one of the masses walking the streets of Lark alongside them, struggling to keep track of who’s who in this dark and uncomfortable world. As the story progresses, attachments build with each of the men and woman involved, and those attachments combine to give PLASTIC JESUS a real impact as it reaches its climax. Despite how it may appear, religion’s not the crux of this story. The heart of book is with these disconnected and disenfranchised people (as Wayne describes them), and how they cope individually with the launch of the Jesus program and the dramatic ramifications for themselves, Lark City and beyond.

PLASTIC JESUS has stuck with me since I finished reading it, and that’s the sign of a good read. Despite the future setting and technology involved, the story is written in an uncluttered, punchy and accessible style. As I’ve already said, it’s as if the cast of a hard-boiled crime novel had simply been picked up and dropped into Wayne’s future nightmare. That’s important, because although it’s his first outright science-fiction novel, it remains immediately accessible to people who wouldn’t normally read the genre. “Tech noir is thriving again,” Wayne says. “Console gaming is full of cyberpunk and tech. Ridley Scott has signed on to write sequels to Blade Runner. Both UK high street genre mags, SCIFI NOW and SFX, recently printed articles on the revival of cyberpunk and tech noir. I hope Plastic Jesus can be part of that revival.”

And how about a return to Lark? Wayne says he’d love to go back. “There’s something about the world and its ragtag cast that feels really familiar. This story came very naturally to me. But it all depends upon how well this book sells, I guess. That’s always the bottom line in this business.”

PLASTIC JESUS is thoroughly recommended. It’s a fast-moving book that hits you like a punch to the gut, and I hope it finds the audience it deserves. Pick it up now from Amazon, Waterstones, Play.com, The Book Depository, Hive, and all the usual outlets. Visit Wayne online at www.waynesimmons.org

PLASTIC JESUS by Wayne Simmons is a post from: David Moody - author of TRUST and the HATER and AUTUMN books

Get in quick!

I feel like post after post recently has been me trying to sell you stuff (I guess that’s what this site’s all about, really). Anyway, if you’ve been following progress on Facebook you’ll have seen a number of Infected Books special offers come and go. This is the last week for posting before Christmas, so I thought I’d summarise things here.

Any UK orders placed via www.infectedbooks.co.uk before midnight Wednesday 18 December will be shipped first class at no extra charge (and don’t forget, UK postage is free until the end of 2013 as it is). And before you get fed up and tune out because I haven’t provided a proper update or told you about any new books recently, hold fire. There’s news coming shortly…

DOG BLOOD and THEM OR US bundles – two signed hardcovers for the price of one from the original US pressings (£10 – only five sets left)

THEM OR US UK hardcover (now out of print) reduced to £7.50

AUTUMN: THE HUMAN CONDITION limited edition hardcover reduced to £15

AUTUMN: THE HUMAN CONDITION paperback reduced to £7.50

These prices are good until close of play Wednesday 18 December.

And, of course, don’t forget the extremely limited edition hardcover of AUTUMN: AFTERMATH, out in late January. Pre-order before 10 January 2014 and your name will appear in the book. Click here for more information.

Get in quick! is a post from: David Moody - author of TRUST and the HATER and AUTUMN books

AUTUMN: AFTERMATH limited edition – pre-orders now open

As promised in my last post, you can now pre-order the Infected Books/Gollancz hardcover edition of AUTUMN: AFTERMATH. Do so before 10 January and your name will be included in a special section of the book.

Click here to pre-order, and let me know if you have any issues/questions/problems with the system. Many thanks!

AUTUMN: AFTERMATH limited edition – pre-orders now open is a post from: David Moody - author of TRUST and the HATER and AUTUMN books

AUTUMN: AFTERMATH – limited edition hardcover

After a series of unavoidable delays, I’m delighted to be able to announce that the long-overdue limited edition hardcover edition of AUTUMN: AFTERMATH is about to become a reality. The ink is drying on the contracts, and pre-orders will be opening on Monday 9 December. All those folks who’ve registered their interest will be contacted directly on Monday, and a further announcement will appear here on davidmoody.net. Until then, here’s a brief summary of the important points:

the book will be published by Infected Books in arrangement with Gollancz
it’ll exactly match the look and feel of the previous Gollancz AUTUMN hardcovers (the same printers are being used)
it’s envisaged that the book will now be published in late January 2014
it’ll cost £20 plus postage, though there will be a loyalty bonus/discount of 10% for those folks who’ve bought the Infected Books hardcover of AUTUMN: THE HUMAN CONDITION (see below)
everyone who pre-orders before 10 January 2014 will have their name included in a special thank you section in the book, exclusive to this edition

Again, huge apologies for the long delays in making this book a reality and rounding out the series for those of you who’ve been collecting the UK hardcovers. Thank you for your patience and support.

* you can pick up a discounted copy of THE HUMAN CONDITION from www.infectedbooks.co.uk by clicking here.

AUTUMN: AFTERMATH – limited edition hardcover is a post from: David Moody - author of TRUST and the HATER and AUTUMN books

Feed the Zombies

Very pleased to be a part of this promotion today, organised by Tim W Long. For one day only you can pick up a whole load of zombie books for your Kindle for just 99c each. AUTUMN: THE HUMAN CONDITION is included in the deal. Click here for more information.

And I’m also pleased to announce that from now until Saturday you can pick up the beautiful limited edition hardcover edition of THE HUMAN CONDITION for just £10 from www.infectedbooks.co.uk.

Feed the Zombies is a post from: David Moody - author of TRUST and the HATER and AUTUMN books

Recommended reading – ZOMBIE SURVIVAL by Sean T Page

By now I’m sure you all know Sean T Page. He’s the Ministry of Zombies chief who sealed himself in a nuclear bunker last May (remind yourself here). More than that, he’s an all-round good man, one of the lynchpins of Moody’s Survivors, and a zombie survivalist expert. How do I know that? Because I’ve just read his latest book.

Sean, cunningly disguised as Shaun, with his invaluable guide
(photo: Grace Elkin – www.graceelkinphotography.co.uk)

When I bought my first car I remember my parents proudly presenting me with my first Haynes Manual to go with it. I’m not sure if this is a peculiarly British thing… just in case it is, I’ll explain. Haynes manuals were produced for just about every type of car around, and they showed you how to strip them down and repair pretty much every fault you could imagine. Times have changed, of course, and with the technology inside our vehicles becoming ever more complicated, home garage repairs are increasingly less viable (to be honest, Haynes manual or no Haynes manual, fixing my own car wasn’t something I ever had any success with). So, in order to survive, Haynes diversified and began to produce all manner of other guides, from the Millenium Falcon to Thunderbirds via everything in between. You can see more at their website here.

Enter Sean and his zombie survival expertise. To coin a phrase, the Zombie Survival Haynes Manual does exactly what it says on the tin. What more can I say? It’s incredibly detailed, beautifully put together, and absolutely hilarious. From a section on the science of Zombology, to home preparation and defence, to weapon selection and use, this book is the only book you’ll need when the inevitable zombie apocalypse begins. There’s even an exam at the back to make sure you’ve been paying attention. Buy copies for all your family and friends this Christmas. Not only will they have some interesting reading for the holiday season, but you might just save their lives too.

Invaluable. Required reading. Get it now.

Amazon / Book Depository / Hive / Indiebound / Waterstones

Recommended reading – ZOMBIE SURVIVAL by Sean T Page is a post from: David Moody - author of TRUST and the HATER and AUTUMN books

UK Festival of Zombie Culture

This is a quick post to publicly thank Zombie Ed and everyone involved in the UK Festival of Zombie Culture last Saturday. As always it was an excellent event: a gracious host (Ed), the usual suspects (myself, Wayne Simmons, Adam Millard and Sean T Page), loads of great traders (the Zombie Shop team) and staff, and about 500 rabid fans all crammed into the Phoenix arts centre in Leicester to watch a marathon thirteen hours of zombie movies (click here to see what you missed).

Since I started writing zombie books we’ve become overrun by the living dead. Back then there only seemed to be me, Brian Keene, David Wellington and a handful of others doing anything with zombies, but over the course of the last decade our undead friends have shuffled out from the fringes of horror to take up their current position right in the middle of the mainstream. In some respects that’s great, but I’ve been increasingly worried that zombie fatigue will soon start setting in. On the basis of what I saw in Leicester this weekend, we’ve got absolutely nothing to worry about.

A picture tells a thousand words they say, so I’ll save myself some typing and let these excellent photographs from the very talented Grace Elkin do all the talking instead. You can see the rest of her pictures here.

Make sure you’re signed up to receive the Zombie Times (click here if you’re not signed up already), and do yourself a favour: when tickets for the 2014 event go on sale, get in quick. This is an annual event that no self-respecting zombie fan can afford to miss. Special thanks, as always, must go to the man in the first photo below: the driving force behind the festival and the Zombie Times, the one and only Zombie Ed.

UK Festival of Zombie Culture is a post from: David Moody - author of TRUST and the HATER and AUTUMN books

From Lowestoft to Leicester

Had a brilliant time at Horror in the East last Saturday. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – it’s a lovely little convention which boasted a host of top guests. It was great to catch up with old friends again and to take in a long-overdue viewing of the BBC’s controversial (back in 1992) GHOSTWATCH. Thanks to Henry Baker, all the day’s panels were recorded for posterity and are available on YouTube for your viewing pleasure. To save you a click, you’ll find the Armageddon-related discussion featuring myself, Adam Baker, Sean T Page, Adam Millard and Simon Coleby at the bottom of this post. Huge thanks to Emma and Jo, the event organisers – you did a cracking job, ladies. Here’s to next year!

David Moody, Adam Baker, Sean T Page, Adam Millard and Simon Coleby at Horror in the East. (Photo: Deborah Cosgrove – deborahcosgrovephotography.co.uk)

Don’t forget – this Saturday I’ll be at my final event of the year, the annual Day of the Undead at the Phoenix Centre, Leicester. Click here for information. Hope to see a few of you there!