NOT so Easy Riders

CARNAGE ROAD by Gregory Lamberson (to be released April 3, 2012 by Print is Dead / 86 pp / tp and eBook)


Every time I say I'm tired of zombie stories, I seem to read one that proves the subgenre is simply here to stay.  CARNAGE ROAD is a fine example of why: part EASY RIDER, part DAWN OF THE DEAD, this quick novella features two biker buddies, Boone and Walker, who decide to take a cross-country trek when the rest of their gang, the Floating Dragons, abandon their Buffalo, NY compound when a gang of rogue cops kill half their members.  Boone always wanted to see Hollywood, and convinces Walker to go with him—Walker had recommended trying Canada, but the cold weather didn't appeal to Boone.


The story wastes NO time getting to the undead action.  Along the way our anti-heroes encounter both sane and insane religious zealots, manage to take in a movie at an abandoned Indiana theater, are arrested in Kansas by racist political extremists, all the while battling hordes of cannibalistic cadavers and burning rubber on their hogs.  The boys also come across the most imaginative group of zombies I've read in some time at the foot of a twelve-story building.  When they finally reach Hollywood there's a hysterical scene where undead celebrities are spotted.  When they realizing there's just too many zombies around, they decide to head to Texas, where they join a group of survivors at the Alamo.


CARNAGE ROAD may be brief but it's packed to the gills with brain-splattering zombie goodness, social commentary, a bleak apocalyptic ending, and good old-fashioned b-movie-style fun.  Zombie fans will love it.