David Jack Bell’s THE CONDEMNED is not to be confused with the WWE novelization of the Stone Cold Steve Austin movie that I loved and everyone else hated. So if you’re expecting wrestlers duking it out on an island for the Internet-viewing public, you’re going to be sorely disappointed.
However, if you’re craving post-apocalyptic, slice-of-life zombie insanity of the Richard Matheson variety, then this is the right place, and Bell’s THE CONDEMNED rings true just for you. Sorry, SMACKDOWN fans.
In the near future, after terrorists have poisoned a nameless city’s water supply, turning the unlucky drinkers into zombies (or some variation thereof), the military seals off the city, leaving the undead to rot and die. Besides the army, the only people allowed into the city are tow-truck drivers, who go out and salvage cars for the war effort, which has apparently escalated into a WWIII situation.
We follow the sadly named Jett around on his daily rounds, as he laments the lost of his last partner to the “City People” and falls under the spell of his latest partner, a crazed vet nicknamed “The Kid,” who puts it into Jett’s head to go out and rescue his former partner. It’s something that Jett obsesses on to the point of losing his wife and daughter, but, when he discovers the secret of the city, he realizes it’s all worth it. Or is it?
Well, it kinda is … for the reader, at least. THE CONDEMNED has a real gritty, dime-store mystery feel to it – imagine Elmore Leonard rewriting I AM LEGEND – and the buildup to the “secret” is phenomenal. This is all told from the point of view of a civil servant trying to make money to buy groceries, not from a scientist or the like, so instead of getting bogged down with all the why’s of the dead menace, we’re given plenty of how’s, as in how to live amongst them, in their world.
It’s a fascinating change of pace that, sadly, falls apart in the last 30 or so pages when the “secret” is revealed; while it is technically a surprise for those in the book, it’s actually quite rote in the annals of zombie fiction. From all the buildup, you really expect much more of a huge, slam-bang ending, instead of the quiet, pedestrian whimper it delivers.
But at a slim 220 pages, I finished in about two or three hours, and would be lying if I said that I wasn’t fully entertained for that time. And, even more so, it’s still better than the recent screen adaptation of I AM LEGEND, so that’s something for the plus column. –Louis Fowler
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Someday they are going to figure out how to turn people into zombies without turning to water supplies, or viruses… haha.
Sounds neat. For being so short, think I’ll check it out sometime.