Book Review: Welcome to Necropolis by Bryan Killian

Welcome to Necropolis by Bryan Killian

Paperback, 344 pages

Published March 2015 by Deadite Press

A couple of things before I get into this book. I might not seem like the target audience for this book. Yes I was into Zombie movies before the Walking Dead made them mainstream. I grew-up Romero zombies, low budget Italian zombie affairs ranging from Tombs of the Blind dead, Burial Ground and of course Fulci movies. In my own Zombie novel I savaged the growing zombie mainstream with satire, and I admit nine times out of ten I roll my eyes at the idea of another zombie novel. Then I sat on a panel talking horror with Bryan and decided I had to read his work.

Lets be clear I don't root against zombie novels, infact I had David Wellington's Positive as my number five read of the year. I also had a read reading experience with Killian's Welcome to Necropolis. I choose it as my flight read heading home to Indiana and as such read it in two sittings.

Split into two parts the first in the hours just after the zombie outbreak, and the second part taking place weeks later. Of the two parts of the novel, the second half to me was more interesting. Killian does some interesting things with the set up of the zombie apocalypse, most notable were the chapters that followed Ruth a nurse at a elder care facility. What happens after that is the unraveling of Redding California, the city providing the window into the end of this world.

Killian gives the characters weight and for my money I was most connected to Ty and his gold lab Sugar. The second half becomes more of a survival story as the city has split into factions some surviving in a office building others in a convention center. The strength of this novel is less in the zombie tropes as it is in the heartfelt sorrow I felt for the characters in the closing pages. Without spoilers I will just say the strong moments of the book came in the final pages.

That emotional richness is so important to building terror, I know Killian is working on a follow-up but I am most looking forward seeing what other direction he explores in horror. Super glad he is a part of the San Diego Horror community.