The City (Autumn, Book 2)

The book is the sequel to David Moody's excellent, deliberately slow-paced Autumn novel which set the stage for his trilogy.Moody has us follow the patch of several groups of survivors in modern-day England after the outbreak of a terrifyingly fast virus that killed billions of people in seconds, without anybody knowing its origin or its purpose. The group of "countryside" survivors that we got to know in Autumn is featured in this sequel again. It gets back to the City it originally fled from and gets to merge with another group of survivors that got trapped in a university somewhere in the City -hence the book's name.Moody is keeps delivering a number of messages to the reader in his book, just as he did in the first, and will be doing in the third (Autumn, Purification).First, the countryside is no ideal place to hide and enhance the chances of survival when faced with a mutating enemy that relies primarily on sound detection, and gets increasingly "articulated". Out there in the open, while silence may be soothing, it may also become the deadliest betrayer too as any sound will act as magnet to those stench-generating masses.Second, the Army is shown in its full "splendor", ie a mixture of immature conditioning in the face of unplanned threats, and power -when used and organized to take benefit of its very conditioning. Unlike in many other zombie books, the army is not depicted as a "yet-another-enemy-from-within" party. It features good as well as hopeless guys too, just like in the outside. The survivors get to benefit from the army without giving them anything in return, as we would have anticipated normally.Third, the most intellectually "enlightened" characters of the bunch have no clue about what's happened to the world. Reciprocally, the army's might is barely sufficient to inflict any kind of substantial damage to their "total enemy", the rotting crowd. In other words, neither sheer intelligence nor brute force is a real asset in ensuring self-preservation. What we see clearly in Moody's depiction is the intrinsic value of constant adaptation. Those who can't adapt, don't make it alive.Pretty good messages I thought. Sounds good to you too? Then read on.Another finesse of Moody's work is the way the sick bodies evolve. In the first book, they were dumb, inarticulated, helpless, but moving towards the end to the beginning of a rational thought process translating into coordinated actions (banging on the walls, moving to a specific location. Aggressiveness was also starting to show.In Autumn, the City, aggressiveness becomes the driving factor behind the rotten crowd's actions, making it each day more dangerous and difficult for the survivors to stay alive. This adds another, very effective layer of anxiousness, as the survivors cave in in makeshift shelters for extended periods of times without necessarily being aware of the extent of the dead bodies' mutation outside. That makes for interesting encounters when they finally all meet together again.But still, the author still has not used the name "Zombie" a single time in this second book, making the pathetic living-deads not so evil after all. And we still don't know what caused this mayhem in the first place, will we ever find out? People we get attached too just die of stupid death (car accidents etc.), so who's going to be the next one? Also, what the hell are the living-deads doing when they get onto living survivors? Do they eat them? Do they just kill them as the result of hate, jealousy, something else? Will we, here again, know at all in the end? All of these very effective narrative and plot techniques are very good at keeping the reader glued to the book, wishing for the end (of the book!) not to come too fast.

This book was a great follow up to David Moody's first book in his Autumn series. The virus that has taken over the world has hit The City - plenty of new characters and twists and turns. Even though most zombie books are predictable, David Moody gives an exciting and new experience for zombie lovers. You almost feel like you are there... This book is hard to put down - when you get to the last 20 pages, you just want it to go on, and on, and on... Shame that David's Autumn series is not able to be purchased at book stores in Australia though, which means you have to pay a LOT OF MONEY for one book - BUT the books are Totally Worth It!!!! I LOVE the Autumn series, and cannot wait to purchase the next books in his Autumn series!

Not the most technically sound writing in publication but very far from the worst. For zombie fans, there really is no such thing as a bad zombie story, but David Moody's work really is something special. Its not your run of the mill flesh eating frenzy type of story and that's refreshing. The Autumn novel's power resides not in their ability to disgust or in the description of violence, but in the psychological despair and utter hopelessness that would be felt by the survivors of a zombie apocalypse. Very emotional, very disturbing, utterly wonderful.

This book was a little repetitive. It was similar to the first in that sense. The first one was understandable. But the second was almost exactly the same. They start off by introducing new characters and explain where they were when the virus too hold. Then the characters constantly argue about whether they should stay in their current location or not. I accepted it in the first book thinking it was natural and kind of realistic. But the second book was also the same and kind of boring. I kept skimming paragraphs because I felt like I was reading the first book again. Just with new characters and a new location. Their situations were almost exactly the same and they ended up doing the same thing. This book is the first book in a different outfit. The ending was interesting and the only reason I’m even considering reading the third book.

As always, David Moody paints the picture of the end of humanity more vividly and clearly than anyone else dares attempt. His iconic visions never cease to amaze me. This book has everything you could possible hope to want for story, characters, and basic situations. No one creates an atmosphere of dread and horror better. This book is an absolute masterpiece, a more than worthy successor to the first installment in this iconic series! Anyone who enjoys apocalyptic horror should have their heads examined if they do not purchase this wonderful series of novels!

I’m only reading this series ‘cos i paid for the first book and I hate starting something and then not finishing. Saying that I was so fed up with this series I didn’t bother wasting my money on the last book. There is without a doubt worse zombie fiction out there. I know because I’ve read it. This series is distinctly middle of the road and uses pretty much every cliche’ you can think of. Considering how suddenly the world stops there seems to be little consideration of what would happen to failing utilities such as nuclear power etc which detracted from the story. I quite often felt characters acted irrationally and dialogue was wooden.I find it hard to believe this is by the same author who wrote the Hater series which are infinitely better written and well worth checking out.

i met this author by chance a couple of weeks ago through my job,he inspired me to buy autumn,and autumn the city,it took me 3 nights to read autumn and im half way through autumn the city,i couldnt put them down.If you love the walking dead,the returned etc these books are for you.the way he writes helps you conjour up pictures in your mind of how the scene is set,and gives you a sense of how his characters feel in the situations they come across.i cant wait to get the next 2 in the series

Didn’t disappoint. David Moody writes a good story that keeps you wanting to read the next book in theseries.

The first copy I purchased was completely misprinted. It had chapters missing and halfway through the book started going in reverse! I had to order a replacement which luckily was ok!

Absolute gem of a book to follow on the Autumn series. The author has an excellent writing style that forces you to read on.Now for book 3!!