BOOK REVIEW: BACK FROM THE DEAD BY CM SAUNDERS

31/1/2022

Back From The Dead by CM Saunders
Review by David Watkins

A collection of zombie fiction from British journalist and dark fiction writer C.M. Saunders

Okay, so zombies. Done to death (haha) or room for more? Since the explosion in zombie stuff at around the late noughties, largely due to the success of The Walking Dead tv show, but also helped by the far superior comic and The Rising by Brian Keene, it seems everyone and their dog has had a go at a zombie story. However, for every Tim Lebbon Coldbrook, we get a seemingly infinite number of utter dross stories. I am by no means an expert on zombie fiction, so feel free to mention your favourites in the comments or on Twitter, but I’m just setting my stall out.

Following the excruciating Army Of The Dead in the summer, this landed on my review pile. Can Saunders re-invigorate a genre I’m pretty tired of? The answer to that is yes and no, so here we go.

The first story is Dead Of Night and has a couple camping out under the stars where they really shouldn’t. Que much mayhem as zombie confederate soldiers attack. It’s not a bad story by any stretch, but it is far too long and contain a few eye roll moments (such as how injured Nick gets, but continues running around). It’s also more of a ghost story than zombie.

Plague Pit has a Welsh (bonus marks) teenager stumbling across a chapel and unwittingly unleashing - well, no spoilers, but you can probably guess. As with the first story, this could have been shaved more to tighten it up, but it’s still an okay story. Felt like more of an ‘oh-oh I’ve accidentally summoned an ancient evil’ than zombie.

Human Waste starts an upswing in the quality of the stories, but again is guilty of being a little overlong. As a result I worked out what was going on long before the end. Still good fun though!

My favourite story came next. Till Death Do Us Part is about a lovely old couple trying to survive the end of days. Best in the collection, although Roadkill gives it a run for its money. This one has two ‘private’ ambulance drivers picking up, well, something (take a guess). It has a really strong sense of place and character but it ends with a whimper rather than the bang you think you’re going to get.

The final story, Dead Men Don’t Bleed, read like a homage to Chandler and other hard-boiled noir fiction. It’s good, and pretty horrible when you peel back the layers, and has some sections of effective horror and creepiness in there. Unfortunately, it has one of the most blatant typos in the book (“The man of God lay his emancipated frame…”) and highlights the need for a little more editorial pruning to get to a more effective collection.

So, in summary, this is not a bad collection - far from it, and I really enjoyed it. I would question Saunders’ decision to collect and market these as zombie fiction though. To me they seem to be more ghosts, or demons, or just plain old people being nasty to each other. Perhaps selling this as a zombie collection is selling it short. You’re not getting Romero style shamblers here, and there’s very little ‘end of the world apocalypse’ stuff the genre relies upon. You may be disappointed if that’s what you’re expecting.

Back From The Dead by CM Saunders

A collection of zombie fiction from British journalist and dark fiction writer C.M. Saunders, featuring two complete novellas alongside short stories previously published in the likes of Morpheus Tales and Crimson Streets, plus a brand-new novelette. Also includes an exclusive introduction and artwork by the award-winning Greg Chapman.

Praise for the stories in this book:

“This is very well written and not to ruin anything but the ending is amazing! Definitely check this one out. I am now a fan!”
(Dead of Night)
“C. M. Saunders does a fine job here with these long-lost Confederate dead in the North Carolina Piedmont. He manages a winning balance between gory horror and interpersonal relationship, between splatter and genuine human emotions.”
(Dead of Night)
“It's a zombie story with an original twist that I appreciated. It's well written, flows nicely, and both of the (live) characters are well developed and believable. Let's face it - The woods are a creepy place even in the daylight sometimes and thanks to CM Saunders I won't be camping anytime soon.”

My bio
David Watkins lives in Devon in the UK with his wife, two sons, dog, cat and two turtles. He is unsure of his place in the pecking order: probably somewhere between the cat and the turtles.

He has currently released three novels: The Original's Return, The Original's Retribution and The Devil's Inn. Each book is well rated and reviewed on Amazon and beyond.

His most recent release is Rhitta Gawr, part of the Short Sharp Shocks series.

Coming next year... The Exeter Incident from D&T Publishing

"...gut twisting scenes...” 4* Joe X Young, Gingernuts of Horror
"..a damn entertaining read.." - DLS Reviews
"Watkins writes with a real flow for tension." - Steve Stred, Kendall Reviews
"Great horror! I couldn't put the book down" 4.5*, Pamela Kinney, Ismellsheep.com

He hates referring to himself in the third person, but no-one else is going to write this for him.

David can be found on Twitter so drop by and say hello @joshfishkins, where you'll find him ranting about horror, the British education system and Welsh rugby, but not usually at the same time.