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  • Endless Joke
    Endless Joke
    by David Antrobus

    Here's that writers' manual you were reaching and scrambling for. You know the one: filled with juicy writing tidbits and dripping with pop cultural snark and smartassery. Ew. Not an attractive look. But effective. And by the end, you'll either want to kiss me or kill me. With extreme prejudice. Go on. You know you want to.

  • Dissolute Kinship: A 9/11 Road Trip
    Dissolute Kinship: A 9/11 Road Trip
    by David Antrobus

    Please click on the above thumbnail to buy my short, intense nonfiction book featuring 9/11 and trauma. It's less than the price of a cup of coffee... and contains fewer calories. Although, unlike most caffeine boosts, it might make you cry.

  • Music Speaks
    Music Speaks
    by LB Clark

    My story "Solo" appears in this excellent music charity anthology, Music Speaks. It is an odd hybrid of the darkly comic and the eerily apocalyptic... with a musical theme. Aw, rather than me explain it, just read it. Okay, uh, please?

  • First Time Dead 3 (Volume 3)
    First Time Dead 3 (Volume 3)
    by Sybil Wilen, P. J. Ruce, Jeffrey McDonald, John Page, Susan Burdorf, Christina Gavi, David Alexander, Joanna Parypinski, Jack Flynn, Graeme Edwardson, David Antrobus, Jason Bailey, Xavier Axelson

    My story "Unquiet Slumbers" appears in the zombie anthology First Time Dead, Volume 3. It spills blood, gore and genuine tears of sorrow. Anyway, buy this stellar anthology and judge for yourself.

  • Seasons
    Seasons
    by David Antrobus, Edward Lorn, JD Mader, Jo-Anne Teal

    Four stories, four writers, four seasons. Characters broken by life, although not necessarily beaten. Are the seasons reminders of our growth or a glimpse of our slow decay?

  • Indies Unlimited: 2012 Flash Fiction Anthology
    Indies Unlimited: 2012 Flash Fiction Anthology
    Indies Unlimited

    I have two stories in this delightful compendium of every 2012 winner of their Flash Fiction Challenge—one a nasty little horror short, the other an amusing misadventure of Og the caveman, his first appearance.

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Entries in Dan O'Brien (1)

Wednesday
Apr042012

The End of the World Playlist

At first glance, Dan O'Brien's The End of the World Playlist is yet another short, sharp, vicious zombie tale packed with everything you expect from the genre; perhaps short on depth, but a fun carnival ride of post-apocalyptic gore. Yet look closer and there's more. There's plenty of slick and frankly hilarious dialogue, for example, fleshing out (sorry) characters who also reveal more depth than initial impressions might suggest. Which is essential, because the reader needs to feel empathy for the handful of human characters up against an increasingly frantic and numerous undead horde they've previously coexisted with, albeit anxiously.

As a huge music fan, I have to confess to being disappointed in the cursory nod this novella gives toward the title. I am admittedly being quite literal, but it's alluded to fairly early on then pretty much abandoned as a concept thereafter, which feels like a missed opportunity to tie this fast-paced story into a potentially rewarding conceptual framework. But that's a small quibble. The story moves fast, as do these zombies (yes, the slow/fast zombie dichotomy is once again highlighted by the speed of these dead folks, which I only mention as a warning to those purists who oppose this more recent, accelerated branch of the mythology). O'Brien provides just enough detail to allow the reader to care for the handful of well-drawn characters before unleashing the inevitable mayhem. The rare moments of reflection, flashes of what we've lost, mere sparks in a dark cellar, are all the more poignant for that.

Minor kudos and criticism aside, this is above all a well-written, fun(ny) and engaging novella with (it's becoming increasingly important to note) less of the editing issues of many independently published contributions to this overcrowded genre.

More 3 and a half stars, really, but that's not a bad thing. I'd read more of this type of stuff from O'Brien.

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also writes for Indies Unlimited and BlergPop. Be sure to check out his work there if you like what you read here.