Dog Blood - Review

I really enjoyed 'Hater' - David Moody's apocalyptic vision of Britain struck by a virus (maybe?) that polarises society. The virus makes people 'snap' so that they attack and kill unaffected people, often in bloody and violent fashion. The attacks are indiscriminate and the 'haters' as they become known will attack strangers and family alike. Even young children turn against parents and husbands against wives. The haters are not zombies, however, they are still rational, thinking people. The book ends with a complete breakdown in 21st century civilisation as the virus reaches epidemic proportions.

The sequel - 'Dog Blood' - was therefore a must read and it has (on the whole) not let me down. Creating a narrative that deals with a post-apocalyptic world has been popular fare in science-fiction since its early days. Making that narrative a good one is sometimes more problematic. Look at the TV adaptations of 'The Andromeda Strain' or 'Flood' if you want proof of this. After the excitement of a build up and then the climatic events of virus, meteor, earthquake, or whatever the humdrum of life is bit harder to capture. Moody may well have wondered where to go with his narrative in Dog Blood, but on the whole it is gripping throughout while sometimes being insightful and thoughtful about the consequences of this new existence. Don't get me wrong - this is no 'I am Legend' or 'Day of the Triffids' - but has enough about it to make me want to read more.

The book begins as the last one ends with Danny McCoyne our hater protagonist searching for his daughter Ellis who he knows has also become like him. The plot thereafter see saws in perspective between Danny and his search and Mark Tillotsen, an 'unchanged' man living with his pregnant wife in a ghettofied part of London. This change in the POV lends weight to the already powerful polarisation happening geographically and socially. In fact the book is full of binary opposites that hook the reader and begin to make you wonder how you would react in the same situation. How this affects the family unit is particularly enthralling. This new society is also one in which the traditional boundaries of class, ethnicity, age and gender are removed completely. In this scary new world (zombiefied without the zombies) everyone is equally a problem. On the one hand you have a set of unchanged desperately trying to hold onto the past where they can, and on the other the hater anarchists intent in demolishing this past and everyone who is a part of it.

Moody never shies away from the violence that typified the first book. It is never gory or 'over-the-top' but is still graphic at times. The final few chapters I read at a breakneck pace as the 'coup-de-gras' of an attack on London is delivered and he skillfully describes a city in panic as months of hardship and fear take their toll.

Overall, I enjoyed the book immensely. Sure it is easy to read and 'thriller-like' in its delivery, but it was free of cliches and there is enough weight in it to ensure that I was never bored. Make sure you read Hater first though.

Rating: 8 out of 10