In THE AUTUMN QUEEN PROTOCOL, a postapocalyptic thriller by Patrick Ashe, an alternative COVID-19 cure gone horribly wrong leads to a terrifying hellscape wherein zombie-esque humans called the infected prey on the uninfected—that is, on ordinary humans.
Survival is the goal in the world of THE AUTUMN QUEEN PROTOCOL, and it’s a mission protagonist Mike Ward has found he manages quite well, in stark contrast to his pre-apocalypse life as a data analyst. Eliminating the infected and calling his own shots (with his cat companion Chloe riding along) is a much better fit, as it turns out, than being forced to kowtow to a verbally abusive boss and wonder where he really fits into the world around him. As he travels through this wasteland, he comes upon a young girl, Angie, who needs his help; coming into his own as her protector is another role that he finds surprisingly suitable, even after a shaky start.
Elsewhere, Sergeant Cassandra Riven of the Army National Guard has also found freedom in the solitude of this strange new world, in spite of her traversing it due to orders from her commanding officers. She’s seeking out laboratory intel that’s inaccessible except through human measures, and which could hold the cure to the infection. But she comes to find that the measures meant to protect the people from the infected may not be all that they seem. Coupling encounters with hidden government initiatives and an onslaught of the infected, the climax of THE AUTUMN QUEEN PROTOCOL is intense, and it’s all Cassandra’s.
The story is solidly woven and interesting, as it prompts several questions about the value of survival versus actual human thriving—questions, of course, we have all had to ask ourselves over the past two years. It does a good job hitting on the inherently tragic resignation that comes with seeing the people that the protagonists care about turn into mindless zombies, and navigates between Cassandra and Mike’s inner monologues and outer adventures quite rhythmically. The landscapes that Ashe describes are particularly vivid and stark, and fans of dark fantasy and horror science fiction will not only enjoy the details that make the infected so threatening, but also the universes to which THE AUTUMN QUEEN PROTOCOL hearkens. Mike’s dynamic with Angie is sweet, and is reminiscent of The Last of Us; the descriptions of the infected bring to mind the Titans in the manga Attack on Titan. There are satisfying SCP universe-esque undertones in the very disturbing scenes where it is revealed that the infected can access their humanity for brief periods of time. Overall, this novel makes these tropes its own, and gives readers a great deal of value to dig into.
Patrick Ashe’s postapocalyptic thriller THE AUTUMN QUEEN PROTOCOL is a solidly crafted journey through a post-COVID wasteland that prompts interesting questions about trust, authority, and the difference between survival and human thriving.
~Jennifer Weatherly for IndieReader