HORDE

Once again avoiding the trite embellishment often embraced by the zombie genre, HORDE author Bryan Cassiday pares down his story structure into a stark linear narrative in this sixth installment of his celebrated ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE series. This structure allows the tale of a ragtag group of humans just barely surviving against the titular horde of virus-induced zombies to focus the horror of the narrative stealthily and incrementally and without the need for extraneous exposition. This in itself lends itself to immediacy enough, but HORDE’s reliance on topical tropes such as social distancing, the efficiency of facemasks, attempts at vaccine roll-outs, and a virus response mishandled by the government bring that horror all that much closer to home.