This Dark Earth

The land is contaminated, electronics are defunct, the ravenous undead remain, and life has fallen into a nasty and brutish state of nature.

Welcome to Bridge City, in what was once Arkansas: part medieval fortress, part Western outpost, and the precarious last stand for civilization. A ten-year-old prodigy when the world ended, Gus is now a battle-hardened young man. He designed Bridge City to protect the living few from the shamblers eternally at the gates. Now hes being groomed by his physician mother, Lucy, and the gentle giant Knock-Out to become the next leader of men. But an army of slavers is on its way, and the war theyll wage for the citys resources could mean the end of mankind as we know it.

Can Gus become humanitys savior? And if so, will it mean becoming a dictator, a martyr . . . or maybe something far worse than even the zombies that plague the land?

"Gus Ingersol is 14 and heir apparent to Bridge City, a fortified town in the middle of a zombie epidemic. His mother, Lucy, is a doctor and ruthless visionary who used her valuable medical training as a rallying point to form an organized community of survivors. Unfortunately, while her goals are noble, democracy is not one of them, so Gus is expected to prove his fighting worth and join the ruling council sooner rather than later. Less nihilistic than most authors of zombie fare, Jacobs (Southern Gods) is surprisingly uncritical of putting an untried boy in charge of a dangerous mission — not to mention the ease with which nepotism becomes monarchy. The real enemies of Bridge City are not the zombies, but rather the opportunistic cruelty and selfishness that spring up in their wake. This smart addition to the zombie genre is heroic and strangely hopeful, championing the unyielding human drive for justice and civilization. Agent: Stacia Decker, Donald Maass Literary Agency. (July)" Publishers Weekly Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

John Hornor Jacobs has worked in advertising for the last fifteen years, played in bands, and pursued art in various forms. He is the cofounder of Needle: A Magazine of Noir and author of Southern Gods.