Read @ Joe’s

Title: Island of the Dead (2024) Author: Brian Keene Publisher: Apex Books Book jacket: Einar, an enslaved barbarian, plots his escape from a war galley transporting troops and a mysterious weapon to far enemy shores. But when an apocalyptic storm at sea leaves Einar and his fellow captives shipwrecked on a strange, uncharted island, friend and foe alike must band together against a steadily growing horde of the undead … and even worse dangers. Joe says: Island of the Dead is a hard-hitting, violent read, and by Crom, ridiculously fun.

The world of fiction needs more barbarian versus zombies stories. Master horror writer Brian Keene has triumphantly filled that void with Island of the Dead. And by Crom, this is one ridiculously fun read.

Keene does not worry about backstory or world building. Embodying the one-directionness of his heroic barbarian Einar, Island of the Dead simply starts in medias res and constantly moves forward in a lurch for survival. The reader comes along as a willing captive, reveling in all its gory escapade. Keene is relentless as he is entertaining.

Island… opens as Einar finds himself a slave; an oarsman on a giant battle galley. He no sooner plans to escape when a giant storm wrecks the ship on a peaceful, fertile island. Albeit one with giant ants. 

And Atlantean survivors.

One other thing survives too. A biological weapon that was planned to be unleashed on enemy soil but now roams free on the tropical atoll – zombies. 

Einar picks up comrades: fellow slaves Fhad and Chuy, and Mathias, a young soldier with a secret. All they want to do is escape and head for home. But this is a story about barbarian slaves, so safe travels home are not in the cards. Instead, Keene offers rampant stories of muscles and swords, blood and kinsmanship and unending fights with six-foot ants, inbred Atlanteans, and the undead themselves.

Keene, like Einar, keeps moving forward. Rarely does his tale relinquish its hold for a breath. Keene, then, similar to the island, can be both beautiful with his prose and harsh with its overarching violence. Einar and friends fight, slash, hurl, and curse in an immersive, genre-breaking read. Yet, Keene cleverly mixes in his own thoughts and ideals on race and creed and culture. His subtle political views remain metaphorical but deepen an otherwise shallow actioneer. 

Island of the Dead is a hard-hitting, violent read full of manly bravado and macho adventurism. Back in the heyday of Orion, Carolco, or New World Pictures, Island of the Dead would be a VHS-rental mainstay of imaginative proportions. For now, it remains a wonderful piece of pure horror fiction. Island of the Dead not only deserves an adaptation – be it comics or cinema – but also a sequel.

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Many thanks to Apex Books and NetGalley for sending me this ARC to read and review. Thanks to Brian Keene as well. I will make it out to Vortex Books this summer. Honest. And I still miss the hell outta the Defenders Dialogue podcast.