Sunset

I recently had the opportunity to read a copy of Sunset (by author JJ Ritonya - jjritonya.com), and it was pretty damn fun. Very much an exploration of human nature and its response to an apocalyptic event, the story does a great job of illustrating the horrors of surviving both the undead, and more interestingly, the remaining living.

Yeah, I really dug this story. I have to admit that at first I wasn't really sure how into it I would get. I felt like the writing was a little rough at times, and I wasn't immediately in love with the individual storylines. However, the voice grew on me, and I ended up really enjoying the individual, and overall, portraits of the scenario.

Unfortunately(or perhaps just frustratingly), the tale wraps quite suddenly. There were clearly interesting events on the horizon, but our author, understandably, did have to draw the line somewhere. Fortunately, however, there appears to be a follow-up on the horizon.

Warning *Spoilers*

Sunset is an interesting take on a undead apocalypse scenario. It is largely true to traditional zombie depiction (i.e. slow, feed on living, head-shot kills, etc.), however, Ritonya takes a new route by introducing an aversion to light to the formula. It results in a scenario where the bodies of the dead disappear in the day, but flesh-hungry hordes emerge after darkness.

I found this adjustment to have some rather interesting implications. In particular, it dramatically improves your odds for surviving and evading the undead. You need to find a fortress for your nights, but your days are completely open to salvage, travel, anything you like. Quite a luxury compared to most zombie scenarios.

However, contrary to the situation being a walk-in-the-park zombie apocalypse, Ritonya uses this lightened zombie threat to magnify the human element. Good people are among the survivors, but there are also those who go absolutely nuts in the absence of civil order. Snipers, feuds, rape, and creative butchery make the sunlight hours a whole new realm of horror.

Beyond this broad duality of the scenario, Ritonya paints a very colorful picture with his choice of locations (who doesn't love the idea of post-apocalyptic Vegas), varied survivor reactions (from shell-shock to disturbingly indiscriminate sexual amusements), and the individual trials of simply taking one day at a time to collect oneself and survive.

I should probably say that I wasn't completely in love with with Ritonya's take on the specifics of the undead phenomena itself. For example, simultaneous global (presumably) mass death seems pretty inconceivable. Also, while certainly very spooky, I am not sure what physiological circumstances would cause undead eyes to glow red. Additionally the undead seemed to have an oddly flip-flopping degree aggressiveness and aversion/attraction to light across the day/night divide.

Despite these little nit-picky qualms, however, I feel that the undeads' presence was really secondary to the primary goals of the tale. Their purpose was to simply set the stage for the far more frightening human element, in which Sunset was highly successful.

Regardless, Sunset was a fun read, and I would encourage folks to check it out. I do believe that fellow zombiephiles, and others fascinated by the implications of a world without law and order will find Sunset to be a tasty bite of horror.