Dog Blood [Paperback]

A few weeks back, I won a free copy of David Moody's Autumn: Purification, and while browsing his website, I read the first chapter of the third book in the Hater series, Them or Us.

After reading that sample chapter, I was impressed and went out to find a copy of Hater. With a bit of effort, I found one and read it in a matter of days. It floored me and I was desperate for more.

So, I immediately went out and got a copy of Dog Blood, Book Two of the Hater Trilogy. Now, after having finished it, I'm not as enthusiastic for Them or Us as I was originally.

Don't get me wrong, Dog Blood is a good book. The characters are well constructed and believable, the action intense, and the pace frenetic. But I felt there were some holes in the story.

The novel opens with a regular guy accompanying a military convoy out of a fortified city base into a rural area to collect some survivors. The trucks stop, troops fan out to protect the refugees and out of nowhere, dozens of Haters appear and attack them. So far so good. But here's where the battle kind of falls apart for me. Somehow, the unarmed Haters are able to swarm and wipe out dozens of soldiers armed with automatic weapons. Now, if this was in an urban setting where the Haters erupt from nearby buildings (as happens later in the book), okay, but the prose makes it sound like they cross a large field and a major road to get at the troops. My question is how? The troops pour fire at the Haters relentlessly, yet somehow are overwhelmed. I guess maybe a few Haters could have made it across the distance depicted in the book and in the face of heavy automatic weapons fire, but certainly not most of them, as seems to be the case.

Who knows, maybe I read that section too quickly and glossed over something important. Anyways...

The other plot hole I found unbelievable was the notion that children (Haters or Unchanged) would somehow make awesome combat troops. In one scene, a five year old girl runs/hops from victim to victim, killing full grown adults with ease. I don't know about you, but I can take any five year old girl in a fight. Yeah, she may bite me, or get lucky and gouge out an eye or something, but a five year old girl breaking an adult's neck? Sorry, I don't buy it.

Still, despite these two plot holes, the book is a good one. The novel mostly focusses on Danny McCoyne, the protagonist from Hater, and his quest to find his daughter, from whom he was separated during the chaos of the first novel.

Moody has a talent for writing about Armageddon. 'Dog Blood' picks up right where 'Hater' leaves off. Danny McCoyne has been fighting in the war of Haters versus Unchanged for the past few months and is now looking for his daughter.

This novel is much faster paced than 'Hater' and tells of McCoyne's trials in the war. The novel is still told from McCoyne's point of view - in the first person. Moody does a great job keeping McCoyne's character and language consistent. This makes for an easy read since it's just like reading somebody's thoughts about what's going on (with much better description and better flow).

I thought the ending was a little predictable and found it a somewhat depressing, but that's what Moody was going for and it fits in with the theme of the two novels well. However, the ending is not why fans of 'Hate' should read this book, but fans of 'Hater' will thoroughly enjoy the ending. Unlike in 'Hater', the characters in 'Dog Blood' are more goal driven which adds to the plot. Moody does a great job making you feel for the characters (once again).

Overall, a great quick read, especially for people who enjoyed 'Hater' and are wondering what happens to McCoyne and the world.

Told mostly in first person, this book is very immersive, like playing a zombie-themed FPS game. Creepy and unnerving. Excellent followup to Hater, which starts out slow but then certainly takes off at a good clip, this book never slows down.

Looking forward to the sequel and more David Moody books as well.