Finding the Whittier tunnel barred, separating the small city from the rest of Alaska and possibly from the undead infection, a flagging sense of hope is restored. Neil has led the dwindling band of survivors, including young Jules and Danny, through all the perils of this new world of the undead, including the relentless elements of the gathering winter season. Seeking sanctuary, Neil’s group is pursued by both the living and the dead, all yearning for their deaths. The survivors fled Anchorage and its streets teeming with flesh-eating zombies, narrowly escaping with their lives and now face dangers along Alaska’s Seward Highway which stretches southward to Seward, Alaska where it ends at the sea. Their options limited and their time running out, Neil and the others find themselves hoping against hope that Whittier has the answers. They must first find their own way into the city and then trust that the infection has not preceded them.
Resolution is the best book in the series...it wrapped up loose ends without winding down - even in the epilogue! It also gives readers background stories to members of the militia group, in addition to deeper connections between the survivors in Neil's group.
There are several new characters, creating some truly unexpected scenes (loved the addition of William), and a zombie horde on nearly every other page - no one ever dies the same way...Schubert is quite creative when it comes to killing his characters with the undead.
I thought it only proper to invite the author, Sean Schubert, to the Lair to discuss this series...
Q. I was certain Alaskan Undead Apocalypse would be a
trilogy. Why did you decide to do a fourth book?
A. That’s a fair question. Actually, my original plan was to write a book (Infection) and
that book became too big for a single episode, and so Containment was
born. Finishing Containment, I
realized I wasn’t done and thus Mitigation emerged. Resolution, I thought, had tied the
whole series up and it was done. Again,
I thought that was the case but Permuted Press asked for more. I was reluctant at first, hence the title of
the most recent installment, Unwilling. However, as I delved further into that storyline, I realized how much
fun I was having writing it.
The problem
that I ran into was that in my books people die and killing off major characters
is very difficult for me…very emotional. There is a song that I hear regularly coming out of my home or car
stereo that almost makes me cry now. Unwilling
is still in the pre-publishing stage but it’s been completed and
submitted. I assume that’s it for the
Alaskan Undead Apocalypse but…we’ll see. If Neil and crew have another story in them, then I’ll write it.
Q. Where did the idea for this series come from in the first
place?
A. Aside from my fascination with zombies and the grim prospect
of being eaten alive, there were two primary factors/inspirations for Infection. The first was a local story on NPR about
disaster readiness and the challenges Anchorage faces. In the article, a discussion about the
limited ways in which Anchorage can be evacuated. We only have one road out north and one road
out south. We are hemmed in by the Cook
Inlet to the west and the Chugach Mountains to the east.
The other nugget that figured into the
story’s genesis was an article I read about an US Army Air Force plane crashing
and disappearing somewhere in the Rocky Mountains circa 1947. Fast-forward to the late Eighties/early
Nineties, a group of hikers happened upon a crash site that was slowly emerging
from glacier ice. They discovered the
long lost wreck. In it, the bodies of
the crew were still in their seats and largely preserved by the ice.
I matched those two stories together with my own twisted
take on the world and Infection emerged.
Q. Tell us about your writing process. For instance, how did
you come up with so many different ways to kill off your characters?
A. I wish I had a writing process I could share other than to
say that I write most days but I only do so when I feel like writing. I write for pleasure and not for
publication. I like spinning tales and
love language, so writing is just something I enjoy.
As for killing off characters both big and
small, I feel like if I’m not entertained then a reader won’t be either. I recently read another book that always
described deaths in the same or very similar fashion—“the head came apart like
an overripe melon” or “the skull exploded like a watermelon struck with a
hammer”. It became tedious without the
variety.
Obviously, in a zombie
apocalypse there will be similar themes regarding death both from the zombies
as well as from the humans, but I think there are enough ways for a demise to
be met that I can be creative in depicting it.
Q. In the anthology, The Will to Survive, you wrote a short
story set in the AUA universe. Will you be doing anything else within the
series?
A. The main character in The Spread shows up in Unwilling, the
latest Alaskan Undead Apocalypse installment.
I would love to continue to write about the proliferation of the
apocalypse in the Lower Forty-Eight, but that would take me away from
Alaska.
The opportunity and the
challenge about leaving AK for story telling is that the stories will likely be
on a much grander scale without the same limitations imposed by Alaska’s
geography. It’s just a different stage.
Q. You have another novel, Fyre, also set in Alaska. Is this
a horror story or something else? Is it a stand-alone or the beginning of a new
series?
A. Fyre started as a standalone novel but it might develop into
something more…not sure. One of the
characters caught my attention and a story might be forthcoming surrounding him
but it may not be a sequel so much as just existing in the same universe. Fyre was just a short foray into mythology.
Q. Do you plan to write anymore zombie stories in 2019?
A. Well, as I said, Unwilling is complete and should be
released in early 2019. I’m working on
another untitled novel right now. It’s
horror again but not zombies. I’ve
really enjoyed writing it though.
I’ve
created a fictitious town in Alaska where some pretty funky stuff starts to
happen. I will likely circle back around
to the Alaskan Undead Apocalypse or at least into that universe again.
Special thanks to Schubert for coming to the Lair...I will never look at Alaska the same way again.
As always,
AstraDaemon
