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 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 he's 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 they'll wage for the city's resources could mean the end of mankind as we know it. Can Gus become humanity's 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? "This smart addition to the zombie genre is heroic and strangely hopeful, championing the unyielding human drive for justice and civilization." - Publishers Weekly " This Dark Earth is a smart, thoughtful look at the end of humanity that delivers horrifying detail packed with an emotional resonance. It's The Road meets World War Z . Deftly written, with eloquent prose peppered with crisp, dark humor, Jacobs crafts a chillingly believable tale that transcends genre fiction and manages to do what I long for whenever I sit down to read a make me wish I'd written it."
- Scott G. Browne, author of Breathers and Lucky Bastard "A savage gut-punch of a tale, lurching hellbent to a spectacular showdown ending unparalleled in the zombie canon."
- Sophie Littlefield, author of Aftertime and Rebirth " This Dark Earth is, quite simply, the best zombie novel I've read in years. Breathes some much-needed new life into the dead."
- Brian Keene, best-selling author of The Rising and Ghoul
Author
John Hornor Jacobs, is an award-winning author of genre bending adult and YA fiction and a partner and senior art director at a Little Rock, Arkansas advertising agency, Cranford Co. His first novel, Southern Gods, was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Excellence in a First Novel and won the Darrel Award. The Onion AV said of the book, “A sumptuous Southern Gothic thriller steeped in the distinct American mythologies of Cthulhu and the blues . . . Southern Gods beautifully probes the eerie, horror-infested underbelly of the South.”His second novel, This Dark Earth, Brian Keene described as “…quite simply, the best zombie novel I’ve read in years” and was published by Simon & Schuster’s Gallery imprint. Jacobs’s acclaimed series of novels for young adults beginning with The Twelve-Fingered Boy, continuing with The Shibboleth, and ending with The Conformity has been hailed by Cory Doctorow on BoingBoing as “amazing” and “mesmerizing.”Jacobs’s first fantasy novel, The Incorruptibles, was nominated for the Morningstar and Gemmell Awards in the UK. Pat Rothfuss has said of this book, “One part ancient Rome, two parts wild west, one part Faust. A pinch of Tolkien, of Lovecraft, of Dante. This is strange alchemy, a recipe I’ve never seen before. I wish more books were as fresh and brave as this.”His fiction has appeared in Playboy Magazine, Cemetery Dance, Apex Magazine and his essay have been featured on CBS Weekly and Huffington Post.Books:Southern Gods – (Night Shade Books, 2011) This Dark Earth – (Simon & Schuster, 2012) The Twelve-Fingered Boy – (Lerner, 2013) The Shibboleth – (Lerner, 2013) The Conformity – (Lerner, 2014) The Incorruptibles – (Hachette/Gollancz, 2014) Foreign Devils – (Hachette/Gollancz, 2015) Infernal Machines – (Hachette/Gollancz, 2017) The Sea Dreams It Is The Sky – (HarperCollins / Harper Voyager, October 2018) A Lush and Seething Hell – (HarperCollins / Harper Voyager, October 2019) Murder Ballads and Other Horrific Tales – (JournalStone, 2020)
