Zombob's Zombie News and Reviews

The Return Man: Delivering zombies

The Return Man
Author: V.M. Zito
Publisher: Orbit, 414 pages

IMAGINE that a zombie outbreak suddenly occurs. There’s chaos, mayhem, and much spilling of guts and munching on brains. The outbreak cannot be controlled or cured, but the government manages to establish a safe zone across half the country.

The other half is given up as lost, infested by the living dead, abandoned by the still-living. The same goes for families and friends – some lucky ones have survived and reached the safe zone, while the less fortunate ones now wonder around the so-called Evacuated States, looking for fresh human meat to chomp on.

Now, we all know that closure is important in any relationship, and of course, the idea that your loved one is now a mindless zombie is not a pleasant one to entertain. So, for those in the Safe States willing to pay for his services, Dr Henry Marco will track down their zombified loved one and deliver the final killing blow.

A former neurologist, Henry still resides in his well-barricaded house in the Evacuated States. Having lost his wife to a zombie attack at the beginning of the outbreak, he stays on there in the hopes of finding her once again and putting her out of her zombie state.

You see, zombies, according to author V.M. Zito, are drawn to the important places of their “emotional geography”. These are places that meant a great deal to them, where something significant in their lives might have happened. That is how Henry tracks them down and kills them, after obtaining the relevant information from their surviving family member or friend.

The story pretty much jumps straight into the action, opening with Henry in the midst of trying to verify the identity of a zombie he has been commissioned to take out. Around 20 pages in and the reader is already thrown smack into the middle of a zombie attack.

Vito’s writing is tight and exciting and draws you into the story; a skill he probably brought over from his advertising background.

The zombies are pretty standard for their kind, and even the “emotional geography” angle is reminiscent of concepts from other books. This is, however, not a criticism so much as an observation. Vito writes the zombies pretty well, and the “emotional geography” angle is a good plot device. The more complex scientific explanations are also made more believable by the fact that Henry is a neurologist.

Then, Homeland Security gets in touch with Henry, “requesting” that he track down a particular zombie, Dr Roger Ballard, last seen near the site of the original outbreak at a prison. Not only does Henry have some personal history with Ballard, but Ballard himself apparently also has something to do with the whole zombie problem.

Accompanying Henry on this journey is undercover spy Ken Wu, or Kheng Wu, who is masquerading as an officer sent to help Henry in his mission. Actually, the only minor quibble I had with this book is the characterisation of Wu. His vitriolic anti-Americanism and extreme nationalistic outlook seems a bit off-mark for a modern day Chinese citizen, even for an obviously patriotic soldier and spy. (The book is set in 2018.)

His attitude would have been more believable in a North Korean spy, or a Chinese citizen from before China began opening up its economy, and itself to the world, in the 1970s. And his attitude towards death and the dead doesn’t quite gel with how the Chinese in general usually view these topics, ie as something to be actively avoided and shunned due to its bad luck associations.

But, generally, I found the book a fast-paced, entertaining, lightweight read with a decent plot. Fans of the supernatural genre and apocalyptic world-type stories would probably like this one.

~thestar.com