Rendered Flesh

David Cartwright

When zombie apocalypse RPG games go wrong… they go brain-splatteringly wrong!

You feel it don’t you, like maggots in your mind, or ragged teeth gnawing at your belly?

The dissatisfaction of the daily grind. The disillusionment with the status quo.

You watch the dead-eyed, slack-jawed masses as they feast on the rancid meat of propaganda, biting off little pieces of your shredded soul along with it. You rail against the fence-sitters and the fascists, but they simply band together against your small party. The rasping voice of the faceless hordes drowning out your cries for equality.

You want to rip into it, tear at it with a chainsaw of righteous outrage but the gears stutter and the teeth falter, clogged with the foul muck of mass-media bias. The roar of the engine is answered by the deafening howls of the brain-washed mob.

This is Lex’s life, their reality, their struggle. Burnt-out by the trolls and bigots who so callously oppose their part in social-media campaigns for a better world, Lex retreats with gamer friends, Jay and Indi into a new total-immersion, zombie-survival game.

But, with the stakes rising and the illusion of ‘the game’ falling away, it soon becomes clear that, in order for Lex, Jay and Indi to survive the horrors of the game, something of the real-world has to die.

Real or virtual, brain-washed or brain-dead, Lex cannot escape the ravenous, cadaverous hordes of Rendered Flesh. 

REVIEWS

Andrew A ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Let the adventure continue

A great story with an unusual twist to normal apocalypse catastrophise, the characters are well presented and easy to understand. the story is easy to read and follow. the potential for continuation and further adventures is already laid out and I look forward to seeing if the author will continue Les's adventure in this new and damaged world.

aphenine ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A grown-up Isekai zombie thriller - with a realistic, diverse cast

I'm reviewing this book having been given a free copy by the author.

The description I had to go on was "'It was like World War Z, Sword Art Online and the Communist Manifesto had some kind of horrific rotting baby together." What I didn't expect to get was a smart, sassy and very genre aware take on being locked-in-a-computer-game, this time it being a Zombie-survival game, with realistic diverse characters.

It explores what can make people find comfort in what should be a twisted and violent genre in the form of its main characters, who, being some mix of transgender and genderfluid, already feel outcast and excluded, and explores that strange sense of camaraderie and simplicity that sheer survival can bring when you feel that way, as well as how society would have to be to make you feel that way.

I worried that the overtly left-leaning political tone would get really preachy and nearly bounced off the story (I'm left leaning too, but I'll happily accept in fiction that even neo-fascists can be good if the author sets up the situation well enough) but I persevered because I loved what the author did with it and it didn't go where I thought it would, but wove into the plot in a pleasing, sensible way, which fit with the way the characters were really well.

I also really liked the take on being-trapped-in-a-game that the author took. As VR headsets become more mainstream, it's hard to take the idea that they could actually trap you in the game you're in. However, the way it was done was a nice fresh take which I enjoyed that updated the genre for the modern age, with many pleasing callouts to modern games that actual gamers will enjoy. The play on conspiracy theories was fun too.

It's also a nice relief to see well written trans characters as well.

Mr L ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Politically aware flesh blood in the Zombie survival genre

Disclaimer: I was sanity-testing the document, so had received a copy.

Th story is tough to get into to start with, not gonna lie. Short sentences and a barrage of information made me confused and struggling.
But then I realised, about page 5, that the point of that entrance WAS to make you feel that way; like the world is overwhelming and everything is a struggle. I could relate, and it really set a backdrop for all the actions within the game. Bear that in mind when you open this story for the 1st time.

Moving through the book was a natural flow, shifting between the real and VR world of the game, and the author had enough knowledge to make it believable without going over the top in technical jargon. I really enjoyed seeing life through Lez's eyes, and as an individual who is decidedly vanilla I really enjoyed the perspective that is so different from my own.

The book's revelations as it goes along are both unsettling and shocking, and while veterans to the genre may have seen this all before, I really felt like the attention to the little details (the blood, the panic, the SMELL) all really helped drill in the feeling of unrelenting despair and isolation that zombie apocalypse would evoke. Too often a zombie theme is just 'the unliving hordes and our heroic protagonist giving zero f*cks', and this book really showed the outcome of a person who thought they were desensitised enough finally confronting something so real that their reaction is just as real.

As the story flows to it's conclusion things inevitably escalate, but nothing seems too jarring in terms of action leaps. A couple of the characters are most definitely side-roled, but it doesn't detract form the plot or story of the others, which is undoubtedly rich. I would have liked to see more exposition of one of the characters dysmorphia between their personal attitude their actions of their avatar, but the fact it was registered at all is commendable (think The Rock in the first of the Jumanji reboots!).

When I think back to the read, the story is so rich it makes the book a lot longer than it is; a lot happens but it doesn't feel rushed.

I heartily recommend this book if you're interested in or want to try out any of the following: Non-mainstream perspectives, zombies, social integration in an apocalypse, human psychology and behaviour under pressure, left-leaning political viewpoints, non-binary gender acceptance, progressive mindsets, pop culture references, deep and thoughtful storytelling.

For what it is, an entry into the zombie survival genre, it's a novel (hehehe) and beautiful representation of what reality could be. I applaud it.