Angry Robot Review of Tim Waggoner's "Dead Streets" by T. Reed

Nightmare Sound Laboratory

presents:

The Angry Robot Review for April 19, 2010

“Dead Streets” by Tim Waggoner

“Oh baby, baby it’s a wild world.” ... Cat Stevens

Or at least that’s what the Artist formerly known as 
Cat Stevens might have said about ‘Nekropolis’, the alternate universe inhabited by Matt Richter – Zombie Detective, and the Midnight Watch.  

         Somewhere between ‘Mad Monster Party’ and 
the alter-dimensional Hell of Clive Barker’s ‘Hellraiser’ we find ourselves on the “Dead Streets” of Tim Waggoner’s Nekropolis.

In this world filled with Frankenstein’s abominations, Vampire Lords, Half-bloods, shape-shifters, and Lycanthropes of every imaginable variety, ALL of our childhood’s favorite TV and movie monsters converge with entirely unheard of creatures, most of whom spell trouble for Zombie Detective Matt Richter and his cadre of security professionals. When the neighboring businesses are a “misfortune teller” and a “head shop" – ("new and used, all species, original size and shrunken") – you just know there is going to be more than enough humor and horror to go around in this ambitious tale that starts with a mystery and escalates into an all out monster war.

I started reading this series with “Dead Streets” (Book 2) and felt (at first) as though maybe I should go back and read Book 1: “Nekropolis” before embarking on this path, but ‘Dead Streets’ was the book I was entrusted to review, so onward I forged, to be pleasantly surprised at the ease with which Tim Waggoner brought you right into the story regardless of having not yet read “Nekropolis” already. It’s like picking up right where you left off without ever having been there! That said, ‘Dead Streets’ made me hungry to go back and see how Matt Richter became a Zombie Detective in the first place, and of course, what the next case for Matt Richter – Zombie Detective will be.

Keep tuned in for more: COMING SOON! An audio excerpt from “Dead Streets” featuring a spoken excerpt with the music of the novel’s Banshee led, all monster band ‘Kakophonie’! 

As one might hear on Bedlam 66.6 
Nekropolis’ favorite ghoulish radio station.

Right here @ http://nightmaresoundlab.blogspot.com/

Let the ‘Scream Queen’ sing!

~

T.Reed is a Film Composer and Multi-Media Creative specializing in the realm of Horror and Sci Fi Music, Art, and Writing. http://www.taoxproductions.com