And if your ears can take more after such an aural battering, I wanted to remind you that the audiobook edition of CHOKEHOLD is now available from Macmillan Audio. It’s narrated by Gerard Doyle who, for his sins, has now voiced all six HATER audiobooks. His narration throughout has been superb, and I’m hoping to be able to ask him a few questions about his work on the two trilogies in the coming weeks. But don’t take my biased word for it, help yourself to a sample:
More people have been saying nice things about CHOKEHOLD. 2bookloversreviews said: “Authors are able to accomplish some incredible things: they create worlds that captivate people, they imagine characters that complete strangers connect with, they make people forget, temporarily, about the normal lives they live. David Moody has accomplished all of this with his Hater world.”
And I was equally pleased with AintitCool’s feedback (even though they got my name wrong in the headline!): “The novel is a speedy downhill slalom race to the final war between the Haters and Unchanged. There’s no air to breathe, every page is crisp and determined. As characters you love draw to their unfortunate ends, you’re left in their ashes wondering if anyone will make it out alive. It’s everything a novel on war should feel like. Desolate and relentless, no one is safe here. David Moody has put together a completely satisfactory end to this trilogy.”
To celebrate, and because it’s that time of year, I thought I’d join the rest of the world and launch a sale. From now until Monday 2 December, you can get 20% off any order of signed books at www.infectedbooks.co.uk. Just make sure you use the code INFECTEDXMAS at checkout.
Well the new book has been out a few days and, as I expected, it’s polarising opinion (as have the other books in the series, to be fair). Some folks hated CHOKEHOLD (sorry, Starburst), while others really, really liked it – many thanks to Max at Geeks of Doom for his great review.
CHOKEHOLD is just as the name suggests: a story that viciously grabs ahold of you and will not let go, no matter how much you struggle. It is cutthroat, relentless, and — trust me when I say this — shockingly inspiring.
I had the pleasure of chatting to Jason Henderson at the Castle of Horror about the novel yesterday, and you can hear our conversation here:
All joking apart, the reason for the title of this post is quite straightforward. I don’t write the prettiest of books, and I don’t shirk away from taking my stories down grim pathways if they need it. In the case of CHOKEHOLD, much of it is necessarily bleak. I hope that readers will find some positives from the conclusion of Matt Dunne’s story. I think this final chapter is surprisingly uplifting and it sets the tone nicely for THEM OR US.
What do you think? Have you had chance to read CHOKEHOLD yet? I’d love to know what you think.
If you haven’t yet got hold of a copy, here are the links you need: PRINT | AUDIO | EBOOK | SIGNED.
A series of nuclear strikes has left huge swathes of the country uninhabitable. It’s a level playing field now: both Hater and Unchanged alike have to fight to stay alive. Both have retreated to their camps to regroup, less than twenty miles away from each other.
It’s here that the last major battle of the final war will inevitably be fought, but neither side has any idea what’s waiting for them just around the corner.
Both armies are ready to fight to the death, each of their leaders hell-bent on victory. Their tactics are uniformly simple: strike first, get the enemy in a chokehold, then strangle the life out of them.
It’s very bleak, very bloody, and I hope you enjoy it!
Just one week to go until CHOKEHOLD hits the shelves. Here’s the first chapter for you…
Fifteen Miles East of Cambridge
The first few enemy figures appear on the horizon, and the fighters lying in wait for them are desperate to engage, starved of conflict. It’s been too long. These fuckers have had it coming. These fuckers will be shown no mercy.
It’s taken weeks to get to this point. Every meter of mud has been fought for; every reclaimed centimeter of concrete and tarmac has been won at a cost. They’re not going to give it up now, not after all those sacrifices, all those lives lost. There’s no going back. It’s them or us.
Word of the approaching attackers spreads quickly along the front line, accompanied by a nervous tension that borders on excitement. Some of these men and women dare to dream that the bulk of the bloodshed is behind them now, that this is the last push of the final war. There’s an unspoken belief that each new bloom of violence will bring them closer to restoring some semblance of normality to what’s left of their lives.
The service station is accessed by a single road that splinters off what used to be one of the major routes into Cambridge. The main road had been midway through a massive, years-long rebuild-and-regeneration program when the war began, and here, alongside the services, lies the abandoned remains of a construction base the size of a small town. The fighters used the roadworks equipment to strengthen and fortify their position while secreting their armored vehicles and heavy weapons among the highway maintenance vans and flatbeds. Diggers were used to carve deep trenches at a distance from the main buildings, and the ballast, soil, and scree they excavated now protects the service station itself—great drifts of the stuff used to block access, strengthen walls, and camouflage metal and glass from view. Inside the building, the familiar plastic façades of long-gone restaurant chains and fast-food outlets remain, reminding people what they’ve lost. But the rawness of their pain is eased knowing that what they have here is more than almost everyone else.
Remember these little beauties? If you’ve been following my work since the early days, you might remember these bloody HATER t-shirts which were popular when the novel was originally released in 2009. Now, because lots of you have been asking, they’re back. Click here or on the image below for more details.
I was sorry to hear about the death of Amazon’s Matchbook today. Matchbook allowed readers to get heavily discounted or free versions of the print books they bought from the site.
As a writer and a publisher, I believe in fairness and in not ripping off my readers. I think if you buy a print version of an Infected Books title, you should automatically get an eBook version too. Matchbook helped me to do that. But there is an alternative solution. Buy a signed copy of one of my Infected Books releases and you’ll be able to download an eBook version immediately. Conversely, if you’ve bought a digital version and you’d like a signed print version as well, you can let me know and I’ll discount the print book by the cost of the eBook you’ve already bought*.
The release of CHOKEHOLD is just two months away. I have a few spare advance copies of the book that I’d like to do something useful with, so I thought a quick giveaway would be in order. The rules of entry are simple: make some noise online about the new book or the earlier novels in the series (ONE OF US WILL BE DEAD BY MORNING and ALL ROADS END HERE) and I’ll put your name in the hat for an advance copy of CHOKEHOLD. You can post a review, tweet something, post to Facebook or Instagram – anything that helps me get the word out.
Let me know what you’ve done by filling in the form below.
In Moody’s blood-soaked third Final War novel, Matthew Dunne and a handful of fellow survivors emerge from an underground bunker into a nuclear-blasted Britain still overrun with vicious, rage-fueled Haters, transformed humans whose overriding need is to kill Unchanged people like Matt. Beaten down and exhausted, Matt only wants to be left alone, but he’s drawn back into the fight when he and his group are taken to a fortified compound run by an old acquaintance, Estelle Bisseker, commanding officer of the Civil Defense Force. Estelle is eager to take the Haters down once and for all, but she’s not prepared for a massive cell of Haters that’s primed to wipe out the last of the Unchanged. When Matt spots a Hater in their midst, no one believes him, and he’s drugged, only to awaken to carnage. Matt sets out to find the rest of the group and warn them of the impending bloodbath. Moody toggles between the perspectives of the Haters and the Unchanged, eschewing nuance and peppering Matt’s harrowing journey with brutal fights that pave the way for all-out final battles. Fans of exceedingly bleak survival horror will be satisfied.
Publishers Weekly have had their say on CHOKEHOLD. Considering it& #8217 ;s the sixth book in a six book series (which technically takes place after books two and five and before three & #8211 ; make sense of that if you can), I& #8217 ;m more than happy with this write-up. CHOKEHOLD was never going to… Continue reading
Publishers Weekly have had their say on CHOKEHOLD. Considering it& #8217 ;s the sixth book in a six book series (which technically takes place after books two and five and before three & #8211 ; make sense of that if you can), I& #8217 ;m more than happy with this write-up. CHOKEHOLD was never going to… Continue reading
Publishers Weekly have had their say on CHOKEHOLD. Considering it& #8217 ;s the sixth book in a six book series (which technically takes place after books two and five and before three & #8211 ; make sense of that if you can), I& #8217 ;m more than happy with this write-up. CHOKEHOLD was never going to… Continue reading
Publishers Weekly have had their say on CHOKEHOLD. Considering it& #8217 ;s the sixth book in a six book series (which technically takes place after books two and five and before three & #8211 ; make sense of that if you can), I& #8217 ;m more than happy with this write-up. CHOKEHOLD was never going to… Continue reading
Publishers Weekly have had their say on CHOKEHOLD. Considering it& #8217 ;s the sixth book in a six book series (which technically takes place after books two and five and before three & #8211 ; make sense of that if you can), I& #8217 ;m more than happy with this write-up. CHOKEHOLD was never going to… Continue reading
Publishers Weekly have had their say on CHOKEHOLD. Considering it& #8217 ;s the sixth book in a six book series (which technically takes place after books two and five and before three & #8211 ; make sense of that if you can), I& #8217 ;m more than happy with this write-up. CHOKEHOLD was never going to… Continue reading
Publishers Weekly have had their say on CHOKEHOLD. Considering it& #8217 ;s the sixth book in a six book series (which technically takes place after books two and five and before three & #8211 ; make sense of that if you can), I& #8217 ;m more than happy with this write-up. CHOKEHOLD was never going to… Continue reading
Publishers Weekly have had their say on CHOKEHOLD. Considering it& #8217 ;s the sixth book in a six book series (which technically takes place after books two and five and before three & #8211 ; make sense of that if you can), I& #8217 ;m more than happy with this write-up. CHOKEHOLD was never going to… Continue reading
Publishers Weekly have had their say on CHOKEHOLD. Considering it& #8217 ;s the sixth book in a six book series (which technically takes place after books two and five and before three & #8211 ; make sense of that if you can), I& #8217 ;m more than happy with this write-up. CHOKEHOLD was never going to… Continue reading
Publishers Weekly have had their say on CHOKEHOLD. Considering it& #8217 ;s the sixth book in a six book series (which technically takes place after books two and five and before three & #8211 ; make sense of that if you can), I& #8217 ;m more than happy with this write-up. CHOKEHOLD was never going to… Continue reading
Publishers Weekly have had their say on CHOKEHOLD. Considering it& #8217 ;s the sixth book in a six book series (which technically takes place after books two and five and before three & #8211 ; make sense of that if you can), I& #8217 ;m more than happy with this write-up. CHOKEHOLD was never going to… Continue reading
Publishers Weekly have had their say on CHOKEHOLD. Considering it& #8217 ;s the sixth book in a six book series (which technically takes place after books two and five and before three & #8211 ; make sense of that if you can), I& #8217 ;m more than happy with this write-up. CHOKEHOLD was never going to… Continue reading
Publishers Weekly have had their say on CHOKEHOLD. Considering it& #8217 ;s the sixth book in a six book series (which technically takes place after books two and five and before three & #8211 ; make sense of that if you can), I& #8217 ;m more than happy with this write-up. CHOKEHOLD was never going to… Continue reading
Publishers Weekly have had their say on CHOKEHOLD. Considering it& #8217 ;s the sixth book in a six book series (which technically takes place after books two and five and before three & #8211 ; make sense of that if you can), I& #8217 ;m more than happy with this write-up. CHOKEHOLD was never going to… Continue reading
Publishers Weekly have had their say on CHOKEHOLD. Considering it& #8217 ;s the sixth book in a six book series (which technically takes place after books two and five and before three & #8211 ; make sense of that if you can), I& #8217 ;m more than happy with this write-up. CHOKEHOLD was never going to… Continue reading
Publishers Weekly have had their say on CHOKEHOLD. Considering it& #8217 ;s the sixth book in a six book series (which technically takes place after books two and five and before three & #8211 ; make sense of that if you can), I& #8217 ;m more than happy with this write-up. CHOKEHOLD was never going to… Continue reading
Publishers Weekly have had their say on CHOKEHOLD. Considering it& #8217 ;s the sixth book in a six book series (which technically takes place after books two and five and before three & #8211 ; make sense of that if you can), I& #8217 ;m more than happy with this write-up. CHOKEHOLD was never going to… Continue reading
Publishers Weekly have had their say on CHOKEHOLD. Considering it& #8217 ;s the sixth book in a six book series (which technically takes place after books two and five and before three & #8211 ; make sense of that if you can), I& #8217 ;m more than happy with this write-up. CHOKEHOLD was never going to… Continue reading
Publishers Weekly have had their say on CHOKEHOLD. Considering it& #8217 ;s the sixth book in a six book series (which technically takes place after books two and five and before three & #8211 ; make sense of that if you can), I& #8217 ;m more than happy with this write-up. CHOKEHOLD was never going to… Continue reading
Publishers Weekly have had their say on CHOKEHOLD. Considering it& #8217 ;s the sixth book in a six book series (which technically takes place after books two and five and before three & #8211 ; make sense of that if you can), I& #8217 ;m more than happy with this write-up. CHOKEHOLD was never going to… Continue reading
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