Title: Wolfman: Apocalypse
Author: Brannan Black
Publisher: Changeling Press, LLC
Buy Link: Buy Wolfman: Apocalypse Here!
Rating: You Need to Read
Reviewed by: Patchcat
Blurb:
Life as we knew it pretty much ended with the lightning fast spread of the plague. The media called it Werewolf Syndrome. Women got sick, many died. They were the lucky ones. Men got sick, too, but those who didn’t die… changed. A few immune men, like myself, joined the bands of refugees, scrounging for survival in the post-apocalyptic devastation.
I lived in a fortified compound with a couple dozen women, a bunch of kids and two asshole straight guys. Sounds like a man’s wet dream — unless you happen to be the last gay man standing. At the time, risking my life scavenging in the city sounded like a fucking vacation.
I went out hunting supplies and found something else. Not a quick death, or even a slow, painful one at the hands of the beasts — no such luck. Instead I find myself captive to the largest, most well organized gang of beast men ever. Their leader, Mace, wants more than just a generator — he wants my body. Oddly, a certain part of me likes that idea. The other part –- the part with working survival instincts — insists I get the hell out of Dodge before my smart mouth gets the shit kicked out of me. Again. Tradeoffs…
Review:
There was only one thing that I found lacking with this work. It ended waaay too soon. In fact, if this had been an actual print book instead of an e-book, I probably would have looked pretty silly, sitting there flipping it over in all kinds of different directions and asking, “Hey, where’s the rest of it?”
That should be taken as a compliment. I really liked this story. Daniel was a very engaging narrator. He’s smart, snarky, and sarcastic, a combination that gets him into a lot of trouble with a group of creatures who could tear him apart in a heartbeat.
The world has been torn apart in this post-apocalyptic story. Torn apart by a virus that turned most of the male population of the world into basically monsters — werewolves, to be precise — and poor Daniel finds himself caught out alone in their territory. Taken prisoner, he’s forced to make himself useful, or become a toy to the wolf pack.
Most of Daniel’s commentary on these creatures in not very flattering. Generally referring to them as “beasts,” their actions don’t go very far to dispel that image. Of course, Daniel doesn’t really try very hard to understand them. Not even after he’s taken as Mace’s lover.
I found his reactions to them very believable. After all, who wouldn’t be terrified if they found themselves in Daniel’s situation, a prisoner in a foreign society and given the edict to help them or die?
The only other thing that bugged me about this story — besides it not being long enough, although the two do kind of tie in together — is that there were a lot of references to Daniel “recognizing” Mace and seeing his ex-lover in his new one, either by seeing past the changes made by the virus — as with their first meeting — or by some of Mace’s mannerisms as the story goes along. There were also references to the virus itself and the way it came about or distributed. I would have really liked to have seen more about that, although I can understand why we didn’t see it. After all, Daniel’s an engineer, not a doctor, and he was only really on the periphery of the whole epidemic since he himself was immune to it.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this work. Brannan Black has created an intriguing world and rich characters that I wouldn’t mind seeing more of.
