Monster Trilogy

Monster Island | Monster Nation | Monster Planet

David Wellington

Related articles:

Who is David Wellington?

Masters of monsters - inspiration from dreams and fears

Other reviews:

On Writing by Stephen King

The Right to Write by Julia Cameron 

Monster Island

In 2004, David Wellington started a serialised horror blog-novel called Monster Island. Wellington posted a new chapter three times a week, allowing himself no re-writes (only correcting obvious typos). 

For a novel, Monster Island is very good - for a draft, it is fabulous. Following an epidemic that has turned most humans into zombie-like walking dead, a UN weapons inspector is forced to return to New York to steal antiretroviral drugs - to trade for citizenship for himself and his daughter into the only semi-safe country remaining in the world: Somalia. Meanwhile a medical student decides to join the undead rather than be eaten - but he first takes steps to preserve his brain while he dies. Being intelligent and dead has its advantages, as he is about to discover.

Monster Island is a well-plotted horror story, with memorable characters, excellent villains, and many juicy twists. 

Monster Island is available from Amazon.com.

Monster Nation

Monster Nation is the prequel to Monster Island, and explains how the undead epidemic began. Monster Nation tracks the story of Nilla, the Californian yoga instructor who takes refuge in an oxygen bar after she is bitten by a madman. 

Nilla has no memory of who she was. She hitches a ride across America with a teenage couple to find the one person who seems to know everything about her: an old friend from Monster Island.

Monster Nation is available from Amazon.com.

Monster Planet

Monster Planet closes the trilogy twelve years later, and picks up the story of Sarah, the daughter of the UN weapons inspector who first joined forces with the Somalian girl-warriors to obtain the precious antiretrovirals. 

Without her father, Sarah was raised as a warrior in Somalia and Egypt. When her mentor is kidnapped by a group of zombies with strange superpowers, Sarah must track her down, with the help of an ancient Egyptian mummy. 

She's about to discover just exactly what happened to the people of Monster Island.

Monster Planet is available from Amazon.com

Update - David Wellington's new serial blog novel is called Thirteen Bullets. As with the Monster trilogy, new chapters were posted every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The first chapter was posted on 9 January 2006, and the usual commenting suspects are along for the ride. The final chapter was posted on 26 May 2006. Check it out.

Update 2 - Dave's latest serial blog novel is Frostbite. This one's not quite as good as the others.

Update 3 - Dave's back on the Zombie track with his latest serial novel, Plague Zone.

copyright © Elsa Neal 2006-2007 (Please contact the for permission to reprint this article.)

Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb 

The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron

How to have a beautiful mind by Edward De Bono

Fangoria Magazine - 10 issues - $ 25.95