Zito, V M
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(? - ) US advertising agency executive and author of The Return Man (2012), a Near Future Post-Holocaust novel set in the Evacuated States of western America four years after the now traditional Zombie holocaust has split America apart: gonzo zombies out West, which has become a no-man's-land, while the Safe States back East have been crushed into a quasi-Dystopia plagued with refugees on welfare. The protagonist's task – which is expected to continue in the projected sequel – is to act as a kind of bounty hunter, hired by eastern survivors to kill their zombie relatives and so put them out of their notional misery; but complications ensue, and after such set-pieces as the penetration of a Prison whose inmates and staff are now all hungry zombies, the Mad Scientist responsible for the plague must be confronted. The efficiently-couched narrative makes ample use of tropes from Horror in SF tales, such as Joe R Lansdale's "On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks" (in Book of the Dead, anth 1989, edited by John Skipp and Craig Spector). Further Return Man stories have appeared in ebook form [see Checklist below]. [JC/DRL]
Vincent Michael Zito
born
works
series
Return Man
- The Return Man (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2012) [Return Man: hb/Rhett Poderson]
- Border Crossing: A Return Man Short Story (no place given: Hodder/Amazon Digital Services, 2012) [story: ebook: Return Man: na/]
- Waiting Room: A Return Man Short Story (no place given: Hodder/Amazon Digital Services, 2013) [story: ebook: Return Man: na/]
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