David Moody’s been following his own path for several years now. Via his Infected Books, he self-published to relative acclaim, and impressive sales, whilst developing a deservedly healthy fan base. He’s arguably best known for his Autumn series – across five books, Moody involved the reader in a darkly raw and realistic, very British zombie apocalypse, (a zombie apocalypse with a difference, but that’s another review). During those independent years Moody published several other titles, including Hater, which has now been picked up by Gollancz in the UK, and in the US by Thomas Dunne Books.

In Hater, Moody has tweaked the apocalyptic virus trope in a very simple way. And it is an utterly devastating tweak. Seemingly normal people suddenly turn into killers. There is no warning, no time to think as the pure urge to kill the person in front of them overwhelms the affected, (infected?). As the violence spreads, the media coin a term for those who succumb to these mysterious violent urges: Haters.

Moody is a master at involving the reader in the minutiae of everyday decision-making. This isn’t as tedious as it might sound given the scenario in which he places Hater’s protagonist Danny McCoyne. Danny is a straightforward family man, married to Lizzie, with three kids and a father-in-law who doesn’t like him; they live in a cramped flat with no spare cash. Danny works in a meaningless administrative job in a nameless city. His days follow the predictable path of boredom as he goes about his pointless work tasks; and of exhausted frustration, as he laments his loss of freedom now that he has kids. Danny is ensnared in that work/life balance juggling act most of us are familiar with.

In the first-half of Hater, Moody shows us just how trapped we’ve become within this rut of system and routine. He worries about his next pay-check and how his boss has got it in for him. Lizzie wants Danny to stay at home with her and the kids, but he thinks he should continue to go to work, despite the surrounding chaos, the chance of being attacked, and the impending martial law. Think about it: what if there was a serious outbreak of avian influenza in London? Would you go to work, or stay at home? Does the money matter more than your health? It’s not as easy a decision as you might think, especially when you’ve got a family to feed.

Interspersed with Danny’s ruminations are depictions of some of the random attacks. Within these two or three page ‘interludes’ Moody provides enough context and detail to allow the reader to empathise with the Haters and their victims. As the killings spread into the streets and across the country, society divides into two, behaviour changes and a new prejudice emerges, replacing all the old bigotry of religion and race. You either hate or you don’t. People fend for themselves and attacks on others are ignored. It’s too dangerous to get angry – you might be mistaken for a Hater. Cracks appear as the authorities struggle to come to terms with this new social structure.

With the seamless and dramatic precision of a turning victim, Moody completely reverses the perspective of the narrative as the virus of violence comes knocking at Danny’s door. This is less of a twist and more an expected development, and allows Hater to evolve into a survival story of a very different nature.

With no obvious vector of transmission, conspiracy theories abound and the government does itself no favours with its lack of communication with the general public – not something that feels so outlandish these days at all. And, as with Romero’s zombie films, and the more hate-fuelled 28 Days and Weeks Later, Moody only has to suggest some top secret security-type shenanigans for us to be satisfied, and get on with rooting for Danny in his fight for survival. I would have liked Moody to take subsequent events further – but maybe he will in the near future…

Moody is most definitely a man with a plan. A plan that has recently come to fruition, given this deal with Gollancz, and the fact that Guillermo del Toro’s picked up the film rights to Hater. He’s also secured a deal with Thomas Dunne Books for the Autumn zombie sequence, (which has already spawned an independently produced film, due in 2009). A sequel to Hater, Dog Blood will be published in 2010.

Hater is a simple story, powerfully told, and if David Moody’s this good part-time, how good’s he going to be, given his well-deserved freedom to focus upon his apocalyptic formulae on a full-time basis?

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