In the far future of the year 2032, life in the post-apocalyptic wasteland of the United States of America is a daily fight for survival and precious vital resources. Roving bands of bloodthirsty degenerates, their minds addled by the morality-deteriorating effects of death metal’s influence, prowl the desolate landscape in search of victims to rob and torture.
James Oliver’s Children of the Gore is a splatterpunk post-apocalyptic story about good-ish versus evil. A small band of survivors who call themselves the Defense Condition have sworn to take down the evil Children of Gore. What transpires is a high-octane adventure through a dystopian America full of violence, sex, and gore that makes Fist of the North Star look like Anne of Green Gables.
I had so much fun reading this sequel to Genital Rot. While Children of the Gore can be read on its own, I would still recommend reading Genital Rot, because there are some key characters from that book that appear in this one. The basis for the plot is pretty straightforward, but it’s all of the sidequests that our “heroes” embark on that make this book so much fun to read. I think that’s what draws me to his writing overall. He has a way of taking you down these different paths without losing sight of the end goal.
Taking us on this epic journey is an absolutely stacked cast of characters. Oliver takes the time to name almost every person the Defense Contition interacts with. You may think that may be too much to keep up with, but more often than not, these secondary characters don’t live long enough for you to remember who they are. However, I still think it gives life to the people on the page, no matter how big or small their part in the story. How Oliver is able to create all of these characters, let alone keep track of them, is beyond me. That just speaks to Oliver’s growth as a writer, developing his own style.
Speaking of style, Oliver’s writing style is so unique that if you handed me a book and didn’t tell me it was written by him, I’d know right away who the author is. He has a way of describing every little detail without overwhelming the reader. It’s something that I’ve come to appreciate. When a character pulls a knife, we know what that knife is called. When a character pulls a gun, we know the name of that gun. The downside is that once I see that, I have to pull out my phone and open up Google. His descriptive prose doesn’t stop with the weaponry. We get all the gruesome visuals of the violence and gore spread out across the wasteland.
I had a lot of fun with Children of the Gore. It’s labeled as extreme horror, but it’s more of a splatter action set in the wastelands of a dystopian America. Oliver has this way of taking something so horrific and giving it a comedic tone that brings something new to the splatterpunk genre. It’s like how hipsters take depressing lyrics and set them to upbeat music. If this sounds like something you’d be into, I highly recommend Children of the Gore. It’s currently available on Amazon but you can get a signed copy from James’s website at https://jamesoliverhorror.bigcartel.com/