DJ DECAPITATOR

An outer-space janitor must use electronic music to battle a zombie outbreak in Dee’s horror comedy.

It’s Sam’s last day as the janitor aboard an intergalactic space station, and his best friend Kai is throwing a retirement party to celebrate. But things quickly go south when a mysterious epidemic turns the station’s residents into zombielike creatures that feed on flesh and subsume victims into a giant mega-monster. The only thing that makes them stop is loud electronic music. Armed with only a space suit and a glitchy DJ app, Sam must vanquish these beasts through the power of bass. Dee’s fast-paced tale flings readers right into the action, resulting in a lean, propulsive horror thriller that’s light on exposition and heavy on gore, but Sam’s profane internal monologue is engaging enough to make readers feel invested in the outcome. The mission-based structure makes each chapter feel like a level in a particularly graphic video game (think the popular 2007 game Portal, as produced by filmmaker David Cronenberg). Lots of clever twists diversify the action; for example, Sam’s suit muffles most external sounds, so all the dialogue is shown via garbled tablet texts, as when the first victim exclaims, “[Mac what stop are going you doing on].” The layout of the station can be unclear at times, and the spare backstory leaves some questions unanswered, but most readers will be too caught up in the onslaught of obstacles to dwell on these relatively minor issues. The monsters are particularly terrifying, and Dee clearly relishes their grotesque design. If a sentence like “Yuck, the open mouths of the faces in his belly now resemble irregularly spaced pustules, seeping thick pus-like drool” doesn’t spark readers’ interest, this may not be the book for them—but fans of SF and body horror will find this to be a delightfully brisk read.

A vividly realized, gory, and gripping SF action adventure.