Letters From the Labyrinth 476
Entombed Revisited
Strange days here along the Susquehanna River in Central Pennsylvania, or at least, strange days when I’m actually home. Recently, time has been spent driving five hours one way to check in on grandma, and then five hours one way back home again. But it’s my parent’s turn next week, so I’ll be home for a bit. And just in time for mayfly season, too. I’d wondered if they’d hatch this year, given the blisteringly hot days and the surprisingly cool nights, but sure enough, I saw the first swarm this morning, rising up out of the neighbor’s yard like a thousand Matchbox-sized drones. In a day or two, those miniscule black forms will cover every available surface within 500 feet of the riverbank — a necessary but annoying part of the annual ecosystem. For one week, the fish and birds eat well. And so does any human being dumb enough to go outside without closing their mouths tightly.
Good morning. I’m Brian Keene and this is Letters From the Labyrinth — a long-running weekly newsletter for fans, friends, and family that comes out every Sunday.
If you watch Secret Histories, then you know all the reasons why ENTOMBED will never be my favorite of my many works — primarily for everything that happened in my life following completion of that initial first chapter, and the fact that I was so f*&$ed up that I genuinely don’t remember writing large parts of it. Which is why, all these years later, I am always bemused and bewildered when people tell me it’s one of their favorites. And a lot of people tell me that. Oh, maybe not as many as THE RISING, GHOUL, DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN, EARTHWORM GODS, or some of the other old ones, but enough of you that it has made me rethink and revisit my work, in the context of the absolute bonkers, gonzo, frenetic energy that novel has, and I’ve tried — albeit soberly — to imbue some of my later works with that same vibe, particularly THE COMPLEX and ISLAND OF THE DEAD.
And that’s why I can’t bring myself to hate ENTOMBED. Yes, it was written at one of the lowest points in my life, but it also unlocked a new level of narrative energy that continues to inform some of my works years later. And for a novel that marked the end of the era of my omnipresence in every bookstore, WalMart, and supermarket and the beginning of my transition to helping turn indie publishing into the juggernaut it is today (some fifteen-plus years later)… I guess it holds an important distinction, after all.
I bring all of this up now because for the first time ever, ENTOMBED is now available in audiobook on Apple and Audible, narrated by Michael T. Bradley.
In the long-awaited follow up to DEAD SEA, it has been several months since the disease known as Hamelin’s Revenge decimated the world. Civilization has collapsed and the dead far outnumber the living. The survivors seek refuge from the roaming zombie hordes, but one-by-one, those shelters are falling.
Twenty-five survivors barricade themselves inside a former military bunker buried deep beneath a luxury hotel. They are safe from the zombies... but are they safe from one another? As supplies run low and despair sets in, each of them will find out just how far they’re willing to go to survive.
Brian Keene’s ENTOMBED... when the dead walk the earth, insanity is the only escape.
Probably worth noting here that ENTOMBED will be among the next four of my books to temporarily go out of print in paperback and eBook, as the rights on them revert next month. If you somehow missed out on getting a Deadite Press edition over the years, it might behoove you to do so now before the switch gets pulled. Those soon-to-be-OOP paperbacks are available from Amazon - B&N - BAM and Waterstones, and the eBook via Kindle.
After the rights revert, there will be a brief delay of a few months until new paperback and eBook editions are released by Manhattan on Mars (as we’ve done for all the rest of my books as the rights revert).
This week’s Women In Horror Year write-ups were abbreviated due to all the traveling I mentioned up above, and also to losing a day in the immediate aftermath of the sudden death of a guy I served with — Grant Riffle. My 2010 novel, A GATHERING OF CROWS was dedicated to Riff. He also has a one-sentence cameo as the President of the United States in the forthcoming FALLING ANGELS: The Labyrinth Book 4 (something which the few of us left alive from our department were laughing about together — including Riff — in the group chat we share last Saturday, a day before his death).
I wrote a thing about him here. That link also contains this past week’s entry for Lucy Taylor’s Close To The Bone. I also wrote about books by nadia Bulkin, Livia Llwellyn, and Laurel Hightower. You can read those, and all the other ones I’ve written so far, via the index for Women In Horror Year.
If you’re in Central Pennsylvania, come on out to the North Mountain Inn in Carlisle this coming Wednesday, July 1st, where my pal W.D. Miller will be playing a FREE CONCERT. Show starts at 7pm. Mary and I will be there, as will a few other writer folks. You should join us. It’ll be a good time.
Then, on Tuesday, July 21st join me, Christopher Golden, Mary SanGiovanni, CJ Leede, Victor Lavalle, Nat Cassidy, Clay McLeod Chapman, John Langan, Nicky Gonzalez, Nicholas Kaufmann, Tanya Pell, and Tony Tremblay from 5pm to 8:30 pm at the Brooklyn Brewery, sponsored by The Twisted Spine. There will be two panel discussions involving all of us, and we will also be signing books. You can purchase books at the event or bring them from home. This is a ticketed event, so make sure you sign up in advance by clicking here. It is expected to sell out.
And at the end of the month, Mary and I will be part of the Writer’s Symposium at GenCon. This is the first time attending for either of us, and we’re both honored to be asked.
Here is my schedule of events and here is Mary’s schedule of events. When not doing those things, I can probably be found scouring the dealer’s room for old Gamma World stuff or watching Wile E. Young beat Maurice Broaddus at Magic the Gathering.
(I shouldn’t say that. After all, it is Maurice who invited Mary and I as guests. But come on, Mo, you and I both know Wile is gonna rain hell down upon that card table…)
Currently Watching: From season 4, The Dogs of War (a rewatch), Evil Dead Rise (a rewatch), and Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (an eternal rewatch)
Currently Reading: Runnin’ with the Devil: A Backstage Pass to the Wild Times, Loud Rock, and the Down and Dirty Truth Behind the Making of Van Halen by Noel Monk, and two advance reader copies of forthcoming novels by Bryan Smith and Gemma Amor.
Currently Listening: Van Halen II by Van Halen
Finished Paul Tremblay’s Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep early last week. After mulling it over during a long drive, I consider it one of the best novels of his career. I hope readers will respond in kind, but I do wonder if newer Tremblay readers who only know him for his mainstream horror stuff will be divided by it. Don’t get me wrong, Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep is indeed a horror novel. But it’s also a science-fiction novel, a cyberpunk novel, and at times it even skirts the borders of full-on Bizarro. It’s the kind of novel that Stephen Kozeniewski has made a cult name for himself by writing, except that this one is published by a mainstream house, rather than the indie presses. (Which is good news for Kozeniewski).
Bottom line — I loved it. Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep is the kind of novel that I’d kill to write. The kind of novel that I desperately wish I could write, but lack the patience or literary skills to do so properly. It’s tackling society’s current grim slide into dystopia and tech oligarchies and the decreasing lack of human empathy in a way that’s fun and exciting and clever and above all else, entertaining. Highly recommended. On sale this coming Tuesday in hardcover, eBook, and audiobook.
And that does it for this week. Thanks for reading. See all of you back here next Sunday.
Adjacent to the beginning of this post, Black Fly Season by Giles Blunt is a wonderful novel. Thank you for everything else you do, Mr. Keene.
I'm currently reading Entombed for the first time, I'm almost done with it (Deadite version on ebook). To be honest, it's OK. Not my favorite, but still very fast-paced like most of your other books. My favorite of yours will always be what I started with back in the summer of 2022, Dark Hollow 😊 I will probably reread that book before I read the Labyrinth series. Dark Hollow made you one of my 3 favorite authors 😊 (my other 2 favorites are King, and an author named Darren Shan)