Dubaku Review

REVIEW: Dubaku by Edward M. Erdelac

I love reviewing zombie books, what can I say? I have a passion for reading and writing about zombies. The hardest part about what I do is writing a negative review. But as a reviewer you have my word I will always be fair and honest in my reviews. This will be my first negative review here at Buyzombie.com.

1760, the white men are invading Africa in search of new and fresh slaves. With hundreds already captured the white men decide heading back to their waiting ships. On the long trip back to the ocean, a lone black man emerges from the trees. The white man in charge, Mott, approaches the man with caution. The African surrenders himself to Mott, something none of them have ever seen. After questioning the man’s motives they add him to the stock.

They make their way to the ship where captain, Bryce, again questions this black man’s bizarre behavior. After Bryce interpreter talks with this African man they learn his name is Dubaku and he is searching for his wife, Zuberi. She was taken from him by a ship that looks like the one he was trying to board. All of the white men laugh at the thought. Dubaku is a shaman; also know as a Bokoro one who serves the Iwa. A lot of mystery surrounds Dubaku but he does not show his beliefs to the white men.

As they continue the slavery expedition the crew is struck with waves of misfortune. The slaves are becoming ill with a mysterious disease. The illness spreads amongst the slaves making them unusable and unwanted to the buyer. The ship’s crew is also infected and a few men have passed away from it. Bryce begins wondering what he’s going to do with a horde of useless slaves when a tremendous storm sweeps over the ship. Convinced that Dubaku is the reason for his misfortune Bryce condemns him to watch all his fellow slaves die. The slaves are packed into the holding docks below the ship while Dubaku if shackled at the top of the ladder. As the tempest continues water flows into the holding docks and within minutes all of the slaves have drowned. Enraged and willing to do anything for vengeance Dubaku prays to his gods and cast a spell over his fallen tribesmen. When the water is drained from the holding docks it is revealed that all of the departed slaves have returned from the dead in search of their captures’ flesh.

I want to make this very clear; I did enjoy this plot set up. It has all of the makings of a good story. However, the way Dubaku is written makes this one of the worst stories. Before reviewing a book I like to see what other people have said, so I read the reviews on Amazon. There are two of them so far and both have given Dubaku a positive review. This makes me wonder if the copy I received was a rough draft. This story is not well written as the reviewers clam. This book is packed with commonly used words, which makes the story less interesting. For example, the word ‘fat’ is used an enormous amount of time while describing the character Mott. ‘Fat’ reminds me of a word I’d use if I was describing someone back in my elementary school days. As an adult I would use other, more interesting words such as ‘obese’ ‘overweight’ or even “heavyset”.

I will take a quote from the novella to use as an example of another complaint I have about Dubaku.

“Horror began to settle like heavy drapery on some of the men in the front, and these screamed and prayed and pushed themselves toward the back while others, unaware of the nature of the enemy and eager to kill and see death pushed forward.”

First I’ll point out that the word ’these’ may not be the correct word to use. The word ’they’ fits better and makes more sense. Second, the usage of the word “and’, was used five times. If a sentence drags on for a long time that when I reach the end I forget what the beginning was all about, I’d call that a run on sentence. This book if filled with this type of writing that made the reading torturous. I’m surprised I had it in me to finish the story.

With all this being said I can concluded that Buyzombie.com only recommends this book to our enemies. I feel like I have been a little harsh in my review so let me make a suggestion to the author. Give this book another edit, maybe two. The story is there but underneath all the poor writing and grammatical errors it is really tough to find it. If you ignore my warning and choose to read Dubaku please be advised. If you are sensitive to racial slurs do not read this book. You will hear a lot of references like ‘Mud Babies’ throughout the story. Keep in mind the timeline of the book is from the 1700, references like that were used.

Available at Amazon.