You may not have considered that the POD “revolution” (that’s “Publish On Demand,” by the way — the ability to self-publish books in single copies as ordered) would result in a wave of self-published zombie epics. I didn’t. But it has, and in hindsight it seems inevitable.

And the quality level seems also inevitable. No offense to, um, the two or three skilled writers who are unaccountably using POD outfits instead of going with big-time publishers, but most self-published stuff is barely literate crap. That’s why it has to be self-published; no third-party would foot the publishing bill.

Which brings us to Gregory Smith’s Aftermath of the Dead. Here’s the publisher’s description:

It seemed like any other accident, which happens thousands of times across the cities and towns, which make up America. But, this one on Highway 44 in St. Louis, Missouri was much different. So, different in fact, it changed the world.

St. Louis, population 3 million, the gateway to the west. But, within, its city limits is the home of drug companies seduced by vast profits. A population and a world unprepared for what happens next.

Unleashed without warning; an unknown chemical which when exposed causes the dead to rise and destroy the living. The results; a horrifying quick outbreak, which spares no one it encounters. Populations devastated, as the creatures destroy all semblance of society.

Left over, the aftermath is a realm that is molded after the new ruling species. Aftermath of the Dead concerns the plight of what happens to the residents of St. Louis. The story of how the residents are forced to deal with and somehow survive this new reality. Deep inside themselves, people have the same sense, that there is no way in which to overcome the creatures!

And here are some selected comments from Amazon customer reviews:

It was a real chore to finish this book. I can forgive that the plot is of the usual run-of-the-mill type, but it is stylistically extremely poorly written.

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I will use excerpts from this book to teach my junior high students how not to write.

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I’d really like to find something positive about this book, but I can’t.

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It is a grammatical Armageddon…

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…The writing is so bad it’s sad. You would think that as a writer you would want to proof read your work, or maybe do a spell check…

If you’d like to get in on the fun (come on, indulge that masochistic tendency!), you can get it through iUniverse directly or via Amazon.com: $13.95 for the softcover version, or $6.00 for the PDF download.