The Daily Drudge

Information

Status

Hiatus

Year

2025

Author

HoratioBlanchette

• Chapter 1: It's Funny
  Jan 10, 2025

Reviews

Community Reviews(2)

• M.E. CheRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  An interesting and novel take on an apocalypse story, I would say. Just off the length of the story itself, it's worth giving it a read. Without giving away any of the core events that take place, I would say that the author excellently positions an unmentioned monster in this story: that being fear.
  I also enjoyed the very reasonable and generous behavior of the story's nominal protagonist, as it interestingly juxtaposes against the grim setting. Throughout the story, I found myself thinking, "Oh, there could be a story here," and wondering what might come next. I think it stands excellently as a standalone story, and while it may stay that way, I could also see this becoming a longer piece.
  Regardless, I personally think this is a really great contender and entry in the Royal Road magazine contest and a good indication of the writer's skill and style. As a side note, if after reading this you want something a little lighter, I would suggest checking out their short story Detective Handsomson in: The University Apocalypse!
• EvercrestRoyal Road

  ★★★★ 3.5

  Due to it being a short story and an entry for the CMC with a fixed theme it does face limitations that are a challenge to get through. In terms of the overall story that is represented in the 1CH - 8Kish words, it's a solid attempt at both representing the theme and portraying itself as a story that can be built up.
  But due to the limitations you get a very *minimal* feel of the story from what is represented and a lot of the space you have to get into the story is wasted on some rather unappealing survivors that are excessively annoying and paranoid despite already staring death in the face they go a step further and antagonize and attack the only chance they have of survival. And the ending with their plot thread is just... oof. It is labeled as a tragedy and whatnot - so maybe that is the intention of just having tragically idiotic characters to the side, it's a choice and it can work. But in terms of Eddie and Lisa (mostly Eddie), it was hard to swallow.
  Drudge himself as the main focus character redeems it at least as he has a more standout personality in comparison, and if it was elaborated more, it would prove interesting enough seeing who - what - how - and so on about his past, present, future. That was the most redeemable aspect of the characters.
  The world itself seemed to be just a standard urban setting with zombies, having multiple types of zombies is good for variety, but in general terms zombies themselves are fairly hit or miss and overdone, at least it picked one direction and mostly stuck with it - in a sense 'thriller' zombies more than 'horror' zombies, which is the best choice overall I'd say.
  In terms of stylistic choices I found it rather difficult to plow through personally with the present tense structure that's quite unusual and rare, but as far as CMC goes trying out new and different things is a valid option, so can't really fault the choice entirely. But it was a tough read because of it nonetheless.
  Grammar was the lowest point as it