Body counts

The oh-so bloody The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman.

I’ve realised that I am a bloodthirsty writer. In my novel I kill off several of my characters, including one pov character. It’s carnage.

I think I’m just channelling my influences.

George RR Martin is just the most obvious one – in his Song of Fire and Ice series he has a death toll in the dozens and it’s not finished yet. Oddly the character I got most upset about dying was Sansa’s wolf, Lady. I actually had to stop reading after that bit.

JV Jones is another influence. While she doesn’t rival Martin in sheer numbers, Jones on the other hand brutalises her characters. She puts them through terrible torments – characters are beaten, assaulted and tortured on a regular basis. But the sequences are always compelling, especially one memorable section in a Cavern of Black Ice where Raif, our main character, is tortured in a cell that regularly fills with water as the nearby river rises.

Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead series exceeds Martin in body count. Of course you kinda expect that with a zombie epic but the thing I have learned in reading The Walking Dead is never to grow attached to a character (or family), they might not be around for long.