THE STORY SO FAR...

The Journeyman is a darkly comic fantasy. It's also a sequel, continuing the story of the anonymous and undead hero of The Apprentice / Damned If You Do, as he tries to find meaning in his mundane existence.

The opening of the novel finds the zombie narrator employed as a hapless gofer in a third-rate burger joint. Ignored by his work colleagues and ridiculed by his employers, he is nonetheless content to endure this dreary half-life in exchange for the anonymity and security it brings. However, this contentment is soon shattered by the surprising and unwelcome arrival of Death, his former employer. Death has a proposition which the zombie finds impossible to refuse...

The narrative follows him for the next three days, as he assists the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in delivering a host of corpses to their final resting places in heaven, hell and purgatory. As he listens to the stories of the dead, and remembers the circumstances of his own demise, his quest for the one essential quality which will truly bring him back to life becomes clearer. He doesn't quite know what he's looking for, or even if he'll find it; but once he has begun the search he feels he has no choice but to finish it.

And in the meantime, as he draws nearer to his goal, a menacing supernatural presence stalks him, waiting for him to deliver what it needs to unleash chaos and destruction in the kingdom of the living.

...AND THE REASON WHY

At the beginning of 2002, I (and my agent) tried to find a publisher for The Journeyman; however, though many editors claimed to like it, none wanted to risk a print run. Not wanting to see what I consider to be a good novel go to waste, I decided to put it online, particularly for fans of the first book. It's a more rewarding experience if you've read the original, which tells you how the narrator of this story came to be a zombie in the first place; but The Journeyman has a natural beginning, middle and end, and you can happily read it on its own. (N.B. The novel is in PDF format, which means you'll need Acrobat Reader or compatible software to view and print it-you can download Acrobat Reader here.)

Finally, if you do read it, I'd love to hear your opinion. Click here to contact me.

Gordon "GH" Houghton