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The Living Dead
- Genre: Zombie
- Published: 2008
- Author: Various; JJ Adams (Editor)
- Pages: 486 pages
- Paperback ISBN#: 978-1-59780-143-0
- Hardcover ISBN#: 978-1-59780-143-0
- Reviewed by: harbinger on Sat 4 Oct 08
Official Blurb:
"When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth!" From White Zombie to Dawn of the Dead, Resident Evil to World War Z, zombies have invaded popular culture, becoming the monsters that best express the fears and anxieties of the modern west. Gathering together the best zombie literature of the last three decades from many of today's most renowned authors of fantasy, speculative fiction, and horror, including Stephen King, Harlan Ellison, Robert Silverberg, George R. R. Martin, Clive Barker, Poppy Z. Brite, Neil Gaiman, Joe Hill, Laurell K. Hamilton, and Joe R. Lansdale, The Living Dead covers the broad spectrum of zombie fiction.
Review:
This book is actually a compilation of several zombie-related stories written by different authors. It was compiled and edited by John Joseph Adams, who some of you might remember as the editor of Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse. The stories differ in plot, setting and tone. Most were pretty good. Some were very good and stood out.
Deadman’s Road by Joe R. Lansdale was exceptionally well-written, without a single word wasted in the telling of the story. Set in the American “old west” period, it features a showdown between a bitter preacher that hunts evil and a vengeful zombie revenant that haunts a particular stretch of road.
Another story that grabbed me with its creativeness was The Skull-Faced Boy by David Barr Kirtley. This story is told from the perspective of a high-functioning zombie boy who is against the idea of harming the living. His best friend that died in the same car accident, on the other hand, leads an army of the dead, destroying all those he once knew.
A third story bears positive mention as well. Almost the Last Story by Almost the Last Man by Scott Edelman was exceptional in its form. The story bounces around between many stories, but it’s done by design. The protagonist is a writer that is trying to make sense of the new world he’s been thrust into by writing story after story after story about how individuals realized the zombie uprising. Meanwhile, we get snippets of his own story to piece together. An interesting read.
What I liked:
- Zombies! This book is chock full of zombies!
- Well-written, well-edited material that was interesting to read
What I didn't like:
- Only one thing stands out. In the introduction, the editor makes a point of stating that this book is not about different zombie philosophies or arguments over what is and is not a zombie, it’s about the dead rising from the grave to feast on the flesh of the living. However, a few of the stories in this book, while written well, hold only the tiniest shred of connection to zombies. One story, for example, is about two old lovers that find each other again, but the only connection to zombies is that they’re both extras on the set of Dawn of the Dead.
Rating:
- Genre Feel: Most of the stories fit the genre very well. Some were different takes on zombies than might be expected. All of them weren’t necessarily about rotting corpses crawling out of the earth. This might disappoint some people, but I think that if these people give this book a chance, they’ll be glad they did.
- Story: By and large, the stories in this book were very interesting. Some of them could even have been expanded into novellas.
- Readability: he editors really did their job with these stories.
Final Scoring:
5.0 Zombie Heads of a possible
5 Zombie Heads
Personal Recommendation: With a price tag of $15.95, I’d be very hard-pressed not to recommend this bible-sized book to anyone that likes zombie fiction.
Availablity:
Amazon
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