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Overview
"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.
Synopsis
"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.
Publishers Weekly
Recently prolific anthologist Adams (Seeds of Change) delivers a superb reprint anthology that runs the gamut of zombie stories. There's plenty of gore, highlighted by Stephen King's "Home Delivery" and David Schow's classic "Blossom." Less traditional but equally satisfying are Lisa Morton's "Sparks Fly Upward," which analyzes abortion politics in a zombified world, and Douglas Winter's literary pastiche "Less than Zombie." Also outstanding, Kelly Link's "Some Zombie Contingency Plans" and Hannah Wolf Bowen's "Everything Is Better with Zombies" take similar themes in wildly different directions. Neil Gaiman's impeccably crafted "Bitter Grounds" offers a change of pace with traditional Caribbean zombies. The sole original contribution, John Langan's "How the Day Runs Down," is a darkly amusing twist on Thornton Wilder's Our Town. There's some great storytelling for zombie fans as well as newcomers. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Recently prolific anthologist Adams (Seeds of Change) delivers a superb reprint anthology that runs the gamut of zombie stories. There's plenty of gore, highlighted by Stephen King's "Home Delivery" and David Schow's classic "Blossom." Less traditional but equally satisfying are Lisa Morton's "Sparks Fly Upward," which analyzes abortion politics in a zombified world, and Douglas Winter's literary pastiche "Less than Zombie." Also outstanding, Kelly Link's "Some Zombie Contingency Plans" and Hannah Wolf Bowen's "Everything Is Better with Zombies" take similar themes in wildly different directions. Neil Gaiman's impeccably crafted "Bitter Grounds" offers a change of pace with traditional Caribbean zombies. The sole original contribution, John Langan's "How the Day Runs Down," is a darkly amusing twist on Thornton Wilder's Our Town. There's some great storytelling for zombie fans as well as newcomers. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Library Journal
The shambling animated corpses of George Romero's films have lurched into the bookstores in droves in recent months, headlined by high-profile titles like World War Z and Monster Island. In this anthology, editor Adams (Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse) does a remarkable job of collecting a sampling of variations on this theme. These stories range from the truly disgusting (Poppy Z. Brite's "Calcutta: Lord of Nerves") to the nearly wistful ("Followed" by Will McIntosh) and even one with no supernatural elements at all (Joe Hill's "Bobby Conroy Comes Back from the Dead"). Included are pieces by big names in horror like Stephen King and Clive Barker but also contributions by less obvious suspects like Harlan Ellison, Sherman Alexie, and George R.R. Martin. The final treat is John Langan's "How the Day Runs Down," a nasty little play best described as Our Town with zombies. Highly recommended for all horror fiction collections. [For more zombie fiction, see Neal Wyatt's The Reader's Shelf column, p. 106.-Ed.]
—Karl G. Siewert