flak rss random

zombie books

I read a bunch of zombie themed novels. Some have lots of zombies, others not so many. Some are real books, some are what I was hoping were the upper echelons of more or less self published work.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

Max Brooks

Zombie factor: medium.

Told as a collection of interviews with assorted characters who survived the zombie war. The interview excerpt is a story telling device that works particularly well here, with a lot of different perspectives combining to make a coherent whole. Some of them are contradictory, or least you can tell the interviewer and interviewee are both treading lightly around some material, which magnifies the effect. Does a great job of making clear that bad things happened, while leaving the reader to wonder about the specifics, and also reinforcing the idea that when the world falls apart people do things they’ll regret. There’s certainly enough zombie encounters, but it’s all in the book’s past, so it’s not really a thriller. Enjoyed this book very much. Also by the same author is The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead, which doesn’t qualify for this review because it’s nonfiction but is still a great coffee table decoration.

Z 2134

Sean Platt and David W. Wright

Zombie factor: low.

It’s The Hunger Games with zombies. Literally. Everybody lives in the City, except the people who get kicked out and forced to play in the Darwin Games, which take place outside the safety of the walls in zombie territory. Not really that much zombie action here. Half the book takes place in the City, and for the half that’s outside, the zombies are only one of many problems. Nobody talks about the zombies’ origin or seems particularly upset by them, they just happen to be this future’s version of tracker jackers. I didn’t think it was bad, just maximally derivative. Originally a Kindle Serial, I read the whole thing, but even so, it’s still only the first part. Season Two or whatever is evidently coming later.

Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End

Manel Loureiro

Zombie factor: high.

The Lawyer tries to survive the end of the world, all the while keeping his cat happy. There are lots of zombies and lots of close up encounters with them. Told as a series of journal entries, so we know he survives, but there’s still lots of tension because every entry ends with “I have a plan” (without revealing the plan) and the next starts with “That didn’t go well at all”, leaving us to wonder what happened. Effective, but annoying at times. That and the main character is supposed to be the everyman kind of character, which basically means he makes plenty of irrationally stupid decisions. Maybe it’s just because I don’t have a cat, but I would not attempt to sneak through hostile zombie territory with a hissing cat leashed to my wrist. One interesting quirk, possibly because the book is translated from Spanish, is the word zombie is never used. It’s always mutants, or undead, or frequently just those things. I’d say the book is well written, but personally found it tried my patience at times.

The Remaining

D. J. Molles

Zombie factor: high.

Not technically zombies, but still living people infected with brain eating bacteria. In a sense, this makes it way more realistic because we avoid all the unanswerable questions about conservation of energy and basic physics. They die of natural causes, but only very reluctantly, and still keep simple problem solving skills. This is definitely more of an action book, a military thriller. At this point, have only read book one of three.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

Zombie factor: high.

The classic, kinda. This was an interesting one, which I read alongside the original for a while. Apart from the introduction of zombies and ninjas, it remains faithful to the original plot. Several times I would flip between the two versions comparing a passage in cases where I felt the zombified version was straying too far, only to find that’s what really happened. If I had to read Pride and Prejudice for another high school English class, I’d read this version and just omit the zombies from my test answers. It still captures the essence, but makes for a more entertaining read.

I, Zombie

Hugh Howey

Zombie factor: ultra.

This is something different. It’s written from inside the heads of former humans turned zombie. Their minds are still alive, but their bodies are undead and beyond their control, so they’re stuck riding shotgun as they chase the living and eat them. Told as a series of short segments from several characters’ perspectives. It works really well to start, but then they all kind of blur together. Unlike World War Z, there’s not much variety here; it’s the same story with a dozen different names. Quick, fun read.

bonus

The Ideal Apocalypse.

Posted 30 Mar 2013 19:03 by tedu Updated: 23 Jan 2014 21:03
Tagged: bookreview roundup