Christopher Golden assembles a myriad of assorted tales about the walking dead, all of which combine to form one of the strongest combinations of excellent authors and variations on zombies and the undead. While the entire book isn’t a complete success in adapting visions of the walking dead with engrossing characters, “The New Dead” will make a great time filler with some truly strong stories and mini-epics in one compendium. I had a great time sifting through each story and I think most fans of the walking dead will, too. These are only a few of the ones we thought warranted mentioning.
For the first story John Connelly offers up his twist on the Lazarus pit with “Lazarus” the story of a man who dies and is kept in a cave only to be brought back to life a few days later thanks to the will of his loved ones. When he discovers he’s completely lost his place in a world he’s left, he longs for death in the face of loved ones he barely recognizes anymore. Connolly’s writing is vivid and awfully sad and makes for an interesting look at the undead in more tragic form.
I’m one of the few horror buffs across the board who have yet to read the 2003 cult book “The Zombie Survival Guide.” So back in 2006 when author Max Brooks released his highly publicized and promoted sequel entitled “World War Z,” I jumped at the chance and actually shelled out the dough to read his latest tome rather than borrow it from a friend or from a library as I typically did in the past. As a rule I don’t usually read zombie fiction because most of the time it’s usually just material that attempts to drastically re-invent the zombie sub-genre by reducing them to nothing but monsters, or more so turning them in to gimmicky creatures easily forgotten. Sue me but I grew up on Romero’s zombie films and admittedly I’ve been spoiled by his films.
