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I, Zombie

3.6 of 5 stars 3.60 · rating details · 10 ratings · 3 reviews

Tale of a cold backwater planet where corpses are used as slave labor. When the girl from the asylum drowned in the lake that night, she thought it was the end of her life, but she was wrong. Curt Selby is the pen name of Doris Piserchia.

Paperback, 160 pages

Published September 2nd 1982 by DAW

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Nov 05, 2010 Patrick D'Orazio rated it 4 of 5 stars

I discovered this title thanks to a list of available zombie fiction on Amazon and I am pleased I got a used copy through the website.

I, Zombie came well before the more recent spate of Zombie titles out there and I believe it was written just a few years after Dawn of the Dead hit the scene in 1979. Although many might consider anything to do with Zombies these days originating back to Romero, this work certainly is not necessarily a tale of horror or even of the zombies we have all come to kn...more I discovered this title thanks to a list of available zombie fiction on Amazon and I am pleased I got a used copy through the website.

I, Zombie came well before the more recent spate of Zombie titles out there and I believe it was written just a few years after Dawn of the Dead hit the scene in 1979. Although many might consider anything to do with Zombies these days originating back to Romero, this work certainly is not necessarily a tale of horror or even of the zombies we have all come to know and love.

Our nameless character is a hulking woman who has discovered that she is still alive after "dying" at the bottom of a lake. She is stronger and more intelligent than she was before, thanks to a chip that has been implanted in her head. Unfortunately, the whole reason it was implanted there was because no one paid close enough attention and realized she was still alive.

Thus our character joins a multitude of other "stiffs" who are now the labor force on a backworld colony of Earth's sometime in the future. They are the grunts that do all the heavy lifting. Cheaper than robots and controlled electronically through helmets worn by drivers, they can no longer feel or think. They still breath, eat, and can move about but the chips in their brain is the only reason they remain animated. Except with this single case.

Our heroine goes with the flow, not revealing her identity and actually discovering that she has the ability to also control the other zombies that are around her somewhat. Since she chooses to hide the fact that she is actually alive and is now much more intelligent (whereas before her accident she was at least borderline retarded) she resurrects the vestiges of her dead roommates personalities and interacts with them, although it is quite clear they are truly dead with no ability to think or act independently.

The story is fast paced and interesting with plenty of interesting twists and turns as our main character hides her identity but raises the suspicions of those living humans around her. She, like the other dead workers, is treated like any other machine. As the story unfolds she discovers that some of the living and thinking humans are less humane than her own dead counterparts.

This story is quite entertaining and an easy read. I found myself quite attached to our stoic main character and her strong sense of nobility in the face of tremendous prejudice and outright hatred as she unravels the mysterious murder and keeps her facade intact through the story.

The book demonstrates that even when someone is beaten down and thought of as the less than the lowest form of life they can still demonstrate great strength and perserverance.(less)

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Sep 06, 2008 Alex rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

This is one of my favorite books in the world. Written by the underappreciated Doris Piserchia, it had to be published under a pen name because this was one of four books she wrote and published in 1981, and even DAW couldn't deal with that.

The unnamed narrator of the story is a zombie, which is to say a corpse who has been reactivated with the implantation of a "zombie pack" and sent to a earth colony to work in an oil extraction field. Only problem is, she wasn't dead when the pack was put in...more

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Mar 29, 2008 Hazel Phoenix rated it 3 of 5 stars

It's like nothing I've ever read before. Like a story being told ass backwards.

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May 02, 2013 Chattery Teeth rated it 4 of 5 stars

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Sep 26, 2011 Ghislaine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: keeper, sci-fi, favorites

Sep 11, 2011 Luis Bryan marked it as to-read

Sep 01, 2011 ash966 rated it 3 of 5 stars

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Shelves: books-i-own

Apr 21, 2011 Sarah marked it as to-read

Feb 20, 2011 Caitlin O'Sullivan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science_fiction, zombies

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A pen name for the author Doris Piserchia

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