The Living Dead

The Living Dead #1

by John Joseph Adams (Editor), Joe Hill, George R.R. Martin

Ideal for fans of iZombie, Colin Morgan, The Walking Dead, iZombie comics, Resident Evil anthology, Evil Dead anthology, and the Joe Hill graphic novel collection
A compilation of the best zombie literature of the past 30 years
Highlights works by today’s most well-known and respected authors of speculative fiction, horror, and fantasy

Zombies have invaded popular culture, from White Zombie to Dawn of the Dead and from Resident Evil to World War Z. They have become the monsters that best express the anxieties and fears of the modern west. This collection gathers together zombie works by Stephen King, Harlan Ellison, Robert Silverberg, George R. R. Martin, Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman, Joe Hill, Poppy Z. Brite, Laurell K. Hamilton, and Joe R. Lansdale. These brilliant minds, and The Living Dead, cover the many types of zombie fiction. 

Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.

Genres: Horror, Zombies, Short Stories, Fiction, Anthologies, Fantasy, Science Fiction

504 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2008

About the author

John Joseph Adams is the series editor of BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY. He is also the bestselling editor of many other anthologies, such as ROBOT UPRISINGS, DEAD MAN'S HAND, BRAVE NEW WORLDS,WASTELANDS, and THE LIVING DEAD. Recent and forthcoming books include WHAT THE #@&% IS THAT?, OPERATION ARCANA, PRESS START TO PLAY, LOOSED UPON THE WORLD, and THE APOCALYPSE TRIPTYCH (consisting of THE END IS NIGH, THE END IS NOW, and THE END HAS COME). Called “the reigning king of the anthology world” by Barnes & Noble, John is a two-time winner of the Hugo Award (for which he has been nominated nine times), is a seven-time World Fantasy Award finalist, and served as a judge for the 2015 National Book Award. John is also the editor and publisher of the digital magazines LIGHTSPEED and NIGHTMARE, and is a producer for Wired's THE GEEK'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY podcast. You can find him online at www.johnjosephadams.com and on Twitter @JohnJosephAdams.

Reviews

[Michael Fierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some major duds in this collection but the few gems pushed this up to a 4 star read.

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well I decided to read these stories as they were on my kindle. I bought them for my daughter who hadn’t read them and now has her own kindle so is unlikely to. So I felt I should read them.
What a surprise I got as it turns out I enjoy zombie stories. Who knew??? 🤷‍♀️
As in most short story collections some stories are better than others but they are all very readable and interesting.
A good read and page turner.

[Larry McCloskey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of zombie stories that truly does deliver more than what you'd expect. Zombie fans MUST check this book out, but what sets it apart is that there's enough here for other people as well.

"This Year's Class Picture" sets things up nicely, catching the reader off guard with it's ending and setting the stage for several different looks at the "life" of the undead. This is far more than stories of blood and gore, but many hinge on lost humanity (and even regained humanity in some cases) even painting the undead as sympathetic victims in some cases.

Fear not, zombie fans, there are also stories of man-eating killers as well.

As with any anthology, there's some good and some bad. "Meathouse Man" was the standout story for me and I defy anyone to read it and not be moved. "Dead Like Me" was another poignant tale that really stands out. "Less Than Zombie" is a rambling mess that was painful to get through, with its stream of consciousness narrative style. "Calcutta, Lord of Nerves" also failed to ever hit its stride for me. But the good far than outweighs the bad.

[Timothy Ward]

Dan Simmons's This Year's Class Picture

As the intro story to The Living Dead, I came into this read with high expectations. Dan places the reader into the life of a remarkably interesting woman, on a particularly important day. An elderly school teacher, and potentially the last teacher on Earth, impressed me with her resolve to survive. They say you have to keep your mind working or you'll lose it. Well, she does so by maintaining her teaching routine with a full class of children zombies. The school bell rings and she begins writing the day's schedule on the chalkboard – so used to the gum smacking behind her that she is no longer terrified or even threatened by their presence.

I'm giving this story 5 stars because it accomplished exactly what I wanted from the set up. I slipped easily into the setting with his precise detail and fascinating scenario. This clever woman found a way to fortify a school using a man made moat dosed with gasoline, a bulldozer to clear out the kill zone, and a video monitor system complete with spotlights and alarms. Dan makes this believable by including a janitor that helped her and the local library. This is a zombie story about her love for her class that goes beyond their deformity and shows her excellent character willing to keep going despite the hardship set before her. This story is just the kind of vignette into survival that I like to see within the zombie genre.

Kelly Link's Some Zombie Contingency Plans

Kelly writes an engaging story, with a guy people call Soap, who crashes a party, tells a girl about how he went to prison, has a flashback about crashing a museum party, and how he asks everyone what they would do if zombies came. Interesting characters. I'm still trying to figure out what the deal is with the picture and if this is magical realism. I did not get the ending. I'm curious what people think about the final action. I felt like Kelly left me hanging without an explanation about what many of the elements of the story were there.

Stephen King's "Home Delivery,"

I read a couple more stories that were good, but not the five-star quality I need for my Saturday Spotlight series. Mr. King's story came alive (pun I guess intended) through outstanding voice, dialogue, characterization, description, a setting that fits his standard Maine feel but also works for a unique zombie apocalypse scenario, and a character arc that I enjoyed. Those are a lot of qualities to just list off, but it's what I need to really feel satisfied and not that I've wasted my time reading. Also, I like Horror, but I prefer happy endings. At least this story offers some hope in such a bleak situation.

The first thing that stood out about this story was the way Mr. King uses dialogue to take you from reading a story to feeling like you can see and hear what they're saying. Even though there is action and horror, there is still an emotional investment in the main character, who loves her husband and wants their baby to have some peace in a world turned upside down. Her husband supported her by wanting her to feel she deserved the best kind of life. I liked this line on page 240:

"More than a lobsterman is what I mean to be, and more than a lobsterman's wife is what I intend for you to be. You're going to have a house on the mainland."
"Yes, Jack."
"And I'm not going to have any friggin Chevrolet." He drew in a deep breath and took her hands in his. "I'm going to have an Oldsmobile."

Another way that Mr. King made this story come alive was in his description of the zombies. As a writer, I'm constantly trying to grasp at straws to come up with descriptions that are not cliche, and which powerfully show what I imagine to be terrifying about zombies. He has a lot of such descriptions, but one in particular was on page 244:

"...women with their hair teased into dirt-clogged beehives where worms and beetles still squirmed and crawled, their faces alternately vacuous and informed with a kind of calculating, idiotic intelligence."

Notice the movement in his description, of the beetles and worms squirming inside the women's hair, and how he aptly creates a living picture of them looking around--you know the look--like they're hungry, but they'll only know what for when they see it.

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-Extremo en sus valores, de lo muy notable a lo intrascedente.-

Género. Relatos.

Lo que nos cuenta. El libro Zombies (publicación original: The Living Dead, 2008) es una antología de relatos sobre zombis, seleccionados y comentados por el famoso John Joseph Adams que también firma la introducción y que nos mostrarán, entre otros, distintos tipos de fijaciones post mortem, el origen de una saga de rendimiento notable, la voluntad de una profesora por seguir enseñando aunque los niños no sean los alumnos habituales, aplicaciones comerciales de los zombis en el capitalismo más implacable, los muertos que desean votar y decirnos algo, por citar algunos ejemplos.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

[Kemper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of good zombie stories, but not all fall into the traditional George Romero type stories. For example, Joe Hill's story is about two high school sweethearts who reunite while playing extras in Romero's filming of Dawn of The Dead. A lot of great material, but someone just looking for different takes on the Romero style zombies may be disappointed.

[carol.]

Parts were very interesting, but it somehow didn't work for me. Maybe it is the sheer volume of zombies in all their various formats, both as subject and as backdrop. I made it through about a quarter of the book and gave it up. No fault of the writers, more an incompatibility between myself and zombies in short stories.

[Brian Steele · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not a collection of Zombie short stories. No, this is a brilliant collection of short stories that happen to be about Zombies. Trust me - there's a difference.

You'll find very few cliches here, very few pieces of bad writing, very few "filler" stories. You will find some of the best speculative fiction writers currently out there today contributing fascinating works concerning the human condition and our preoccupation with the mysteries of death. And while Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Poppy Z. Brite, Laurell K. Hamilton and Clive Barker may get their names on the cover, you quickly find yourself fans of other, perhaps less well known names.

My absolute favorite was Kelly Link's Some Zombie Contingency Plans. Also make sure you read Dan Simmons's This Year's Class Picture, Darrell Schweitzer's The Dead Kid, Susan Palwick's Beautiful Stuff,and Brian Evenson's Prarie,

[Baal Of · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent selection of top-quality zombie horror, with only a couple of duds, both of which were a bit too artsy for my taste. The stories are nicely varied, covering a broad range of types of zombies, and story-telling styles. I liked this anthology enough within just a few stories that I've already bought the second one. Here's my favorite quote from Meathouse Man

Of all the bright cruel lies they tell you, the cruelest is the one called love.

[Khanh · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK OK, in all fairness and honesty, I only read about 75% of the book. Short stories aren't really my thing, so I don't even know why I bother keep trying. But this one has been in my pile of books that I have downloaded, so I figured I should read it. Meh. I just never feel fully satisfied.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I first picked up this book, I expected to encounter a rash of stories about heroic survivors of a zombie apocalypse bravely blowing the heads off of everything they see (which, admittedly, is fun in its own way). I was pleasantly surprised to find that this is true of none of these stories. They are far more complex and creative than the video-game horror stories found elsewhere (World War Z) and many stand alone as great stories(even outside the zombie genre, whatever that entails).

One story recounts the efforts of a school-teacher to try and reform a group of zombie children who show little interest in anything other than brains. A few stories are told from the point of view of the undead and still others feature not zombies per se but the living dead.

Uniting these stories is a morbid appreciation for the grotesque, a perhaps defining trope of the zombie genre, but also a willingness to explore all the ambiguities and contradictions that accompany the idea of zombies. Much like the paradoxical category of the living dead, the stories in this collection do not so much exemplify zombie literature as they do trangress and challenge it.

[Colleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well....like a lot of short story collections, tons of junk and a few gems sprinkled in to keep you interested. There were three or four that redeemed this and almost makes me want to give three or four stars, but really (like most of the zombie genre) too much bad writing. Schoolteacher story was amazing though, so won't sell this back just because of that one.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent mix of pure zombie chew-em-up stories and more cerebral fare; of particular interest were the stories in which the titular horrors were only tangentially addressed - especially the romantic story set on the set of George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead".

[trishtrash · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed (and by thoroughly I mean every single selected story) Wastelands, a similar collection by the same editor, wherein the theme was more broadly apocalyptic. The Living Dead was not quite that strong a grouping, but there were some real gems. Zombies, as much as any other end-of-the-world scenario, provide plenty of material for the philosophical, for levels of human interest, and for terrifying situations. Right up front I was interested to read the Poppy Z. Brite story, because I’ve always wanted to see if she’s as good a writer of chilling material as her fan base proclaims. Her contribution Calcutta, Lord of Nerves was exceptionally rich and lurid, and I now have a strong basis for picking up one of her novels.

I had read both the Stephen King story [Home Delivery] and the Joe Hill story [Bobby Conroy Comes Back from the Dead] in their own short story collections, the former being an example of one of King’s less memorable stories (and thus only of a slightly higher calibre than everything else in the book) and the Joe Hill story, while only about zombies in a cultural sort of way, is readable (there are far better examples of his storytelling in his collection 20th Century Ghosts, too).

Two of my favourite stories were, in my opinion, also the sweetest stories. Followed by Will McIntosh in which people are acquiring unshakeable zombie corpses in seemingly direct relation to moral degeneration in their lives, and the narrator is shocked and righteously indignant to find himself followed by a child’s corpse… the other, This Year’s Class Picture is by Dan Simmons. Having read The Terror by that author, I was expecting something much more brutal than a class teacher’s refusal to give up on the children in her care, even after their deaths. I was also quite chilled by Stockholm Syndrome by David Tallerman.

And yet the story I found the most frightening was one that has been decried by other reviewers as not really being about zombies at all… except that the principal character wants to discuss Some Zombie Contingency Plans with a girl whose house-party he crashes. The ending of that one was so unexpected it literally gave me goose bumps, despite (or perhaps because) the bulk of the story was rather repetitive and fell (quite cleverly, I suspect) only a little short of boring. There were plenty of others I enjoyed; 34 stories are a lot for me to remember individually, and I only shrugged my way through a couple.

My favourite story from the collection, though, was Sparks Fly Upward by Lisa Morton who used the zombie scenario to explore the incredibly cruel actions of people who besiege abortion clinics and harass the women who enter, while still telling a good zombie story. When I finished this story I had the strongest urge to applaud.

[Brendan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather than write about all 34 stories in this collection, I’ll write about my top five, in no particular order.

* “Followed” by Will McIntosh is the best story in the collection. It supposes a world in which the dead rise and instead of attacking the living, they follow them. But the dead seek out and follow people who “deserve it” according to some sort of cosmic justice. The more exorbitant your lifestyle, the more zombies choose to follow you.
* “How the Day Runs Down” by John Langan. A zombie version of Our Town that tells, among other vignettes, the most harrowing tale in the book, of a suburban mom who isn’t able to save her kids from the zombies. Horrifying. It reminds me a lot of the wealthy suburbanite section from World War Z, except that her story ended well.
* “Death and Suffrage” by Dale Bailey. A nice little political allegory along the lines of the Masters of Horror episode, “Homecoming,” in which veterans rise from the grave to vote out the incumbent government. Closely related is “Beautiful Stuff” by Susan Palwick, but something about Bailey’s story worked a bit better for me.
* “Dead Like Me” by Adam-Troy Castro tells a terrifying tale of pretending to be a zombie.
* “The Song the Zombie Sang” by Harlan Ellison and Robert Silverberg weaves a futuristic tale in which a virtuoso musician is revived nightly in order to play his music for adoring fans. A close second to this story, for me, is “Malthusian’s Zombie” by Jeffrey Ford.

Overall the collection is interesting, but an odd mix of a variety of different kinds of zombie stories. There are several of the conventional Romero-style tales. There are several stories in the vein of Tales from the Crypt, where the zombies represent revenge or other limited actions. Then there are a few that approach the issue of zombies from a philosophical or other angle. A couple are zombie stories in the same way that “Heat Death of the Universe” is a science-fiction story–namely, tangentially.

[J. McClain · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very satisfying read. I went in thinking I'd be reading all things zombie, when in point of fact the title of the collection suggests a wider meaning. This is borne out in the stories. Numerous aspects of the idea of a reanimated human is explored here, from science-fiction-focused works such as Michael Swanwick's "The Dead" and George R. R. Martin's "Meathouse Man," to those that reference Haitian vodou such as "Bitter Grounds by Neil Gaiman and "Zora and the Zombie" by Andy Duncan.

This should be enough to clarify that this is not a collection of stories that reference George A. Romero's zombie films, but I'm going to keep going. I've noticed a number of Amazon reviews that express disappointment that many are not "real" zombie stories. Guess what? The title is The Living Dead, not Short Story Z. If you're looking for something focused on the Max Brooks/Romero zombie, you won't find many of the stories to your liking.

That being said, if you're looking for a collection of short stories on the topic of the dead coming back to life--in multiple contexts--that include genre fiction as well as literary fiction, this one is for you. If Stephen King's "Home Delivery" provide the flavor of the classic Romero-type zombie, Poppy Z. Brite's "Calcutta, Lord of Nerves," "Blossom" by David J. Schow and the astonishing meta-narrative finisher-- "How the Day Runs Down" by John Langan--succeed in showing how effective characters and story transcend genre.

[Marcus · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Spolier warning* The subject matter of this collection of short stories is, of course, zombies. Zombies of all flavors. From Romero-style "hungry dead," to the classic Haitian voodoo , to metaphorical zombies (such as couch-potatoes and mindless consumers). As far as anthologies go, I was pleasantly surprised. Some of the writing was bad, most was good, and some was very, very good.

In particular, "Some Zombie Contingency Plans" by Kelly Link, "Bobby Conroy Comes Back from the Dead" by Joe Hill, and "Bitter Grounds" by Neil Gaiman were three stand-outs I truly enjoyed which don't feature actual zombies. Never fear, there are plenty of stories with hordes of living dead trying to eat your genitals. Yes, genitals. It seems that eating brains isn't as fashionable as it used to be. Probably because of the whole cholesterol thing.

I'm not an avid Clive Barker or Stephen King fan (or a horror fan in general), but when you read their contributions you can see why they're so popular. The polish and pacing on their stories is professional. These guys are clearly good at what they do.

It's a pretty big collection, almost 500 pages, with some stories as short as 3 pages, and others upward of 30. There's bound to be a story in there for everyone.

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many excellent stories, and a wonderfully wide variety of perspectives on zombies. I particularly liked the stories by
Dan Simmons,
George R.R. Martin,
Stephen King,
Catherine Cheek,
Dale Bailey,
Nina Kiriki Hoffman,
Michael Swanwick,
Susan Palwick,
Joe Lansdale,
Nancy Kilpatrick,
Neil Gaiman, and
Will McIntosh

[Lesincele · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tiene una gran cantidad de relatos, muchos de autores muy aclamados pero haciendo una media general no ha habido ningún relato memorable sino más bien pasables. Y la gran mayoría me resultaron aburridos y sin interés. Una pena porque le tenía muchas ganas.

[Cupcakes & Machetes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rated 2 star based solely on the few stories I read by my preferred authors.

None of these short stories were all that great to me. Each was mediocre at best.

Sex, Death and Sunshine by Clive Barker
Probably the best of the short stories that I read. The man really knows how to compare theater to blow jobs.

Those Who Seek Forgiveness by Laurell K. Hamilton
A peek into Anita's every day job. Interesting, but you're not missing anything in the series if you don't read it.

Bobby Conroy Comes Back from the Dead by Joe Hill
A love story amongst the set of George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead filming. A lame love story.

Meathouse Man by George RR Martin
Georgie clearly went through a rough break up during this one and maybe became interested in necrophilia in order to avoid the female race forever.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty solid anthology, though there were quite a few misses within. I was really hoping for more that had been commissioned for the work, because the works by many of the big names (King, Barker, Gaiman, Partridge, Hill, Hamilton) were ones I'd read before.

That said, there were some stories I really liked. Joe R. Lansdale's was really good, as most of his work is. I'd like to see more stories or a novel based on Jebidiah. And Dan Simmons' "This Year's Class Picture" was outstanding.

Worth a read, but I don't think I'd buy it.

Edit: Turns out that Jebidiah started out in Lansdale's short novel "Dead in the West". Time to track that one down.

[Netanella · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt like I ran the marathon when I finally finished this book - had to force myself to pick it back up after a series of very mediocre stories near the beginning that didn't even have zombies in them! I'm glad I did push through, however, because there are some real gems in here - in particular, George R. R. Martin's "Meathouse Man" was an emotional powerhouse.

I enjoyed this one immensely, but in small doses. Otherwise, many of the stories tend to blend together like so much flotsam.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent collection of things zombie. There should be a zombie story here to fit anyone.

Outstanding were works by Brite, Schow and Lansdale but the entire book is impressive with no real duds.

[Rachel Pieters · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars actually. It's so hard to rate a collection of stories from different authors because some were excellent, and some I couldn't even finish. Overall, the problem I had with a fair number of these short stories was that (and one author even points this out in an introduction to her story) it seems the authors are all trying to out sex-shock each other, if that makes sense. Like, "how wild and graphic and horrid and pointless can we make this sex scene?" And the authors that didn't have one of these scenes still felt compelled to add some chick in there who is BENT on giving the male characters pleasure in some way. Come on. I'm no prude but almost EVERY story had something, when I was really just after reading about zombies. It really didn't need to be in there. On the other hand, some of these were REALLY worth reading and have stayed with me.

That said, here is a rundown of my opinion on each story:

1) SOME ZOMBIE CONTINGENCY PLANS by Kelly Link - 1 star - Had no idea what the F was going on within the first 10 pages and gave up reading this. Something about vampires and someone named 'Soap' of all odd things. And some pointless party. No attachment to the characters at all.
2) DEATH AND SUFFRAGE by Dale Bailey - 3.5 stars - A unique story about voting zombies and some political characters. Besides all the political stuff, (just not my thing) the story was an interesting take on zombies and why they are hanging around, and it was well-written. Intriguing moral statements.
3) BLOSSOM by David J. Schow - 4 stars - Regardless of the gratuitous sex in this one, it WAS the main point of the story and that made it worth it. I actually repeated this one to a few friends as one of the standouts in the compilation simply because I was cheering on the outcome. I found it funny, vivid and well-written.
4) THE THIRD DEAD BODY by Nina Kiriki Hoffman - 3 stars - I would have given it 4 stars if there were any other reason, besides the main characters desiring this awful guy, for going after him. And if his reaction had been something different in the end, something more negative. His reaction seemed unrealistic and pulled me out of the story. Besides that, I thought the rest of the story was engaging and excellent and the characters well-drawn.
5) THE DEAD by Michael Swanwick - 2 stars - I got further in this on than some, but ultimately didn't finish it. It wasn't that the writing was bad because it was decent. I just couldn't wrap my head around this concept - that society would welcome these zombies hanging around as a commodity. And all the business talk was boring to read, at least for me.
6) THE DEAD KID by Darrel Schweitzer - 1 star - I did not finish this one because it was sick. Children taunting and doing disgusting things with a dead kid? Just too F'd up for me to read. I had a hot shower with a Brillo pad after reading several pages.
7) MALTHUSIAN"S ZOMBIe by Jeffrey Ford - 4 stars - This one was quite good. I loved the main character and his voice. I enjoyed the scenes with the zombie. This story had a fun, yet mysterious tone, perfect tension, and the payoff, though I didn't quite understand it, was unique.
8) BEAUTIFUL STUFF by Susan Palwick - 4 stars - Loved this one. I loved the way the zombies were presented in this story, and I loved the moral POV.
9) SEX, DEATH and STARSHINE by Clive Barker - 4 stars - I thought this was fantastic. I wasn't sure what to expect from the creator of Hellraiser, and I do remember liking that movie eons ago. It's clear he has theatre experience from the way he wrote the story, so it was nicely immersive. The concept and the characters were unique and well-drawn and I thought the ending was surprising and fun. My only complaint was that he had to have that chick coming back to life to finish giving him a blowey. Please, sister. Story could have done without it.
10) STOCKHOLM SYNDROME by David Tallerman - 2 stars - I can't say I cared much about the protagonist, he was mostly a cold, selfish jerk, so it was hard to care about the story.
11) BOBBY CONROY COMES BACK FROM THE DEAD by Joe Hill - 5 stars - I loved this story! The setting - the Day of the Dead movie set in 1977 - was perfect and unique, and the story was so, so sweet. I felt like I could relate to these characters and I enjoyed that the author left some unanswered questions about the little boy. Well done!
12) THOSE WHO SEEK FORGIVENESS by Laurell K. Hamilton - 4 stars - This one was a unique concept: a woman who raises the dead for a fee, and her client. The tension was excellent.
13) IN BEAUTY, LIKE THE NIGHT by Norman Partridge - 3 stars - Another protagonist I didn't care for, he really was a selfish, spoiled, rich asshole, so it was hard to enjoy the story on that level, but the setting (his private island) was interesting. The action was good, and the ending was decent - I'll give him that, but overall I could have taken it or left it.
14) PRAIRIE by Brian Evenson - 1 star - I couldn't get past the first 3 pages because I had no idea what I was reading. It just made no sense to me because it jumped around in time and place and I couldn't gain enough words to figure out what was going on, who was talking, or where we were in time and space.
15) EVERYTHING IS BETTER WITH ZOMBIES by Hannah Wolf Bowen - 1 star - Another one I didn't finish. It felt pointless. I didn't care for the main character and felt kept at an arm's length for the handful of pages I read. The story just didn't seem to go anywhere and with an unlikable and unreliable narrator, I just couldn't get into it.
16) HOME DELIVERY by Stephen King - 2 stars - The protagonist, Maddie, was just a sad wet paper bag and I really didn't care if she failed or succeeded because it's hard for me to get behind such a weak female character. That's not to say it wasn't well-written, because it was, but the story wasn't that great. It just sort of rambled. And the strange interjection with the worm-aliens just really didn't work for me, or for the story, at all. How is this related?
17) SPARKS FLY UPWARD by Lisa Morton - 4 stars - This was an interesting concept, the abortion debate in a zombie story, and I think the author did a fine job of dropping us into this tiny world in so few words. I quite enjoyed it even though it was so sad.
18) MEATHOUSE MAN by George R. R. Martin - 4 stars - I almost gave up on this one at the beginning and I'm glad I stuck with it. I've never read George Martin, but of course there's all the hype for Game of Thrones, so I was eager to see his writing style. Meathouse Man takes place on another planet in a dystopian world filled with corpses controlled by 'corpse handler' of which our main character is one. He's a sad, lonely guy, eager for approval from his coworkers. He changes throughout the story, and it's really vivid and well-told, as you can see - my review is extensive because I was fully immersed in the story and it was well told. Although this one was more of a tragedy in it's style and content, it's one of the best ones in the anthology, in my opinion. Going to give Game of Thrones a try based on the quality of what I've read here.
19) DEADMAN'S ROAD by Joe R. Landsdale - 4 stars - Another excellent story! Sort of a zombie mid-west story, I loved that each character was unique and had a distinct voice, and I was transported right into this world immediately within the first few paragraphs, no easy feat for a short story. Loved the anti-hero and the concept was unique. Excellent tension throughout. Although his description of the beast did get a little repetitive, I highly recommend this story and will be seeking out novels from this author.
20) THE SKULL-FACED BOY by David Barr Kirtley - 1 star - Never finished this one. I got a few pages in and just didn't care about the main character at all. Or the point. Why would these strangers come with a note? A highly bizarre coincidence. That's where I was lost and put it down. I just wasn't drawn in by what I read, nor did it make much sense. What was the protagonist's motivation? Why should I care about him? Meh. Didn't do anything for me.
21) THE AGE OF SORROW by Nancy Kilpatrick - 3.5 stars - I loved the way the small world in which this woman was a part of was presented, the backstory, and the details were well done (although the bits about her period could have been left out - I mean, who really thinks that much about it?) Overall, I quite liked it.
22) BITTER GROUNDS by Neil Gaiman - 1 star - Maybe I was expecting more from this, but I was disappointed and never finished this story. I made it maybe 2/3 through? I just had no compassion for the main character. Was he dead? He sure didn't seem to be. And why is he bothering to do what he's doing, going through the motions of pretending to be this other boring guy? I mean, why does he care? I just didn't care and gave up reading it.
23) SHE'S TAKING HER TITS TO THE GRAVE by Catherine Cheek - 3.5 stars - This one was really cheeky and fun. I'm sure I can think of some women like the main character, I liked her arc, and I loved her reasoning throughout and the reactions of the other characters she encounters. Excellent visceral detail without being gratuitous. The ending was unexpected and well done, I thought.
24) DEAD LIKE ME by Adam-Troy Castro - 2 stars - Written in 'the Second Person', which is highly unusual and a little hard to get into, what with the word "you" constantly repeated (very distracting). The main character was quite unlikable as well, which was another notch in the 'hard to get into' category. And if you say 'they catch you when you're thinking, so don't think', well, telling the story in this POV is thinking, so how is it he's not being eaten right now just by telling the story? Just didn't jive for me. The only reason it got 2 stars instead of 1 was that I was able to finish it.
25) ZORA AND THE ZOMBIE by Andy Duncan - 1 star - Never made it past page 2 because I had no idea what was going on.
26) CALCUTTA, LORD OF NERVES by Poppy Z. Brite - 1 star - Another one I didn't finish. Another unlikable protagonist, and more unnecessary sex stuff (with statues this time), even if it was just in thought, that was thrown in for no reason, it seemed. That's where I stopped reading.
27) FOLLOWED by Will McIntosh - 5 stars - My favorite story in this compilation! Even though it didn't answer all the questions it presented, the author hinted enough at it for me to get what I needed from the story. I loved the moral questions and the concept and really related to the main character and enjoyed his story. Lovingly written. I will definitely seek out more work from Will McIntosh.
28) THE SONG THE ZOMBIE SANG by Harlan Ellison and Robert Silverberg - 1 star - Never made it past the third page. I couldn't relate to these characters and had no idea what they were talking about.
29) PASSION PLAY by Nancy Holder - 3 stars - Wasn't sure I was going to finish this based on the description in the intro, but it wasn't bad. Takes place in a church (?) in a small German town where tradition runs deep, to the detriment of everything else, it seems. Excellent moral questions, and the ending was unexpected, but I hated most of the characters, those selfish, stupid bastards. That made me not want to read it in some ways, because I hated reading about them. I wanted to punch them.
30) ALMOST THE LAST STORY BY ALMOST THE LAST MAN by Scott Edelman - 3 stars. This one had potential, as in, the writer can tell a story. The problem I had with it is that he kept ripping me out of the narrative so that I no longer trusted him and was reading with my guard up. The main character was mostly unlikable with only one good deed to his name, which he ended up ruining anyway. I enjoyed the setting and the action of the main narrative, mostly, I mean, who wouldn't want to live out the apocalypse in a library? But, I had some major issues with the continuity and flow.
31) HOW THE DAY RUNS DOWN by John Langan - 1 star - I was so lost in this story and gave up around page 10. I just couldn't picture it for the most part or understand why these characters were doing what they were doing, and if it has something to do with Our Town, I've never seen it and so cannot relate to that either, if I had even made it far enough to make that connection.

*After reading some of the other reviews, I see my ebook is missing a story about a teacher and a class of students that a lot of readers enjoyed. Not sure what happened there...* :(

[Mariana · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ao longo da minha vida sempre me obriguei a terminar um livro, mesmo que a sua leitura estivesse a ser um suplício para mim. Contudo, acho que está na altura de mudar essa forma de pensar e começar a ler aquilo que realmente quero ler! Como diz a célebre frase: "So many books, so little time".

Tinha de começar por algum lado e este menino de várias centenas de páginas será a minha vítima. Li perto de 100 páginas mas simplesmente já não quero continuar: alguns dos contos são extremamente aborrecidos e muito mais longos do que o necessário. Apesar de ser fã de livros de terror, este livro não tem nada de assustador. Simplesmente este não é o momento para lê-lo. Infelizmente, também já tinha adquirido o segundo volume... isto é uma lição para eu aprender que não devo comprar sequelas sem primeiro ter lido o primeiro volume.

[Phil]

I bought this anthology from the bargain bin for two stories: so thus far I've only read the Stephen King story 'Home Delivery," and I realized that I've already read the Joe Hill story "Bobby Conroy Comes Back From the Dead" since it was previously collected in Hill's book "20th Century Ghosts." I'm planning on reading the rest of the stories in October when there is a chill in the air and it is easier to get into the spirit of "brains dribbling across the tile like spoiled oatmeal, brains that squirmed with sea slugs and gelatinous sea worms, brains that smelled like a woodchuck exploded with gassy decay in a high-summer meadow." I can't wait!

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know what Imp of the Perverse caused me to pick The Living Dead as my next read. Does the death of a loved one plus surviving a natural disaster equal time to read Zombie fiction? Psychologists (armchair and otherwise) make of that what you will. This was an enjoyable anthology in any event. Let's name drop: there are stories here by Harlan Ellison and Robert Silverberg, George R R Martin, Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Joe Hill, Clive Barker, Poppy Z Brite, Dan Simmons, Laurell K Hamilton, and Joe Lansdale. The Living Dead was an embarrassment of (literary) riches. However as always with a short story collection some stories are winners and some less so. So I have to give this one four stars.

[Alejandro Agudelo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cuando lo compré, simplemente esperaba un montón de relatos típicos de muertos vivientes, pero la verdad es una excelente recopilación capaz de sorprender inclusive a aquellos conocedores del tema.

[Niklas K · Rating 2 out of 5]

Es gab ein paar kreative und unterhaltsame Geschichten, aber der Großteil war doch recht langweilig und belanglos.

[Vlad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Литература веками искала универсальное зеркало, в котором человек отразился бы весь, без купюр и фиговых листиков. В начале двадцать первого века оно было найдено… и пахнет от него гнилью.
Ни один образ не дает писателю такой творческой свободы, как зомби, живой мертвец. Это первый вывод, который напрашивается после чтения «Нежити». Тут же и второй: составитель антологии, Джон Джозеф Адамс, не зря ест свой хлеб. Подборка получилась без малого образцовой.
Разумеется, ударную группу образуют произведения, так или иначе следующие канонам «зомбокалипсиса», заложил которые еще Джордж Ромеро (кстати, мэтр лично появляется на страницах антологии – в рассказе умницы Джо Хилла, на котором природа, всем поговоркам наперекор, и не думала отдыхать). Но общность декораций не порождает сюжетного однообразия: каждый автор в заданной ситуации находит какую-то неповторимую грань. У Дэна Симмонса учительница из школы для умственно отсталых детей не оставляет миссии педагога и после конца света – только азы математики и географии она теперь преподает маленьким зомби, ею же самой закованным в кандалы… без надежды на успех. Нэнси Килпатрик справедливо подмечает, что все истории «о последнем человеке на Земле» в сущности повествуют о последних мужчинах, и закрывает этот пробел глубокой психологической драмой «Время печалей». «Стокгольмский синдром» Дэвида Таллермана ярко описывает процессы, которые запускаются в человеческой психике под гнетом одиночества и постоянного страха. Адам Трой-Кастро идет еще дальше, оставляя своему герою единственный способ выжить – мимикрию. Завораживает «Почти последний рассказ» Скотта Эдельмана – жемчужина антологии, портрет художника в ужасе; увлекательная, нетривиальная форма сочетается в нем с целой гаммой смыслов, скрытых и явных. То же касается и Джона Лэнгана, ухитрившегося вместить все грани зомби-хоррора в одну оригинальную пьесу «Закат».
Создателей остальных рассказов – как и настоящих зомби – никакие рамки уже не сдерживают. Для звезд и новобранцев научной фантастики (Майкл Суэнвик, Харлан Эллисон, Джордж Мартин, Уилл Макинтош, Дейл Бейли) оживленные мертвецы – полезная метафора, вносящая в раздумья на философские и социальные темы мощный разряд эмоциональности. Маргиналы вроде Келли Линк видят в зомби отличный повод повалять дурака, классики хоррора и смежных жанров (Лорел Гамильтон, Дэвид Дж. Шоу, Джо Лансдейл) – затопить кровавую баньку. Кто-то воскрешает убитых проституток, кто-то порномоделей – с разными результатами, само собой. «Мертвый мальчик» Даррелла Швейцера топает по дорожке, которую проторил когда-то Стивен Кинг в повести «Тело», а лукавый Джеффри Форд в «Зомби доктора Мальтузиана» разыгрывает классическую историю с двойным дном и великолепным финалом, достойным Эдгара По. Поппи Брайт и Брайан Эвенсон устраивают читателю экскурсию по аду; в первом случае он замаскирован под Калькутту, заполоненную кровожадными покойниками, будто вшами, во втором – под бескрайнюю прерию, по которой бредет отряд обреченных конкистадоров.
Особняком стоят «Горькие зерна» Нила Геймана, где сочетание «живой мертвец» фактически переворачивается с ног на голову, и жуткая притча Нэнси Холдер «Страсти Господни» – ответ истинной веры на религию, забывшую о человеке.
За вычетом детсадовской страшилки Дэвида Барра Киртли и пары наивных басенок о «мести из могилы», очевидно слабых звеньев в антологии Адамса нет. Даже те, кого от имени Ромеро перекашивает в пародию на его излюбленных героев, должны что-то для себя найти. Ведь глаза мертвецов – зеркало. Было бы кому смотреться…