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Unabridged, Unabashed & Undead
From the "Master of the Zombie Short Story" comes this The Best Zombie Short Stories of Eric S. Brown. 47 incredible stories of the Zompocalypse... all together for the very first time. Take a breath between each of these stories... You'll need them to scream!!
240 pages, Paperback
First published February 4, 2009
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About the author
Eric S. Brown
270 books114 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 24, 2014
Note: I no longer support this author's works due to his homophobia.
I struggled a little in writing this review. I read the book over a three day period, which may have been too fast for full digestion. The emotional punches are pretty hard to take in some of the stories and others haunted me into my nightmares. I found myself getting depressed and had to put the book aside for an entire day before going back in to finish. I took my time thinking about the book before sitting down to write this review. The issues I had with my least liked stories were based on personal preferences and not the author's writing. I wish some of the stories had been fleshed out more, but the author seems to be the king of the very short story, so I can't really complain there.
The author does not hold back any punches in his stories. He goes to horrible and emotionally wrenching places. The characters do not always do the smart thing either (shooting through a window at a zombie has to be the stupidest thing I have ever seen a character do in a zombie novel), but that is what makes the stories work. The characters are flawed, human and, sometimes, monstrous.
I definitely had my favorite stories in the book. To me, they hit all the right chords and rocked my world. Other stories felt like filler and I think I only disliked one outright. But that is the wonder of a short story collection. Everyone will have their favorites and they will not always be the same ones. There is plenty of zombie goodness to be had for everyone.
Oh, yeah, and the zombies are not always the same in every story. This added a little bit of spice to the whole mix.
The stories are very short, so the book can be gulped down whole or in little snippets.
If you like zombies, if you like horror, if you like short stories you can gobble up quickly, this is definitely the book for you.
I struggled a little in writing this review. I read the book over a three day period, which may have been too fast for full digestion. The emotional punches are pretty hard to take in some of the stories and others haunted me into my nightmares. I found myself getting depressed and had to put the book aside for an entire day before going back in to finish. I took my time thinking about the book before sitting down to write this review. The issues I had with my least liked stories were based on personal preferences and not the author's writing. I wish some of the stories had been fleshed out more, but the author seems to be the king of the very short story, so I can't really complain there.
The author does not hold back any punches in his stories. He goes to horrible and emotionally wrenching places. The characters do not always do the smart thing either (shooting through a window at a zombie has to be the stupidest thing I have ever seen a character do in a zombie novel), but that is what makes the stories work. The characters are flawed, human and, sometimes, monstrous.
I definitely had my favorite stories in the book. To me, they hit all the right chords and rocked my world. Other stories felt like filler and I think I only disliked one outright. But that is the wonder of a short story collection. Everyone will have their favorites and they will not always be the same ones. There is plenty of zombie goodness to be had for everyone.
Oh, yeah, and the zombies are not always the same in every story. This added a little bit of spice to the whole mix.
The stories are very short, so the book can be gulped down whole or in little snippets.
If you like zombies, if you like horror, if you like short stories you can gobble up quickly, this is definitely the book for you.
November 5, 2010
My criticisms of Eric Brown in the past have been mostly due to this very thin and very SHORT tomes he has written and I have bought here on Amazon. I liked the novella Cobble, which was his effort to put something together outside of his main focus, which is short stories. I enjoyed his short stories as well, in particular his slant on superhero powers providing a new way to combat the undead. But when there is only 8-10 of them in one volume which is not many pages long I grew frustrated. I, like most readers, want something that will give us a few hours entertainment, not just a few minutes.
This book does the man justice, putting together many, if not all, of his short stories about zombies in one place. This is really what I was asking for before. We are given 232 pages of zombie mayhem here, with each story lasting anywhere from two to perhaps five or so pages. Plenty to chew on, if you'll pardon my pun.
To describe the works of Eric Brown I would use the following words: exuberant, passionate, raw, and quick, as if you were ripping the bandaid off quickly to avoid pain. Unfortunately, the pain remains and resonates after the story is done. The stories here range from the fairly predictable (zombies come and zombies munch on the main character) to the unexpected (zombies in space, zombies made out of plant life, squirrel zombies, superheros facing zombies, etc.) but of course they all have one thing in common: zombies.
Fair warning, these stories are rough cuts. The typos are rampant. But I dare say that it almost adds to the charm of these devious little tidbits of gory goodness. Scrape away the raw writing style and you can gain an appreciation for the passion Eric has for this subject. My guess is that he will continue to take zombies in directions no one else has taken them but will not fail to remember that the good old basic gut munching undead monster is what we, the readers, crave. The beauty of the short story is that whether it is hit or miss (and believe me, not all of his stories hit the mark but many of them do) you can move on to the next one with no regrets. So I look forward to seeing more efforts like this one from Eric to see what direction he takes things in next.
This book does the man justice, putting together many, if not all, of his short stories about zombies in one place. This is really what I was asking for before. We are given 232 pages of zombie mayhem here, with each story lasting anywhere from two to perhaps five or so pages. Plenty to chew on, if you'll pardon my pun.
To describe the works of Eric Brown I would use the following words: exuberant, passionate, raw, and quick, as if you were ripping the bandaid off quickly to avoid pain. Unfortunately, the pain remains and resonates after the story is done. The stories here range from the fairly predictable (zombies come and zombies munch on the main character) to the unexpected (zombies in space, zombies made out of plant life, squirrel zombies, superheros facing zombies, etc.) but of course they all have one thing in common: zombies.
Fair warning, these stories are rough cuts. The typos are rampant. But I dare say that it almost adds to the charm of these devious little tidbits of gory goodness. Scrape away the raw writing style and you can gain an appreciation for the passion Eric has for this subject. My guess is that he will continue to take zombies in directions no one else has taken them but will not fail to remember that the good old basic gut munching undead monster is what we, the readers, crave. The beauty of the short story is that whether it is hit or miss (and believe me, not all of his stories hit the mark but many of them do) you can move on to the next one with no regrets. So I look forward to seeing more efforts like this one from Eric to see what direction he takes things in next.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews