Zombies for beginners?

[Eva]

Hi!
Turns out I've never read a Zombie novel! Up to now I just had the impression that most follow the same formula (virus or contamination of some kind leads to zombie apocalypse with a group of survivors trying to - well, survive!). But I'm still curious and I'm sure that there are some great books.
So, any recommendations? Thanks!

[E.]

Zombie "lite" with a really good story - The Girl with All the Gifts
Zombie humor, fun series - My Life as a White Trash Zombie



I'm sure you will gets tons of recommendations for more hard core zombie books. These are the two I started with and enjoyed them, I think because they weren't hard core.

[Gianfranco]

and are good and various anthologies.
is a nice trilogy.
is the best novel of the series based on the famous comic and tv serial.
is the first of a military-action-horror ebook series.
is for me the best (and not usual) zombie novel ever.
and are great anthologies but I'm afraid there are no other editions but the italian ones.

[Marc-Antoine]

The Zombie Survival Guide was also great fun to read.

[Randy]

Hated World War Z. I tried it a 3 different times and only got about 35% in...

One of my favorite series:

Dark Recollections

[Eva]

E. wrote: "Zombie "lite" with a really good story - The Girl with All the Gifts
Zombie humor, fun series - My Life as a White Trash Zombie

[bookcover:The Girl with All the Gift..."
Thanks! Will definitely start with those "lite" versions and then work my way through to the more high-calorie books!

[Eva]

Thanks everyone! Looks like there are some great recommendations! A lot of books I need to check on!

[[deleted user]]

The best and most influential zombie films are Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead by George A. Romero, and Romero acutally wrote a novel based on his own movie Dawn of the Dead:



Brian Keene is sometimes considered to be the author with the biggest influence on the recent zombie revival, especially because of his The Rising series, but the reanimated corpses in this books might not quite match with the classical zombie archetype. However, he also wrote a novel dealing with a more typical zombie apocalypse scenario:



My personal recommendation:

If you prefer less gruesome & depressing stuff, you should try Carlton Mellick's III Zombies and Shit :



This masterpiece is hilarious, bizarre and batshit crazy.

[Kristin (Blood,Sweat and Books)]

You can never go wrong with these series

The First Days


Dead City

If you prefer more YA based fare try
Until the End of the World

or

Dead Living

If you like short stories this series is super fun

Zombie Fairy Tales: The Complete Collection

[Katrina♡••]

I would recommend

Or

[Eva]

Again thanks for all the recommendations!

[WendyB]

I have to recommend my favs: Dead of Night and Fall of Night by Jonathan Maberry.

[Perry]

My friend Steven has written a nice series of ZA books, including
Rotten Bodies: A Zombie Short Story Collection and Burn The Dead: Purge
Remember, it's not what the zombies do; it's what the humans do in response.

[Gianfranco]

Star Wars Zombies! :D

[J.]

Gianfranco wrote: "
Star Wars Zombies! :D"

I put it in the "to read" queue, just for the cover art.

[Eva]

@ Gianfranco: Star Wars & Zombies?! Fantastic! Chewbacca howling in tune with the Zombies!
@ Perry @ WendyB Thanks!

[Gianfranco]

Eva wrote: "@ Gianfranco: Star Wars & Zombies?! Fantastic! Chewbacca howling in tune with the Zombies!
@ Perry @ WendyB Thanks!"

Oh, you can say that. Chube and Han are in the novel too :)

[Gianfranco]

J. wrote: "Gianfranco wrote: "
Star Wars Zombies! :D"

I put it in the "to read" queue, just for the cover art."

I purchased that for the cover art too and was really surprised finding out it was better than expected. :)

[Gianfranco]

The prequel is nice too.

Zombie outbreak in a Sith Academy! :D

[Latasha]

E. wrote: "Zombie "lite" with a really good story - The Girl with All the Gifts
Zombie humor, fun series - My Life as a White Trash Zombie

[bookcover:The Girl with All the Gift..."

oh yes, these are great. I loved girl with all the gifts and the white trash zombie series is so much fun. angel is awesome.

[Tasula]

for a really fabulous zombie book that is not depressing, is actually uplifting, try Raising Stony Mayhall

[Latasha]

Tasula wrote: "for a really fabulous zombie book that is not depressing, is actually uplifting, try Raising Stony Mayhall"

oh yeah, that was a good one too.

[Crowinator]

I second the rec for The Girl with All the Gifts, but I'd also like to suggest Mira Grant's series, the first one being Feed. It's unique and I keep stealing someone else's description of it as a post-zombie political thriller. There's three in the series with a fourth apparently on the way.

[Phil]

Feed by Mira Grant.

[Mike in Mass]

A lot of great suggestions in this thread. My personal favorite is the Autumn series from David Moody. Hell, I would read a lawnmower manual from him he is that good.

[Jonathan]

My favorites so far are Brian Keene's THE RISING, CITY OF THE DEAD, and DEAD SEA; also, Bryan Smith's SLOWLY WE ROT is outstanding.