7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Keene's finest zombie tale, August 6, 2007
This review is from: Dead Sea (Mass Market Paperback)
There are many who feel Brian Keene's zombie smash The Rising remains the pinnacle of his artistic achievements as a writer. It was a huge success and was certainly a hard act to follow, as it would have been for any new writer. But while I enjoyed The Rising, my opinion diverges from the majority. Prior to the release of Dead Sea, my personal favorite Keene novel was The Conqueror Worms, which also happened to be his least commercially successful novel. One of the things I admired most about The Conqueror Worms is that it did not feature a standard-issue hero. The elderly narrator of the first and third sections of Worms was a man who fought as best he could within his limitations, and I felt this was a finely drawn character. In Dead Sea, Keene gives us another hero not cut from the usual cloth. The narrator is a gay black male named Lamar Reed. The fact that he is gay and black are treated as facts of his existence and are not present to browbeat the non-progressive segement of the audience. Instead they inform the narrative in subtle and effective ways throughout. Lamar Reed is gay and black, yes, but in the end he is just another man fighting with everything he has to stay alive in a world gone to hell. And Keene's depiction of him is one of his finest moments as an author. I wouldn't say Dead Sea actually eclipses The Conqueror Worms as my favorite Brian Keene novel, but it is a very close thing, a virtual DEADlock. Do yourself a favor and get a copy now. Very highly recommended.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
3X's the Charm!, August 31, 2007
This review is from: Dead Sea (Mass Market Paperback)
Before I get ripped to shreds by Keene fans like so many slow-moving humans in his books, let me explain:
"The Rising" to me was a very good, but not excellent, installment that breathed new, fetid life into the Zombie genre. I thought that Keene had some great ideas, characters, and set pieces for a very involving story. My only knock is that Keene slowed the pace at times with his vivd description of the undead masses - not that it was bad, but after 200 pages, we know that the zombies are rotting! I felt this was a minor problem, and maybe it was just me, with what was otherwise a very good book.
"City of the Dead". Where do I start with this one? There seemed to be a few problems with this one. The writing was not up to par; It felt like Keene was going for cheap thrills and the story went on a tangent with Ob and the assault by the undead. In and of itself, this was an ok book, but not what I wanted after "The Rising" showed so much promise! Not to mention the similarities w/ "Land of the Dead", which came out around the same time - the last vestiges of humanity holed up in a skyscraper (check), A maniacal madman, owner of said tower, holding sway over his rescued flock (check), the undead gaining some sentience and assaulting the tower (check). I didn't like the movie, and was not a huge fan of Keene's book.
Enter, "Sea of the Dead". Ahhhh. This, my friends, is zombie bliss. Keene presents us with an masterfully crafted, suspenseful, violent, horrific tale of society, and the world around us, crumbling under the power of a virus that infects it's hosts and reanimates them with a taste for flesh and a penchant for timely infections! Superb book, highly recommended to all horror and zombie fans. I'm keeping the description brief with this one because there is too much in the book that can be spoiled with a review; suffice it to say you will not be disappointed in this novel!
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14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Keene strikes again, July 20, 2007
This review is from: Dead Sea (Mass Market Paperback)
DEAD SEA takes the idea of animals becoming zombies (that the author introduced in his first zombie novel THE RISING) and basically goes berserk with it. A bunch of survivors take to the sea in an old ship that has been turned into a floating museum. Figuring they've escaped the human undead, the soon discover the virus (known here as "Hamelin's Revenge) has spread from rats to humans . . . and now to sea life.
No one writes zombie stories like Keene, and the nods to JAWS and MOBY DICK are fine touches in what may be one of his most satisfying novels to date. You'll love this one.
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