Customer Reviews

The New Dead: A Zombie Anthology

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The New Dead is an all-new zombie anthology edited by Christopher Golden and featuring nineteen never-before-published stories by an incredible cast of writers including: Joe R. Lansdale, Brian Keene, Tad Williams, Tim Lebbon, Kelley Armsrong, Joe Hill, David Wellington, Mike Carey, and more...

The anthology kicks off with John Connolly's "Lazarus", one of the best tales in the volume and a different take on the biblical tale of the resurrected Lazarus. Fans of urban fantasy writer supreme, Kelley Armstrong will no doubt enjoy her story "Life Sentence" that contains all of the elements that have made her an enormously popular writer in recent years. Hear a magician devises a way to become immortal while beating cancer.

I love Brian Keene, and his tale "The Wind Cries Mary" was a moving tale of a zombie outbreak but its only four pages long. Keene's work was one of the ones I was looking forward to the most and for it to be such a minor contribution was disappointing. Balancing this disappointment was Tad Williams' "The Storm Door". Known best for fantasy, Williams delivers a story about a supernatural investigator's horrific discovery. Other standout stories include "Among Us" by Aimee Bender, "Family Business" by Jonathan Maberry, "Weaponized" by David Wellington, and "What Maisie Knew" by David Liss.

More disappointing than the Keene entry was Joe R. Landsdale's "Shooting Pool". It's a fine enough story but, um...there's no zombies in it. It's the strangest and most out of place inclusion in the book and if you are scoring at home, that means that two of the biggest names contributed two of the most disappointing stories. Still most of the nineteen stories are above average and should satisfy the tastes of most zombie fans.

There are some very strong entries in this book, Ghost Trap, The Wind Cries Mary, Lazarus, Second Wind, and Closure, Limited range from very solid to very good short stories.

However, some of the stories are very terrible. For example, the Zombie Who Fell From the Sky is poorly written and half the time doesn't even make sense. Among Us is another story which makes me wonder if Golden even read some of these entries. Among Us is pretentious and dull. Family Business starts out interesting but quickly becomes boring.

***Warning, Minor Spoilers ****

However, the worst stories have nothing to do with zombies. For example,The storm door is not about zombies, but rather spirit possession. The worst offender though is Shooting Pool. Not only does it not have a zombie it the story, but it contains zero elements of the supernatural, it is just a story about a guy getting shot in a pool hall. Seriously...

I wouldn't mind the inclusion of such stories, but the book makes it clear the stories are about zombies, the word "zombie" is used several times on the back cover. The front of the book have what most people would call "zombies." I found including nonzombie stories to be somewhat dishonest. Call me crazy, but when I buy a book about zombies I want all of the stories to include...guess what? Zombies!

However, the zombie stories that are included are pretty good, I just would wait until the book becomes on sale, or you can find it used.

I really enjoyed Max Brooks' "Zombie Survival Guide" and "World War Z." Hardly "War and Peace" on either score, but a heck of a lot of fun to read. And if you are wanting some zombie fiction, since zombies indeed seem to be replacing vampires as the spooky darlings of popular entertainment, you might want to stick with those. This book was a genuine disappointment.

I have to applaud what the authors of the various short stories are trying to do. They are trying, as best able, to explore the "walking dead" with new and fresh approaches. And a couple, most notably Connelly, Maberry, and Liss, have actually penned tales that are thought-provoking and disturbing, if not for the weak-stomached. But, I thought the rest was experimentally flat, even boring when not silly outright. So, I have to wonder if "zombies" beyond what they already are in folklore, pop culture, horror, and satire can really be a vein worth mining.

Also, this is not really an anthology in the way I understand that word. You get about fourteen short stories from modern authors. And that's it.

I will say, though, that the book is very well-constructed on heavier end paper. So, it is "built to last" like the undead denizens haunting its pages.

Still, as much as I would like to recommend it, I cannot. But if you want a copy, I would buy used and save a little money.

No recommendation except for the die-hard fan.

(UPDATE 10/13/2010): A commenter pointed out my technical misuse of the word "anthology," and is absolutely right. I was thinking about "anthology" from the consumer point of view and not the literary, meaning that I found the book sparse compared to weightier and, I think, more reasonably priced anthologies like those published by Norton and Penguin. In "The New Dead," I think, you don't "get enough for your money" in a "new book" purchase. Sorry for any confusion!

This book, The New Dead, came out in February of 2010, and I didn't get a chance to read it then, but a close friend of mine just recommended it and gave me his copy. This is a collection of never before published short stories from some great authors. I enjoyed all of the stories in the book, but there were two of them that didn't involve zombies and I had to wonder why they were in the book. Those stories are "The Storm Door" and "Shooting Pool". Even though they didn't deal with zombies, I still liked the stories. Shooting Pool, however, was pretty predictable as far as what was going to happen throughout the story but yet kept my attention because it seemed very realistic and believable. I've been in many a pool hall and felt that the experiences and descriptions described in the story were built from that experience. Here is the list of stories in the book:

* "Lazarus" by John Connolly

* "What Maisie Knew" by David Liss

* "Copper" by Stephen R. Bissette

* "In the Dust" by Tim Lebbon

* "Life Sentence" by Kelley Armstrong

* "Delice" by Holly Newstein

* "Closure, LTD" by Max Brooks

* "The Wind Cries Mary" by Brian Keene

* "Family Business" by Jonathan Maberry

* "The Zombie Who Fell From the Sky" by M.B. Homler

* "My Dolly" by Derek Nikitas

* "Second Wind" by Mike Carey

* "Among Us" by Aimee Bender

* "Ghost Trap" by Rick Hautala

* "The Storm Door" by Tad Williams

* "Kids and Their Toys" by James A. Moore

* "Shooting Pool" by Joe R. Lansdale

* "Weaponized" by David Wellington

* "Twittering from the Circus of the Dead" by Joe Hill

The first story by John Connolly, "Lazarus" deals with the biblical story of Lazarus, who was brought back from the dead, and even though this was told in a third person view, you couldn't help but feel for Lazarus as he dealt with his return from the dead. The second story, "What Maisie Knew", by David Liss, was a thriller that we all fear - a situation where we've made a horrible mistake and had to pay for it. The third story, Copper, deals with a neighborhood devastated by the zombie apocalypse and a few of its survivors.

I could go on about each story, but let me just say that the book is well worth reading even if there a couple of stories you don't like, which was not true for me - I liked them all. It's hard to pick a favorite, but "Family Business" by Jonathan Maberry, was one of my favorites due to the emotional turmoil of zombies and family member relations and how to deal with the responsibilities of a turned family member.

The book finishes with a chronological listing of tweets from a young girl on a family vacation who runs into a circus with a deadly secret that involves finding tourists to join the show - this turned out to be a pretty cool way to tell a story as well. All in all, I highly recommend the book - it's worth the ten bucks for some unusual reading.

This book is a real mixed bag when it comes to quality, and I find somewhat misleading.

Some sorties are very well written, and some... not so much. I can't say much more than that since everyone has their own opinions when it comes to writing styles. Your millage will vary.

There were a few things I didn't like. The first is that this book gives off the aura of being full of Romero like zombie stories. The front picture speaks of it, and Max Brooks is given top billing. However, this is not so, where only about a third of the book being about that type of zombies. I still enjoyed most of the other stories, but was really wanting the Night of the Living Dead kind. One of the stories had nothing to do with undead at all and I can't figure out why they even included it (Shooting Pool) while another was only connected to zombies in a very whimisical way. I also feel somewhat duped with Max being top billed because his entry was only 6 pages long; a mere cameo appearance. Boooo on you marketers booooo...

So, if you like undead, then you'll get enjoyment out of this, especially since the book is so cheap now. However if you're looking for Night of the Living Dead type of zombies, you're only going to like part of the offering.

All I can say it was one of the worst books I've read. I was wondering if someone lost a bet and felt they needed to add some stories that did NOT have a single thing to do with zombies. I'm usually a silver lining kind of person, but to include a story about a pool hall shooting in a ZOMBIE book is beyond me. It seems to be something several reviewers ignored. Very sorry I spent money on this book. There are many other books out there recommend Book of the Dead by John Skipp and Craig Spector. Thanks hope this helped.

Short version, I'm glad I checked this out at the library, because I would have hated to waste money on this pretentious crap. Zombies are not meant for people to get artsy with; they're ZOMBIES. They're dead and rotting and they eat brains. Where can you find art in that? On a related note, Aimme Bender's short stories have never made sense--not a one of them, and I read a whole collection for a lit class once. She's the queen of crazy trying to pass for art.

There was one story that I don't regret reading, and one or two that were sort of funny, but one story wasn't even about zombies at all! I mean, WTF? Your story is in an anthology of zombies, but your story doesn't have any zombies. Are you kidding? How the hell did your story even get in? And why do I want a story about a pool hustler when I'm reading a book about zombies?!

The only high point of this book was the story that was completely told by a teenage girl on a family vacation, posting tweets via her cell phone. I didn't particularly like that story--the premise and a number of the details didn't make a whole lot of sense--but I give it points for actually being clever in a book full of stories that are trying hard to be clever but still fail.

Do not waste your money on this anthology. I don't mind non Romero like zombies but I would still like to see more of them. This book has maybe 1 or 2 stories that have that type in it. Surprisingly I actually kind of liked Brian Keene's story even though I hated Dead Rising and City of the Dead. Joe Landsdale's story doesn't even have a zombie in it. There are plenty of other GOOD zombie anthologies for you to spend your money on. Pass this one.

If you're looking for the Romero zombie, this anthology isn't for you.

However, if you don't mind a fresh take at the walking dead, The New Dead is the book for you.

Personally, I didn't recognize most of the names. Sure, we have Max Brooks (whose story is, of course, World War Z related) and a few other names in the horror field. Even if you don't recognize any of the names, there're some great stories within this book and takes on zombies I would never thought of.

I don't want to spoil any of the stories by giving too many examples, but the first story takes a zombie eye to the raising of Lazarus. Yeah, the guy Jesus brought back from the dead.

Another is nothing but Twitter posts.

Now, some reviewers are negative about the stories and, granted, some of the stories barely have anything to do with zombies. I can name at least one that had a zombie that seemed to be thrown in so it could be in this book. However, besides the one or two stories that seem out of place, this isn't too bad of a buy, but if you can find it for the cheap or even in the library, get it that way rather than full price.

I can say I have had my fill of zombies for the time being. And this collection of zombie short stories fills it to the brim. I found THE NEW DEAD; an assortment of zombie themed stories very interesting. Each varied from the ordinary, slow moving, flesh eating, undead walking the earth type of tale. My favorite was "Family Business" by Jonathan Maberry. I thought I wouldn't get into the twitter story of the family on vacation and going to the circus, but "Twittering from the Circus of the Dead" by Joe Hill was entertaining; even if I don't tweet. There were others that didn't quite grab my interest. Overall, though, this anthology seems to hit the mark.