Customer Reviews

The Rising: Selected Scenes From The End Of The World

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Sure, this book could be read without having read The Rising or City Of The Dead, but I don't recommend it. To better understand the type of zombies you are dealing with, and to recognize some faces, and to even understand some of the names that are called out such as Ob or the Siqqusim, it would be better to read the first two books...in my opinion.

Keene has written a book that many fans will devour with glee, but some will want to burn. I for one don't mind a book with closure...as long as it's done well. I also am a fan of a book that leaves us hanging with the end left for our imaginations. Keene actually did a really good job of closing this series. The Rising was ended with a nice cliff hanger that didn't need to be told...even though it was with City of the Dead. I am part of the group that enjoyed both books and welcomed City of the Dead with open arms. The ending to City of the Dead though, was just a brutal halt and left me wanting more. Mainly because I just felt like it was such a sad ending that that couldn't be the finality of the series. Luckily I came across 'Selected Scenes' and now I can be happy again with the series.

'Selected Scenes' is a short story book, but doesn't 100% feel like one. Mainly because there is a timeline going on in the book. On day 1 we see the outbreak just beginning in a 1-3 page story. The second story is Day 2 and the spread is just a tad bit more (mainly just someone seeing it on the news). Day 3..4..5...on and on til about day 28. I enjoyed most of, if not all, the stories that were presented. But reading almost the same formula over and over can get a little tedious. But around day 28 becomes the real fun. It really almost feels like a new book in the end. Keene begins to add on to his original stories by doing something that was only mentioned in the other books. The other brothers are finally released and they too begin to take over the earth. And in the final moments, Keene puts, what I think, is a great ending to his series. Or is it?...

In the VERY end, we find out that Keene has a new surprise for us. Keene is going to start writing a series of 7 books that intertwines everything he has written into one huge world connected by many closed doors.

I for one am pretty excited about this. Keene has definitely moved up into my 'Must Read' list almost every time he releases a new book. I'm also very happy that his writing style is becoming more polished. I also think he hired a new editor...hehe (something I could tell he needed in earlier installments of his books).

This book is a must if you've read The Rising and City of Dead. It's good, but probably a little confusing, if you haven't.

P.S. Be on the lookout for some familiar names/faces...such as Worm!

Brian Keene is like the Stephen King of zombie horror fiction right now, and with good reason: he took a tired out genre in the world of horror and added a few things, putting his own spin on the whole deal.

The Rising was like nothing I had ever read; it was scary and had intense storytelling blazing away on every page. The kind of good horror novel where you find yourself turning back and reading favorite scenes, even reading it slower than you are capable of, just to make it last longer. It was no fluke that it won the Bram Stoker Award.

City of The Dead, I thought, was a good sequel. Come on, I can't imagine how hard it must be to write a follow-up novel to The Rising. But if you wondered while reading those what was going on in other parts of Brian Keene's world during the zombie rising, then this collection of short stories is for you. Defintely.

You can read this as a stand alone book to get a taste of the kind of zombie horror Keene writes, but the coolest thing I liked about this, is that you can read these stories while you're reading The Rising or City of The Dead, almost like missing chapters about the carnage taking place in all the far off places around the world.

There are also a few stories that tell you what happens after the ending of City of The Dead. This is a must for any Brian Keene fan-and at a good price. A lot of his small press stuff is really priced high and with this one, any fan should be able to afford it.

Okay, heres the deal. Zombie tales can tend to be much the same. Lots of undead books and movies dont branch out very far and that is fine with me because my love for the genre is strong. This is not the case with Mr. Keene. He has given me a whole new reason to fear the living dead. I am a reader that likes to know all there is to know about the story. I do not like loose ends. This book took care of all you would want to know about the world of the Rising. If I had to complain about this book it would be that this book is not near as long as I wanted it to be but it was long as it should be, if that makes sense. Thank you for this book Mr. Keene, its one of my favs.

I write this as a Keene fan and this book is pretty good, a lot of stories were interesting but it's really not a great entry by itself. I own and enjoy the first 2 novels in the Rising series that this book accompanies, and they were great reads that had me hooked for 2 whole days of reading. I felt even though that this book was a solid entry of stories it was kinda flat and feeling almost forced. I went in expecting the same detailed storytelling by Keene that I expected from reading all his other past books, but left feeling unsatisfied although a few stories were really enjoyable.

If you have read (and re-read as I have) The Rising by Brian Keene and hated that it was over, IT'S NOT! This is a collection of short stories about what happened to people and places all over the world as the rising occurred. How people survived and then didn't makes for some brutal fiction which Brian Keene is famous for. It's really interesting to see how other people are attempting to deal with the walking dead just as the main characters in the book had to do. The fear, love, desperation and isolation of the survivors is nail bitingly tense. I loved it

This is a collection of short stories from the world of "Dead Rising" and "City of the Dead" by brian keene.

The stories start out at the start of the zombie outbreak and as you get farther into the book, you get farther into the mayhem and collapse of civilization seen through the eyes of many different people from many different places. There are a few appearances from individuals of the "Dead" books and this book touches more on the mythology of OB and his brothers and what kind of trouble they can bring to the table.

The book was enjoyable and i found myself speeding through it. Like most brian keene books, the writing style is easy to read and the story enveloping.

For a person who doesn't finish a book for months I blasted through this and City of the Dead which says something about the book. Keene perfectly captures the survival horror exemplified by zombie flicks like Dawn of the Dead and Night of the Living Dead. His details put you into the moment of being the lone survivor dealing not only with the walking recently deceased but with seeing your friends and loved ones undead. The only criticism is the "undead" angle uses talking, gun-toting, car-driving, thinking zombies. The explanation of the undead's return is unique and does help ease the natural resistance to these evolved zombies. Nonetheless, the survivor part of the story is so good it makes taking the chatty zombies pill much easier. An added plus was reading about locations that are so close to home.

The Rising : selected scenes from the end of the world.

This book was a good read, a very quick read, but good none the less, if you a fan of this author it is a must read.

Let me startoff by saying im a big fan of keene (although he has had a few stinkers "dead sea, necrophobia") and the rising and city od the dead are among my favorite books. After being dissapointed by his collection of other authors stories for the rising necrophobia i was weary of this one. Thankfully it delivered with a mostly good collection. We get plenty of glimpses into minor characters not only from the rising mythos but other books as well. Some great character driven stories as well as dark violent ones....which is what the rising is all about. top it off with another glympse into the labrinth and a nice kinda factoid about each story. This collection is only for the fans in my opinion so read his other rising books first.

Heads up, if you haven't read at LEAST The Rising and/or City of the Dead you will find yourself somewhat lost in the mythos of this particular brand of Zombie fiction. You can get by without them and just take the storys at face value but you'll appreciate them that much more if you've read Rising and City and enjoyed them.

First off this is pure fan service. Actually in the foreward Brian Keene says that his editor basically forced this book on him and he didn't want to write it at first. He then says he was glad he did by the end of it (really what else is he going to say? "I STILL wish I didn't write it" ? )But whether or not he's glad for writing it I'm glad that he did because it's a fun book that adds to the "reality" of Rising and City.

It's a collection of short storys. REALLY short storys. Some are longer than others, some are broken into two parts, some are better than others, and most are no longer than 4 or 5 pages. The setups is almost identical in each story: one, two, or a group of people stuck somewhere during the zombie holocaust, something happens, they try to get out, get safe, find food, etc... and then they die. The forumla gets a bit tired but there's enough difference in each story to make it interesting. And if you like Zombies then you'll be pretty happy with lots of stories about them doing what they do.

Overall this just adds to the Zombie mythos that Keene has set up and there's plenty of nods to his previous works that frequent readers will smile at. There's also a few characters we've met in previous books that we meet again. Fan service is always appreciated.

If I have anything negative to say about this book it's that A. The storys are too short. I'm not sure what more I wanted or expected but I would have preferred a little bit more out of some of them. They're still all enjoyable so I guess I'm not really complaining about that.

B. The book states that it shows what was happening around the rest of the world while the events of "The Rising" and "City of the Dead" were occuring. While this is basically true, the vast VAST majority of the stories take place in the U.S.A which is fine and necessary for some of the connections he makes to previous works and characters but I was dissapointed that there weren't more stories from other countries. The countries we DO visit are all civilized, westernized cultures like the UK, Australia, and Norway where there aren't really any unique settings or circumstances that lend itself to a story that differs than any of the ones that take place in America. I hate to draw the comparison because they're two completely different works but Max Brooks' "World War Z" (which is considerably larger and more in-depth) contains storys that literally take place all over the world. I feel as though Keene missed out on some potentially great subjects had he chosen more remote, third world, or isolated countries to work with. In the end it's really inconsequential where most of the stories take place and to an extent you could interchange the locations without drastically altering the plot or putting anything out of context.

But all in all it's a quick read and a fun companion to Keene's existing Zombie novels.