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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Tip Toe Thru The Tombstones, September 25, 2008
This review is from: Zombies: A Field Guide to the Walking Dead (Paperback)
[This review is part of my 31 Days of Halloween series.]
BBRRRRRRRRR...this is a spooky book--and a great source of supernatural history. The book jacket suggests lurid tales of the grave--and the contents deliver. The sensationalist "feel" of ZOMBIES is reflected in the graphics of Ian Daniels, and is maintained even in the fonts, chapter headings, and page numbering.
What a Great Pumpkin stuffer!
Author Bob Curran is a very gifted writer & researcher who has the rare talent to convey in popular style a treasure trove of historic material dating back to pre-history. This work documents the history & evolution of the Zombie. The universality of this myth may come as a surprise to readers.
ZOMBIES also features Ian Daniels' sci-fi/neo-gothic/Lovecraftian fantasy illustrations. Some are highly sexually charged. My personal favorites are Frankenstein, Constance Whitney, (body snatchers & murderers) Burke & Hare, Baron Samedi (who I actualy met once during Mardi Gras) & Zuvembie.
People interested in the paranormal will LOVE this book. People who love history will be impressed with this book--and people who love scary stories will really love this book.
ZOMBIES is FUN!
Here's a little taste:
· Did the Passion of Isis serve as a source for the Frankenstein story?
· Everyone knows that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead--but what became of Lazarus afterwards?
· The Holy Grail is a pagan symbol of resurrection that predated Christianity. Did it hold the Elixir of Life? How did it become Christianized?
· In the late 1800's a wealthy woman named Constance Whitney rose from the dead. What did her contemporaries write on her tombstone?
· Does Halloween open a door between the Living and the Dead?
· Body Snatchers were also called Resurrectionists.
· The origins & names of Voodoo Cults.
· Le Gran Zombie & other Voodoo deities.
· Zombies called forth to battle imperialism!
· Doctor John & the many faces of Marie Laveau.
· The Serpent & the Rainbow--fact or fiction?
· This and, oh, so much MORE!
Vampire: His Kith and Kin
The Val Lewton Horror Collection (Cat People / The Curse of the Cat People / I Walked with a Zombie / The Body Snatcher / Isle of the Dead / Bedlam / The Leopard Man / The Ghost Ship / The Seventh Victim / Shadows in the Dark)
The Best of Dr. John: The Night Tripper
George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead
The Skeleton Key (Full Screen Edition)
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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Woefully lacking of detail on surviving a zombie uprising, January 12, 2009
This review is from: Zombies: A Field Guide to the Walking Dead (Paperback)
I purchased this book to help prepare myself for the impending Zombie apocalypse that any reasonable person knows is coming. It might not be today, it might not be tomorrow, but it sure as hell is on the way, and I plan to be ready when it does. Movies do a good job of spreading awareness of the problem, but many of them seem think zombies are a laughing matter like in Shaun of the Dead. Computer games also help spread awareness and even teach useful tactics like ( Left 4 Dead or System Shock 2). Even the absurdity of Zombies in space (as if we'll ever colonize space with the Zombie threat knocking at our door!) is more useful than this book at teaching zombie survival methodology.
ZOMBIES: A FIELD GUIDE TO THE WALKING DEAD is hardly a field guide at all. It's more like a history lesson. While I agree with Sun Tzu's The Art of War that knowing the enemy is essential to victory, there are very few tactical or strategic tips in this guide. If you want to know whether the Zombie that is attached to your neck is more like Germanic or African archtypes, or how the Zombies feasting on your neighbors relate to Haitian legends, this is the book for you. Personally I don't care about stories like the one about Constance Whitney and how she came back to life in the 1880s unless told in the context of how best to separate her head from her shoulders using a hatchet and send her soulless body back to the grave!
I also don't appreciate Bob Curran's tone in his so-called "Field Guide." He obviously does not take the Zombie threat seriously enough. In fact, it seems he doesn't believe in Zombies as anything more than psychological constructs or religious mythology! He needs to do more research into the many well documented Zombie attacks in the last hundred years. No mention is made of the fact that these attacks have been increasing both in frequency and intensity. Curran obviously is an intelligent, articulate man with a gift for research and writing. It will be a sad day when his disbelief and lack of preparation leads to his demise at the hands (or mouths!) of viscous Zombies.
If you like me will not sit idly by and wait for the Zombies to strike, I suggest reading the most important book on Zombies ever written: The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead instead of Curran's offering. It very well might save your life.
If on the other hand you are an egg-headed history buff with a brain the size of a ripe cantaloupe and you want to fill it with everything there is to know about the history of zombies except how to keep them at bay, then Curran's field guide will provide you with several hours of entertainment. Until the Zombie masses beat down your door.
We need to pull together in these troubled times and prepare for any and all Zombie attacks. If you are part of the growing number of patriots that realize that the Zombie threat is immediate and real, I beg you to take action. Don't just learn the historical context of our ruthless foes; join your local militia, buy a Katana, and most of all, always be vigilant!
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Questions that dig deeper than the grave, October 5, 2008
This review is from: Zombies: A Field Guide to the Walking Dead (Paperback)
Dr. Bob Curran has gained a reputation in the past few years for exploring the roots of those subjects paranormal enthusiasts are drawn to. After tackling the Green Man and Vampires, Dr. Curran decided to point his tireless research and pinpoint understanding at one of the lesser delved into supernatural monsters. The result is Zombies: A field Guide to the Walking Dead. With chapters ranging from grave robbers and half executed convicts to the misunderstood practices of the voodoo practitioners, the work serves as a reference book told in narrative form with some questions that point to who we are as a society.
See my interview with the author on Ghostville...
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