Zombie Fiction

[Stego]

A month ago I had not read Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead, a comic from Image. A month ago, I didn't much give a shit, either.

See, film is not my medium. I'll admit it. I loved Reservoir Dogs and Menace II Society like every other 15yr old who snuck into the theater in my halcyon high school days. (Yeah, just dated myself. I'm still not as old as RaceBannon)

I'm digressing. Film isn't where I get off, per se. I like movies. I don't get excited for them. They are, in my never-so-humble opinion, at their basest level, books for stupid people. I'm still editorializing. Let me get my thoughts in order....

I never liked zombies because they are a creation of film. Well, the modern form, anyway. Good on Romero, but it weren't for me, dig?

Then I met The Walking Dead. Fuck me with a reanimated corpsicle, but that comic is good. You gotta check it out. Toss the guy a few bucks. I'm not one to ever recomend theft, but take a test drive of an issue or two from a friendly neighborhood torrent downloader. It's fine. Really. I'm quite sure you'll be a lifetime subscriber from here on out.

One of my favorite subgenres of speculative fiction is the post-apocalyptic tale. It may be the crazed veteran live-off-the-grid separatist buried not so deeply in me, but the idea of a world in which we as humans are once again thrust in a position of actual personal responsibility is an area of thought which deeply fascinates (and terrifies!) me. Swan Song, The Road, Earth Abides, The Last Ship, Alas, Babylon, The Chrysalids, Damnation Alley, The Long Tomorrow, Lucifer's Hammer, The Postman, Ridley Walker, Davy, Julian Comstock, A Canticle For Leibowitz..... I know from what I speak here. (As with little else, I fear.) There is a depth to the fiction of complete loss and utter sorrow. There is a baring of all of mans absolute inhumanities to man; to his world; to his neighbor. And at the last, there is that hope, not neccesarily in the narration, but that which I find within myself. I wish for, yearn for, nay, fucking damn sure need these people to survive. At the basest most instinctual level, I feel.

And I'll be fucked if that ain't what art is all about.

And the best of zombie fiction seems to number amongst the best of post-apocalyptic fiction. I wish I had known before now.

So, yeah. Kirkman got me on a zombie kick. I went back and reread World War Z by Max Brooks. Cracking good shit. I think I enjoyed it more the second time.

Then I read through the quite impressive collection from Nightshade Books, The Living Dead. It has some Meathouse Man love from George. Some Kelly Link, Stephen King, Laurell Hamilton, Poopy Brite. Dan Simmons. Some really solid stories. I wanted more.

I read The Rising by Brian Keene. I'm no expert on horror, and I don't pretend to be, but I was sleeping with the lights on. Ok, so I wasn't sleeping much. In fact, it's 3:30am as I write this. Sigh.

I'd recommend any of these works to interested fans, but I would recommend The Walking Dead the most vehemently. It might be the most powerful comic I've ever read. It may be blaspheme... ok, it definitely is blaspheme, but it's head and shoulders over any comic work done by Mr. Gaiman or Mr. Moore.

Post Script: For you fans of the filmed sequence who may feel much maligned by my first few sentences, I'd like to inform you that The Walking Dead is being made into a cable television show much like A Game of Thrones. Dummies rejoice.

[Stego]

Oh yeah! Anyone have an zombie recommendations I should check out?

[Papirolle]

I see that John Ajvide Lindqvists Handling the Undead has been translated to English (from Swedish).

http://www.amazon.com/Handling-Undead-John...4884&sr=8-1

He is the author of Let the Right One In, an excellent and very different vampire novel, made into film a couple of years ago.

Handling the Undead is not really a book about the zombies themselves, but more about how people react to seeing their loved ones come back from the dead. Not quite as good as Let the right one in but worth reading.

It's worth noting that it ends very abruptly and apparently the author wasn't quite happy with it as he wrote a (pretty lengthy) short story that ends the story more properly. That was published in his third book (a short story collection) which I don't think has been translated to English yet.

[Calavera]

I'm a huuuge fan of The Walking Dead and I love post-apocolyptic fiction. I've saved your list and I think i'll work through it when i'm done with the First Law.

Anyway, I havn't read it so I cant comment on its quality but Charlie Higson (comedian, been in the Fast Show and other british comedy shows) has just released a zombie novel called The Enemy (http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/9622943...my/Product.html).

I'm planning on reading it at some point.

[Max the Mostly Mediocre]

I quite like The Walking Dead, though I wasn't a fan of how the eighth TPB ended; wasn't sure whether a few things were supposed to be cliffhangers or if it was just sloppy storytelling.

[palin99999]

It's on my TBR pile, but you might like Infected by Scott Sigler.

Definitely agree with you on The Walking Dead; it has some of the most haunting images in anything I've ever read.

[gladius]

I don't find zombie fiction that interesting (i prefer living antagonists), but The walking dead is special. I like it a lot.

[Ran]

Better than Gaiman and Moore? Sounds like someone wants to sabotage the series. Fifth columnist!

More seriously, the first issue can be read online here. It's a rather awkward issue, to be honest, but I'll see about getting the first trade or two and give it a proper go.

A zombie comic that I can recommend is Garth Ennis's and Jacen Burrows's Crossed for Avatar Press, a 9-part miniseries (7th issue is being published this month). It has the typical gore and gruesomeness of Ennis's typical work, and is a very cynical, pessimistiv work (well, that's also typical of Ennis, come to think of it).

[Lichen]

I thought Keenes The Rising was just ok at best. Cheesy as hell with silly undead animals. The sequel, City of the Dead, was utter crap.

Maybe some of Kim Paffenroths books. I liked Dying to Live, although the christian themes were a bit too much imo. His next book Valley of the Dead, with Dante Alighieri, zombies + medieval setting, sounds interesting. Too bad its so damn cult and limited.

Guess you've already read it but Kings Pet Sematary is excellent. Maybe not your typical zombie novel, but zombie novel nonetheless.

Based on Let the Right One In, I'd recommend anything by John Ajvide Lindqvist. (Havent read Handling the Undead yet).

[red snow]

The first 8 volumes of the walking dead are probably some of the best zombie tales i've seen or read. It's classic post-apocalypse too with most of the terror being the evil that humans commit as opposed to the zombies.

I just finished vol 10 this week and while it is still good, it no longer has that wow factor or desperate urge to read the next issue. This is partly because vol 8 has a major upheaval and totally changes the status quo. There is the seed of a good idea in the new direction but it's taking a hell of a long time to gather any momentum. Still better than 90% of comics at the moment though and I have to credit Kirkman for having the ballls to change things up.

A word of warning to people who become attached to characters; this series has a high death count. The shit Kirkman puts them through makes GRRM look like he molly-coddles the ASOIAF cast. Seriously.

Much like ASOIAF, The Walking Dead would make an excellent HBO show. It's generally accepted that Zombies are going to be the "teenies" vampires, having gained a lot of momentum in literature. Give it another 4 years and it may make a viable TV show, too.

[Deornoth]

A word of warning to people who become attached to characters; this series has a high death count. The shit Kirkman puts them through makes GRRM look like he molly-coddles the ASOIAF cast. Seriously.

What he says, the death in vol 8 just blew me away :stunned:

Stego - How far along are you with the Walking Dead books? Have you read them all?

Joe McKinney's 'Dead City' is also worth a look if you've got a zombie reading thing going on :thumbsup:

[Ran]

BTW, just to expand on something Stego said earlier, The Walking Dead is being developed by Frank Darabont for AMC (or was it TNT? I think AMC).

Linda and I read a preview chapter of an interesting-sounding YA, The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan, which is sort of a post-zombine apocalypse novel, seven generations after a zombie plague ended civilization. We'll probably pick it up. Scott Westerfield (an excellent YA and SF writer) reviews it at Amazon.com.

[red snow]

BTW, just to expand on something Stego said earlier, The Walking Dead is being developed by Frank Darabont for AMC (or was it TNT? I think AMC).

Thanks for the info. That could be very, very cool (Frank Darabont is no slouch either). Will defintely try and keep an eye on how that develops.

[Yagathai]

I will second the recommendation for The Walking Dead. I won't gush about it quite as much as Stego, but it's damn, damn good.

Lansdale had a short novel about a zombie invasion -- Dead in the West -- that is very Lansdale and full of goddamn zombies.

[a wooden chair]

I'd reccomend Day By Day Armageddon by J.L. Bourne. It's simple, sweet, short, and written in the form of journal entries. Heavy on the survival lingo and how right-wing nutjobs (First people I'd run to) will outshine us all when the zombies start happening.

I linked an expensive copy I think, but I've seen two other versions with different covers out there. The one I have is tan with a guy holding a cabrine and wearing goggles standing around with a few zombies behind him.

[awesome possum]

Max Brooks (author of World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide) has a new book coming out next month called The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks. I don't know if it's the Recorded Attacks in the back of the original ZSG or new ones, but they're in graphic novel form.

Xombies by Walter Greatshell is a good read. The infection in it effects all females with the X chromosome who have had a menstrual cycle, so instantly nearly half the population is turned into zombies. The main character is a girl of about 17 or 18 who for some reason was not affected and may be the key to humanities survival.

[red snow]

speak of the devil; Kirkman has just done an interview at comicbookresources about the upcoming tv show

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=22824

If AMC is the channel that does breaking bad I can't see why there'd be an issue with swaering and/or gore? I'm still very wary about a watered down interpretation but I#ll wait and see the pilot hopefully.

[Stego]

Stego - How far along are you with the Walking Dead books? Have you read them all?

Yeah, I'm up to the minute.

[Ran]

Is the first Walking Dead collection a fair representation of the series? It must not be, given the praise, because as it stands it reminds me why I'm not a big fan of Kirkman.

I liked his Invincible series early on, but his particular tics started to grate pretty quickly. Way too talky, and none of the people sounded particularly adult. That worked well enough for Invincible, which is mostly a bunch of teenegers, and kind of a cartoony at that; but here, it reminds me of ... oh, yes, the "For Better or For Worse" comic strip.

The artist's good, at least. First trade, I'd rate a C. I like the concept, and half the execution, but I'm not sure Kirkman's going to get back in my good graces. If Brian K. Vaughn had written it, I'd be all over it I'm sure.

[Stego]

Wow, man. Sorry you did not enjoy it. The first few issues were not what wrapped around my heart and crushed away, certainly, but I found them enjoyable. I think the book really came into its own when they 'found a home.' I don't want to get into more detail than that.