Status
Available
Call number
Call number
SC LIV
Series
Collection
Publication
Night Shade Books & SFBC (2008)
Description
A collection of short stories about zombies includes contributions by Clive Barker, Laurell K. Hamilton, Stephen King, and Neil Gaiman.
Media reviews
Library Journal
The shambling animated corpses of George Romero's films have lurched into the bookstores in droves in recent months, headlined by high-profile titles like World War Z and Monster Island. In this anthology, editor Adams (Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse) does a remarkable job of collecting a
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sampling of variations on this theme. These stories range from the truly disgusting (Poppy Z. Brite's 'Calcutta: Lord of Nerves') to the nearly wistful ('Followed' by Will McIntosh) and even one with no supernatural elements at all (Joe Hill's 'Bobby Conroy Comes Back from the Dead'). Included are pieces by big names in horror like Stephen King and Clive Barker but also contributions by less obvious suspects like Harlan Ellison, Sherman Alexie, and George R.R. Martin. The final treat is John Langan's 'How the Day Runs Down' a nasty little play best described as Our Town with zombies. Highly recommended for all horror fiction collections. Show Less
Publisher's Weekly
Recently prolific anthologist Adams (Seeds of Change) delivers a superb reprint anthology that runs the gamut of zombie stories. There's plenty of gore, highlighted by Stephen King's Home Delivery and David Schow's classic Blossom. Less traditional but equally satisfying are Lisa Morton's Sparks
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Fly Upward, which analyzes abortion politics in a zombified world, and Douglas Winter's literary pastiche Less than Zombie. Also outstanding, Kelly Link's Some Zombie Contingency Plans and Hannah Wolf Bowen's Everything Is Better with Zombies take similar themes in wildly different directions. Neil Gaiman's impeccably crafted Bitter Grounds offers a change of pace with traditional Caribbean zombies. The sole original contribution, John Langan's How the Day Runs Down, is a darkly amusing twist on Thornton Wilder's Our Town. There's some great storytelling for zombie fans as well as newcomers. Show Less
Original publication date
2008-09-29
User reviews
LibraryThing member nameless1
A one word review of this book would be pretentious and this is coming from someone who really likes zombie stories. The Living Dead is a massive collection of short stories about the living dead, now I know that the living dead or zombies encompasses a large variety of creatures; from the flesh
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eating ghouls of the Romero films to the animated corpses of Haitian legend. However, after reading the back of this title I thought I was getting a collection of (Romero-ish) stories from the best horror and fiction writers of this decade. Unfortunately most of these stories take the form of pretentious (there’s that word again) yarns about animated corpses who seek a variety of reasons for their animation vengeance, a misunderstanding, a good time/end to they’re suffering??? Now what do I mean by pretentious, let me elaborate; I mean that they are trying to tell a message that is none too subtle and hasn't been done to death (sorry pun not intended.) The 9/11 zombie victim story “Beautiful Stuff” is a perfect example, it screamed message. The one that really put me over the edge was a story about a zombie contingency plan, that wasn’t about a zombie contingency plan. In fact I’m not quite sure what it was about… The Neil Gaiman story was very much along that line too, but then again it's Neil Gaiman. Now I’ve read several zombie anthologies and I’ve come to expect these types of stories thrown in with the usual fair of living running for their lives, but in this book it was just one of these aforementioned stories after another. Even reading Stephen King's story couldn't redeem this collection for me. On a final note just be warned the first story is a good one, it’s the hook you can guess at what most of the rest are. Show Less
LibraryThing member cyanbe
This short story collection from indie publisher Night Shade Books gathers together 34 examples of the best of the zombie short story genre. And yes, it's a larger genre than you might think, and home to some very unexpected authors (Sherman Alexie, anyone?) as well as some very familiar to fans of
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horror (Joe R. Lansdale and, yes, Stephen King.) Although there's very little original work here, it's a treat to have a sampling from such diverse sources and spanning so many years collected under one cover. For anyone who just can't get enough zombie apocalypse in their lives, this is the book for you. Show Less
LibraryThing member willowsmom
This anthology was a bit uneven for me: some of the stories were just AMAZING, but quite a few....*sigh*. Let's just say I read them to get it over with so I could go on to something else. Personally, my favorite story in this collection by far was "This Year's Class Picture", by the always
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fabulous Dan Simmons. Granted, it may appeal to me more than you, unless you too are a.) a teaher b.) a zombie fanatic c.) slightly disillusioned with the job and/or d.) have ever considered the laudable defense capabilities of most elementary schools (specifically in the North East) built in this country. :) Show Less
LibraryThing member TerryWeyna
I never knew there were so many ways to tell a zombie story. I pretty much thought that the George Romero version was it – dead people wandering around holding their arms out in front of them and calling out “braaaaaaains,” looking to munch on the living. I never did know why they had to hold
John Joseph Adams, who has appeared on the reprint anthology scene with six reprint anthologies in the last two years (including Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse (post-apocalytic science fiction), Federations (about future intergalactic governments), and By Blood We Live (vampires), has chosen his material wisely in this collection of short stories about zombies by some of the biggest and best names in the horror business, as well as the newest and hottest. I resisted this book for a long time because I’ve never been fond of zombies, but upon diving in, I discovered that the zombies aren’t really the point; the point is to tell a good story. And these authors do that, with a vengeance.
My favorite story is “Almost the Last Story by Almost the Last Man” by Scott Edelman, a metafiction about a writer caught in the library when the zombie plague hits. He tries to tell the story of what has happened in several ways, meandering through several false starts, before he latches onto the notion of just telling the truth without any veneer of fiction. It doesn’t have an ending, exactly, because our author is still alive when we leave him, unable to write of his demise – he doesn’t know yet how the end will come. This Stoker-Award nominee is just flat out brilliant.
John Langan gives Edelman a run for his money in the only original tale in the anthology, “How the Day Runs Down.” This take on the classic play “Our Town,” written as a script narrated by the Stage Manager, will likely never be performed, but it brings vivid images to mind (particularly if you ever cried your eyes out watching your baby sister play the lead in the original). Langan is a remarkable new talent on the horror scene; I have yet to read anything he’s written without being bowled over. I can’t wait to read his first novel, House of Windows, due out next month from Night Shade Books.
“Death and Suffrage,” by Dale Bailey, will make anyone who has ever hailed from Chicago chuckle, as the dead line up to vote. Sherman Alexie’s “Ghost Dance,” which turned out to be the only story in The Living Dead that I’d read before, finally lets the Native Americans get their revenge on Custer. Susan Palwick looks at zombies from a completely different angle in “Beautiful Stuff,” portraying the dead as infinitely distractible beings with no malign intent – until one zombie shows signs of thinking for himself. Clive Barker contributes “Sex, Death and Starshine,” in which the dead seek only to continue doing what they loved doing in life, with a single-minded passion. Joe Hill, another fairly new horror writer who seems never to set a word in the wrong place, is represented by “Bobby Conroy Comes Back from the Dead,” something of an aberration in this anthology as it is about filming a zombie movie, rather than actual zombies, though it does speak – movingly – of the end of things.
There are 34 stories in this mammoth anthology, with contributions by almost every horror writer a regular reader of the fantastic will want to see: Dan Simmons, Kelly Link, Jeffrey Ford, Norman Partridge, Joe R. Lansdale, Neil Gaiman, George R.R. Martin, Poppy Z. Brite, Robert Silverberg and Harlan Ellison among them. Usually anthologies have a few throw-away stories, a few that just don’t work as well as the others do; one expects it, understanding that one’s own taste will not correspond 100% with the editor’s. But either John Joseph Adams had such a wealth of stories at his disposal or he and I are utterly simpatico, because there was not a single story here that I feel one could skip without regret. Everyone who wants to understand contemporary horror fiction needs to read this book. If you’re a critic, reviewer or scholar, you’ll most definitely want to own a copy.
The Living Dead is offered by small publisher Night Shade Books, which has been producing high-quality work in recent years. Lately I’m finding that I want to read almost every book it publishes, and I have a pile of its books vying for my attention. I’m glad Night Shade is out there.
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their arms that way, but they all did – I thought.John Joseph Adams, who has appeared on the reprint anthology scene with six reprint anthologies in the last two years (including Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse (post-apocalytic science fiction), Federations (about future intergalactic governments), and By Blood We Live (vampires), has chosen his material wisely in this collection of short stories about zombies by some of the biggest and best names in the horror business, as well as the newest and hottest. I resisted this book for a long time because I’ve never been fond of zombies, but upon diving in, I discovered that the zombies aren’t really the point; the point is to tell a good story. And these authors do that, with a vengeance.
My favorite story is “Almost the Last Story by Almost the Last Man” by Scott Edelman, a metafiction about a writer caught in the library when the zombie plague hits. He tries to tell the story of what has happened in several ways, meandering through several false starts, before he latches onto the notion of just telling the truth without any veneer of fiction. It doesn’t have an ending, exactly, because our author is still alive when we leave him, unable to write of his demise – he doesn’t know yet how the end will come. This Stoker-Award nominee is just flat out brilliant.
John Langan gives Edelman a run for his money in the only original tale in the anthology, “How the Day Runs Down.” This take on the classic play “Our Town,” written as a script narrated by the Stage Manager, will likely never be performed, but it brings vivid images to mind (particularly if you ever cried your eyes out watching your baby sister play the lead in the original). Langan is a remarkable new talent on the horror scene; I have yet to read anything he’s written without being bowled over. I can’t wait to read his first novel, House of Windows, due out next month from Night Shade Books.
“Death and Suffrage,” by Dale Bailey, will make anyone who has ever hailed from Chicago chuckle, as the dead line up to vote. Sherman Alexie’s “Ghost Dance,” which turned out to be the only story in The Living Dead that I’d read before, finally lets the Native Americans get their revenge on Custer. Susan Palwick looks at zombies from a completely different angle in “Beautiful Stuff,” portraying the dead as infinitely distractible beings with no malign intent – until one zombie shows signs of thinking for himself. Clive Barker contributes “Sex, Death and Starshine,” in which the dead seek only to continue doing what they loved doing in life, with a single-minded passion. Joe Hill, another fairly new horror writer who seems never to set a word in the wrong place, is represented by “Bobby Conroy Comes Back from the Dead,” something of an aberration in this anthology as it is about filming a zombie movie, rather than actual zombies, though it does speak – movingly – of the end of things.
There are 34 stories in this mammoth anthology, with contributions by almost every horror writer a regular reader of the fantastic will want to see: Dan Simmons, Kelly Link, Jeffrey Ford, Norman Partridge, Joe R. Lansdale, Neil Gaiman, George R.R. Martin, Poppy Z. Brite, Robert Silverberg and Harlan Ellison among them. Usually anthologies have a few throw-away stories, a few that just don’t work as well as the others do; one expects it, understanding that one’s own taste will not correspond 100% with the editor’s. But either John Joseph Adams had such a wealth of stories at his disposal or he and I are utterly simpatico, because there was not a single story here that I feel one could skip without regret. Everyone who wants to understand contemporary horror fiction needs to read this book. If you’re a critic, reviewer or scholar, you’ll most definitely want to own a copy.
The Living Dead is offered by small publisher Night Shade Books, which has been producing high-quality work in recent years. Lately I’m finding that I want to read almost every book it publishes, and I have a pile of its books vying for my attention. I’m glad Night Shade is out there.
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LibraryThing member CKmtl
I was pleasantly surprised to find that The Living Dead was not exclusively comprised of the usual zombie apocalypse type of stories. That isn't to say that they aren't there--they are, and they're quite good--but it's a nice change of pace to see how writers can use the undead element in a
There's an unfortunate cost to this variety, however. There were a couple of stories, namely Kelly Link's Some Zombie Contingency Plans and Joe Hill's Bobby Conroy Comes Back From The Dead, where the zombies seemed a bit too... incidental. Decent stories, but not what I was hoping for. Still, though, 2 out of 30+ isn't a bad miss rate.
I would have loved to have seen more stories with voodoo-style zombies, which appeared in Neil Gaiman's Bitter Grounds and Andy Duncan's Zora and The Zombie.
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different way.There's an unfortunate cost to this variety, however. There were a couple of stories, namely Kelly Link's Some Zombie Contingency Plans and Joe Hill's Bobby Conroy Comes Back From The Dead, where the zombies seemed a bit too... incidental. Decent stories, but not what I was hoping for. Still, though, 2 out of 30+ isn't a bad miss rate.
I would have loved to have seen more stories with voodoo-style zombies, which appeared in Neil Gaiman's Bitter Grounds and Andy Duncan's Zora and The Zombie.
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LibraryThing member GothicGuru13
Some excellent stories - a couple out of place stories with little connection with zombies in anything but theory, and a couple of sour notes - all in all a solid collection.
LibraryThing member wenzowsa
I had high hopes for this anthology, but I must admit that this book did not even come close to meeting my expectations.
Many of the stories I found to be contrived and "faux-edgy" (zombie sex, much?). There were a few stories that I actually enjoyed and wanted to reread, such as "Almost The Last
Get this book out of the library; don't purchase it!
Many of the stories I found to be contrived and "faux-edgy" (zombie sex, much?). There were a few stories that I actually enjoyed and wanted to reread, such as "Almost The Last
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Story By Almost The Last Man - Scott Edelman", "Home Delivery - Stephen King", and the one about zombie abortion activists (sorry, the name escapes me).These stories were well-written and contained a human element that were lacking in the other stories. Truthfully, I found to be mediocre at best, and poorly-written, dull, and absurd at worst. Get this book out of the library; don't purchase it!
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LibraryThing member Scoshie
For the most part the stories are an excellent read. There are a few that I found disturbing but over 90% of the book is extremely readable. Well worht the purchase
LibraryThing member eleanor_eader
I thoroughly enjoyed (and by thoroughly I mean every single selected story) Wastelands, a similar collection by the same editor, wherein the theme was more broadly apocalyptic. The Living Dead was not quite that strong a grouping, but there were some real gems. Zombies, as much as any other
I had read both the Stephen King story [Home Delivery] and the Joe Hill story [Bobby Conroy Comes Back from the Dead] in their own short story collections, the former being an example of one of King’s less memorable stories (and thus only of a slightly higher calibre than everything else in the book) and the Joe Hill story, while only about zombies in a cultural sort of way, is readable (there are far better examples of his storytelling in his collection 20th Century Ghosts, too).
Two of my favourite stories were, in my opinion, also the sweetest stories. Followed by Will McIntosh in which people are acquiring unshakeable zombie corpses in seemingly direct relation to moral degeneration in their lives, and the narrator is shocked and righteously indignant to find himself followed by a child’s corpse… the other, This Year’s Class Picture is by Dan Simmons. Having read The Terror by that author, I was expecting something much more brutal than a class teacher’s refusal to give up on the children in her care, even after their deaths. I was also quite chilled by Stockholm Syndrome by David Tallerman.
And yet the story I found the most frightening was one that has been decried by other reviewers as not really being about zombies at all… except that the principal character wants to discuss Some Zombie Contingency Plans with a girl whose house-party he crashes. The ending of that one was so unexpected it literally gave me goose bumps, despite (or perhaps because) the bulk of the story was rather repetitive and fell (quite cleverly, I suspect) only a little short of boring. There were plenty of others I enjoyed; 34 stories are a lot for me to remember individually, and I only shrugged my way through a couple.
My favourite story from the collection, though, was Sparks Fly Upward by Lisa Morton who used the zombie scenario to explore the incredibly cruel actions of people who besiege abortion clinics and harass the women who enter, while still telling a good zombie story. When I finished this story I had the strongest urge to applaud.
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end-of-the-world scenario, provide plenty of material for the philosophical, for levels of human interest, and for terrifying situations. Right up front I was interested to read the Poppy Z. Brite story, because I’ve always wanted to see if she’s as good a writer of chilling material as her fan base proclaims. Her contribution Calcutta, Lord of Nerves was exceptionally rich and lurid, and I now have a strong basis for picking up one of her novels.I had read both the Stephen King story [Home Delivery] and the Joe Hill story [Bobby Conroy Comes Back from the Dead] in their own short story collections, the former being an example of one of King’s less memorable stories (and thus only of a slightly higher calibre than everything else in the book) and the Joe Hill story, while only about zombies in a cultural sort of way, is readable (there are far better examples of his storytelling in his collection 20th Century Ghosts, too).
Two of my favourite stories were, in my opinion, also the sweetest stories. Followed by Will McIntosh in which people are acquiring unshakeable zombie corpses in seemingly direct relation to moral degeneration in their lives, and the narrator is shocked and righteously indignant to find himself followed by a child’s corpse… the other, This Year’s Class Picture is by Dan Simmons. Having read The Terror by that author, I was expecting something much more brutal than a class teacher’s refusal to give up on the children in her care, even after their deaths. I was also quite chilled by Stockholm Syndrome by David Tallerman.
And yet the story I found the most frightening was one that has been decried by other reviewers as not really being about zombies at all… except that the principal character wants to discuss Some Zombie Contingency Plans with a girl whose house-party he crashes. The ending of that one was so unexpected it literally gave me goose bumps, despite (or perhaps because) the bulk of the story was rather repetitive and fell (quite cleverly, I suspect) only a little short of boring. There were plenty of others I enjoyed; 34 stories are a lot for me to remember individually, and I only shrugged my way through a couple.
My favourite story from the collection, though, was Sparks Fly Upward by Lisa Morton who used the zombie scenario to explore the incredibly cruel actions of people who besiege abortion clinics and harass the women who enter, while still telling a good zombie story. When I finished this story I had the strongest urge to applaud.
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LibraryThing member Jammies
Ordinarily, this book would have gotten only two stars because of the ratio of stories that made me glad I'd bought the book to stories I hated or stories which I won't remember in a week.
The first story in the book, Dan Simmons's This Year's Class Picture set the bar high. It's got your basic
In Death and Suffrage, Dale Bailey gives us one look at politics and the dead, and in Beautiful Stuff, Susan Palwick has a different take on the same subject. Both stories are evocative and moving.
Lisa Morton's Sparks Fly Upward has a heroine in a heart-rending situation who nevertheless gets a measure of revenge that a lot of readers might have wanted.
Catherine Cheek's She's Taking Her T*ts to the Grave is an artful combination of gore, black humor and pathos.
And it should come as no surprise that The Last Song the Zombie Sang is brilliant in language, character and development, considering that it was written by Harlan Ellison and Roger Zelazny.
The first story in the book, Dan Simmons's This Year's Class Picture set the bar high. It's got your basic
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McGuyver-like adaptations to a broken society, high-tension moments and of course a zombie battle, but it's also got pathos and a bittersweet, heartstring-tugging ending.In Death and Suffrage, Dale Bailey gives us one look at politics and the dead, and in Beautiful Stuff, Susan Palwick has a different take on the same subject. Both stories are evocative and moving.
Lisa Morton's Sparks Fly Upward has a heroine in a heart-rending situation who nevertheless gets a measure of revenge that a lot of readers might have wanted.
Catherine Cheek's She's Taking Her T*ts to the Grave is an artful combination of gore, black humor and pathos.
And it should come as no surprise that The Last Song the Zombie Sang is brilliant in language, character and development, considering that it was written by Harlan Ellison and Roger Zelazny.
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LibraryThing member darkonelh3730
Took a few days, but i loved every story it contained. There are definitely some strange tales inside, with unique plots. Must-read for a zombie fan!
LibraryThing member sweetzombieducky
Really enjoyable anthology that delivered on zombies of all zombie-walks. As with all anthologies, there were a few misses but overall this was a great anthology and I came out of this with a few favourites:
"This Year's Class Picture" - the first story of the anthology is a great set-up. A teacher
"The Dead Kid" - A heart-breaking little story about a child zombie that stuck with me for a week.
"Prairie" - Short, believable, and gruesome.
"Home Delivery" - Stephen King's story combines my penchant for his Little Tall Island as a setting and also a female protagonist.
"Deadman's Road" - This old west story was just plain chilling. Compact cast of characters, backstory that evokes disgust for the zombie even before we meet him. I'm sorry that the author's "Dead In The West" isn't more widely available.
"Followed" - Original. I don't particularly enjoy stories in which the monster is implicitly a symbol for some human flaw, but the zombie taking the place of our conscience is effective.
"This Year's Class Picture" - the first story of the anthology is a great set-up. A teacher
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continues her life's work even after the world goes to Hell."The Dead Kid" - A heart-breaking little story about a child zombie that stuck with me for a week.
"Prairie" - Short, believable, and gruesome.
"Home Delivery" - Stephen King's story combines my penchant for his Little Tall Island as a setting and also a female protagonist.
"Deadman's Road" - This old west story was just plain chilling. Compact cast of characters, backstory that evokes disgust for the zombie even before we meet him. I'm sorry that the author's "Dead In The West" isn't more widely available.
"Followed" - Original. I don't particularly enjoy stories in which the monster is implicitly a symbol for some human flaw, but the zombie taking the place of our conscience is effective.
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LibraryThing member JenelleB
I'm going to look into other compilations by this editor. He made some excellent choices.
Pages
486