Zombies

The Recent Dead

By: Neil Gaiman, Max Brooks, Brian Keene, Tobias S. Buckell, Kelly Link, Tim Lebbon, Kit Reed

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, L J Ganser, Josh Hurley, Bahni Turpin, Marc Vietor

Length: 20 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

You can't kill the dead! Like any good monster, the zombie has proven to be ever-evolving, monumentally mutable, and open to seemingly endless imaginative interpretations: the thralls of voodoo sorcerers, George Romero's living dead, societal symbols, dancing thrillers, viral victims, reanimated ramblers, video-gaming targets, post-apocalyptic permutations, shuffling sidekicks, literary mash-ups, the comedic, and, yes, even the romantic.

Evidently, we have an enduring hunger for this infinite onslaught of the ever-hungry dead. Hoards of readers and listeners are now devouring zombie fiction faster than armies of the undead could chow down their brains. It's a sick job, but somebody had to do it: explore the innumerable necrotic nightmares of the latest, greatest, most fervent devotion in the history of humankind and ferret out the best of new millenial zombie stories: Zombies: The Recent Dead.

Full author list: Kevin Veale, Michael Marshall Smith, Tim Lebbon, David Prill, Steve Duffy, Max Brooks, Nik Houser, Andy Duncan, David J. Schow, Joe R. Lansdale, Neil Gaiman, Alice Sola Kim, Gary A. Braunbeck, Francesca Lia Block, Tobias S. Buckell, David Wellington, Tim Waggoner, Kit Reed, Brian Keene, Kelly Link, Gary McMahon, and Scott Edelman.

Full narrator list: Jonathan Davis, LJ Ganser, Victor Villar-Hauser, Marc Vietor, Josh Hurley, Bahni Turpin, Jeff Woodman, Elisabeth Rodgers, Edoardo Ballerini, Suzanne Toren, Kevin Pariseau, Khristine Hvam, Josh Hurley, and Jeff Woodman.

©2010 Paula Guran (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Unique zombie stories

While some of the stories did drag, a majority of them present zombies in ways not overused in other books, TV shows, or movies.

Not Terrible

Loved the diversity of stories, but some stories were lacking. Performances were more than adequate and "Livened" the most dreary stories.

dont do drugs, people

20 minutes in and the lack of context is too blatant. I've read other niel gaiman books without a problem, but this starts like a bad ripoff of fear and loathing plus zombies. Not sure I can struggle to listen to 20 hours of this.

Multiple zombie genres - weak storytelling

For those who get bored of the constant Romero-Esq story lines this is probably the audiobook for you. The performance and narration was well done as much as the story line would allow for it (assuming read in scarey zombie voice was in their scripts). There were a multitude of zombie type plots - Haitian Zombies, Beautiful Zombies, Zombie High School drama, Zombie love stories etc. This however did not fulfill my Zombie fiction craving.

"Twisted" by Kevin Veale, the first story in the collection did offer an interesting twist without sacrificing the story. I liked the idea that Zombies hunted us via our brain waves and one could allude detection by remaining incredibly intoxicated. The forced intoxication of others made this story all the more unsettling. I'll be looking for more work by this author.

Not my first time plowing through it, not my last

This collection features several home runs, loads of strikeouts, and a few base hits.
Too many of the stories are liberal in their use of "zombie", but are good enough in their own right. Most of the stories, in fact, are arguably not about zombies, but about undead and ghouls, but not zombies. I know I'm splitting hairs, but that's all I can think when I read it.
Standout stories include The Zombie Prince, the Last Supper, and Dead Man's Land.

Challenge to finish

Any additional comments?

I like Zombies. I like Short Stories. Zombie short stories? Sure, why not? Yeah, I picked this book up because I love zombie/post apocalyptic novels and feel that sometimes all you need is a short concise story. I wanted to like it, but......

This book lurked in my list for a long time. I would read a story (I really only found one I tolerated) and then put it off to the side, coming back every so often to bite a small chunk off, get bored and then put it aside again. So I would say I slogged through this book. And this is short story compilation, it shouldn't be like this, where every bite was just not satisfying, but it was. But I rarely give up (from determination or hope, but I rarely quit anything once I started it, be it real life or reading) so I finally finished it (3 months later!).

I will say that the last story was one of the best, so it didn't finish on a truly sour note. But the best thing about this book? That I don't feel compelled to read it any more.

It's OK

I really struggled to finish this. Some of the stories were absolutely fantastic! Some of them were incredibly boring and lackluster.

Avoid.

Too many of the stories here are poor time wasters that sadly eclipse the few stories that are decent.

It just ended.

This book was not for because, I don't like when stories just end, without actually endin. All the stories in this book where like that. A few ended enough that it wasn't so bad.
I now own this book and it's one that I'll never listen to again; I try not to read reviews because some people don't know how to add SPOILER ALERT to them, and in this case I wish I would've.

Just OK

What disappointed you about Zombies?

Many of the stories are not about zombies, they are zombie-ish.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Mostly apathy, I drive alot so I just sat through most of the stories.

Any additional comments?

There were a few good stories and a few good narrators but they never seemed to come together.