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.
"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 your typical Zombies"
The first story is about everyone having to take massive amounts of drugs to keep the zombies from attaching you. The harder the drug the better, meth is better than pot. Tommy Lee and Ozzy Osborn are the President of the US. While the idea for the story may have sounded good in between bong hits the author was unable to pull it off. It is not that I am against drugs or I have it in for Ozzy, (Black Sabbath is my favorite band) it’s that the story was boring and made no sense.
The sad part is the stories get worst as the book goes on. At least the first story was about “zombies”. Many of the stories I do not even consider to be zombie stories. If you like stories about Zombies dating each other, how it is hard being a teenage zombie, falling in love with and having sex with a high school Zombie girl, then this may be a book for you. If it wasn’t for the hard “R” sex parts I would say this would be a good book for teens.
Even a World War Z story by Max Brookes couldn’t save this book.
The narrators read the stories in one voice. While not bad I am spoiled by the range of voices many narrators have.
Computer Geek
"Challenge to finish"
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.
"Not all zombies stories are fun to listen to."
Since this book has several authors. I would look for addition books on the authors I liked and stay away from the one I did not liked.
Several stories were too silly and not interesting to listen to.
All narrators brought the books alive. Too bad half the stories suck!
Not into supernatural were you need to go demonic to make your book beliveible.
I was suckered to buy this auible because it had Max Brooks name on it.
"What a p.o.s"
I have hundreds of audiobooks. I bought this book assuming it would be zombie stories. Such as the morning star strain, world war z, day by day armageddon, tooth and nail etc etc. Something at least along those lines. This is by far the most boring garbage ive ever had the displeasure of trying to listen too.I really tried with the first 3 stories. Then I found myself skipping through each story 4 minutes into it.If your into action, this is not for you. If you need something to help you fall asleep this is a winner. I think this book was along the lines of "zombies are popular, lets toss this turd together and cash in"
"Not worth a credit or a single dollar"
I'm a fan of all types of audiobooks from any genre. I enjoyed three of these short stories, two of which were not what I would call zombie stories. Save your credits and get anything else I mean anything.
"Bad listen"
I bought this after seeing some pretty good authors had written stories. Overall I was extremely disappointed. You would expect stories in a zombie anthology to be about zombies, but in most nothing happens.
I think the authors were saving any good ideas they had for other works. After purchasing almost every zombie title on audible I can honestly say this is the worst one here. I could not finish it. My advice is to pass on this one.
"Not Realy Zombie storys"
The storys were ok.... some of them... but some of them weren't realy Zombie storys they had very little to do with zombies my advice get world war Z with your credit it is much better
"Just OK"
Many of the stories are not about zombies, they are zombie-ish.
Mostly apathy, I drive alot so I just sat through most of the stories.
There were a few good stories and a few good narrators but they never seemed to come together.
"Not Happy"
I don't like short stories. Short stories made to look like a novel. Someone different reading each story.