21st Century Dead

A Zombie Anthology

De: Christopher Golden - editor, Amber Benson, S. G. Browne, Chelsea Cain, Orson Scott Card, Dan Chaon, Simon R. Greene, Brian Keene, Caitlin Kittredge, Jonathan Maberry

Narrado por: Scott Brick, Cassandra Campbell, Bernadette Dunne, Richard Powers, Kirby Heyborne, Malcolm Hillgartner, Chris Patton, John Pruden, Renée Raudman, Stefan Rudnicki

The Stoker Award-winning editor of the acclaimed, eclectic anthology The New Dead returns with 21st Century Dead and an all-new lineup of authors from every corner of the fiction world, shining a dark light on our fascination with tales of death and resurrection - and with zombies!

The stellar stories in this volume include a tale set in the world of Daniel H. Wilson’s Robopocalypse, the first published fiction by Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter, and a tale of love, family, and resurrection from the legendary Orson Scott Card. This new volume also includes stories from other award-winning and New York Times best-selling authors, such as Simon R. Green, Chelsea Cain, Jonathan Maberry, Duane Swiercyznski, Caitlin Kittredge, Brian Keene, Amber Benson, John Skipp, S. G. Browne, Thomas E. Sniegoski, Hollywood screenwriter Stephen Susco, National Book Award nominee Dan Chaon, and others.

The complete list of narrators includes Scott Brick, Cassandra Campbell, Bernadette Dunne, Paul Michael Garcia, Kirby Heyborne, Malcolm Hillgartner, Chris Patton, John Pruden, Renée Raudman, Stefan Rudnicki, Sean Runnette, Simon Vance, and Tom Weiner.

"Zombies Are Good for You: An Introduction" © 2012 by Christopher Golden. "Biters" © 2012 by Mark Morris. "Why Mothers Let Their Babies Watch Television: A Just-So Horror Story" © 2012 by Verite, Inc. "Carousel" © 2012 by Orson Scott Card. "Reality Bites" © 2012 by S. G. Browne. "The Drop" © 2012 by Stephen Susco. "Antiparallelogram" © 2012 by Amber Benson. "How We Escaped Our Certain Fate" © 2012 by Dan Chaon. "A Mother’s Love" © 2012 by John M. McIlveen. "Down and Out in Dead Town" © 2012 by Simon R. Green. "Devil Dust" © 2012 by Caitlin Kittredge. "The Dead of Dromore" © 2012 by Ken Bruen. "All the Comforts of Home: A Beacon Story" © 2012 by John Skipp and Cody Goodfellow. "Ghost Dog & Pup: Stay" © 2012 by Thomas E. Sniegoski. "Tic Boom: A Slice of Love" © 2012 by Mad/Doll, Inc. "Jack and Jill" © 2012 by Jonathan Maberry. "Tender as Teeth" © 2012 by Stephanie Crawford and Duane Swierczynski. "Couch Potato" © 2012 by Brian Keene. "The Happy Bird and Other Tales" © 2012 by Rio Youers. "Parasite" © 2012 by Daniel H. Wilson.

©2012 Christopher Golden (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Not what I expected

If you're a zombie story lover, this isn't the book for you. There are only a few real zombie stories included in this compilation. The rest are dystopian sci-fi tales with a mere mention of "dead" people. Disappointed.

Ghost Dog and Pup amazing story!

This was an interesting take on the zombie stories. My favorite was Ghost Dog and Pup. Love dogs and zombie stories, this was a win, win! Wish someone could make a movie out of it.

The good, the bad and the ugly...

I love science fiction and I love zombies. So I am a sucker for this sort of thing and will always purchase such an anthology... But, unfortunately, like a lot of average, not well thought out anthologies, this is a very, very mixed bag.

The introduction tries to put the choice of stories in a context and tie them together, talking about why zombies are so popular in science fiction/horror these days, and based on that it is almost plausible as a thought out compilation, until you have hear a few and realize that there wasn't a lot of thought or screening or discernment put into the selection.

Some are good, some are really bad and some make me wonder how they ever got published. There is a story about a ghost dog and his owner boy, which is anot a bad story (though not great) but it is erally a stretch to see how it is a zombie story at all, thus disproving the premise of a well thought through, connected and crafted compilation of zombie fiction. I believe this book was really just a way to get a group of stories together, most of which are zombie focused but which vary drastically in quality, in order to create and sell a book.

As I said, there are a few fun stories here - that are well written, well performed, fairly original, sometimes funny, sometimes clever, sometimes moving... but these really are the minority. The rest is pretty average or pretty bad stuff... Also, buyer beware, many are not approprite for a younger audience.

The performances, for the most part, are not bad, some are quite good. Scott Brick, of whom I am not a fan, was intolerable to me and in typical fashion was overly dramatic, over the top and completely trumped the story with a performance I am certain was not in keeping with the author's intent, was a major distraction, and made what seemed to be a decent story completely intolerable. But that is me (and many others actually if you google this guy) and I know he has a big fan base, so if you are a fan, this won't bother you. On the whole, aside from that one narrator, the narrators do a pretty good job in my opinion.

Overall, I think I would just say that this is just a random pick and mix bag of stories roughly and loosely connected, and since there really wasn't a lot of thought put into assmbling a top notch mix around a theme, you get a very varied mixture in terms of quality and creativity and originality and even in terms of fit to the defining theme... Some of the stories are worth a listen, some you really should avoid, and some you probably won't even realize when they are over as you became distracted very easily...

There are many better zombie fiction works out there... lots of them, and far better science fiction/horror anthologies. So I would encourage people to look around at options before buying this one. However, if you are like me and have probably already listened to all of these, it isn't the worst, but lower your expectations a bit... Not great but not a complete waste, a very mixed selection.

the ghost dog story is stupid.

good stories, well read.
the ghost dog story is awful.
it was more like a creepy pasta than a proper short story by an actual author.
just my opinion.

Really great collection!!

Get this. You will not be disappointed with the variety of creative and sometimes touching stories. Some are bleak, some are horrifying, but all are interesting. We definitely need more of these. Enjoy! 😊