Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Review: The Anthology of the Living Dead

Ed. J. Travis Grundon & L. B. Goddard, Black Bed Sheet Publishers, 2009


Boasting the by-line 'Forrest J. Ackerman Presents', and featuring a dreadfully pun-filled introduction by the late genre-fandom personality (which neither 'sells' nor detracts from the publication, in my opinion, though fans of 'Uncle Forry' may beg to differ), The Anthology of the Living Dead is an oddly mixed bag of zombie-themed short fiction, featuring some of the very best zomfic I've ever read on the one hand, along with several unutterably ordinary entries on the other. Fortunately, the brilliance of the former outweighs the 'drag' of the latter, making this an above-average zomthology, and definitely one worth reading.

Standouts amongst the standouts include 'Whimper', by Scott Lefebvre, 'Her Wound', by Dave Lounsbury, 'A Hiccup. A Remedy', by Joe Moe, 'Icy Dead People', by Jeremy Boland, and 'Braindead', by Sean Douglas, and it's no coincidence that all of the aformentioned venture into teritory previously uncharted by zompocalyptic fiction.

A strong entry into the subgenre; l look forward to seeing more from this editorial team.

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