Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Review: Zombies: Encounters with the Hungry Dead

Ed. John Skipp, Black Dog & Leventhal, 2009


Zombies, edited by zombie supremo John Skipp (who co-edited the groundbreaking collection The Book of the Dead back in 1989, at a time when zombie fiction was still largely considered the poor cousin of splatterpunk), is a collection of 27 of the very best zombie-themed short stories of all time, and a definite must-have for any zombie afficianado. This is despite the fact that the bulk of tales herein may already be familliar to zombie fans, having previously been reprinted in some of Skipp's own earlier anthologies, as well as in more recent publications such as John Joseph Adams' The Living Dead.

Zombies includes a great mix of old and new tales, featuring zombies of all persuasions and inclinations, and boasts such contributors as William Seabrook, Stephen King, Poppy Z. Brite, Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, Neil Gaiman, and many more 'big name' writers. Skipp has also included a couple of informative essays as appendices to the anthology, 'Zombie Roots: A Historical Perspective' (by Christopher Kampe and Anthony Gambole), and 'They're Us and We're Them: Zombies in Popular Culture' (by Skipp and Cody Goodfellow).

Buy it, own it, love it. And perhaps the best news for Autralian deadheads is that Zombies, unlike so many other related publications, actually has a local distributor (Scribo Books), so your local bookseller can order this tome for you if it's not already sitting on the shelf.

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