The New Dead

Starred review from December 14, 2009
The 19 provocative, haunting, and genuinely unsettling original stories in this zombie anthology move the genre beyond its usual apocalyptic wastelands. David Liss’s novelette “What Maisie Knew” is a stunning and gruesome meditation on the banality of capitalism and evil. Mike Carey’s “Second Wind” is a haunting tale of an undead stockbroker who comes to question whether he ever truly lived. Lovers of more traditional zombie fare will also not be disappointed. Joe Hill’s ingenious “Twittering from the Circus of the Dead” tells a classic slasher film story through Twitter posts, while Jonathan Maberry’s heartbreaking “Family Business” describes a ruined America populated by kindly monks and zombie hunters. This powerful anthology shines a bright and unflinching light on the fears of death, decay, and loss that underpin America’s longstanding obsession with the undead.

October 12, 2009
As with the living dead themselves, the reading public's appetite for zombies seems insatiable. This anthology covers some ground that wasn't tackled in The Living Dead (edited by John Joseph Adams), but not much. A few tales stand out, especially Jonathan Maberry's heartbreaking "Family Business" and Joe Hill's Blair Witch-ean "Twittering from the Circus of the Dead." Verdict Here come the New Dead, same as the Old Dead. Zombie fans will likely read it, but it's not essential.

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2010
The best-selling popularity of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2009) and the hit status of the movie Zombieland show that the living-dead subgenre still has legs. Zombie anthologies are invariably of varying quality, and this new one, curated by fantasy author Golden, is no exception. The best stories in it depart from the basic formula of living versus dead so familiar to zombiephiles. Among them are Rick Hautalas nautical horror story, Ghost Trap, in which a gruesome discovery at the bottom of the sea awakens a long sleeping plague; David Wellingtons Weaponized, in which an undercover reporter investigates a mysterious new branch of the U.S. military; and Joe R. Lansdales grisly Shooting Pool, in which a hustlers murder transforms the lives of a gang of teenagers. Meanwhile, those anticipating the promised movie adaptation of Max Brooks World War Z (2006) will flock to his Closure LTD, set in the same milieu. Not every story heres a success (a disastrous Twitter-format experiment may be the worst), but genre fans will still find plenty to satisfy them.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)