Kim Paffenroth

The first part of the book is kind of annoyingly over descriptive and I don't really like the first person POV of this book, but the story was good and the characters are pretty likeable. It is a bit overly pessimistic, though. Slight SPOILER: there is a conflict with a large group of prisoners, and I have a hard time believing, that if it were real life and you found such a large group of them as in this book, that they would be as evil and depraved as in this situation. But hey, it's just a story. In spite of the negatives, I think I will continue reading the series.… (mehr)

A slightly-below-average collection of short stories about the undead. I am disappointed that I did not like it, as the premise of the book was intriguing. The stories try to introduce zombies into a number of historical events – an offshoot of the bubonic plague, the cause of the Great Fire of Chicago, the inspiration for Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, etc. – and consequently the efforts are rather creative, and this should be commended.

Unfortunately, many of the ideas fall flat or lack the proper execution, and most of them I've already forgotten. 'Junebug' was the only one which I considered genuinely disturbing (and it wasn't the zombies in that story that provide the horror). 'The Anatomy Lesson' and 'A Touch of the Divine' were good stories, and there were others for which I appreciated the creativity and the ambition if not the finished story itself. 'Theatre is Dead', which sees a Shakespeare play go horribly wrong, and 'Society and Sickness', a sort of Pride and Prejudice parody in which a young woman's parents bemoan the rise of the undead as it decreases the number of eligible suitors for their daughter, both fall into this category. Overall, I don't regret reading this anthology but it didn't impress me either.… (mehr)

This tale begins several years after the zombie apocalypse. The survivors are forced to live on islands and on boats surrounded by the ocean, the only thing that seperates them from the monsters. But all the "treasures" of humanity are trapped on the mainland with the zombies.
The story follows Ridley, a young man looking for adventure. He finds himself on the Hyperion, a boat that travels up the coast line, scavenging for left-behind possession's surrounded by the dangerous zombies. The captain of the ship also has his own agenda as he searches for a rumored "smart" zombie. Reminiscent of Moby Dick, as Ridley could be Ishmael and clearly Captain Jacob mirroring Ahabs dangerous quest. I enjoyed this book and it kept me completely enthralled, so much so that I failed to notice the giant spider that crawled on to my stomach....perhaps the test of a great novel? :}… (mehr)