The New Dead: A Zombie Anthology

Starred Review. 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. (Feb.)
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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 Hautala’s nautical horror story, “Ghost Trap,” in which a gruesome discovery at the bottom of the sea awakens a long sleeping plague; David Wellington’s “Weaponized,” in which an undercover reporter investigates a mysterious new branch of the U.S. military; and Joe R. Lansdale’s grisly “Shooting Pool,” in which a hustler’s murder transforms the lives of a gang of teenagers. Meanwhile, those anticipating the promised movie adaptation of Max Brook’s World War Z (2006) will flock to his “Closure LTD,” set in the same milieu. Not every story here’s a success (a disastrous Twitter-format experiment may be the worst), but genre fans will still find plenty to satisfy them. --Carlos Orellana