Customer Reviews

Living Dead 2

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A nice variety of stories ranging from you shoot-em to your love story. Some highlights were Danger Word, The Skull Face City and Rapeworm. The book consisted of 44 short stories ranging from 1 page to 20 pages with the majority being around 8-10 pages. It's a great book to have on the nightstand for reading a story before bedtime.

The popularity of zombies is undeniable given the raft of books, films and now an AMC television series. And my own enjoyment of the zombie genre is a bit of a mystery (more so to my wife though). That is why I like the introduction by John Joseph Adams who states these reasons for the popularity, zombies are:

- an enemy that used to be us, that we can become at any time;
- a canvas writers can use to comment on almost anything;
- a morality-free way to fulfill a world-destruction fantasy; and
- a monster that remains scary and cannot be easily romanticized.

I would add that much of my own fascination is based on how I think I would do in a zombie-infested world. Would I survive?, would I survive with honor?, would I be a leader?, and what would I gain or lost of my own humanity? Deep huh? In actuality, I just love these books as thrilling escapes. And I applaud this collection which is stronger than Volume One.

Standouts for me included: Kirkman's Alone Together which has a forlorn twist, Barnes & Due's Danger Word that explores loyalty, Wellington's Good People that provides fun formula, Keene's Lost Canyon of the Dead that could have been co-written with Douglas Preston, Brooks' Steve and Fred which explores heroism versus survival, Fingerman's The Summer Place features a lead character one can empathize with, Edelman explores an anti-terrorism angle in The Human Race, and McAuley's The Thought War will get you thinking.

The editor provides interesting information on each contributor along with a thoughtful introduction to each story. I found this helpful as it provides other titles from these authors to seek out. Definitely great entertainment overall and practically speaking a solid value for the dollar as there over forty stories. I am looking forward to Volume Three.