Best Living Dead Novels?

[3pidemiC]

Hey,

I'm sure that this sort of thing has been discussed before, but I've been hankering for some new books and I was just wondering if you all could make some recommendations for me. Here is what I've already read so far:

Zombie Survival Guide
World War Z
Walking Dead Graphic Novels
The Rising
City of the Dead
Reign of the Dead


Thanks!

[ProfessorChaos]

check out "book of the dead" and "still dead", anthologies edited by john skipp and craig spector.

skipp also went on to edit the anthology "mondo zombie"

i own all three and break them out from time to time to reread some of the stories. worth the price for any true romero dead films fan.

[SRP76]

Get Dead City by Joe McKinney. It's very good, and, although it has some quirks, it's pretty much "traditional". No outrageous "spins on the genre".

You may hear a lot of hype about The Missing, by Sarah Langan, but it, in my opinion, sucks. If you're into books that make you read 200 pages before anything happens, you may like it. Not that it actually gets any better once it "picks up".

[capncnut]

Abaddon Books have a series called Tomes Of The Dead that I think is pretty cool. The Words Of Their Roaring by Matthew Smith was awesome.

http://www.abaddonbooks.com/ (http://www.abaddonbooks.com/)

[rightwing401]

You can always try dead city. It's an average level zombie story, decent enough as long as you don't ponder too many questions.
Such as...
*How do a few hundred zombies multiply into over 700,000 in about 6-9 hour period.
*How do hundreds of zombies manage to hide long enough to sneak up on the main character no matter where he goes.
*How does said hero jump out of a three story window, nearly break his leg, and can do olympic worthy sprinting less than thirty minutes later.
*And how a hand full of gang members can hold off hundreds of zombies with automatic assault rifles, but hundreds of cops with far more guns and better shooting get overrun in just a few hours.

If you don't ponder on those questions, I'm sure you could enjoy it.

[Craig]

Day by Day Armageddon I finished in one day... definitely a page turner for me. I also enjoyed Plague of the Dead a lot as well. Of course there's the genre staples like WWZ and ZSG as well :D

[AcesandEights]

Ok, for my money, some of the best books are the first two Monster books by David Wellington: Monster Island and Monster Nation. Even the third book, as yet unpublished, but available to read online was alright.

I find the books pretty well written, with some good twists and turns and some great characterization.

One possible negative brought up about the books has to do with the outbreaks' origin and some of the seeming outliers:

I'm talking here about the technocratic magick and hoodoo that opens that rift in the universe and the bog mummy and egyptian mummies. I've even seen some people who had just read the first book and were under the assumption that Mael--the bog mummy--and his god caused the outbreak :rolleyes:

Anyway, there is plenty of good books out there and a lot of it has to do with personal taste.

[ZombieGrrL]

Great thread!

Dead Sea also by Brian Keene is an excellent traditional zombie book. Really enjoyed that one!

Monster Island & Monster Nation (which I'm in the middle of) by David Wellington are pretty good too. I've got, and have yet to read Monster Planet by the same author, from the first two novels I think that will also be a good read.

Last but not least, Return Of The Living Dead by John Russo is also a good read. It expands the movie (small yet insignificant differences).

[AcesandEights]

Monster Island & Monster Nation (which I'm in the middle of) by David Wellington are pretty good too. I've got, and have yet to read Monster Planet by the same author, from the first two novels I think that will also be a good read.


D'oh! I just mentioned above that the third book wasn't in print yet. I'm glad it made it out onto the shelves--looks like I'll be able to read it again without being hunched over my monitor in the wee hours of the am.

Let us know how you like the third book, by the way. I found it weaker than the two previous efforts, but decent, especially since it is linked to all the good content that precedes it.

[ZombieGrrL]

D'oh! I just mentioned above that the third book wasn't in print yet. I'm glad it made it out onto the shelves--looks like I'll be able to read it again without being hunched over my monitor in the wee hours of the am.

Let us know how you like the third book, by the way. I found it weaker than the two previous efforts, but decent, especially since it is linked to all the good content that precedes it.Hehehe. I think (the printed version) is pretty new because when I bought it I hadn't seen it before. I know what you mean too, I hate reading books on the computer, I would rather have the paperback or hardback in my hands!

Thanks for the headsup about the 3rd book. I had a feeling it might be. I'm enjoying the 2nd book more than the first book.

[Cartma7546]

I frequently read zombie fiction and here are some of my personal favs...
1.Down the road series
2.Reign of the dead series
3. The rising
4. The Dead.
5. Monster Island
6. Walking dead

Damn couldn't make it to ten

[DjfunkmasterG]

I guess I am the only here who didn't care for World War Z. I honestly thought it sucked. I had it for a while then finally cracked it open, then it just became boring, too much interview style story telling in regards to the zombie apocalypse.

The two best in my opinion are: The Rising and City of the Dead.

[capncnut]

I guess I am the only here who didn't care for World War Z. I honestly thought it sucked.
Nope DJ, I am with you. I thought it was the biggest load of dog's cock I have ever read.

[ZombieGrrL]

I guess I am the only here who didn't care for World War Z.Personally, even though it was a great book, I thought the a lot of parts of WWZ was boring unfortunately due to all the political & military things, but I guess they had to be there. There were some gripping parts, such as the (Japanese?) man who had to climb down a high story apartment & the military combats against Zed.

[SRP76]

I liked the "boring interviews" of World War Z a lot better than the stupid "I am Ob the Obot" crap that Keene's books are about. I hated those. His Dead Sea was good, though. Thankfully, he dropped the "possessed bodies" thing for that one.

[ZombieGrrL]

I liked the "boring interviews" of World War Z a lot better than the stupid "I am Ob the Obot" crap that Keene's books are about. I hated those. His Dead Sea was good, though. Thankfully, he dropped the "possessed bodies" thing for that one.I know that it's probably hard to come up with a zombie book that has something "different" in it. But I prefer the traditional zombie books.

David Wellington's "Monster" books have traditional zombies but also have a similar "supernatural" theme to Brian Keene's books. I just finished Monster Nation and it's my favourite so far, as it deals with the start of the epidemic.

Really loved Dead Sea, highly recommend it. I read it after City Of The Dead & it was nice to have an old fashioned zombie novel to lose myself in.

[bd2999]

I liked the "boring interviews" of World War Z a lot better than the stupid "I am Ob the Obot" crap that Keene's books are about. I hated those. His Dead Sea was good, though. Thankfully, he dropped the "possessed bodies" thing for that one

Eh, I thought that both of them were good. The whole possessed bodies was an interesting take on it, and I still liked the interviews in WW Z. I think alot of the initial interviews, at are likely to be the boring ones, are very interesting because they are the ones that give you a clue as to why things went to Hell so fast with political rangling and lies and such running amock everywhere. I can see how the interview style could get old and be somewhat hard to read at times, but to be honest I think he holds really true to Romero overall compared to other books, although he does have it being a virus, but that is sort of understated in the WW Z book I believe.

[dirtydwarf]

A book Called The Dead by some guy named Steve Somthing-or-other. Was basically Brian Keene's The Rising long before Briane Keene wrote The Rising. Better though IMOHO.

[SRP76]

Just got done with Dying to Live, by Kim Paffenroth. Thumbs up. Very short, though (only 190 pages).