Week of October 17th, 2012
By Michael Donner
Title: “21st Century Dead: A Zombie Anthology”
Author: Christopher Golden (Editor)
Pages: 352
Publication Date: July 17th 2012
Basic Plot: The Stoker-award winning editor of the acclaimed, eclectic anthology The New Dead returns with 21st Century Dead, and an all-new lineup of authors from all corners of the fiction world, shining a dark light on our fascination with tales of death and resurrection… with ZOMBIES! The stellar stories in this volume includes a tale set in the world of Daniel H. Wilson’s Robopocalypse, the first published fiction by Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter, and a tale of love, family, and resurrection from the legendary Orson Scott Card. This new volume also includes stories also from other award-winning and New York Times bestselling authors, such as: Simon R. Green, Chelsea Cain, Jonathan Maberry, Duane Swiercyznski, Caitlin Kittredge, Brian Keene, Amber Benson, John Skipp, S. G. Browne, Thomas E. Sniegoski, Hollywood screenwriter Stephen Susco, National Book Award nominee Dan Chaon, and more!
My likes/dislikes: OK so I have been reading these types of anthologies for years now and I have to say the most recent ones that are supposed zombie collects are really hit and miss. This one is no exception. There are some great stories in here and then there are some not so great ones. Some of the good include Sutters “Tic Boom: A Slice of Love” , Wilson’s “Parasite” which takes place in the world of his “Robopocolypse” as well as Jonathans Maberry’s “jack and Jill” which is set in the same world as his “Dead of Night” novel. But the big problem is that many of the stories don’t even have zombies. This includes Wilson’s. Unless you have broadly redefined what it means to be a zombie, even more so than we have here at the Creepercast.
Whats great about these books is a chance to read works by authors you may not normally read and may lead you to read more of their stuff. Of course there is no guarantee that you will like the stuff they write but it’s a better alternative to buying a whole book and finding out you don’t like it ¼ of the way through.
I also like that not all of these stories have a happy ending. Yeah I know we are supposed to root for the heroes to live and survive the zombie apocalypse but it’s a nice change when it doesn’t always happen.
Did I mention not all the stories have zombies in them? Anyway this is a decent read but I am glad I got it from the local library.
My score: 3 out of 5
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