The Living Dead
edited by John Joseph Adams
From White Zombie to Dawn of the Dead, from Resident Evil to World War Z, zombies have invaded popular culture, becoming the monsters that best express the fears and anxieties of the modern west. The ultimate consumers, zombies rise from the dead and feed upon the living, their teeming masses ever hungry, ever seeking to devour or convert, like mindless, faceless eating machines. Zombies have been depicted as mind-controlled minions, the shambling infected, the disintegrating dead, the ultimate lumpenproletariat, but in all cases, they reflect us, mere mortals afraid of death in a society on the verge of collapse.
Gathering together the best zombie literature of the last three decades from many of today’s most renowned authors of fantasy, speculative fiction, and horror, including Stephen King, Harlan Ellison®, Robert Silverberg, George R. R. Martin, Clive Barker, Poppy Z. Brite, Neil Gaiman, Joe Hill, Laurell K. Hamilton, and Joe R. Lansdale, The Living Dead, covers the broad spectrum of zombie fiction, ranging from Romero-style zombies to reanimated corpses to voodoo zombies and beyond.
Awards
- World Fantasy Award finalist
Praise for The Living Dead
The Living Dead contains stories of heartbreak, drama, and man’s eternal struggle against himself. The focus doesn’t fall squarely on violence and horror, which earns it a place among the best of zombie fiction. The Living Dead is not a book to be ignored; it demands a read through—maybe a couple.
—Robert Kirkman, writer of The Walking Dead
YOU NEED THIS BOOK! As terrific a short story collection as I’ve ever encountered, The Living Dead gathers together 34 of the cleverest, creepiest and most brain-freezing zombie tales. These are not your grandpa’s Late Late Show walking dead, either, but direct descendants of the modern post-Romero gut-ripping, intestine-crunching undead hordes. A collection to die for—or with.
—Joe Dante, award-winning director of Gremlins, The Howling, and Homecoming
A superb reprint anthology that runs the gamut of zombie stories. […] There’s some great storytelling for zombie fans as well as newcomers. [named one of Publishers Weekly‘s best books of 2008]
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
The best collection of zombie stories ever.
—Paul Goat Allen, Barnes & Noble
Editor Adams does a remarkable job of collecting a sampling of variations on this theme. […] Highly recommended for all horror fiction collections.
—Library Journal
To call this volume anything other than must have would be selling it short, the stories range a great number of years and capture many unique voices on one of the seminal images and iconic characters of Horror fiction and is something I know I’ll be pulling down every Halloween. This impressive, massive anthology would make a great gift to give by the light of the Jack o’ Lantern.
—SFF World