If the success of AMC's The Walking Dead proves anything it's that zombies are ready for prime time. If the taste of televised zombies whets your appetite, where do you go for more? Consider this simple fact: the menu of zombie choices on TV is slim, but literature offers a scrumptious, all-the-brains-you-can-eat buffet!
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But first, a point of clarification. Despite what you may have heard, zombie fiction is not a fad. It's been around for decades and will be around for decades more. Furthermore, zombie stories are not necessarily rehashes of what's been done before. The biggest barrier I've ever heard cited as the reason people avoid zombie fiction is because they've seen the same story a dozen times in film. While it's true that many zombie films basically feature a small group trying to survive the zombie plague, zombie fiction offers so much more. Use this handy guide to determine which zombie stories might be more your speed.
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There's no better way to prove that there's a wide variety of zombie fiction than by reading a few zombie short stories. In the time it takes you to read one zombie novel, you can be exposed to a much wider range of authors and ideas and see how zombification can be an excellent generator of diverse stories.
If a great start down the road to zombie fiction would be a short fiction anthology, then an excellent first step would be The Living Dead or The Living Dead 2, two hefty and worthwhile volumes edited by John Joseph Adams featuring a stellar cast of writers. Plenty of other anthologies brag impressive rosters of contributing authors, too, like those edited by Holly Black & Justine Larbalestier (Zombies Vs. Unicorns), Christopher Golden (The New Dead), Paula Guran (Zombies: The Recent Dead), Stephen Jones (The Mammoth Book of Zombie Apocalypse), J.M. Lassen (Z: Zombie Stories), James Lowder (The Best of All Flesh: Zombie Anthology), Otto Penzler (Zombies! Zombies! Zombies!), Lori Perkins (Hungry for Your Love: An Anthology of Zombie Romance), Jason Sizemore (The Zombie Feed Volume 1), John Skipp (Mondo Zombie; Zombies: Encounters with the Hungry Dead; and, co-edited with Craig Spector, Book of the Dead), and John Richard Stephens (The Book of the Living Dead).
Additionally, Scott Edelman has a whole collection of zombie stories called (What Will Come After). And just in time for the holidays, you may want to check out Joe R. Lansdale's Christmas with the Dead.
Zombie Breakthroughs
Just like AMC's The Walking Dead may be considered a breakthrough show by virtue of its popularity, literature has its breakthrough novels that have become wildly popular. For starters, did you know that The Walking Dead is an adaptation of a graphic novel by Robert Kirkman? They're good stories that are routinely collected into thicker volumes. Additionally, there's a new book called The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor by Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga.
There are two other books whose titles are probably the most recognizable at dinner parties. One is Cell by Stephen King, where a broadcast over a global cell phone network turns the majority of humans into mindless, zombie-like killers. The other is World War Z by Max Brooks, a book that recently topped a million in sales, perhaps spurred by the fact that a the film adaption that stars Brad Pitt hits theaters next year. World War Z is a series of first-person accounts of the end of the world and is consistently cited as one of the best modern-day zombie novels.
But Wait, There's More!
I'm just getting started. We've shambled through enough zombie fiction to start you down the path of the undead...but there's plenty more on the way. Next week, we'll take a look at some of the many at zombie novels.
John DeNardo is the editor of SF Signal, a group science-fiction and fantasy blog featuring news, reviews and interviews.
