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Book Review of The Book of the Dead

The Book of the Dead
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Great collection of zombie stories with several really good. Includes stories from the masters of horror --Stephen King, Robert McCammon, Ramsey Campbell, Richard Layman, Joe Lansdale, etc. Each writer has a different view of the apocalypse and what life is like after zombies.

Not surprisingly, Stephen King's contribution was one of the best, highlighting characters and suspense over action. His story was about a pregnant woman who had spent her life depending on men to tell her what to do and how she handles the zombie apocalypse all on her own. Naturally, Richard Layman's zombie story threw sex and torture into the mix, but also had plenty of over-the-top action that made it enjoyable. Joe Lansdale's quirky story takes place in a world many years after the zombie apocalypse, where the US has become a sort of wild west and people have become so tough and mean that the zombies are the ones who are abused, more often than not.

There were some lesser known authors that I really liked in this book. "Choices" by Glen Vasey was just a straight, well-written zombie survival story. It tells one man's experience starting just before the outbreak to when zombies have pretty much overrun the world and even poses a possible cure that I can't remember reading anywhere else. Nicely done. I also liked "The Good Parts" by Les Daniels -- a zombie love story with a main character who could have been the model for a boomer zombie (ala Left 4 Dead).

3 of the stories were nominated for the Bram Stoker short story award in 1989. They were "Eat Me" by Robert McCammon, a strangely poetic zombie love story, "A Sad Last Love at the Diner of the Damned" by Edward Bryant, doomed sweethearts meet the apocalypse in a hypocritical small town, and "Bodies and Heads" by Steve Rasnic, a story that describes an even creepier version of the zombie myth.