Best New Zombie Tales (Volumes 1 and 2)

Todd Jepperson

Before you read any further, my Fanboy Disclaimer: I dig anthologies. The reason I love them is simple; I have a problem. Every book I open, I finish. Most days, I’ve got so much to do I just don’t have time to take a big enough bite to satisfy the hunger. That can get really frustrating; especially if it’s not that great a book. The solution, for me, has been copious amounts of Anthologies. My Scientific Wild-Assed Guess—or SWAG, if you will—is that, in general, most anthology stories are open and shut in an average twenty-five pages. Have an hour? BAM! Two books down. Half that time? Not a problem; you’ll be done and cleaned up way before curfew.

Now, to the books. Each of these books contains twenty (nineteen if you don’t count the author’s introduction) short stories and no two authors hold down the same fort. You have everything here from techno-Zombies to Voodoo body snatchers even to stranger than fiction morphological freaks. Not only that, but even when you do have two similar types of animates, the arc that they follow is absolutely unique. To fully paint the picture of exactly what these books are and are not, I’d need to write forty full-color posts up and down. That’s something I can’t do, and you may not survive.

My review, then, is this: I haven’t come across an anthology I regretted buying, but I’ve never landed one without the here-and-there oddball either. These two stand toward the front of the horde as being definitely worth your time (Vol.One being my favorite of the two). Both contain strong language, graphic content, and sexual themes. These are not for the kids. Keep your eye out for gems, such as: Pegleg and Paddy Save the World, Paradise Denied, and Dredging Up the Dead. If you have a young son, skip past Connections; that’s a tear jerker.

Pick them up on Smashwords, Amazon , or your favorite book store, depending on how you like your meat served; eBook or Paperback.