The Living Dead named to PW’s “Best of the Year” list
Publishers Weekly has announced their 2008 Best Books of the Year, which includes The Living Dead. Here’s what they said:
“The Living Dead, Edited by John Joseph Adams: This superb reprint anthology runs the gamut of zombie stories, with entries by a plethora of renowned and outstanding authors from all sides of the genre.
This honor was extended to only 7 books in the “SF/Fantasy/Horror” genre. See PW’s website for the complete list, including non-genre bests.
Starred Review in Library Journal for The Living Dead
One of publishing’s top trade journals, Library Journal, has reviewed The Living Dead, giving it a starred review, which indicates a book of exceptional merit: “Editor Adams does a remarkable job of collecting a sampling of variations on this theme. … Highly recommended for all horror fiction collections.
Also, the Sacramento Book Review reviews The Living Dead: “A collection of short zombie stories from some of the greatest horror writers of all time.” [PDF]
As does Realms of Fantasy: “It’s hard to find fault in almost five hundred pages of zombie stories.” [not online]
Zombie Fest 2008
I’ll be attending this year’s Zombie Fest next weekend (Oct. 25-26), the annual celebration of all things zombie. It’s held in Monroeville, PA, at the actual mall where George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead was filmed and takes place.
From the website:
- A two-day zombie-themed convention at the Monroeville Mall, site of the Romero zombie classic Dawn of the Dead, featuring vendor exhibits, film screenings, author discussion panels, live bands, games and other fun activities for zombie fans. And in 2008, it’s FREE admission!
- The Zombie Masquerade Ball is the monster party of the century! Eat, drink, dance, and rub elbows with the upper crust undead! Prizes awarded for best overall costume and best zombie costume. The Ball also includes live entertainment and a silent auction (last year’s auction raised $1,000 for breast cancer research!). The Ball is a 21 and over event and there will be a separate admission fee.
- On Sunday morning, zombies, young and old, will gather at the Mall, shambling and moaning for brains while bearing food donations for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. Led by Professor Emcee Square, the horde of zombies slowly made their way from one end of the mall to the other. In 2007, the total number of zombies who signed in was 1,028, establishing a new Guinness World Record™, and more than half a ton of food was collected. The walk was honored with a Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Best Fan Event of 2007. In 2008, the Monroeville Mall Zombie Walk will be the hub of World Zombie Day™, with walks being held in more than 40 cities worldwide benefiting local food banks.
New Reviews of Wastelands & The Living Dead
The Short Review on Wastelands: “This could have been dreary. … [But] there’s nothing dreary in this book. The stories here are real, juicy, solid stories instead of morality lessons in disguise, and not two of them are alike.”
SF Scope covers the Oct. 7 “Readings of The Living Dead” event presented by the New York Review of Science Fiction reading series: “At a time when the scariest stories are found on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, and on the very evening of a Presidential debate (on top of which, I’d just been to the dentist and told that I need a root canal), zombies have a lot of fierce (dare I say stiff—get it? "Stiff", dead body?) competition to terrify us, but Kirtley and Langan successfully managed to affect us, haunt us, creep us out, disgust us, and even raise the odd hollow chuckle.”
Mania.com also reviews The Living Dead, giving it an “A” grade and calling it “One of the best zombie anthologies published in recent years.”
Zombies at 99.5 FM
Last weekend, I appeared alongside David Barr Kirtley on Jim Freund’s Hour of the Wolf radio program on WBAI 99.5 FM in New York to discuss The Living Dead and Seeds of Change. Dave came along and read his story from The Living Dead, "The Skull-Faced Boy."
Here’s me, relaxing in the studio as Dave reads his story:
And here’s Dave reading:
You can listen to the whole show by streaming it from the WBAI’s website, or you can download the following MP3s. Dave edited down the show into an abridged “good parts” edition for your listening pleasure:
Part 1 – Discussion
Humorous zombies?, Joe Hill, Owen’s King’s Who Can Save Us Now?, Seeds of Change, The Living Dead cover art
Part 2 – Reading
"The Skull-Faced Boy" by David Barr Kirtley, read by the author
Part 3 – Callers
Andy Duncan, Zora Neale Hurston, George Romero, From Dusk Til Dawn, Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead
5 Takes on The Living Dead
There are a couple new reviews of The Living Dead to share:
USA Today’s Pop Candy blog: “a cool new anthology.”
BookLoons: “A fascinating collection which proves to the reader that no zombie story is the same and shows what amazing settings and situations authors can create to involve zombies.”
Subterranean Online: “The Living Dead features some great seminal tales [and] several lesser-known stories that definitely deserve more attention.”
Bookgasm: “Contains its fair share of pleasant surprises. … Filled with tales that take the zombie in wildly different directions.”
Textual Frigate blog: “There was a lot of variety in this book. … There really is something here for any type of zombie fan.”
The Living Dead is “A-grade zombie goodness”
The Living Dead was recently mentioned on NeedCoffee.com, which called it “A-grade zombie goodness.”
The Living Dead is also currently one of the featured books in the Barnes & Noble Fantasy & Science Fiction Book Club.
More Free Fiction!
I’ve just added the following two free stories to the Free Stories & Excerpts page of The Living Dead’s website:
The Dead Kid by Darrell Schweitzer
HTML | PDF | Mobipocket
Beautiful Stuff by Susan Palwick
HTML | PDF | Mobipocket
There’s now six free stories here on the website in their entirety, plus all the excerpts. Be sure to keep checking back to see more!
Radio of The Living Dead
Along with contributor David Barr Kirtley (“The Skull-Faced Boy), I will be appearing on the radio show Hour of the Wolf on Saturday (Oct. 4).
The name of the show refers to the early time slot: 5 AM, so be sure to set your alarm clocks. Or, if you’d rather not wake up at an ungodly hour, you can stream the show from the radio station’s website.
The show airs on WBAI, 99.5 FM, in New York City.
The Living Dead–Starred Review in PW
Publishers Weekly reviews The Living Dead: (Starred Review) "Recently prolific anthologist Adams (Seeds of Change) delivers a superb reprint anthology that runs the gamut of zombie stories. There’s plenty of gore, highlighted by Stephen King’s ‘Home Delivery’ and David Schow’s classic ‘Blossom.’ Less traditional but equally satisfying are Lisa Morton’s ‘Sparks Fly Upward,’ which analyzes abortion politics in a zombified world, and Douglas Winter’s literary pastiche ‘Less than Zombie.’ Also outstanding, Kelly Link’s ‘Some Zombie Contingency Plans’ and Hannah Wolf Bowen’s ‘Everything Is Better with Zombies’ take similar themes in wildly different directions. Neil Gaiman’s impeccably crafted ‘Bitter Grounds’ offers a change of pace with traditional Caribbean zombies. The sole original contribution, John Langan’s ‘How the Day Runs Down,’ is a darkly amusing twist on Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. There’s some great storytelling for zombie fans as well as newcomers."
Also, the blog Dusk Before Dawn reviews The Living Dead, providing capsule reviews for each story. The reviewer’s favorites were: Ghost Dance by Sherman Alexie, The Third Dead Body by Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Malthusian’s Zombie by Jeffrey Ford, Home Delivery by Stephen King, Deadman’s Road by Joe R. Lansdale, and The Song the Zombie Sang by Harlan Ellison and Robert Silverberg.
