Chris Golden (editor), The New Dead (St. Martins Griffin, 2010)
Zombies, in the strictest sense of the word, are starting to feel a bit played out. Between Zombieland, Left 4 Dead and the bestselling casual game Plants Versus Zombies, it seems like the true old-school zombie isn't getting any respect. He's getting pianos dropped on him or being shoved out of the way for shiny new variations on what it means to be walking dead. And Jane Austen? Let's just not talk about Jane Austen.
With that in mind, Christopher Golden's zombie anthology The New Dead throws the door open to walking dead of all stripes, from the oldest of the old school to radical reinterpretations of what precisely the term "zombie" means.
Golden doesn't waste any time challenging the preconception of what a collection of stories about zombies is likely to be. The lead piece is from thriller writer John Connolly, and he takes on the question of Lazarus, post-resurrection. If that's not a gauntlet thrown in the face of the "brains, brains and more brains" crowd, I'm not sure what is.
The rest of the book takes advantage of that broad definition to greater and lesser extent. But even the most "traditional" pieces are generally interested in pushing the boundaries. Mike Carey's "Second Wind" gives us a self-aware zombie stockbroker who'd planned for his zombification, while Joe Lansdale's "Shooting Pool" at first glance doesn't appear to be a zombie story at all. Brian Keene, something of a specialist in zombie novels, does a 180 from the more horrific aspects of the zombie apocalypse and instead produces a touching love story amidst the ruins with "The Wind Cries Mary". Other highlights include Tim Lebbon's "In The Dust" and James Moore's delightfully macabre "Kids and Their Toys."
Of course, with such a broad spectrum of stories -- and writers -- the individual reader's mileage may vary. Jonathan Maberry's "Family Business" and Kelly Armstrong's "Life Sentence" both feel a bit overlong for the point they're trying to make. Tad Williams' "The Storm Door" is a pulpy bit of supernatural detecting where the reader figures out what's going on well before the protagonist does. Max Brooks' "Closure, Limited" has the advantage of being set in the World War Z universe, but telegraphs its ending.
Ultimately, though, the anthology works very well on two levels. As a read, it's fun and varied, and even the stories that might not grab a particular reader are well-written. Beyond that, it's a refreshing exemplar of what can be done with the concept of the zombie. The answer is, thankfully, a lot.
