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Zombies: A Compendium
Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! is the darkest, the living-deadliest, scariest--and dare we say most tasteful--collection of zombie stories ever assembled. It’s so good, it's a no-brainer.
There is never a dull moment in the world of zombies. They are superstars of horror and they are everywhere, storming the world of print and visual media. Their endless march will never be stopped. It's the Zombie Zeitgeist! Now, with his wide sweep of knowledge and keen eye for great storytelling, Otto Penzler offers a remarkable catalog of zombie literature. Including unstoppable tales from world-renowned authors like Stephen King, Joe R. Lansdale, Robert McCammon, Robert E. Howard, and Richard Matheson to the writer who started it all, W.B. Seabrook, Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! will delight and devour horror fans from coast to coast.
Featuring:
• Deadly bites
• Satanic Pigeons
• A parade of corpses
• Zombies, zombies, and more zombies
There is never a dull moment in the world of zombies. They are superstars of horror and they are everywhere, storming the world of print and visual media. Their endless march will never be stopped. It's the Zombie Zeitgeist! Now, with his wide sweep of knowledge and keen eye for great storytelling, Otto Penzler offers a remarkable catalog of zombie literature. Including unstoppable tales from world-renowned authors like Stephen King, Joe R. Lansdale, Robert McCammon, Robert E. Howard, and Richard Matheson to the writer who started it all, W.B. Seabrook, Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! will delight and devour horror fans from coast to coast.
Featuring:
• Deadly bites
• Satanic Pigeons
• A parade of corpses
• Zombies, zombies, and more zombies
834 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 20, 2011
49 people are currently reading
464 people want to read
About the author
Otto Penzler
370 books538 followersOtto Penzler is an editor of mystery fiction in the United States, and proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City, where he lives.
Otto Penzler founded The Mysteriour Press in 1975 and was the publisher of The Armchair Detective, the Edgar-winning quarterly journal devoted to the study of mystery and suspense fiction, for seventeen years.
Penzler has won two Edgar Awards, for The Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection in 1977, and The Lineup in 2010. The Mystery Writers of America awarded him the prestigious Ellery Queen Award in 1994, and the Raven--the group's highest non-writing award--in 2003.
Otto Penzler founded The Mysteriour Press in 1975 and was the publisher of The Armchair Detective, the Edgar-winning quarterly journal devoted to the study of mystery and suspense fiction, for seventeen years.
Penzler has won two Edgar Awards, for The Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection in 1977, and The Lineup in 2010. The Mystery Writers of America awarded him the prestigious Ellery Queen Award in 1994, and the Raven--the group's highest non-writing award--in 2003.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
July 1, 2023
If you are a hard-core zombie fan, this might be of interest. You'll not find the usual fare here and it's not terribly absorbing, but if you want to see the foundations of your favorite horror genre, this is the place to start.
This is not so much an enjoyable book, as one that's really fascinating in its tracing of pre-Romero zombie literature. Most of the pieces are from the 19th century or early- to mid-20th century, so you need a tolerance for that sort of writing if you're to make it through this brick of an anthology.
Also, be warned that these stories are full of racist and sexist ideas and language--which was considered appropriate at the time they were written, but can be a bit shocking to a 21st century reader if you're not expecting it. Given that the whole idea of the zombie came from Haiti, I'm sure you can guess the kinds of descriptions and slurs that recur in these stories. I'm 100% in favor of reading things like this despite the overt bigotry; this is our history and denying it only makes it easier to repeat.
There are a few historically interesting stories here--E.A. Poe and, of course, Lovecraft, for example, make appearances.
Even though I've spent a lot of my reading time, both personally and professionally, in the long Victorian era and am, therefore, both accustomed to and fond of the narrative conventions of such writing, I began to feel like a lot of these stories ran together. And the final novella was So. Long. without any reason for it to be that way. Really, the entire middle section was just needless running around.
Final verdict: This gets a place on my shelf because it's informative from the perspective of literary history. Will I ever read any of these stories again for fun? No. But the book is useful as a reference and I'm glad to be familiar with its contents since I think they'll be useful in my own future writing.
This is not so much an enjoyable book, as one that's really fascinating in its tracing of pre-Romero zombie literature. Most of the pieces are from the 19th century or early- to mid-20th century, so you need a tolerance for that sort of writing if you're to make it through this brick of an anthology.
Also, be warned that these stories are full of racist and sexist ideas and language--which was considered appropriate at the time they were written, but can be a bit shocking to a 21st century reader if you're not expecting it. Given that the whole idea of the zombie came from Haiti, I'm sure you can guess the kinds of descriptions and slurs that recur in these stories. I'm 100% in favor of reading things like this despite the overt bigotry; this is our history and denying it only makes it easier to repeat.
There are a few historically interesting stories here--E.A. Poe and, of course, Lovecraft, for example, make appearances.
Even though I've spent a lot of my reading time, both personally and professionally, in the long Victorian era and am, therefore, both accustomed to and fond of the narrative conventions of such writing, I began to feel like a lot of these stories ran together. And the final novella was So. Long. without any reason for it to be that way. Really, the entire middle section was just needless running around.
Final verdict: This gets a place on my shelf because it's informative from the perspective of literary history. Will I ever read any of these stories again for fun? No. But the book is useful as a reference and I'm glad to be familiar with its contents since I think they'll be useful in my own future writing.
January 2, 2012
Note: This book is the UK edition of Zombies! Zombies! Zombies by the same editor.
I’ve said it before but I’m not a big fan of zombies.
Compared with ghosts, vampires, werewolves and, frankly, most horror icons, I’ve always thought of them as one of the weaker family members of the horror genre. They’re dead, but they’re living.... they move! ....they look at you! And that’s about it. They’re also slow and dumb and pretty limited in what they do.
Even with the ‘improved model’ (they move fast! ....they eat flesh!) thanks to George Romero in the 1960’s and lately with The Walking Dead TV series, I’ve always felt a little bit unimpressed, in that, “Is that all they do?” kind of way.
So, it’s going to take a lot to impress me, though I’m willing to give it a try.
The good news is that I think this book is about as good as I’m going to get. There are 46 (!) tales of dead people walking here, with some very well known authors (Stephen King, HP Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Richard Matheson, Harlan Ellison, Edgar Allen Poe, Robert Bloch....) as well as a lot of less known or unknown authors (to me, anyway) such as Jack D’Arcy, Thorp McClusky, and Henry S. Whitehead.
Throughout is a synopsis of each writer, and in both the UK and the US editions, the book is sprinkled with black and white illustrations from Weird Tales and the like. I’m also thinking EC Comics but I’m not sure that they actually are: though they are very much in that style, I am under the impression that the strict copyright of EC stops them being used much. The US cover’s a great Virgil Finlay drawing that also highlights many of the tales’ pulp origins, the UK cover’s one that fits in nicely with the style of what can be seen as a companion volume, The Weird. Really, that’s the only difference between the two, other than the UK edition is on much better quality paper.
The layout of the book in both formats is in a pulp magazine two-column format, as it would have been in Weird Tales or such like. I liked this, as it made me feel I was reading a jumbo-sized ‘best of’ edition of the magazine.
The tales range in age from Poe’s The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar (1845) to the present, Scott Edelman’s Live People Don’t Understand (2009).
The first tale in the book is, W.B. Seabrook’s ‘Dead Men Working in the Cane Fields’ from 1929. Published then as a ‘true’ tale of things W.B. had seen in Haiti whilst travelling, it’s widely accepted as the first modern ‘proper’ tale of zombies, though as Otto quite rightly says, tales of the living dead have always been a staple of the genre, back to Poe and Frankenstein. It’s simple yet quite effective in describing weird events in its un-hysterical manner.
There’s a lot of pulp era tales here and they are pretty much as you’d expect: not particularly deep, but nicely creepy. I’m always pleased to read a dated, yet fun, hard-to-get Jules de Grandin tale from Seabury Quinn, this time it’s The Corpse-Master (1929). Theodore Roscoe’s Z is for Zombie, from 1937, finishes the collection with a flourish, as it is a novel-length tale of 117 small-printed pages that is as breathless and as relentless as pulp fiction gets.
Not surprisingly, HP Lovecraft is the most included author here, with three tales, Pickman’s Model, The Outsider and my favourite Lovecraft here, Herbert West - Reanimator. Of the other authors you will know, Stephen King’s tale from Nightmares and Dreamscapes, Home Delivery, is as good as you would expect. Poe is to be expected in such a collection, though The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar is more a case of resurrection rather than pure zombie. There’s also that Robert E Howard tale about voodoo and pigeons (imaginatively titled, Pigeons from Hell), which by the title alone sounds silly but actually still works. Stephen King, writing in Danse Macabre, considered Pigeons from Hell to be "one of the finest horror stories of our century”, and who am I to disagree?
Some worked less well for me: Richard Laymon’s Mess Hall reads as typical over-the-top, 1980’s style Horror that did the genre in at that time, but there are no doubt some readers that will enjoy its hyperactive ‘sex and horror’ combination.
But for me it is the discovery of previously unknown writers and unfamiliar tales that makes such collections fun. Like reading tales in a magazine, part of the joy is that as a reader you have few preconceptions about a story - you just don’t know where they are going to go. As well as the already mentioned Dead Men Working... and Z is for Zombie, unexpectedly pleasing tales for me this time around were R. Chetwynd-Hayes’s typically British zombie tale, The Ghouls, and Scott Edelman’s Live People Don’t Understand, a homely tale of zombie folk, but the standard throughout is generally very good.
As you might expect with over forty stories, the range is also impressive. There are tales in unexplored lands, creepy houses, mouldy mansions, quaint cottages, the past and the present. Otto does point out that although there are some gory tales herein, he has tried to maintain a balance and so there are not that many of the stories with the ‘almost pornographic sensibility of the need to drench every page with buckets of blood and descriptions of mindless cruelty, torture and violence.’ (Introduction, page xii)
For me, that works. I think I may have to readdress my original viewpoint after reading this book. This is a collection of quality, one to keep dipping into, with the repeat reading of old friends and the discovery of tales and authors previously unknown.
This is a collection that will repay repeated readings. I suspect this one will be, *cough,*’resurrected’, in my next Halloween pile of reading and subsequent years.
Recommended.
I’ve said it before but I’m not a big fan of zombies.
Compared with ghosts, vampires, werewolves and, frankly, most horror icons, I’ve always thought of them as one of the weaker family members of the horror genre. They’re dead, but they’re living.... they move! ....they look at you! And that’s about it. They’re also slow and dumb and pretty limited in what they do.
Even with the ‘improved model’ (they move fast! ....they eat flesh!) thanks to George Romero in the 1960’s and lately with The Walking Dead TV series, I’ve always felt a little bit unimpressed, in that, “Is that all they do?” kind of way.
So, it’s going to take a lot to impress me, though I’m willing to give it a try.
The good news is that I think this book is about as good as I’m going to get. There are 46 (!) tales of dead people walking here, with some very well known authors (Stephen King, HP Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Richard Matheson, Harlan Ellison, Edgar Allen Poe, Robert Bloch....) as well as a lot of less known or unknown authors (to me, anyway) such as Jack D’Arcy, Thorp McClusky, and Henry S. Whitehead.
Throughout is a synopsis of each writer, and in both the UK and the US editions, the book is sprinkled with black and white illustrations from Weird Tales and the like. I’m also thinking EC Comics but I’m not sure that they actually are: though they are very much in that style, I am under the impression that the strict copyright of EC stops them being used much. The US cover’s a great Virgil Finlay drawing that also highlights many of the tales’ pulp origins, the UK cover’s one that fits in nicely with the style of what can be seen as a companion volume, The Weird. Really, that’s the only difference between the two, other than the UK edition is on much better quality paper.
The layout of the book in both formats is in a pulp magazine two-column format, as it would have been in Weird Tales or such like. I liked this, as it made me feel I was reading a jumbo-sized ‘best of’ edition of the magazine.
The tales range in age from Poe’s The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar (1845) to the present, Scott Edelman’s Live People Don’t Understand (2009).
The first tale in the book is, W.B. Seabrook’s ‘Dead Men Working in the Cane Fields’ from 1929. Published then as a ‘true’ tale of things W.B. had seen in Haiti whilst travelling, it’s widely accepted as the first modern ‘proper’ tale of zombies, though as Otto quite rightly says, tales of the living dead have always been a staple of the genre, back to Poe and Frankenstein. It’s simple yet quite effective in describing weird events in its un-hysterical manner.
There’s a lot of pulp era tales here and they are pretty much as you’d expect: not particularly deep, but nicely creepy. I’m always pleased to read a dated, yet fun, hard-to-get Jules de Grandin tale from Seabury Quinn, this time it’s The Corpse-Master (1929). Theodore Roscoe’s Z is for Zombie, from 1937, finishes the collection with a flourish, as it is a novel-length tale of 117 small-printed pages that is as breathless and as relentless as pulp fiction gets.
Not surprisingly, HP Lovecraft is the most included author here, with three tales, Pickman’s Model, The Outsider and my favourite Lovecraft here, Herbert West - Reanimator. Of the other authors you will know, Stephen King’s tale from Nightmares and Dreamscapes, Home Delivery, is as good as you would expect. Poe is to be expected in such a collection, though The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar is more a case of resurrection rather than pure zombie. There’s also that Robert E Howard tale about voodoo and pigeons (imaginatively titled, Pigeons from Hell), which by the title alone sounds silly but actually still works. Stephen King, writing in Danse Macabre, considered Pigeons from Hell to be "one of the finest horror stories of our century”, and who am I to disagree?
Some worked less well for me: Richard Laymon’s Mess Hall reads as typical over-the-top, 1980’s style Horror that did the genre in at that time, but there are no doubt some readers that will enjoy its hyperactive ‘sex and horror’ combination.
But for me it is the discovery of previously unknown writers and unfamiliar tales that makes such collections fun. Like reading tales in a magazine, part of the joy is that as a reader you have few preconceptions about a story - you just don’t know where they are going to go. As well as the already mentioned Dead Men Working... and Z is for Zombie, unexpectedly pleasing tales for me this time around were R. Chetwynd-Hayes’s typically British zombie tale, The Ghouls, and Scott Edelman’s Live People Don’t Understand, a homely tale of zombie folk, but the standard throughout is generally very good.
As you might expect with over forty stories, the range is also impressive. There are tales in unexplored lands, creepy houses, mouldy mansions, quaint cottages, the past and the present. Otto does point out that although there are some gory tales herein, he has tried to maintain a balance and so there are not that many of the stories with the ‘almost pornographic sensibility of the need to drench every page with buckets of blood and descriptions of mindless cruelty, torture and violence.’ (Introduction, page xii)
For me, that works. I think I may have to readdress my original viewpoint after reading this book. This is a collection of quality, one to keep dipping into, with the repeat reading of old friends and the discovery of tales and authors previously unknown.
This is a collection that will repay repeated readings. I suspect this one will be, *cough,*’resurrected’, in my next Halloween pile of reading and subsequent years.
Recommended.
December 3, 2012
This is a well-assembled anthology. The main "problem" with these stories is that many rely on the creeping realization, or sudden reveal, that the subject is in fact a zombie. This is especially true of the older selections. As standalone stories, that approach might be effective. But such suspense is non-existant in this collection since we know these are zombie stories throughout.
I cherry-picked my way through the book, selecting mostly the shorter of the stories. There were some memorable standouts: the boxing zombie, the castrating evangelical zombies, the Hemingway zombies, the concert musician zombie. Even the more "traditional" stories were very good. I just found the book as a whole too much of a single note, at least too much to swallow in one go. I may check it out from the library again in the future and keep working on it.
I would recommend the book to anyone who likes short stories and/or the zombie craze.
I cherry-picked my way through the book, selecting mostly the shorter of the stories. There were some memorable standouts: the boxing zombie, the castrating evangelical zombies, the Hemingway zombies, the concert musician zombie. Even the more "traditional" stories were very good. I just found the book as a whole too much of a single note, at least too much to swallow in one go. I may check it out from the library again in the future and keep working on it.
I would recommend the book to anyone who likes short stories and/or the zombie craze.
May 22, 2013
The most complete collection of zombie stories? Maybe. The best? Not so sure about that.
I would only recommend this anthology to those who are interested in the horror magazines of the first few decades of the 20th century. I enjoyed a few of these older stories, but after a while the plots of many were similar enough that they started running together for me. A notable and welcome inclusion is Lovecraft’s Herbert West- Reanimator, which none of my previous anthologies had.
Also, some very weird choices going on with the illustrations. I love the cover, but many of the pictures that go with the stories are either poor quality copies or have nothing to do with the story (example- non-violent zombie story paired with a picture of zombies eating people).
I would only recommend this anthology to those who are interested in the horror magazines of the first few decades of the 20th century. I enjoyed a few of these older stories, but after a while the plots of many were similar enough that they started running together for me. A notable and welcome inclusion is Lovecraft’s Herbert West- Reanimator, which none of my previous anthologies had.
Also, some very weird choices going on with the illustrations. I love the cover, but many of the pictures that go with the stories are either poor quality copies or have nothing to do with the story (example- non-violent zombie story paired with a picture of zombies eating people).
October 31, 2020
Despite the terrible title, this is an excellent anthology of zombie stories, running the gamut from traditional Haitian voodoo to Romero-type zombies, the dead rising inexplicably from village graveyards, curses, ghosts and revenants, witchcraft, weird science and murderous scams. Although most are horror and suspense, there are a some that are sad/tragic, and a couple of humorous tales (including one Robert Bloch that's basically a set up for a really gross pun). Many are set in Haiti, the Caribbean Islands, Africa, or the American South, but the book also has tales set in Ireland, New England, Thailand, Scotland, etc.). Fantasy, straight horror (including everything from gothic ghost stories to splatterpunk and body horror), weird science and science fiction, future dystopias where the walking dead are just part of the state's system of oppression), suspense, Western, detective/crime - and a few stories that could be compared to Scooby Doo adventures, if you added murder. The bottom line is that all of these tales involve (at least theoretically) the dead rising from the grave (or at least manifesting physically in some fashion). These stories were all previously published from the late 19th Century to the early 21st, and a good percentage of these are tales from the pulp era - so, if you're especially sensitive to ethnic stereotypes, you might want to skip this collection. BTW, in a "refreshing" twist on the usual tropes, "The Broken Fang" (published in 1917) is intensely anti-German. Some prose is also excessively purple: "But it was hopeless. The fog, that clammy monster who fights for crime, spread the shadow of his tenuous wings about the ghostly fugitives." (Men Without Blood, 1935). Excellent range of authors, from the well known (EA Poe, HPL, Stephen King, Harlan Ellison, et al.) to the obscure. My only issue with this collection - and it's a minor one - is the organization: the stories don't seem to be in any sort of order (not chronological, theme, author, or anything else I could determine).
March 20, 2018
Penzler's collections are a joy to read. I always thought that Zombies is a kind of worn-out, squeezed to its essence already subject. This book changed my mind on that; there were such original takes, angles that I have never thought of. It inspired me to write a Zombie Story some day.
Another beautiful thing about these collections is that you see the original sources of all the derivative stuff you have been bored with and it gives you a fresh view of genres, stereotypes etc.
So the book was a five up until the last story, which was a 120-page novella. I do not know why Mr. Penzler wanted to put this story; although it has some intriguing parts it was such a drag to read. And it didn't fit with the rest of the book somehow.
Nevertheless, I'm thankful that Mr. Penzler went to all this trouble to put together all his anthologies; I will read one each year I think.
Another beautiful thing about these collections is that you see the original sources of all the derivative stuff you have been bored with and it gives you a fresh view of genres, stereotypes etc.
So the book was a five up until the last story, which was a 120-page novella. I do not know why Mr. Penzler wanted to put this story; although it has some intriguing parts it was such a drag to read. And it didn't fit with the rest of the book somehow.
Nevertheless, I'm thankful that Mr. Penzler went to all this trouble to put together all his anthologies; I will read one each year I think.
March 16, 2019
Dozens of zombie shorts, from subpar to subhuman, litter the pages of this most excellent anthology. Most of my favorite stories are the ones from the pulp era, and I found that I've discovered a few favorite new authors, including Henry Kuttner and Leo Zagat, and rediscovered some old favorites such as REH and August Derleth. This is a large anthology, clocking in at over 800 pages, and took me some while to read in bite sized chunks. Very well worth it!
March 10, 2024
The collection begins with W.B. Seabrook’s “Dead Men Working in the Cane Fields”, the first account of zombies ever written and purported to be “entirely true”! And the fun doesn't stop there! Three of my all-time favorite authors are in this collection - Stephen King, Joe R. Lansdale, and Edgar Allan Poe! Other authors within that I've enjoyed reading in the past include H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Bloch, Robert Matheson, and Michael Marshall Smith. Truly, an all-star line-up!
The only one in here that I thought was a stinker was also the longest - "Z is for Zombie" by Theodore Roscoe. If you grow tired after 600 pages or so, I suggest skipping this last entry!
But BEWARE! “Eat Me” by Robert McCammon is nasty! Like it churned my stomach nasty! Eww…
Some zombie factoids I learned in these pages - they can come from the West Indies. Haiti. Africa. Lots of the time they are simply used as cheap labor! No salt rule (don't feed zombies anything with salt!). No meat rule.
A definition of a zombie appears in “Pigeons From Hell” by Robert E. Howard - “It’s a monster, something more and less than a human being, created by the magic that spawns in black swamps and jungles - well we’ll see.”
“When you sup with the devil, be sure you have a long spoon.”
“Greed inspires horrible things my dear…”
The only one in here that I thought was a stinker was also the longest - "Z is for Zombie" by Theodore Roscoe. If you grow tired after 600 pages or so, I suggest skipping this last entry!
But BEWARE! “Eat Me” by Robert McCammon is nasty! Like it churned my stomach nasty! Eww…
Some zombie factoids I learned in these pages - they can come from the West Indies. Haiti. Africa. Lots of the time they are simply used as cheap labor! No salt rule (don't feed zombies anything with salt!). No meat rule.
A definition of a zombie appears in “Pigeons From Hell” by Robert E. Howard - “It’s a monster, something more and less than a human being, created by the magic that spawns in black swamps and jungles - well we’ll see.”
“When you sup with the devil, be sure you have a long spoon.”
“Greed inspires horrible things my dear…”
December 11, 2011
I was quite surprised, I'll admit, to find there weren't any stories in this anthology which I didn't like. It was very interesting to see the different styles of writing depending on the time period in which the story was written. Many of them came from the age of pulp fiction and yes some of those definitely showed their roots by being melodramatic but that didn't detract from the basic story, if that makes sense.
It was fascinating to see the varied takes on the 'undead' from true zombies of the 'Night of the Living Dead' movie sort to other less violent depictions. There was even a 'zombie' love story.
I'd say this is definitely a book worth your time, whether you read every story or just those which pique your interest.
E.
It was fascinating to see the varied takes on the 'undead' from true zombies of the 'Night of the Living Dead' movie sort to other less violent depictions. There was even a 'zombie' love story.
I'd say this is definitely a book worth your time, whether you read every story or just those which pique your interest.
E.
December 14, 2022
This 800-page tome contains dozens upon dozens of stories about the living dead, the unspeakable horrors that rise from their graves and shamble around. The first excerpt is from W. B. Seabrook, who describes practices in Haiti where the dead are brought back to life and made to work on the plantations. The only way for these zombies to return to their graves is if they eat food with salt, then they realize that they are dead and return to the cemetery where they belong. These people are not insatiable cannibals, nor do they have any intellect or will. This first concept of zombiehood dominated the culture until the 1960s, when George Romero introduced a new type of risen dead--the ravenously hungry who had a taste only for human flesh. The whole "brains" thing didn't start until the 1980s with Return of the Living Dead, an uneven horror-comedy with one zombie who explains why they have an insatiable hunger. In the 2000s, the virus/high-speed zombies showed up in movies like 28 Days Later and Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead. This book reflects the cinematic history of zombies, with stories from the 1800s (pre-dating the term "zombie" with stories from Edgar Allan Poe and Guy de Maupassant--the undead was a thing long before the z-word came along) up to the 2000s.
Like any anthology, the collection is a mixed bag. Some stories are strictly gory (which I don't find interesting), one or two were borderline pornographic (which is also not to my taste). Most were more palatable, focusing on horror and dread. A few were comic, like Robert Bloch's "Maternal Instinct." Some classics are in there, like H. P. Lovecraft's "Herbert West--Reanimator" and Henry Kuttner's "Graveyard Rats." Other famous authors like Stephen King and Harlan Ellison have contributions. My favorite stories were F. Marion Crawford's "Upper Berth" and Hug B. Cave's "Mission to Margal," with at least twenty other ones that I really liked. The book ends with the short novel "Z Is For Zombie" by Theodore Roscoe, which will be reviewed separately. The mixed bag definitely favors stories that I enjoyed. I am hanging on to this volume!
Recommended for a scattershot of zombie goodness and badness, but mostly goodness.
Like any anthology, the collection is a mixed bag. Some stories are strictly gory (which I don't find interesting), one or two were borderline pornographic (which is also not to my taste). Most were more palatable, focusing on horror and dread. A few were comic, like Robert Bloch's "Maternal Instinct." Some classics are in there, like H. P. Lovecraft's "Herbert West--Reanimator" and Henry Kuttner's "Graveyard Rats." Other famous authors like Stephen King and Harlan Ellison have contributions. My favorite stories were F. Marion Crawford's "Upper Berth" and Hug B. Cave's "Mission to Margal," with at least twenty other ones that I really liked. The book ends with the short novel "Z Is For Zombie" by Theodore Roscoe, which will be reviewed separately. The mixed bag definitely favors stories that I enjoyed. I am hanging on to this volume!
Recommended for a scattershot of zombie goodness and badness, but mostly goodness.
Read
August 3, 2021★★½
Otto Penzler ha curato una raccolta monumentale di 53 racconti e/o romanzi brevi a tema "zombie", creatura mitologica dalle origini haitiane legata al vudù.
Questo libro è sicuramente interessante per chiunque voglia farsi una cultura su questo argomento; sono inclusi racconti che vanno dal XIX secolo, che parlano di non-morti differenti dallo zombie dell'immaginario collettivo moderno (scritti anche da autori insospettabili, come Guy de Maupassant), fino ad arrivare a narrazioni più moderne dei primi anni 2000.
Non deludono i mostri sacri del genere horror (Poe, Lovecraft, Stephen King, Lansdale).
Come top 5 dei lavori selezionati direi a modestissimo parere:
- Morte e suffragio (dal forte contenuto politico)
- Marbh Bheo
- Deadman's Road (il migliore, Lansdale si conferma un fenomeno della narrazione)
- Piccioni dall'inferno (un classico di Howard, inquietante)
- Parto in casa (del buon Stephen King)
Purtroppo invece sfigurano tutti quei racconti tratti dalle riviste pulp o di intrattenimento degli anni '20 o '30, tutti invecchiati piuttosto male.
Otto Penzler ha curato una raccolta monumentale di 53 racconti e/o romanzi brevi a tema "zombie", creatura mitologica dalle origini haitiane legata al vudù.
Questo libro è sicuramente interessante per chiunque voglia farsi una cultura su questo argomento; sono inclusi racconti che vanno dal XIX secolo, che parlano di non-morti differenti dallo zombie dell'immaginario collettivo moderno (scritti anche da autori insospettabili, come Guy de Maupassant), fino ad arrivare a narrazioni più moderne dei primi anni 2000.
Non deludono i mostri sacri del genere horror (Poe, Lovecraft, Stephen King, Lansdale).
Come top 5 dei lavori selezionati direi a modestissimo parere:
- Morte e suffragio (dal forte contenuto politico)
- Marbh Bheo
- Deadman's Road (il migliore, Lansdale si conferma un fenomeno della narrazione)
- Piccioni dall'inferno (un classico di Howard, inquietante)
- Parto in casa (del buon Stephen King)
Purtroppo invece sfigurano tutti quei racconti tratti dalle riviste pulp o di intrattenimento degli anni '20 o '30, tutti invecchiati piuttosto male.
May 12, 2018
This book provides a broad and interesting overview of Zombies in fiction and was excellent as an educational entry point into zombie lore. However in terms of entertainment value, the stories varied widely and I think I only enjoyed about half of them. The early 20th century zombie stories with clever detective/investigate twists as well as those more recent stories that used the zombies as clever metaphors were my favorites but many of the stories from the early pulp era were overlong, silly and mildy racist (if such a thing can be said). The last two stories that close the book are the worst examples of this. Still, all things taken together, I liked the collection and enjoyed it for its merits which only just outweigh its demerits.
July 19, 2023
Like most anthologies, stories from 2 to 5 stars but I really liked the variety with lengths from short stories to novels and written from late 1800s to early 2000s. Been on a zombie kick and also watched several movies starting with George Romero and also played around 100 hours of zombie game Days Gone ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Days_Gone ).
Will continue with some more zombie stories but next obsession is The Witcher. Have most of the books, will look for graphic novels, 3 seasons on Netflix, and re-play the game.
Will continue with some more zombie stories but next obsession is The Witcher. Have most of the books, will look for graphic novels, 3 seasons on Netflix, and re-play the game.
April 2, 2023
If you are looking for modern horror, don't read this anthology. If you are looking for much older horror, it's decent. I had to flat out skip some of the stories because they were too racist for me. I understand that when they were written, it wouldn't have been shocking, but it isn't something I enjoy. I listened to the audiobook, and the narrators did a great job!
Not my favourite, but I finished it.
Not my favourite, but I finished it.
May 19, 2018
There are some great short stories in here. With their own unique traits that some times aren’t in movies or other books. But, the majority of the stories are basically the same theme. Zombies attack and people die. Sure that’s bound to happen in a story, but if that’s all hats happening then it’s not all that fun to read.
December 11, 2019
I like the compilation of stories that it gave me some of the stories were quite boring such as After Nightfall which was about a guy that wanted to have dinner with a women that had a bunch of voodoo controlled zombie slaves eating with them which was kinda lame compared to the other stories so this book has its ups and downs as one of it's good story's is Mission to Margel by Hugh B. Cave.
January 2, 2021
I picked up this weighty tome at a Costco for a reasonable price. One would be hard-pressed to find a better anthology of zombie stories! Includes some Appendix N authors (H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard come to mind), and stories from throughout the 20th century and into the 21st (so far!), it is quite comprehensive!
July 24, 2023
Finally, a book you can really sink your teeth into. As with any of these huge compilations, this is very much a mixed bag. There are some good stories here, but also a lot of dreck.
This is certainly not a book you’re going to sit down and read cover to cover. It’s best taken in small doses. A lot of this was taken from early pulp magazine writings, so we’re not talking primo literature.
This is certainly not a book you’re going to sit down and read cover to cover. It’s best taken in small doses. A lot of this was taken from early pulp magazine writings, so we’re not talking primo literature.
June 26, 2019
Very good anthology. Some of the stories scared me when I was reading them during my commute to and from the office. Some very nice illustrations. A must own for Zombie lovers and short story fans.
January 25, 2020
If you're into the "blood thirsty skin tearing" type of zombie stories this isnt for you. Much more subdued. Picture the less bloody violence scenes of 1940s movies put into books. They were hit or miss to me, with too many misses to warrant the 4th star, which I was tempted to give.
June 1, 2023
This is an excellent collection. I would recommend just dipping in from time to time rather than reading this collection cover-to-cover. Not every story is a winner, but many were terrific, so I'm not bothered by an occasional dud.
July 26, 2017
Loved every story. This is a fantastic anthology.
November 28, 2020
I loved most of the stories in this book. I docked it one star for completely failing to acknowledge the casual racism in some of the stories.
January 25, 2023
Didn't finish
November 7, 2020
If you are looking for a compendium of stories reminiscent of the Walking Dead, George Romero's films, or Zombieland, you will be disappointed. Many of the stories in this volume predate that version of zombie-ism. But that doesn't mean that some of the material in this book of short stories is not worth a read.
Otto Penzler compiled/edited the material so it leans heavily on stories from pulp magazines. But the material is decidedly uneven. There are strong pieces like W. B. Seabrook's classic Haitian zombie tale "Dead Men Working in the Cane Fields" and great modern stories like Yvonne Navarro's "Feeding the Dead Inside" where you will see a whole new way to handle a shoplifter. But the work is padded with bland fodder like Harlan Ellison and Robert Silverberg's "The Song the Zombie Sang" and plodding material like H. P. Lovecraft's "Pickman's Model."
The book features one short novel, Theodore Roscoe's "Z is for Zombie," which is an excellent example of how something that could make a taut short story becomes a repetitive and clunky novella when no editor brings sanity to the manuscript. It would have been outstanding at half its length.
There are enough good stories to make it worth reading for someone interested in pulp horror or zombies, but just know you are going to wade through a bunch of crap to find the nuggets of gold.
Otto Penzler compiled/edited the material so it leans heavily on stories from pulp magazines. But the material is decidedly uneven. There are strong pieces like W. B. Seabrook's classic Haitian zombie tale "Dead Men Working in the Cane Fields" and great modern stories like Yvonne Navarro's "Feeding the Dead Inside" where you will see a whole new way to handle a shoplifter. But the work is padded with bland fodder like Harlan Ellison and Robert Silverberg's "The Song the Zombie Sang" and plodding material like H. P. Lovecraft's "Pickman's Model."
The book features one short novel, Theodore Roscoe's "Z is for Zombie," which is an excellent example of how something that could make a taut short story becomes a repetitive and clunky novella when no editor brings sanity to the manuscript. It would have been outstanding at half its length.
There are enough good stories to make it worth reading for someone interested in pulp horror or zombies, but just know you are going to wade through a bunch of crap to find the nuggets of gold.
Read
August 12, 2015"Horrifying ghouls, decaying corpses, body snatchers, grave robbers and flesh-eating monsters. In this gruesome anthology of the living dead, all these and more will try to catch your eye and devour your brain. From the macabre pens of the world's most spine-tingling horror and fantasy writers, the grisliest, goriest, ghastliest stories from the last two centuries have been plucked from the shadows by legendary editor Otto Penzler, to form the most monstrous volume in zombie history. Featuring a cast of world-class writers, including H.P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, Clive Barker, Richard Matheson, Edgar Allan Poe, Joe R. Lansdale, Vivian Meik, Lisa Tuttle, W.B. Seabrook, Karen Haber, Guy De Maupassant, Richard Laymon, Thomas Burke, Anthony Boucher, John Knox, Theodore Sturgeon and Seabury Quinn, this might just be the world's biggest and bloodiest zombie anthology yet."
June 20, 2012
While the cover makes this anthology look like pure pulp, it's not. There are so many really great stories here - there are a couple of standouts that alone make this one worth checking out. "Eat Me" by the great Robert McCammon is a stunner - who would have thought anyone could write a romantic, touching and yet gruesome tale of zombie love. It's an unforgettable gem of a story. The other is "Deadman's Road" by Joe R. Lansdale, which pulls you into to the creepiest western yarn you've ever read. Witty, atmospheric and weird as hell. There are lots of others here that are well-written, historically significant and just great short stories (one more shout out: Michael Marshall's "Later." Wow.)
Currently reading
July 13, 2024"April Flowers, November Harvest" by Mary A. Turzillo - Dwayne and Sheila have a baby girl and bring her home from the hospital. Maggie is a zombie who used to have a relationship with Dwayne and is visiting him. Neither Dwayne nor Shelia get up at 1:30 to feed the baby when it cries so the zombie breastfeeds it.
"Maternal Instinct" by Robert Bloch - wc
"It Helps If You Sing" by Ramsey Campbell - wc
"Was It a Dream?" by Guy de Maupassant - wc
"The Graveyard Rats" by Henry Kuttner - wc
"Dead Right" by Geoffrey A. Landis - wc
"Dead Men Working in the Cane Fields" by W. B. Seabrook - wc
01-01-2013
"Maternal Instinct" by Robert Bloch - wc
"It Helps If You Sing" by Ramsey Campbell - wc
"Was It a Dream?" by Guy de Maupassant - wc
"The Graveyard Rats" by Henry Kuttner - wc
"Dead Right" by Geoffrey A. Landis - wc
"Dead Men Working in the Cane Fields" by W. B. Seabrook - wc
01-01-2013
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 26, 2011
I saw this at the used book store at the local library for a quarter.
I had to get it. Awesome and excellent read.
I had to get it. Awesome and excellent read.
Want to read
January 20, 2012SDMB Recco: FoieGrasIsEvil
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