Calling Death

by Jonathan Maberry

Listening Length: 32 minutes

Previously published in the collection Hungry Tales, "Calling Death" is a nonviolent zombie story set in Appalachia.

Genres: Audiobook, Horror

Audiobook

Published January 7, 2015

About the author

JONATHAN MABERRY is a NYTimes bestselling author, #1 Audible bestseller, 5-time Bram Stoker Award-winner, 4-time Scribe Award winner, Inkpot Award winner, comic book writer, and producer. He is the author of more than 50 novels, 190 short stories, 16 short story collections, 30 graphic novels, 14 nonfiction books, and has edited 26 anthologies. His vampire apocalypse book series, V-WARS, was a Netflix original series starring Ian Somerhalder. His 2009-10 run as writer on the Black Panther comic formed a large chunk of the recent blockbuster film, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. His bestselling YA zombie series, Rot & Ruin is in development for film at Alcon Entertainment; and John Wick director, Chad Stahelski, is developing Jonathan’s Joe Ledger Thrillers for TV. Jonathan writes in multiple genres including suspense, thriller, horror, science fiction, epic fantasy, and action; and he writes for adults, teens and middle grade. His works include The Pine Deep Trilogy, The Kagen the Damned Trilogy, NecroTek, Ink, Glimpse, the Rot & Ruin series, the Dead of Night series, The Wolfman, X-Files Origins: Devil’s Advocate, The Sleepers War (with Weston Ochse), Mars One, and many others. He is the editor of high-profile anthologies including Weird Tales: 100 Years of Weird, The X-Files, Aliens: Bug Hunt, Out of Tune, Don’t Turn out the Lights: A Tribute to Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Baker Street Irregulars, Nights of the Living Dead, Shadows & Verse, and others. His comics include Marvel Zombies Return, The Punisher: Naked Kills, Wolverine: Ghosts, Godzilla vs Cthulhu: Death May Die, Bad Blood and many others. Jonathan has written in many popular licensed worlds, including Hellboy, True Blood, The Wolfman, John Carter of Mars, Sherlock Holmes, C.H.U.D., Diablo IV, Deadlands, World of Warcraft, Planet of the Apes, Aliens, Predator, Karl Kolchak, and many others. He the president of the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers, and the editor of Weird Tales Magazine. He lives in San Diego, California. Find him online at www.jonathanmaberry.com

Reviews

[Vani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3.5 stars

This short story takes place on the Appalachian mountains and features a conversation between Granny Atkins and a young man called Joshua. As they sit and talk about a collapsed mine that killed 49 people decades ago, they hear disturbing sounds on the wind.

While the creepy elements in this tale center on the sounds, the true tragedy is the death of the miners due to greed and the eventual decline of the town itself.

[Zade · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a brief, gore-free zombie story. Maberry always writes well and this is no exception, but it's not his best. He understands what the real horrors are in Appalachia, but his dialogue doesn't quite capture the language and the shortness of the story doesn't allow him time to build the atmosphere. I'd like to see what he could do with this setting and genre in a developed piece, but it likely wouldn't be worth his time to redo what Old Gods of Appalachia has already done so well.

[Brianna Bello · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one wasn’t bad. The narrator is what threw me off. Him imitating a southern woman’s voice definitely caught me off guard and I wasn’t a fan. The story itself was good. I loved the spooky elements. There was talk of witchcraft which I’m a huge fan of. The scary sounds happening as they talk. The real story was sad. The coal miners and the tragedy that happened.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good creepy read.

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 4 out of 5]

Coal miners' ghost story. Real good. Not too scary. Chilling.

I'd read this again.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good. creepy short story.

[Scott Benoit · Rating 4 out of 5]

little quick but pretty good

[Fantasy Literature · Rating 3 out of 5]

Featured in our Short Fiction column: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...

[Amber Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Left me with a chill up the spine.

[Art · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mais ou sont les zombies d'antan?

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very short story like what would be told around the campfire. A young man is talking to a village elder, and a strange sound is in the air, a moaning and clanking. The old woman explains that there was a mine collapse that trapped many men that were never recovered. It is alluded to that the noises could be the men trying to escape.