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The Mammoth Book of Zombies
Out of the crumbling, stench-filled pit come the undead, the unkillable, the everlasting zombies tracking down the living wherever they hide. Crammed with stories new and old by the masters of the macabre, including Clive Barker, Robert Bloch, Graham Masterston, Ramsey Campbell, Hugh B. Cave, and others.
INTRODUCTION: THE DEAD THAT WALK Stephen Jones
SEX, DEATH AND STARSHINE Clive Barker
RISING GENERATION Ramsey Campbell
THE SONG OF THE SLAVES Manly Wade Wellman
THE GHOULS R. Chetwynd-Hayes
THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR Edgar Allan Poe
STICKS Karl Edward Wagner
QUIETLY NOW Charles L. Grant
THE GREY HOUSE Basil Copper
A WARNING TO THE CURIOUS M.R. James
THE CRUCIAN PIT Nicholas Royle
THE DISAPPROVAL OF JEREMY CLEAVE Brian Lumley
HERBERT WEST—REANIMATOR H.P. Lovecraft
TREADING THE MAZE Lisa Tuttle
OUT OF CORRUPTION David Riley
THE TAKING OF MR. BILL Graham Masterton
SCHALKEN THE PAINTER J. Sheridan Le Fanu
CLINICALLY DEAD David Sutton
THEY'RE COMING FOR YOU Les Daniels
MISSION TO MARGAL Hugh B. Cave
LATER Michael Marshall Smith
MARBH BHEO Peter Tremayne
THE BLOOD KISS Dennis Etchison
NIGHT AFTER NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD Christopher Fowler
THE DEAD DON'T DIE! Robert Bloch
PATRICIA'S PROFESSION Kim Newman
ON THE FAR SIDE OF THE CADILLAC DESERT WITH DEAD FOLKS Joe R. Lansdale
INTRODUCTION: THE DEAD THAT WALK Stephen Jones
SEX, DEATH AND STARSHINE Clive Barker
RISING GENERATION Ramsey Campbell
THE SONG OF THE SLAVES Manly Wade Wellman
THE GHOULS R. Chetwynd-Hayes
THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR Edgar Allan Poe
STICKS Karl Edward Wagner
QUIETLY NOW Charles L. Grant
THE GREY HOUSE Basil Copper
A WARNING TO THE CURIOUS M.R. James
THE CRUCIAN PIT Nicholas Royle
THE DISAPPROVAL OF JEREMY CLEAVE Brian Lumley
HERBERT WEST—REANIMATOR H.P. Lovecraft
TREADING THE MAZE Lisa Tuttle
OUT OF CORRUPTION David Riley
THE TAKING OF MR. BILL Graham Masterton
SCHALKEN THE PAINTER J. Sheridan Le Fanu
CLINICALLY DEAD David Sutton
THEY'RE COMING FOR YOU Les Daniels
MISSION TO MARGAL Hugh B. Cave
LATER Michael Marshall Smith
MARBH BHEO Peter Tremayne
THE BLOOD KISS Dennis Etchison
NIGHT AFTER NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD Christopher Fowler
THE DEAD DON'T DIE! Robert Bloch
PATRICIA'S PROFESSION Kim Newman
ON THE FAR SIDE OF THE CADILLAC DESERT WITH DEAD FOLKS Joe R. Lansdale
512 pages, Paperback
First published October 25, 1993
49 people are currently reading
1522 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Jones
277 books344 followersStephen Jones is an eighteen-time winner of the British Fantasy Award.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
March 18, 2015
Several permanent faves I've read over and over many times in this anthology:
On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks by Joe R. Lansdale - maybe the most bizarre most perfectest zombie short story ever about a gunslinger, a bounty hunter, some crazy nuns, zombies like you've probly never seen them before, and a classic that will go to the grave with me.
The Song of the Slaves by Manly Wade Wellman - an awesome tale of voodoo and slavery I've reminisced about quite often over the years.
Sticks by Karl Edward Wagner - combines archaic figures and strange curios with a sense of creeping doom.
The Crucian Pit by Nicholas Royle - though certainly not a zombie story ~ more of a ghost story I think ~ intoxicates me each time I re-read it with a pleasant, trippy, dark, headwash.
✪ This book would be worth getting just for these 4 stories alone but there are definitely more stories worthy of your deadlife needs.
✪✪✪✪✪ Highly recommended for all fans of zombie fiction!
June 1, 2010
After ploughing through the Stephen Jones-edited mammoth collections on vampires, werewolves and terror, I found myself sitting down with yet another hefty paperback – The Mammoth Book of Zombies. Here were 26 stories specifically tackling the undead, some written in the 19th century and others bang up to date. I was expecting some repetition in the stories – after all, zombies are a pretty limited menace – but I ended up pleasantly surprised by the sheer breadth and variety of work contained in this one.
Clive Barker kicks things off again with SEX, DEATH AND STARSHINE, a perverse and satirical outing in which a theatre is overrun by actors who are a little too laid-back in their roles...if you get my meaning. Ramsey Campbell follows it up with RISING GENERATION, in which a school visit to some ancient caves goes awry. I found this slightly overwritten and not as flowing as some of the author’s other work, and hence didn’t enjoy it as much.
THE SONG OF THE SLAVES, by Manly Wade Wellman, is by contrast quite brilliant. A dastardly slave-owner, forced to drown his slaves by throwing them overboard, finds himself haunted in this extremely macabre and atmospheric piece of writing that has a sense of unease like nothing else. Seriously, this is up there as one of the best horror stories I’ve ever read, cementing the author’s reputation in my mind as one of the most underrated of all time.
R. Chetwynd-Hayes works wonders with THE GHOULS, a gleeful outing in which zombies have infiltrated government. This could only have been written in the ‘70s, and it’s a nice time capsule for the era. After this we get THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR, Poe’s familiar outing in which a man on the verge of death allows himself to be put in a trance by a mesmerist – with horrifying results. I love this grisly tale and especially its adaptation (with Vincent Price) in the Corman film TALES OF TERROR.
Karl Edward Wagner’s STICKS is a modern classic and one much-anthologised. It’s about something lurking in a ruined farmhouse and has the same kind of sinister foreboding as in THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, as well as the weird stick-man effigies (I’m sure the guys who wrote WITCH read this beforehand). Another all-time favourite.
QUIETLY NOW is Charles L. Grant’s take on the genre. A writer suspects there’s a vampire lurking in the basement of the local school, and I thoroughly enjoyed the thrills that follow. I normally don’t like Grant’s obtuse, abstract style, but this is something else entirely: spooky and surprising with great character building. It’s his best work yet, for me.
Basil Copper’s THE GREY HOUSE is familiar stuff – a young married couple buy a dilapidated house in France without knowing its reputation. It’s lengthy and something in Copper’s style makes it gripping, ghastly without ever resorting to gruesomeness. I loved it – but not as much as the M. R. James classic, A WARNING TO THE CURIOUS, which is even better! Absolutely unnerving, this rural classic sees an amateur treasure hunter digging up one of the three crowns of East Anglia and finding himself pursued by a vengeful spirit. This takes place in local surroundings I’m familiar with, and it scared the hell out of me!
THE CRUCIAN PIT, by Nicholas Royle, is a straightforward mystery with horrific undertones and a good twist ending. Brian Lumley gives us a black comedy in THE DISAPPROVAL OF JEREMY CLEAVE, full of outrageous events and a huge streak of imagination. That’s followed up with Lovecraft’s HERBERT WEST – REANIMATOR, an atypical, anecdotal (originally published as a series of short-short stories) outing in which a young medical student sets about reanimating the dead. Not for the faint-hearted, this modern-day FRANKENSTEIN story is slightly repetitive due to its structure, but frightening as hell – and the film adaptation wasn’t half bad, either.
Lisa Tuttle once again tackles sinister British history in TREADING THE MAZE, following the old tradition of ‘turf mazes’. This is a mood piece full of regret and nostalgia, and a nice change from the pulp perils of the preceding stories. Following this is David Riley’s OUT OF CORRUPTION – a set-piece smasher and a wonderful pulp adventure! It’s tense and sinister, with the early slow passages leading to a denouement packed with all out terror. It might be heavily influenced by NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, but that doesn’t stop it from being one of the most entertaining tales in this collection.
Graham Masterton tackles the taboo topic of child abduction in THE TAKING OF MR BILL, which is upsetting and one of the most adult things the author has written – none of his ghoul-house gore here, just compelling characterisation and disturbing scenes. J. Sheridan Le Fanu delivers SCHALKEN THE PAINTER, a creepy Victorian classic ably mixing the gothic and the mystery genres.
David Sutton’s CLINICALLY DEAD tells of a hospital overrun by the undead. I thought it crossed the threshold of taste and was too repulsively repugnant to enjoy. Les Daniels contributes THEY’RE COMING FOR YOU, a sexually charged comic outing about a cuckolded husband getting his just desserts. Hugh B. Cave’s MISSION TO MARGAL delivers some classic voodoo pulp but isn’t quite as frightening or well-composed as some of the author’s other pulp classics.
LATER is Michael Marshall Smith’s take on the zombie, and another atypical one: the themes are love and nostalgia and the writing is expertly crafted. I even found it moving – not something I’d expect to find in a collection like this! Peter Tremayne once again delivers a Celtic spin on things in MARBH BHEO, a sterling and traditional effort that never disappoints, always remaining literate and intelligent. By comparison, Dennis Etchison’s THE BLOOD KISS is a bit lacklustre, some of it going over my head entirely.
Christopher Fowler’s NIGHT AFTER NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is a homage to the George Romero classic and fans of that film will be delighted by the twists he adds here. Following that we get a novella from Robert Bloch entitled THE DEAD DON’T DIE! In which a prison officer is astonished when an executed man returns from the dead. It leads into a witty and fast-moving pulp adventure laced with the author’s trademark black humour and one which I thoroughly enjoyed. Where else will you find a hardboiled detective mixed with an ancient sorcerer and a zombie invasion of Earth? Kim Newman’s PATRICIA’S PROFESSION is an unwieldy futuristic effort that didn’t gel with me like most of the author’s work and in fact I found it a bit of a bore.
The last story, by Joe R. Lansdale, has a great title – ON THE FAR SIDE OF THE CADILLAC DESERT WITH DEAD FOLKS. The writing matches it: this is a bleak post-apocalypse story, complete with an undercurrent of bubbling sexual perversion and a grubby tone. Despite this, the would-be heroes are compelling and the atypical storytelling had me hooked. It’s definitely worth a shot.
Clive Barker kicks things off again with SEX, DEATH AND STARSHINE, a perverse and satirical outing in which a theatre is overrun by actors who are a little too laid-back in their roles...if you get my meaning. Ramsey Campbell follows it up with RISING GENERATION, in which a school visit to some ancient caves goes awry. I found this slightly overwritten and not as flowing as some of the author’s other work, and hence didn’t enjoy it as much.
THE SONG OF THE SLAVES, by Manly Wade Wellman, is by contrast quite brilliant. A dastardly slave-owner, forced to drown his slaves by throwing them overboard, finds himself haunted in this extremely macabre and atmospheric piece of writing that has a sense of unease like nothing else. Seriously, this is up there as one of the best horror stories I’ve ever read, cementing the author’s reputation in my mind as one of the most underrated of all time.
R. Chetwynd-Hayes works wonders with THE GHOULS, a gleeful outing in which zombies have infiltrated government. This could only have been written in the ‘70s, and it’s a nice time capsule for the era. After this we get THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR, Poe’s familiar outing in which a man on the verge of death allows himself to be put in a trance by a mesmerist – with horrifying results. I love this grisly tale and especially its adaptation (with Vincent Price) in the Corman film TALES OF TERROR.
Karl Edward Wagner’s STICKS is a modern classic and one much-anthologised. It’s about something lurking in a ruined farmhouse and has the same kind of sinister foreboding as in THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, as well as the weird stick-man effigies (I’m sure the guys who wrote WITCH read this beforehand). Another all-time favourite.
QUIETLY NOW is Charles L. Grant’s take on the genre. A writer suspects there’s a vampire lurking in the basement of the local school, and I thoroughly enjoyed the thrills that follow. I normally don’t like Grant’s obtuse, abstract style, but this is something else entirely: spooky and surprising with great character building. It’s his best work yet, for me.
Basil Copper’s THE GREY HOUSE is familiar stuff – a young married couple buy a dilapidated house in France without knowing its reputation. It’s lengthy and something in Copper’s style makes it gripping, ghastly without ever resorting to gruesomeness. I loved it – but not as much as the M. R. James classic, A WARNING TO THE CURIOUS, which is even better! Absolutely unnerving, this rural classic sees an amateur treasure hunter digging up one of the three crowns of East Anglia and finding himself pursued by a vengeful spirit. This takes place in local surroundings I’m familiar with, and it scared the hell out of me!
THE CRUCIAN PIT, by Nicholas Royle, is a straightforward mystery with horrific undertones and a good twist ending. Brian Lumley gives us a black comedy in THE DISAPPROVAL OF JEREMY CLEAVE, full of outrageous events and a huge streak of imagination. That’s followed up with Lovecraft’s HERBERT WEST – REANIMATOR, an atypical, anecdotal (originally published as a series of short-short stories) outing in which a young medical student sets about reanimating the dead. Not for the faint-hearted, this modern-day FRANKENSTEIN story is slightly repetitive due to its structure, but frightening as hell – and the film adaptation wasn’t half bad, either.
Lisa Tuttle once again tackles sinister British history in TREADING THE MAZE, following the old tradition of ‘turf mazes’. This is a mood piece full of regret and nostalgia, and a nice change from the pulp perils of the preceding stories. Following this is David Riley’s OUT OF CORRUPTION – a set-piece smasher and a wonderful pulp adventure! It’s tense and sinister, with the early slow passages leading to a denouement packed with all out terror. It might be heavily influenced by NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, but that doesn’t stop it from being one of the most entertaining tales in this collection.
Graham Masterton tackles the taboo topic of child abduction in THE TAKING OF MR BILL, which is upsetting and one of the most adult things the author has written – none of his ghoul-house gore here, just compelling characterisation and disturbing scenes. J. Sheridan Le Fanu delivers SCHALKEN THE PAINTER, a creepy Victorian classic ably mixing the gothic and the mystery genres.
David Sutton’s CLINICALLY DEAD tells of a hospital overrun by the undead. I thought it crossed the threshold of taste and was too repulsively repugnant to enjoy. Les Daniels contributes THEY’RE COMING FOR YOU, a sexually charged comic outing about a cuckolded husband getting his just desserts. Hugh B. Cave’s MISSION TO MARGAL delivers some classic voodoo pulp but isn’t quite as frightening or well-composed as some of the author’s other pulp classics.
LATER is Michael Marshall Smith’s take on the zombie, and another atypical one: the themes are love and nostalgia and the writing is expertly crafted. I even found it moving – not something I’d expect to find in a collection like this! Peter Tremayne once again delivers a Celtic spin on things in MARBH BHEO, a sterling and traditional effort that never disappoints, always remaining literate and intelligent. By comparison, Dennis Etchison’s THE BLOOD KISS is a bit lacklustre, some of it going over my head entirely.
Christopher Fowler’s NIGHT AFTER NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is a homage to the George Romero classic and fans of that film will be delighted by the twists he adds here. Following that we get a novella from Robert Bloch entitled THE DEAD DON’T DIE! In which a prison officer is astonished when an executed man returns from the dead. It leads into a witty and fast-moving pulp adventure laced with the author’s trademark black humour and one which I thoroughly enjoyed. Where else will you find a hardboiled detective mixed with an ancient sorcerer and a zombie invasion of Earth? Kim Newman’s PATRICIA’S PROFESSION is an unwieldy futuristic effort that didn’t gel with me like most of the author’s work and in fact I found it a bit of a bore.
The last story, by Joe R. Lansdale, has a great title – ON THE FAR SIDE OF THE CADILLAC DESERT WITH DEAD FOLKS. The writing matches it: this is a bleak post-apocalypse story, complete with an undercurrent of bubbling sexual perversion and a grubby tone. Despite this, the would-be heroes are compelling and the atypical storytelling had me hooked. It’s definitely worth a shot.
March 22, 2025
This is my favorite collection of zombie short stories of all time! The great thing about this collection is that the stories portray different types of zombies from different genres/eras. You will not get the Romero-type zombies in every story here, so if that is what you are seeking then I would look elsewhere—I recommend "The Dead That Walk," also edited by Stephen Jones which is also excellent. It’s one of my favorites--but it does contain mostly traditional zombies, so might be better suited for you depending on what you want to see.
What you will get with The Mammoth Book of Zombies instead is more sophisticated writing (YAY!) and higher caliber story-telling than what is typically compiled in modern zombie anthologies. Some of these stories are kind of funny, some are creepy, some are bizarre and some are sad. All of them are entertaining!
I do feel that anyone who picks this book up will need to have an open mind if they are fans of zombies in their most typical form (again, George Romero, The Walking Dead, etc.) or if they are highly accustomed to and enjoy the somewhat trashy and elementary writing that is displayed in so much current-day writing in general, but especially in zombie fiction (not all, but a lot). Whoever picks this book up will be in for a great treat if they give it a chance and do not expect the typical zombie fodder. Happy reading!
What you will get with The Mammoth Book of Zombies instead is more sophisticated writing (YAY!) and higher caliber story-telling than what is typically compiled in modern zombie anthologies. Some of these stories are kind of funny, some are creepy, some are bizarre and some are sad. All of them are entertaining!
I do feel that anyone who picks this book up will need to have an open mind if they are fans of zombies in their most typical form (again, George Romero, The Walking Dead, etc.) or if they are highly accustomed to and enjoy the somewhat trashy and elementary writing that is displayed in so much current-day writing in general, but especially in zombie fiction (not all, but a lot). Whoever picks this book up will be in for a great treat if they give it a chance and do not expect the typical zombie fodder. Happy reading!
April 10, 2012
Excellent anthology, but it should be called The Mammoth Book Of Old School Zombies, as there are practically no stories where the zombies are like Romero's zombies or newer, and the cover also gives the impression that it should be about the newer type of zombies.
These are mostly ghouls in some form.
But apart from that, the stories are of a high quality.
These are mostly ghouls in some form.
But apart from that, the stories are of a high quality.
May 31, 2023
This was a re-read for me.
Absolute quality! Such a diverse range of authors and some highly original takes on the zombie genre. Authors like Edgar Allen Poe all the way to modern favorites, this is a wonderful compilation.
Absolute quality! Such a diverse range of authors and some highly original takes on the zombie genre. Authors like Edgar Allen Poe all the way to modern favorites, this is a wonderful compilation.
March 1, 2009
Full of some great stories, with Lansdale's Far Side of the Cadillac Desert being a personal favorite.
July 13, 2025
I'm always going on about zombie origins, and how every iteration of the zombie doesn't have to be the undead, flesh-munching kind, and now finally I have an anthology to back me up! There's a lot of variety in zombie types here, which was very refreshing. We've got some of your classic flesh-eaters, of course, but also infected, and lots of stories that go much further back with the lore, into mind control and magic.
I do have to mention that in terms of authors, the line-up is is not diverse. That's not a criticism of the authors whose stories are included, and - though I'd rarely say this - it's not a criticism of the editor, Stephen Jones either. In the foreword, Jones discusses that he gathered some of his favourites from decades past, and this book was originally compiled in 1993, which inevitably means that white male authors were going to be under the main spotlight here, as was the publishing norm at the time, especially in horror. I remember King and Vincent coming under criticism for this with the release of their flight themed anthology, Fright or Flight, which had the same issue of being made up of previously released stories, not many of which were written by women, unfortunately. So not a criticism in this case, with the context in mind, just a note for anyone that notices it and wonders why.
I do have to mention that in terms of authors, the line-up is is not diverse. That's not a criticism of the authors whose stories are included, and - though I'd rarely say this - it's not a criticism of the editor, Stephen Jones either. In the foreword, Jones discusses that he gathered some of his favourites from decades past, and this book was originally compiled in 1993, which inevitably means that white male authors were going to be under the main spotlight here, as was the publishing norm at the time, especially in horror. I remember King and Vincent coming under criticism for this with the release of their flight themed anthology, Fright or Flight, which had the same issue of being made up of previously released stories, not many of which were written by women, unfortunately. So not a criticism in this case, with the context in mind, just a note for anyone that notices it and wonders why.
July 13, 2025
How refreshing to read an anthology made up of zombie stories and half of them contain zombies in their first few original iterations!
October 13, 2011
This is a big book and it took me a while but it was worth it as it has many great stories. Most of the authors are English and that gives the whole a fresh and different background, a departure of other anthologies I've read before; this feeling was increased by the fact that most of the stories were written a very long time ago, a century in some cases! That's also very cool because the pieces tend to be more atmospheric and there's nothing better than creepy horror. The settings of the stories vary greatly, from old cemeteries, to elementary schools, to forests that hide ancient megaliths; some are humorous, others sad, there's even romance and a whole lot of dark, twisted irony. What they all have in common, wait for it... is zombies!! So, now you know, the secret's out.
Seriously, it kind of kills a bit of the thrill when you're in the middle of a story wandering what's going to happen and you remember, Oh, right. It's a zombie. But then again, that's what you were looking for, a bunch of zombie stories, otherwise why would you buy a zombie anthology, right?
Now, it could take a while to review each one of the stories since there are more than twenty five but I'll review the first, two of my favorite ones, and of course, Lovecraft's.
The book opens with a bang, a great story by Clive Backer, SEX, DEATH AND STARSHINE, that reflects the life of long dead actors who perform in and out of stage, as they work for a company run by their living counterparts. Originally written in 1984, its poignant humor fits in perfectly with the cannibalistic appetite we show for Hollywood star's rumors and fall downs. It's funny, intriguing, and scary, all together in a great package that makes you feel so good about having bought the book in the first place.
One of my favorite stories was Charles L. Grant's QUIETLY NOW. This one was originally published in 1981; it tells the story of a writer who's been trying to finish a book his editor has been waiting for more time than it was supposed to. The author befriends a few boys from his building and gets too involved when other kids from the school close by start disappearing. I loved the mysterious atmosphere Grant creates when there are several instances of persecution that take place in the woods; you can just feel the tree branches snapping under your feet and the scary monster looking at you hidden from the bushes to the left. So freaky.
My definite outstanding pick would have to be for Basil Copper's THE GREY HOUSE. There are so many great stories in the anthology that the idea of picking just two simply tortured me but, alas, there has to be a winner and Copper's 1966 story made it easy to choose the top spot. It goes to describe the life of a couple who have just bought a house in the english country side; a house with a very bad reputation, mind you. The previous owner lived there almost a century before and slaughtered half of the town and all of his servants in an intent to win eternal life that seems to have evade him. However, the feeling in the house is very dark and haunting, particularly at night, when strange noises from the woods carry on to the house and scare the poor wife half out of her wits; meanwhile the husband seems to be possessed by a desire to renovate the house to its previous glory when the old master was in charge. This story creeps under your skin and leaves you sleeping with the lights on.
Ok, the last of the bunch is Lovecraft's REANIMATOR. I know Lovecraft has a huge fan base; I, for one, love his stories but in this case the story was written very early on his career and only published after his death, when he had achieved fame. The story lacks the classic stamp of his future work and feels a little disjointed and like it could've used a bit of editing before publishing. It isn't at par with what we are used to read from his twisted mind but, in any case, it's interesting. The narration starts with the ramblings of a Dr. who seems to be on the brink of insanity as he recollects how his assistant died and who he suspects to be the murderer. The character is a man with no scrupulous that won't allow something as small as ethics get in his way to become the medical community's star child by achieving to reanimate corpses and halt altogether the process of dying. Attaboy!
There you go, a few of the most representative short stories, and not so short, in this amazing galore of zombie love. Get you newly furbished zombie apocalypse bunker and have a happy comfy reading!
Seriously, it kind of kills a bit of the thrill when you're in the middle of a story wandering what's going to happen and you remember, Oh, right. It's a zombie. But then again, that's what you were looking for, a bunch of zombie stories, otherwise why would you buy a zombie anthology, right?
Now, it could take a while to review each one of the stories since there are more than twenty five but I'll review the first, two of my favorite ones, and of course, Lovecraft's.
The book opens with a bang, a great story by Clive Backer, SEX, DEATH AND STARSHINE, that reflects the life of long dead actors who perform in and out of stage, as they work for a company run by their living counterparts. Originally written in 1984, its poignant humor fits in perfectly with the cannibalistic appetite we show for Hollywood star's rumors and fall downs. It's funny, intriguing, and scary, all together in a great package that makes you feel so good about having bought the book in the first place.
One of my favorite stories was Charles L. Grant's QUIETLY NOW. This one was originally published in 1981; it tells the story of a writer who's been trying to finish a book his editor has been waiting for more time than it was supposed to. The author befriends a few boys from his building and gets too involved when other kids from the school close by start disappearing. I loved the mysterious atmosphere Grant creates when there are several instances of persecution that take place in the woods; you can just feel the tree branches snapping under your feet and the scary monster looking at you hidden from the bushes to the left. So freaky.
My definite outstanding pick would have to be for Basil Copper's THE GREY HOUSE. There are so many great stories in the anthology that the idea of picking just two simply tortured me but, alas, there has to be a winner and Copper's 1966 story made it easy to choose the top spot. It goes to describe the life of a couple who have just bought a house in the english country side; a house with a very bad reputation, mind you. The previous owner lived there almost a century before and slaughtered half of the town and all of his servants in an intent to win eternal life that seems to have evade him. However, the feeling in the house is very dark and haunting, particularly at night, when strange noises from the woods carry on to the house and scare the poor wife half out of her wits; meanwhile the husband seems to be possessed by a desire to renovate the house to its previous glory when the old master was in charge. This story creeps under your skin and leaves you sleeping with the lights on.
Ok, the last of the bunch is Lovecraft's REANIMATOR. I know Lovecraft has a huge fan base; I, for one, love his stories but in this case the story was written very early on his career and only published after his death, when he had achieved fame. The story lacks the classic stamp of his future work and feels a little disjointed and like it could've used a bit of editing before publishing. It isn't at par with what we are used to read from his twisted mind but, in any case, it's interesting. The narration starts with the ramblings of a Dr. who seems to be on the brink of insanity as he recollects how his assistant died and who he suspects to be the murderer. The character is a man with no scrupulous that won't allow something as small as ethics get in his way to become the medical community's star child by achieving to reanimate corpses and halt altogether the process of dying. Attaboy!
There you go, a few of the most representative short stories, and not so short, in this amazing galore of zombie love. Get you newly furbished zombie apocalypse bunker and have a happy comfy reading!
December 15, 2008
A superb collection of zombie tales with stories by:
Clive Barker
Ramsey Campbell
Manly Wade Wellman
R. Chetwynd-Hayes
Edgar Allan Poe
Karl Edward Wagner
Charles L. Grant
Basil Copper
M.R. James
Nicholas Royle
Brian Lumley
H.P. Lovecraft
Lisa Tuttle
David Riley
Graham Masterton
David Sutton
Les Daniels
Hugh B. Cave
Michael Marshall Smith
Peter Tremayne
Dennis Etchison
Christopher Fowler
Robert Bloch
Kim Newman
Joe R. Lansdale
Clive Barker
Ramsey Campbell
Manly Wade Wellman
R. Chetwynd-Hayes
Edgar Allan Poe
Karl Edward Wagner
Charles L. Grant
Basil Copper
M.R. James
Nicholas Royle
Brian Lumley
H.P. Lovecraft
Lisa Tuttle
David Riley
Graham Masterton
David Sutton
Les Daniels
Hugh B. Cave
Michael Marshall Smith
Peter Tremayne
Dennis Etchison
Christopher Fowler
Robert Bloch
Kim Newman
Joe R. Lansdale
July 26, 2012
I really enjoyed this collection. Had a nice mix of themes, humor, horror, types of zombies, story lengths, etc. The beginning stories were a little heavy on the aspiring writer hero (come on people, let's get creative), but overall was quite varied. I will probably check out some other collections in this series.
January 24, 2016
For a mammoth book of zombies, there are no zombies. Ghosts are not zombies, Frankenstein's Monster is not a zombie. Zombie's don't talk, work, handle weapons. This collection of short stories fell short of being mammoth. Pass on this one.
March 6, 2009
Loved it! It was a great mix of old stories from authors like Edgar Allen Poe and M.R. James, as well as more current authors like Clive Barker.
February 7, 2024
This is the Best Zombie Anthology I have come across, some very unique and haunting stories
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May 1, 2024Zombiethon: https://youtu.be/y276zuAjGj8?si=rEqXU...
February 2, 2020
Some of the stories are really good, and some of them are extremely bad. Overall it's a good way to get a taste of different authors. It has a nice selection, ranging from classical works to more modern humorous titles.
I guess I can appreciate the fact that not all of these stories were good, only about half of them. It allowed me to better understand what I like in literature, and what I don't.
My only real complaint might be that some of the stories don't have anything to do with zombies. The Crustacean Pit(?), for example, was mostly a boring story about someone's ex-girlfriend, with zombies taking up about one paragraph at the very end. Quite dull.
But some really good authors in there as well.
I guess I can appreciate the fact that not all of these stories were good, only about half of them. It allowed me to better understand what I like in literature, and what I don't.
My only real complaint might be that some of the stories don't have anything to do with zombies. The Crustacean Pit(?), for example, was mostly a boring story about someone's ex-girlfriend, with zombies taking up about one paragraph at the very end. Quite dull.
But some really good authors in there as well.
March 13, 2019
A very mxied bag. Most of the stories were of the "okay but nothing special" category. A few were terrible, a few were excellent. Surprisingly, the Top of the Bill story by Clive Barker was one of the worst - predictable and poorly edited, with comma splices galore.
The best of the bunch all came in the middle of the anthology; The Crucian Pit, The Disapproval of Jeremy Cleave, Treading the Maze, They're Coming For You, Mission to Margal, Later. I'd like to read more by Lisa Tuttle and Michael Marshall Smith, so at least I got something out of the anthology.
I wouldn't recommend this. There are far better horror anthologies out there.
The best of the bunch all came in the middle of the anthology; The Crucian Pit, The Disapproval of Jeremy Cleave, Treading the Maze, They're Coming For You, Mission to Margal, Later. I'd like to read more by Lisa Tuttle and Michael Marshall Smith, so at least I got something out of the anthology.
I wouldn't recommend this. There are far better horror anthologies out there.
December 31, 2021
This was such a great anthology of stories, something for everyone in the way of zombies whatever your taste.
From masters of horror such as Cliver Barker, Ramsay Campbell, Kim Newman, Robert Bloch, Peter Tremayne, Graham Masterton and many others to the ultimate classics such as Poe, Lovecraft, James and Le Fanu.
From sci fi zombies, graphic shockers to classic style traditional horror stories this has a little of each.
I love these books, there are so many of them and though I'm not a fan of short stories I always find quite a few in each collection that were amazing and stood out, great quality stories and a must for any horror fanatic.
From masters of horror such as Cliver Barker, Ramsay Campbell, Kim Newman, Robert Bloch, Peter Tremayne, Graham Masterton and many others to the ultimate classics such as Poe, Lovecraft, James and Le Fanu.
From sci fi zombies, graphic shockers to classic style traditional horror stories this has a little of each.
I love these books, there are so many of them and though I'm not a fan of short stories I always find quite a few in each collection that were amazing and stood out, great quality stories and a must for any horror fanatic.
May 9, 2025
The only problem with a massive book of zombie short stories (and a poem) is that you know what the creatures are going to be - no spoilers here but they're zombies!
The variety of zombies was impressive, from your classic "braaiiiiinsss" type to surprisingly sexy or creepily intelligent undeads.
These were good quality short stories from pedigree authors. While the sexual politics was a bit "off" in a few of the stories - why some horror and Sci-Fi writers feel the need to write women as 1970's Playboy bunnies? It was a genuinely enjoyable read and one I'll definitely return to.
The variety of zombies was impressive, from your classic "braaiiiiinsss" type to surprisingly sexy or creepily intelligent undeads.
These were good quality short stories from pedigree authors. While the sexual politics was a bit "off" in a few of the stories - why some horror and Sci-Fi writers feel the need to write women as 1970's Playboy bunnies? It was a genuinely enjoyable read and one I'll definitely return to.
January 12, 2019
This book was disappointing. I thought it would be all about zombies and have fast paced short stories but it was more about love. The majority of the stories were about how a loved one had died and somehow come back as some form of zombie. Not my kind of zombie book.
My favourites was ‘they’re coming for you’ because it was funny and I quite liked ‘Herbert west-reanimator’ because it had that classic feel to it.
Some of the other were sort of ok but a lot were boring.
My favourites was ‘they’re coming for you’ because it was funny and I quite liked ‘Herbert west-reanimator’ because it had that classic feel to it.
Some of the other were sort of ok but a lot were boring.
November 9, 2020
Loose definitions of "zombie" but overall a good collection. Some of the longer stories aren't worth the trouble but there are enough gems - some humorous, some scary - to tip the balance: Wellman's slave revenge, Chetwynd-Hayes' walking dead bureaucracy, Wagner's proto Blair Witch classic, Copper's haunted house, Masterton's Peter Pan perversion, Etchison's guilty TV, and Lansdale's over-the-top nonsense are stand-outs.
January 22, 2021
I read in mid-90s and the stories freaked me out then. They were well written and left a lasting impression on me. All the stories had their own unique take on zombies and I highly recommend. I haven't read these stories since the 90's so I'm not sure if they hold up, but my teenage self back then in the 90's loved, loved, loved this collection of wonderful and scary stories. And this book came out before zombies started coming out our asses. Wonderful book.
June 28, 2024
This zombie book should have been right up my alley, and mostly was, but it served to indicate how diverse a word the word "Zombie" can be, meaning everything from the George A. Romero classics to the original voodoo zombie implication to someone who simply wakes from the dead (as influenced by the Poe story included, not one of his strongest). The Clive Barker story that opens this volume is actually quite interesting, the best thing I've read from him so far, and while it is pretty disgusting (given it revolves around a zombie going down on someone) it had enough punky style and wit and taste with its Shakespeare influences to go down smoothly (pun intended). The following story The Song of the Slaves I enjoyed not because it was "woke" (as in knowledgeable, intelligent, enlightened, etc.) but because I found it really interesting. Of course the Lovecraft story is also really good.
July 23, 2023
A lot of super interesting stories. My top 3: (1) Treading the Maze, (2) The Grey House, (3) Schalken the Painter.
TW// SA for The Taking of Mr. Bill and On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks
Also, holy cow, I enjoyed the concept of Herbert West - Reanimator, but it was my first Lovecraft, and yeah, he was soooooooo racist 🫥
TW// SA for The Taking of Mr. Bill and On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with Dead Folks
Also, holy cow, I enjoyed the concept of Herbert West - Reanimator, but it was my first Lovecraft, and yeah, he was soooooooo racist 🫥
March 20, 2025
Got this from a friend as a gift and enjoyed most of the stories, even though there were a couple which were very icky due to the overt misogyny on display. Overall, would recommend to any zombie fans as so many different variants on the genre are used, even if it being published in the early 90's meant it was a decade too early to include anything from Brian Keene.
September 15, 2025
What a great anthology. I enjoyed every entry, to some extent anyway. What I especially liked was that most of these stories don't involve the modern brain-dead zombies. Instead, most feature undead humans that, quite often, can think and talk and act like regular folks. This volume is worth a home on every zombie reader's shelf.
May 5, 2017
Pretty much what you'd expect from an anthology. Some very good, some very bad. Worth a read if you're into that kind of thing, it's good for dipping in and out of.
June 6, 2018
It was an interesting mix. I enjoyed most of the stories and skipped through the stories I didn't enjoy. A good read for a couple of dollars.
July 2, 2018
Two stars... one for each of the only two stories in this entire collection that I actually enjoyed. What a waste of my time.
March 6, 2019
I only enjoyed two stories; Poe's and H.P. Lovecraft's. This collection just wasn't for me.
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