The Best of Tomes of The Dead

Tomes of the Dead #2,4,5

by Matt Smith, Al Ewing, Rebecca Levene

Tomes of The tales of the hungry dead, roaming the earth, bringing a charnel plague to humanity.

Tomes of The tales of the hungry dead, roaming the earth, bringing a charnel plague to humanity. Tomes of The where graveyards yawn and zombies push up through worm-ridden soil as undeath wakes rigor mortis stiffened limbs. Tomes of The Dead : the very best in zombie fiction from some of the finest talents working in horror today.



Volume 1 in this series collects together The Words of Their Roaring, I Zombie and Anno Mortis

Genres: Zombies, Horror, Anthologies

672 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2010

About the author

Librarian Note: There are more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Matt Smith worked for publisher Pan Macmillan as a desk editor before becoming Assistant Editor on 2000 AD, Britain's award-winning weekly SF anthology title - a comic he had read religiously for the previous fifteen years. He has been editor of the galaxy's greatest comic since 2002, and lives in Oxford.

Reviews

[Mark Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

VERDICT:
Worth the money? YES
An interesting trio of untraditional zombie stories (ANNO MORTIS WAS GREAT. Ignore Michael O.)

The Words of Their Roaring (2/5)
I, Zombie (3.5/5)
Anno Mortis (4/5)

3 CONS:
1. I found the first story a bit of a pill to get through. Characters were not very compelling IMO
2. The second story drags it's ass for the first half and then things get INTERESTING
3. Needed a more traditional zombie story (replacing the first one?)

3 PROS:
1. Anno Mortis. Anno Mortis. Anno Mortis. It merges a look of myths into one comprehensive story that actually had me staying up reading. Many memorable scenes... but no great 'revelation'. I won't forget this story(unlike the other two).
2. Nice variety of zombie stories that break the mold a bit
3. The set, as a whole, is worth reading at least once. (I'm sure there's better stuff out there though)

[Michael O. · Rating 2 out of 5]

This work is a compilation made up of Matthew Smith's The Words of Their Roaring, Al Ewing's I, Zombie, and Rebecca Levene's Anno Mortis. So I'll review each separately.

The Words of Their Roaring (2/5) - The first two thirds of this book is a pretty standard, trite zombie apocalypse scenario. The last third does go somewhere interesting with the zombie genre, however, and partially redeems the rest. In terms of style, Smith unfortunately has the habit of tossing in allusions and phrases from classic literature which only points out how his own prose is merely workmanlike.

I, Zombie (4.5/5) - This one made the whole tome worth it. Told at a breakneck pace with a huge twist on the zombie mythos coming every 50 pages or so, this is Grant Morrison doing a zombie novel. Ewing isn't content to stick within one genre, either, and I, Zombie swings wildly from hitman fiction to Lovecraft to redemption tale without missing a beat. Just one warning - this section is completely and totally disgusting (which is more points in its favor, I would say, or else why are you reading zombie fiction?).

Anno Mortis (1/5) - Awful. Boring, badly written, with uninteresting and undistinguishable characters. There's nothing here that you haven't read elsewhere and better.

[Shelley Raperport · Rating 1 out of 5]

awful book,3 books in one and the worst zombie books I've had the displeasure of reading!and believe me I've read a few zombie books in my time..

[Helena Sheibler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some really fine work in here. Check it out.