Best New Zombie Tales

Best New Zombie Tales #2

by James Roy Daley, John Everson, Tim Waggoner

Want the Greatest Zombie Stories Ever Written?

BEST NEW ZOMBIE TALES (Vol. 2)

Over 100,000 words.

Includes Amazing Fiction by:

Bram Stoker Award Winner, David Niall Wilson
British Fantasy Award Nominee, Rio Youers
Bram Stoker Award Nominee, Nate Kenyon
Multiple Award Winning Author, Cody Goodfellow
Authorlink New Author Award Winner, Tim Waggoner
George Turner Prize Nominee, Narrelle M. Harris
Bram Stoker Award Winner, John Everson
Pulitzer Prize, Bram Stoker Nominee, Mort Castle
And so much more...

Genres: Zombies, Horror, Anthologies

338 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2010

About the author

JAMES ROY DALEY is a writer, editor, and musician. He studied film at the Toronto Film School, music at Humber College, and English at the University of Toronto. He is the author of Terror Town, Into Hell, 13 Drops of Blood, Zombie Kong, and The Dead Parade. In 2009 he founded Books of the Dead Press, where he enjoyed immediate success working with many of the biggest names in horror. He edited anthologies such as Zombie Kong - Anthology, Best New Vampire Tales, Classic Vampire Tales, and the Best New Zombie Tales series.

Reviews

[Angela Verdenius · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice variety of the biting kind! LOL

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before you read any further, my Fanboy Disclaimer: I dig anthologies. The reason I love them is simple; I have a problem. Every book I open, I finish. Most days, I’ve got so much to do I just don’t have time to take a big enough bite to satisfy the hunger. That can get really frustrating; especially if it’s not that great a book. The solution, for me, has been copious amounts of Anthologies. In general, most anthology stories are open and shut in an average twenty-five pages. Have an hour? BAM! Two books down. Half that time? Not a problem; you’ll be done and cleaned up way before curfew.

Now, to the books. Each of these books contains twenty (nineteen if you don’t count the author’s introduction) short stories and no two authors hold down the same fort. You have everything here from techno-Zombies to Voodoo body snatchers even to stranger than fiction morphological freaks. Not only that, but even when you do have two similar types of animates, the arc that they follow is absolutely unique. To fully paint the picture of exactly what these books are and are not, I’d need to write forty full-color reviews up and down. That’s something I can’t do, and you may not hang through.

My review, then, is this: I haven’t come across an anthology I regretted buying, but I’ve never landed one without the here-and-there oddball either. These two stand toward the front of the horde as being definitely worth your time (vol. one being my favorite of the two.) Both contain strong language, graphic content, and sexual themes. These are not for the kids. Keep your eye out for gems, such as: Pegleg and Paddy Save the World, Paradise Denied, and Dredging Up the Dead. If you have a young son, you may want to skip past Connections; that one's a tear jerker.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good collection of stories. Not as many real standouts like the first collection but there were some good ones that could be developed into full length stories. Most importantly there were no stinkers or political sermons dressed up as stories. My favorites included: coming home, the truth about brains, gravedigger, viva las Vegas, dredging up the dead, camille smiled, and the finger. Special nod to "the old man and the dead" because daring to write as papa Hemingway takes a lot of stones and it is done surprisingly well. Takes a certain arrogance or confidence in your writing, but it was solid enough to be worth a shout out. Im sure some hardcore Hemingway fans would probably feel differently and think the author's chutzpah is not admirable.

[C Hargitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed every story but one

Hated The Old Man and the Dead, I couldn't even finish it it was so dull. Every other story was quite good and I still recommend this series to those that love unique zombie tales.

[David McDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Those familiar with my reviews will know that I love postapocalyptica and all that is the world going to hell in a handbasket. Inevitably, probably in no small part to the current surge in popularity due to shows like AMC's The Walking Dead, many of these tales focus on zombies; and I have always enjoyed this horror sub-genre, albeit that there are varying levels of quality in the stories produced in print and on screen.
Books of the Dead Press, helmed by respected author James Roy Daley, have produced Best New Zombie Tales: Vol 2, in an effort to bring you, the reader, the crème de la crème of stories of the undead.

Having read and been thoroughly impressed with the first entry in this series, I had no hesitation in picking up the second instalment; especially when factoring in the talent heavy roster of contributing authors, such as: Bram Stoker Award winners John Everson and David Niall Wilson; and Pulitzer prize nominee Mort Castle.
Proceedings kick off with an introduction from James Roy Daley who picks up where he left off last time, being bullied by H.P.Lovecraft... Thereafter, the reader is treated to 19 short stories, some of the highlights for me being as follows:

Rio Youers tale of the undead Bury Me Not, is the first short story in the collection and although a tale of the undead, might not be quite what you expect. This entry is a tale of dark magic and would be worthy of an episode of The Twilight Zone.

In Gravedigger, Nate Kenyon sets his story in its entirety in a morgue and had my stomach churning with the first few paragraphs... and he hadn't even started on the dead walking at this point! Gravedigger is a punchy, smart little tale and could easily be expanded into a full length novel.

Derek Gunn takes the reader on a genre mash-up journey to the Wild Weird West in The Third Option, a tale of walking dead gunslingers and Native American curses.

Cody Goodfellow's We Will Rebuild is set in a postapocalyptic town and focuses on the town's sheriff, trying to maintain law & order while dealing with "competing interests".

The final entry in this title is The Finger by Matt Hults. Having experienced the work of this author before, I was not disappointed by this story. Hults brings his own particular warped mind to bear on a tale of the undead that's unique and memorable.

Critically, I'd have to say that Vol 2 isn't as strong as its predecessor. There are stories contained within this second entry to the series that paled in comparison to more novel yarns in the same book and in fact, I found myself skipping over one of the stories for being entirely too whimsical for my own taste.
That is not to say that Best New Zombie Tales: Vol 2 is not worthy of your attention; simply that Books of the Dead Press has consistently presented strong work with all titles I have had the pleasure of reading and when compared with them, this title comes up slightly short.

Overall, Best New Zombie Tales: Vol 2 offers a collection of tales of the undead with varying takes on the sub-genre. The stories on the whole are novel, intelligent and compelling but in my opinion, the title as a whole is not as robust as its predecessor. All the same, I will definitely be picking up Best New Zombie Tales: Vol 3!

[Bill Borre]

"The Finger" by Matt Hults - A Skinwalker comes after Jimmy to retrieve its ingested finger. Jimmy desperately attempts to cut it out of himself but only succeeds in removing one of his organs. He tells the sheriff the Skinwalker is only playing dead, and as the sheriff escorts him to the car for the trip to the hospital, Jimmy thinks he sees the Skinwalker's four-fingered hand holding up the slain detective's corpse like a puppeteer in order to wave goodbye to him.

"Dredging Up The Dead" by J. W. Schnarr - A fisherman discovers barrels of Russian toxic chemicals included in his catch which turn them into zombie fish. He dumps the contaminated catch overboard but whales eat the zombie fish and become zombie whales. He notifies the Russians who shoot the whales and sink his boat leaving him adrift on a raft. The bullets don't kill the zombie whales and they circle him until he runs out of resources.

"We Will Rebuild" by Cody Goodfellow - Snopes is put on trial for shooting a zombie where he learns that the judge is also one of the walking dead.

[Shayne · Rating 1 out of 5]

After enjoying Vol 1 of this book, I thought for sure Vol 2 would be at least just as good. I was severely disappointed. Most of the stories were boring and unimaginative. Out of the 20 stories, I only enjoyed about 3.

[Abigail · Rating 2 out of 5]

meh.