Ben Erickson’s Reviews > Interval > Status Update

Why Zombies? It's been done to death. Why not just have the world ends and the few survivors just have to survive. Read the Novels of the Change By S.M. Sterling to see what I mean.

Chad wrote: "Why Zombies? It's been done to death. Why not just have the world ends and the few survivors just have to survive. Read the Novels of the Change By S.M. Sterling to see what I mean."

Normally I'd agree with you about zombies becoming played out and overdone, but most of what's being produced is quite simply bad zombie movies/books/comics/etc and it unfortunately buries the gems of the genre, like this series is turning out to be.

Just have zombies tearing through people that are holed up in a building and I don't give a damn. But take the focus completely off of the zombies and onto the main characters as they struggle to come to grips with what's happened and to maintain their humanity in a world that has become decidedly inhuman and you've suddenly got something that I want to read. Same with The Walking Dead and the We're Alive radio drama. The "zombie apocalypse" serves as an excellent backdrop to tell this kind of a story and a compelling narrative tool when used sparingly and with a gentle touch.