This is the third installment from the chronicles of sheriff Penny Miller. When I first learned of Sheriff Penny Miller in the first installment of TheThis is the third installment from the chronicles of sheriff Penny Miller. When I first learned of Sheriff Penny Miller in the first installment of The Hungry I said, “One strikingly hot lady in a white wedding dress and a shotgun to hand, a band of rednecks and bikers, the army and a mutated virus and oh the undead is the recipe for this fun fully loaded brain entrails explosion of a high octane charged zombie story.” Then there was the second installment The Hungry 2: The Wrath of God and I said, “This second installment involving Sheriff Penny and the zombie outbreak is more fast-paced than the first. Sheriff Penny is not in a wedding dress this time around, just basic apparel; a vest. And she is to be put through one of the greatest tests of her life. Her friendship with her comrades under test and she must know who to trust. Set in the unforgiving barren land of the Nevada desert.” This third installment has more of the same thing the setting is different a mountainous green landscape. The victims are a population of people unawares of the zombies at large. The story was fast paced and was read in not time at all, it had me hooked with just the right elements, I did want more, more from Penny Millers world. To the new reader I suggest going back to the beginning of the Sheriff Penny Miller story, as the first and the second installment was the best for me so far and this was an adequate addition until the next installment.
Sheriff Penny Miller, you stole my heart when I first learned of you i “Uhh-huhh-hhuuuh.” You hear that? I hope not!
Those are the grunts of the undead.
Sheriff Penny Miller, you stole my heart when I first learned of you in the Hungry debut. Now you have rightfully brought it back again with some sweet justice in continuing to kill slobbering, rotting, stinky-assed walking corpses.
Miller was a unique specimen. The only living person to have received both the zombie virus and the antidote. She went to hell and back and survived. Her nightmares testify to the fact that the last thing she wants is to be back in zombie central to pick up dirty laundry, a place where she and her friends almost died.
She is given options: money and freedom for her band of men to get in and out before anyone knows. Back to the unforgiving and hidden violence of the desert plagued with the undead. They promised them greener pastures in return – and money. Will they be able to spend the money?
What people would do for money and freedom.
Has Sheriff Penny Miller bargained for more than she can handle?
“Hell no!” I say. She is one of the toughest gals you’re gonna find on this darn earth, and with plenty of heart.
One thing for sure is she and her band of men know what’s to be expected in the unforgiving barren land, and this time ‘round they’re experienced in killing the undead.
We also learn Penny’s heart is as big as the desert she walks on. She’s a wounded soul emotionally and needs some loving.
Oh yeah. Another thing is they are in a race against time.
There is a clock ticking from 26 hours and 36 minutes down to zero, the annihilation of the zombie zone. Which will then be known as a nuked zone!
This second installment involving Sheriff Penny and the zombie outbreak is more fast-paced than the first. Sheriff Penny is not in a wedding dress this time around, just basic apparel; a vest. And she is to be put through one of the greatest tests of her life. Her friendship with her comrades is also under a test and she must know who to trust.
In this installment, Sheriff Penny meets an equal of sorts in the shape of Major Francine Hanratty, dubbed Rat by her peers. Together they fight for leadership with Penny and her comrades and Rat’s comrades in tow. They must get through this together in order to survive.
Las Vegas had been abandoned and Nevada been placed under quarantine until the whole thing gets resolved.
They will find themselves outnumbered, under-supplied, and behind enemy lines again.
In zombie central they find life not of the undead but in the form of a strange man who talks of belief and minions of the evil one. He’s just what this story needs, an interesting addition to the already colourful characters within in this story. (For the newcomers, this book can be read without reading the debut.)
The already large following of Sheriff Penny Miller will be up in arms rejoicing this fun, fully-loaded, brain entrails explosion of a high-octane charged zombie story.
Miller still displays plenty of humour and common sense. For example: “Miller had learned a long time back that a man in lust was also unguarded and dumb as a fence post.”
Also, Rat, with an equal sense of humour: ” ‘What about them [the zombies]?’ snapped Rat. ‘They’re unarmed, unarmored, uncoordinated, and from what I understand, dumber than dog shit. Like I said, one headshot takes them out. That’s a piece of cake for a first-rate team of marksmen. What are you so worried about, Dale? ‘ “
Let me lay all the cards on the table and let me tell it to you in a straight and simple way of what we have here before us. In this story John Hornor Let me lay all the cards on the table and let me tell it to you in a straight and simple way of what we have here before us. In this story John Hornor Jacobs has put before us a case of the good, the bad and the ugly!
The Good = a mum, son and a father = courageous, survivors and fighters.
The Bad = the Slavers = enslave women and men, selfish and want to control the living.
The Ugly = the Shamblers = the undead, cannibals and ugly.
The scene is set the desolate earth the dark earth of ruin and destruction. The options are quite simply, the fates set before the characters in this story are
To lead, Follow, Be enslaved, Eaten,
Or be of the undead.
One thing or sure is only the ones that are wise or strong and have perseverance will survive.
The story opens with a scene of macabre and anarchy in an hospital clinic overrun by people eating themselves. We learn of one brave and likeable woman here Dr. Lucy and we walk with her for quite some time as she witness the world go to shit and fall.
The authors successfully leaves you hanging on at the end very sentence hooked and engrossed with anticipation on what will happen next right from the first page till the end.
His writing style is smart and really nailed the right words short and sweet sentences and immerses you right in the thick of the story.
New York. Chicago. Los Angeles. Atlanta. Miami. Mexico. Canada. Europe and more. They all fell victim to a virus that caused seizures and....cannibalism. Then there was an explosion and large mushroom clouds.
The has to be some people to rise and converge and preserve some humanity, goodness, community and a possible light in this dark earth that has arisen!
A new King, Queen and Prince shall rise from the forsaken desolate bloodstained earth.
To protect and serve those in need a monarchy of daring courageous and spunky individuals shall I do hope be preserved and survive the darkest days set before them in this story.
"They passed a pileup in the left lane. Mangled cars. People on the ground, some bleeding. Some contorting. Some spasming. Some were already upright. Revivified and shambling. Zombies."
"The cloud we walk underneath is the same. It's hideous and by turns. The mushroom rises behind us in the east. Before us, the setting sun smears the sky with color. The interstate is a long thread through burning pine-woods. We're higher up than the rest of the land, a little. A delta. Without the world being set afire, it'd be muggy and we'd be swarmed with Mosquitos. Chalk up one point in favor of nuclear annihilation. No more skeeters."
"The world loves the tomato because it is red. The apple is red too. But the tomatoes flesh is the flesh of mankind. Do the dead love the flesh of man because it is like a tomato? We will never know. But I have my suspicions."
"There are times and things you can never forget. Your first kiss from someone you love. The first time you have sex. Your first broken heart. An there's the first time you ride a steam locomotive through a horde of zombies. I'd rank it up there with first kiss. Maybe even sex."
They are soulless killers, zombies or Zee for short in this story. They were called "The Volgoroth" It all began nearly two centuries ago the decline tThey are soulless killers, zombies or Zee for short in this story. They were called "The Volgoroth" It all began nearly two centuries ago the decline the human race began to regress. The powers that be then felt the need to start pumping a psychotropic substance into the water. Cells. Genetics. Evolution. The population reached a point of no return all hell broke loose they were divide across the land, some of the players and pushers were called Traders, Keepers and Prospectors. A group of mercenaries are hired on a mission by Keepers and are about to relive the bloody horrors they thought was left behind and vanquished.
A zombie tale presented in a visceral fashion, the author goes straight to the action of the story and it all unfolds in your minds imagery quite well like a good movie flick. This was short I only wished he went on a bit longer before he stopped the story, I just hope he delivers with an equally good continuation to this zombie story. This story and The Hungry by Harry Shannon brings zombies in a clear cut style of storytelling in just the right balance of plot, characters, dialogue, description, thrill and horror.
"It's hard to say what drives men in desperate times, and harder still to judge the decisions they make. In his day, the world outside was swarming with the worst kind of loud thirsty monsters. Those must have been bleak times indeed, and thinking about it now, I'm still not entirely sure how humanity managed to pull through."
"Broken glass crunches under my feet as I clear the doorway. I'm not sure what Cartier used to sell, but it must have been worth a ton for pennies to run off on his own."
This was a really good collection of stories. You will find in these pages crimes, terrors, horrors and the bizarre. He has covered many types of storThis was a really good collection of stories. You will find in these pages crimes, terrors, horrors and the bizarre. He has covered many types of stories from zombies to the haunted. Jason has mixed them up well and not bored you with the same old style and theme in this collection. I like his style of writing its tense and engrossing he really makes makes you feel part of the thrill and terror. A writer to watch out for with a promising future that has got to be heard more of. Mostly all the stories here i was hooked and enjoyed them. He has potential messed up my thoughts for a couple of days. Jason's writing has all the hallmarks of a well schooled writer and reader of the dark tale. I believe in this writer really doing well a fresh new talent.
Isolation Haunting and an atmospheric story you will be hanging on every words meaningful mark and melancholic expression. Haunting story of loss and eerie homes.
Chemical burn A thrilling story of a home brewed liquid that you could experience highs from but the creator sees the dangers and needs another road in life. Written well again hooks you and engrossing.
Room 118 A story of terror and horror. One mans obsession with what lies behind room 118. Will there be any horrors behind those closed doors? Well done story.
Survival the fittest Is exactly as named suggests, the survival of the fittest in a world of the undead. A good little zombie tale i liked his descriptive writing he places you in the thick of it and the terror.
Serpent's Son A story of a serpent and a new birth. The news of missing girls and a rapist. Chilling and bizarre.
The Seminary If they are performing near you, the Seminary, stay well away. If you don't you best make sure you have faith.
Divorce and the Black Cat Alcohol and divorce destroyers of the soul. But hey leave the lovely cat alone.
House of Coal A mysterious fire in a home and an equally mysterious protagonist.
Before the Resurrection they all had normal lives and families, when all went to the undead their roles and priorities changed. One man Marco, changedBefore the Resurrection they all had normal lives and families, when all went to the undead their roles and priorities changed. One man Marco, changed completely, once a renowned Doctor hes now a hired Hitman to execute the undead. Returns them, for their families, back to dead as they should not be walking the earth undead. It is a task that requires emotional detachment and one that Marco the marksman has developed on. There are many things he had left behind one being his wife, four years now and no trace of her, she is possibly another lost to the undead. Some big power pushers want Marco on the trail of an old buddy to recover him and some needed information on The Resurrection, the outbreak. The buddy is Roger Ballard a genius, a preeminent research neurologist and encephalopathologist. There's also another man that joins Marco, his name is Wu a trained assassin of the living not one known to kill the undead, a military agent. These two are about to face the most undead that they have ever had to face and try to come through alive with the locating and delivering of the vital important information. He must consider that in the wrong hands it could doom the whole earth.
The story was written well and the writer really gets you into the psyche of the characters and the loneliness they face, you feel the death they partake in and are surrounded with and walk their walk on the Grimm earth, he places you in the thick of the battle in the search of Roger Ballard.
The pace does not let up in this volume. I must say there is one bad ass femme fatale with a sword in this story. She takes it to the Governor and oh The pace does not let up in this volume. I must say there is one bad ass femme fatale with a sword in this story. She takes it to the Governor and oh boy some real torture ensues a real gore feast. But she rocks! They return eventually to the Prison with one person missing a hand and the zombies are still popping out of the woodwork. Loved to hear more from the brutal Governor. For 2012 there is this help from CDC on being prepared on a zombie outbreak!
[image]
CDC has a fun new way of teaching about emergency preparedness. Our new graphic novel, "Preparedness 101: Zombie Pandemic" demonstrates the importance of being prepared in an entertaining way that people of all ages will enjoy. Readers follow Todd, Julie, and their dog Max as a strange new disease begins spreading, turning ordinary people into zombies. Stick around to the end for a surprising twist that will drive home the importance of being prepared for any emergency. Included in the novel is a Preparedness Checklist so that readers can get their family, workplace, or school ready before disaster strikes.click here for free novella.
There is sighting of an aircraft a few decide to venture out in search of the landed aircraft. They end up meeting a new terror presented in the form There is sighting of an aircraft a few decide to venture out in search of the landed aircraft. They end up meeting a new terror presented in the form of the Governor. The rest of the band of surviors and their new found haven the Prison must not be compromised. This is getting even more interesting the whole zombie scenario plus throw in the character The Governor good stuff!.
The pace is still there and the story is still gripping. The zombies are still around and unrelenting. The prison is still their fort against the undeThe pace is still there and the story is still gripping. The zombies are still around and unrelenting. The prison is still their fort against the undead. Relationships between the people shift, some more die and control has been shifted. A decision has been made to vote for the new leader of the group. Sanity of many are still up for a shrinks assessment. I'm still loving it. I have not yet started watching the Tv series, after the next volume and when I have read of The Governor, it should be an apt opportunity to start....more
The band of survivors hit the road with the R.V in search of greener pastures equipped with more guns and plenty of determination. Their spirit will sThe band of survivors hit the road with the R.V in search of greener pastures equipped with more guns and plenty of determination. Their spirit will soon hit bottom, loved ones die, safer ground proves to be unsafe their very margin of sanity is broken and all hell seems to let loose. There is still hope! There is a few new arrivals and some good news. This story tackles their human struggle and served up page-turning entertainment. The whole dilemma of humans in search of greener pastures and safety from the undead attracts our humanness we seem to find a bond and parallels with own possible everyday struggles against adversity. This is also what makes this such a good success on the big screen. The sadness of the undead, you must not forget, and also reminded in this story, that they are not just monsters but were once human souls loved ones, mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers. I found the Alan Moore artwork in the previous episode better. The story is becoming more gripping and the characters even more great, I just hope they stick around further in the story and don't join the undead. ...more
[image]
We are amidst a Zombie phenomena, well they have been around since that movie Night of the Living Dead, But did not have as much coverage,
[image]
We are amidst a Zombie phenomena, well they have been around since that movie Night of the Living Dead, But did not have as much coverage, there is so many novels and movies now with a zombie theme. [image] Some neat artwork here representing a zombie gore feast of a struggle for a band of humans against the odds for survival. This is as most people know the genisis of the tv-series of the same name. I have watched one episode with some reservations due to the gore level and wanted to read the graphic novel first. I must say I am hooked now, as there is a real good story here, I love the band of survivors, especially the brave son and i just want to be there on the road with them.
[image]
Tv Series Trailer featured here and The making of it...more
One strikingly hot lady in a white wedding dress and a shotgun to hand, a band of rednecks and bikers, the army and a mutated virus and oh the undead One strikingly hot lady in a white wedding dress and a shotgun to hand, a band of rednecks and bikers, the army and a mutated virus and oh the undead is the recipe for this fun fully loaded brain entrails explosion of a high octane charged zombie story.
The lady in the white wedding dress on the book cover is the best hope for humanity enough said enjoy and savor. The story has some real good characters that shine and make it an interesting read I love the gal in the white dress she kicks ass and frequently says “…k duck” lovely, if you ever happen to come across her and decide to hitch up together don’t take her home to meet the parents. I would love to see her in the movie ‘Meet the Zombies’ starring de Niro and her as his new daughter-in-law.
“The cruiser hit the first zombie, a soccer mom in a t-shirt and skirt. She flew wide of the speeding car, pin wheeled through the air and knocked over several other zombies. They fell like a formation of undead bowling pins. A nun slammed face first into the hood and flew over the roof of the cruiser. A little boy in a baseball uniform made Miller cringe. After that, it became difficult to sort out what happened. The car crashed through rows and rows of the creatures in slow motion, sort of like a plane flying through a flock of birds, only everything was a lot louder than that… and much bigger stuff than bird and bug guts got all over their windshield. Things Miller didn’t choose to identify.”
A dog a man's best friend and in this case a girls, Alex the main protagonist in this story. A story set in the backdrop of a desolate land forsaken wA dog a man's best friend and in this case a girls, Alex the main protagonist in this story. A story set in the backdrop of a desolate land forsaken with an ever growing amount of people, particularly young, transforming into Zombies. Alex tries to come to terms with her fate set before her. She has a sense of smell which is far more greater than the average persons capabilities, she can sniff out the Zombies, the dogs she encounters in this story seem to sense that too. She is 15 and an orphan with a brain tumor. Alex teams up across the land with Ellie aged 8, a dog and Tom an explosive ordnance disposal expert and slowly their fates weight up in the balance of survival. The whole decline of events started with something called 'the Zap' since then there has been no planes or iPods working an E.M.P electromagnetic pulse killed most electronic devices, power grids and communication arrays. Alex finds herself in company of a band of men and they are from a small knitted group called The Rule, what will her fate be in this story how will her journey end? Well this question was the driving force of the story for me that kept me immersed and one that the reader will have to discover for themselves. The story ends with more left to your own imagination of what next to come, so there seems to be a second book in the works. I enjoyed the story it had enough of a dosage of cannibal Zombies, Love and fear.
I interviewed Jonathan Maberry recently here. He talks about writing, favorite books, Bram Stoker Awards and Martial arts.
A military bio-weapon could I interviewed Jonathan Maberry recently here. He talks about writing, favorite books, Bram Stoker Awards and Martial arts.
A military bio-weapon could be the most dangerous weapon to us all. Maberry takes you back through the turning process to where it all started with the first host. Homer Gibbon was the states most notorious serial killer others watched and saw him be killed via lethal injection or did they? There is death and then life again well kind of, the undead shall walk upon the earth and Jonathan Maberry is you tale conjurer. His dialogue, and sequences of events are all written spot on and carve out a zombie dilemma of sorts a literal version of the Walking Dead right from the first infection. All that makes good reading is here likable characters, element of surprise and the bad guys.
“Homer Gibbon was a legend at Rockview. A convict’s convict. They called him the Angel of Death. Some of them had Gibbon’s face tattooed on their arms.”
“This is a serum transfer pathogen,” he said in a ghostly voice. “It lives in any body fluid. Blood and sputum would be rife with newly hatched larvae. The logic inherent in parasites would cause the host to transfer the larvae through the most efficient possible means. Spitting into the eyes, nose, or mouth of a target host would work well. The parasites would be absorbed through the mucus membranes. But the most efficient and direct way to guarantee infection would be to forcibly introduce the parasites directly into the bloodstream.”
A book trailer available to watch not for young viewers @here.
[image]
A girl who’s traveled the land, her mind filled with people, sights and words, with sins and redemption. She’s only 15 and has killed many
[image]
A girl who’s traveled the land, her mind filled with people, sights and words, with sins and redemption. She’s only 15 and has killed many the rule is kill or be killed. A desolate land of death and zombies, she did not choose this destiny. Amongst the contagious spreading of zombies, she hides from many in the shadows and is well equipped to fight twice her size equipped with her Gurkha knife. This story is written well, a story so bleak about death and survival and love has some beautifully written lines, written in eloquent prose that makes the zombie story that so much better.
The story is about death and redemption and one girl’s eventual outcome amongst darkness, at times heart-breaking. The island, The Lighthouse, The Moon and The Miracle of the Fish.
"And, too, a carnival of death, a grassy park near the city center, a merry-go-round that turns unceasing hour by hour, its old-time calliope breathing out dented and rusty notes while the slugs pull their own arms out of the sockets trying to climb aboard the moving platform, some disembodied limbs dragging in the dirt around and around, hands still gripping the metal poles—and the ones who succeed and climb aboard, mounting to the top of the wooden horses, joining with the endless motion of the machine, dazed to imbecility by gut memories of speed and human ingenuity. And the horde, in the blackout of the city night, illumined only by the headlights of the car, everywhere descending and roiling against one another like maggots in the belly of a dead cat, the grimmest and most degenerate manifestation this blighted humanity on this blighted earth—beasts of our lost pasts, spilling out of whatever hell we have made for them like the army of the damned, choked and gagging and rotted and crusty and eminently pathetic, yes, brutally, conspicuously, outrageously pathetic."
[image] The Books Behind The Reapers Are The Angels As I suspect is true of all novels, The Reapers Are the Angels is cobbled together from the fragments of other books. Any but the most passive reader will collect certain baggage from the books he or she reads—lingering impressions that stick like burrs in the back of the brain and sometimes, especially if the reader is also a writer, plant themselves in the imagination like seeds that grow into other books entirely. For me, these influences can range from a narrative style that I wish I could emulate, to an unforgettable scene, or a perfectly written sentence, or even an ideally chosen and placed word (like the word "thrapple" in Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian). For a writer, those are the things that brought you to literature in the first place—a fascination with artful storytelling—so it's not surprising that the things you admire most make their way in sometimes insidious ways into your own writing.I've heard this process referred to in a number of ways: everything from plagiarism to artful thievery to homage. But I think I like Tolstoy's metaphor best: art is a contagion. It infects you with its brilliance, and you feel inspired, however humbly, to recreate it and infect somebody else with it.
Even though it is, without question, a zombie novel, Reapers traces the source of its literary infection back to the Southern Gothic tradition and the classic stories of the American frontier. Here are some of the contagious books that have contributed to The Reapers Are the Angels.
[image]The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner. The more I write, the more I find myself in debt to Faulkner. The unquestionable master of the Southern Gothic, Faulkner is an icon for writers because he is unafraid to go big: he does not hesitate to launch into epic considerations of good and evil, womanhood and manhood, sin and corruption, nobility and redemption. You could accuse him of being melodramatic, but in an age when so many books seem to be written in a snickering, self-deprecatory style, I personally would rather see someone err in the direction of grandiosity rather than modesty. Some small homages to Faulkner in Reapers: Temple's name, which comes from Sanctuary, and the figure of Maury, who is based upon Benjy in The Sound and the Fury. Also, the Grierson episode evokes the short story "A Rose for Emily," about a woman (Emily Grierson) who refuses to make the transition from the past to the present.
[image]The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain. Reapers is structured as a classic American road novel, the form of which has its roots in Huck Finn. It is episodic, and we are drawn forward by an overdetermination of motives: an escape from whatever imprisonment is behind the hero and a pursuit of whatever freedom lies before the hero. Temple is, I think, a version of the pragmatic, earnest Huck Finn. The pseudonym she uses, Sarah Mary Williams, is the same one Huck Finn himself uses when he dressed up as a girl.
[image]Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy. For my money, this is one of the great American books of the second half of the twentieth century. Its storyline makes it more of a Western, but its style is pure Southern Gothic. The primary conflict is between an unnamed "kid" and a man who seems echo the expansive, chatty evil of a Faustian devil. I think my character Moses is a kinder, gentler version of that antagonist. In addition, a number of the scenes of vast violence in Reapers are inspired by those from Blood Meridian, particularly the infamous Comanche attack scene.
[image]Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston. You wouldn't normally associate Hurston's lovely, poetic, romantic novel with zombies—but she does tap into a folkloric kind of mysticism that has always fascinated me. My term for zombies, "meatskins," actually comes from Hurston, but she uses it simply to describe puny human beings: "meatskins dancing around the toes of time."
[image] [image]
Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell and Smonk by Tom Franklin. These are two masters of the contemporary Southern Gothic genre. My character of Temple is inspired by the tough, relentless heroines of these two novels. Both of these authors create teenage girls who have managed to survive in brutal surroundings, who have actually grown accustomed to violence and corruption. But what both these authors admire about their characters (you can feel it in the affectionate way they write about them), is their ability to maintain a certain purity within their own individual codes. These girls survive because, even though they live on the rough and tumble margins of society, they are driven by a personal idealism that tells them what to do.
And it would be remiss of me not to mention two television shows that have contributed a great deal to Reapers: Deadwood, which is the perfect representation of a violent, blustery, and wholly beautiful frontier lifestyle, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which represents a landmark in tough, intelligent, complicated and sympathetic young female protagonists. Alden Bell's Top Ten Zombie Movies [image] 10. I Walked with a Zombie Jacques Tourneur's 1943 classic illustrates the voodoo roots of zombie mythology. The stiff melodrama of this film fits perfectly with the hypnotic movements of the zombies themselves and the decaying gothic sensibility of the setting. This is a different kind of zombie: there are no half-rotted walking corpses here—only haunted figures wandering in authentically creepy trances.
[image] 9. 28 Days Later This seems to be the movie that changed the genre. Suddenly zombies were driven by fury more than hunger, and they ran after you with surprising athleticism rather than loping with a stiff, corpse-like gait. Personally, I'm a fan of the more traditional slow zombies, but I admire this movie for the way it uses the zombie backdrop to portray a very gritty story of human frailty.
[image] 8. Night of the Living Dead What George Romero did with this movie was show that zombies make a marvelously accommodating metaphor for whatever political, social or philosophical point you want to make. He shows us that modern zombie stories aren't, for the most part, about zombies—which is beautifully illustrated by the opening scene where the zombie doesn't jump out at you but lingers, unfocussed, in the background for quite a while.
[image] 7. Zombieland I love this movie partly because it is reminiscent of Dawn of the Dead in its playful fascination with post-apocalyptic landscapes but also because it features a cast of characters all of whom have already learned to be survivors. Whether through brutality or trickery or avoidance, these characters have learned to live in the midst of a zombie infestation—and their masterful handling of a blighted world is deeply satisfying to watch.
[image] 6. Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn I have no excuse for this one. I saw it as a kid and thought it was the height of wit. How could the movie be so irreverent to something as deadly serious as flesh-eating zombies? It was my Noel Coward. As a teenager, I had the movie poster fixed permanently above my bed. A grinning skull gazing at you with a sly sideways glance.
[image] 5. American Zombie A brilliant faux documentary about the marginalized population of zombies living on the fringes of Los Angeles. This movie does more than any other to humanize zombies—even turning them into an oppressed yet articulate minority. Understated and surprisingly touching.
[image] 4. Re-Animator I don't know if this exactly qualifies as a zombie movie, but I love it anyway. It delights in its perverse grossness, and it hearkens back (in a mostly sincere way, despite the number of viewers who like to see it as campy) to old fashioned mad scientist tales.
[image] 3. Cemetery Man This underrated 1994 movie, featuring Rupert Everett as a cemetery keeper who has a problem with the dead returning to life, has some of the most wonderfully absurd incarnations of zombie mythology, including a troop of zombie boy scouts, a zombie motorcyclist, and a zombie bride who is no more than a head. Plus, it features the classic line, uttered by the vivacious Anna Fulchi, “You know, you've got a real nice ossuary.” Yes, the movie wants to be a hundred different movies at once. Yes, the special effects are clumsy and the humor broad. But, curiously enough, it's also a deeply cerebral study of life circumscribed by death.
[image] 2. Dead Alive (also called Braindead) When this first came out, it was lauded as the most gory movie every made. I don't know how such things are measured, but it would certainly take some effort to find a movie more stomach-churning than this one. Priding itself on bizarre dark humor and innovative ways to be killed, the movie is great because of its unabashed Freudian subplot. Leave it to Peter Jackson to combine a zombie slaughter-fest with the psychological trauma of a severe Oedipal complex.
[image] 1. Dawn of the Dead For me, this is the archetype, this is where it all began. I remember watching it in complete wonder at all the curious reversals: the portrayal of the zombies as sad and rather pathetic background figures, the fixation on the technical logistics of survival (how much time is spent on showing how the survivors fortify and clean up that shopping mall?), the implication that humans are a far greater threat than zombies, the lack of a beginning or ending (the feeling that the movie is all middle), the portrayal of the loneliness and boredom and downright normalization of life in a post-apocalyptic world. And this, ultimately, is what makes the film so unique: where other movies in the genre do everything in their power to show how different and strange the zombie apocalypse is, Romero focuses on how familiar it Can be. http://more2read.com/?review=the-reapers-are-the-angels-by-alden-bell ...more
'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly' that’s how I describe this story it all unfolds like a Wild West Battle. The GOOD is Tom Imura and his band of warrio'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly' that’s how I describe this story it all unfolds like a Wild West Battle. The GOOD is Tom Imura and his band of warriors Benny, Nix, Lilath and Chong. THE BAD is White Bear and other bad zombie hunters. THE UGLY of course are the Zoms (zombies).
I have said it before Jonathan Maberry is really a masterful storyteller packing a punch across genres. Genre for genre a pound for pound a heavyweight contender for book awards. He has really knitted together a thrill ride of a story that is about more than zombies keeps you engrossed right to the end with love and war. Benny is maturing and becoming a warrior he was no longer the skinny kid that he once had been he has muscle definition and six-pack abs. He has an eye also on one girl, will he be able to express his love to her? Tom the powerful warrior equipped with his kami Katana, Tom the Swordsman, Tom of the woods, Fast Tommy. Tom the Killer. Lilah is another hero fast efficient and ruthless she grew up out in the Ruin, she was raised by a man who helped her during the First Night and then was living on her own for years after. Lived alone in the woods spoke to no one. Learned from books and learned the art of making weapons. She became a hunter and a killer. She is quiet and very beautiful with eyes the colour of honey. They called her the Lost Girl on the Zombie cards. She was merely a legend or myth until Tom and Benny brought her out into the public eye. Together they destroyed Charlie Pink-eye and the Hammer. But did they really destroy Charlie? That’s what they thought but a figure appears amongst the zoms that looks like Charlie from the distance, is it him? If it is how could Benny tell Nix, a girl he loves, that her mothers murderer is still out there, still roaming the world free? The band of warriors lead by Tom the hero Zombie Hunter set out on a journey to the Ruin in search of a Jet a mode of transport. They leave Mountainside and head for the Forest along there journey meet The Bad and the Ugly, they also meet many of their good friends, good Zombie Hunters. The Greenman is one of them a hunter who literally looks like a tree, he wears a leafed mask and has cones and leafs pinned to his coat, a camouflage amongst the forest in which the zoms cannot see him. One good weapon to have against the zoms, is cadaverine. Consists of a mixture of cadaverine, putrescine, spermidine, and other vile ptomaines. They will not eat you if you have it smeared on you.
The journey places them into what could be debated as the greatest test some of their friendships have been under. A real nail biting experience as they become divided and some captured, love also flourishes in a story that really entertains with ingredients of courage and bravery.
White bear The Bad has a bounty on the heads of the good band of zombie hunters the four of them Nix, Benny, Lilah and Tom.
The Hunger Games is over for now until the movie is released and The Dust and Decay and The Gameland is a rightful dose of the same entertainment. If you think all this is not enough to get you to read this novel, then hold on because Carpet coats, Football Helmets with Plastic Visors and a Pit in the ground are signs of danger! An event of gruesome violence pitted against zoms in a pit they call it ‘Gameland’ The bets are on who will survive? Gameland was a place that Lilah escaped in the past and was eventually closed down but now it has been reopened by White Bear and other Bad Zombie Hunters.
“Now Benny was fifteen and a half, and First Night was a million years ago. This world was no longer that world. On First Night the old world had died. As the dead rose, the living perished. Cities were incinerated by the military in a futile attempt to stop the growing armies of the dead. The electromagnetic pulses from the nukes fired all electronics. The machines went silent, and soon, so did the whole country. Now everything east of the small town of Mountainside was the great Rot and Ruin. A few other towns littered the foothills of the Sierra Nevada north and south of Benny’s home, but the rest of the old world had been consumed.”
“Before First Night the United States Census Bureau estimated that there were 6,922,000,000 people alive on planet earth. Tom said that news reports claimed that more than two billion people died in the first two days after First Night. By the time the internet went down, the estimates of the global death toll were at four billion and climbing. People in town believe that following first night more than six billion people died. Most people think the whole rest of the world is dead. We know that the total population of the nine towns here in central California is 28,261 as of last new year’s census.”
“It was like a plague, but different from the one that had destroyed the world. This was an emotional pandemic that blinded the eye and deafened the ear and darkened the mind so that there simply was no world other than what existed inside each fenced town.”
Preacher Jack shrugged. ”This world may be paradise for the Children of Lazarus, but to snot-nosed little sinners like you…this world is hell. How’s that for a cosmic paradox? Heaven and Hell coexisting out here in the Rot and Ruin, and the two of them forming a brand-new Eden. The towns-why, you might consider them limbo, where souls are just waiting for judgement. As for Gameland….now it would be God’s own truth to say that Gameland is purgatory. It’s where you have a chance to expunge your sins.”
“He took her hand, and they walked under the canopy of cool green leaves. Birds sang in the trees, and the grass beneath their feet glistened with morning dew. The first of the day’s bees buzzed softly among the flowers, going about their ancient and important work, collecting nectar and taking pollen from one flower to another. Cyclones of gnats spiralled up from the grass and swirled through the slanting sunlight. The loveliness of the forest was magical and fresh, but it was also immense. Neither of them spoke, unable to phrase their reactions to the rampant beauty and unwilling to trouble the air with the horrors that haunted their hearts. Despite the warm reality of each other’s hands, they felt incredibly alone. Desolate. Even though they knew that Tom and Lilah and Chong were somewhere in this same forest, it was as if everyone else was on a different planet. Mountainside-home-was a million miles away. The jumbo jet could well have been on the far side of the world, or something from an old dream.”