Reviews

The Living Dead 2 by John Joseph Adams, Bret Hammond, Paula R. Stiles, Rory Harper, Mira Grant, Molly Brown, Gary A. Braunbeck, Bob Fingerman, Max Brooks, Seth Lindberg, Brenna Yovanoff, Jamie Lackey, David Wellington, David J. Schow, Matt London, Kelley Armstrong, Simon R. Green, Cherie Priest, Karina Sumner-Smith, Paul McAuley, Tananarive Due, David Moody, Steven Popkes, Kyra M. Schon, Brian Keene, David Barr Kirtley, Mark McLaughlin, Kelly Link, Charles Coleman Finlay, Steven Barnes, Adam-Troy Castro, Walter Greatshell, Robert Kirkman, S.G. Browne, Amelia Beamer, Marc Paoletti, Scott Edelman

jenbooks's review

4.0

Average: 3.7
Tossing out <= 2: 3.9

Alone, Together By Robert Kirkman - 5 stars
Danger Word By Steven Barnes & Tananarive Due - 5 stars
Zombieville By Paula R. Stiles - 4 stars
The Anteroom By Adam-Troy Castro - 3 stars
When the Zombies Win By Karina Sumner-Smith - 2.5 stars
Mouja By Matt London - 3 stars
Category Five By Marc Paoletti - 3.5 stars
Living With The Dead By Molly Brown - 4 stars
Twenty-Three Snapshots of San Francisco By Seth Lindberg - 4 stars
The Mexican Bus By Walter Greatshell - 3 stars
The Other Side By Jamie Lackey - 5 stars
Where the Heart Was By David J. Schow - 2 stars
Good People By David Wellington - 5 stars
Lost Canyon of the Dead By Brian Keene - 3.5 stars
Pirates vs. Zombies By Amelia Beamer - 2 stars
The Crocodiles By Steven Popkes - 4.5 stars
The Skull-Faced City By David Barr Kirtley - 4 stars
Obedience By Brenna Yovanoff - 2.5 stars
Steve and Fred By Max Brooks - 3 stars
The Rapeworm By Charles Coleman Finlay - 4 stars
Everglades - 5 stars - short story of the Rising
We Now Pause For Station Identification By Gary A. Braunbeck - 6 stars - wow!
Reluctance By Cherie Priest - 3.5 stars
Arlene Schabowski of the Undead By Mark McLaughlin & Kyra M. Schon - 3 stars
Zombie Gigolo By S. G. Browne - N/A - did not read. I don't need gratuitous grossness. Also, I was eating lunch.
Rural Dead By Bret Hammond - 4.5 stars
The Summer Place By Bob Fingerman - 3 stars
The Wrong Grave By Kelly Link - 2 stars
The Human Race By Scott Edelman - 1 star
Who We Used to Be By David Moody - 3 stars
Therapeutic Intervention By Rory Harper - 5 stars
He Said, Laughing By Simon R. Green - 4 stars
Last Stand By Kelley Armstrong - 5 stars
The Thought War By Paul McAuley - 2 stars
Dating in Dead World By Joe McKinney - 5 stars - look for his books
Flotsam & Jetsam By Carrie Ryan - 3 stars
Thin Them Out By Kim Paffenroth, R. J. Sevin, & Julia Sevin - 3 stars
Zombie Season By Catherine MacLeod - 5 stars - delicious!
Tameshigiri By Steven Gould - 4 stars
The Days of Flaming Motorcycles By Catherynne M. Valente - 4 stars
Zero Tolerance By Jonathan Maberry - 5 stars
And the Next, and the Next By Genevieve Valentine - 2 stars
The Price of a Slice By John Skipp & Cody Goodfellow - 2.5 stars
Are You Trying to Tell Me This is Heaven? By Sarah Langan - 4 stars

mmb's review

adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

This is a collection of short stories all about zombies. Some of them were clearly written by Dudes(TM), which isn't really my thing, but most of them were really enjoyable. I especially liked "Everglades" and "We Now Pause For Station Identification."

alexctelander's review

3.0

After the runaway success of The Living Dead, editor John Joseph Adams is back with a follow up collection featuring a whole host of new authors writing about the walking dead. So grab a big cup of coffee, a warm blanket, and sequester yourself in a dark, quiet room, with one window looking out onto you don’t know what, and take a trip into a series of meetings with beings who want nothing more than to eat you alive, while you scream.

The collection begins with a short introduction by Adams going over the success of The Living Dead, and why it is that the world now seems obsessed with these dead things who were once living people . . . as well as bringing up a number of successful projects that have come about in all mediums on the subject of zombies. Then the journey begins, around the world, and into other ones, into the past and the future, even some dinosaur zombies, all featuring those unforgettable walking dead. A number of zombie authors are featured, like Robert Kirkman, Jonathan Maberry, and David Wellington, as well as other authors you might not think of writing about zombies, such as Kelly Link, Steven Barnes, David Moody, Catherynne M. Valente, Sarah Langan, and Simon R. Green. Then there are a number of authors previously interviewed on BookBanter making the cut in The Living Dead 2, including S. G. Browne, Mira Grant, and Cherie Priest.

The beauty of any anthology is you can start that story and just not be that impressed with it; so you skip on to the next one, and find yourself totally blown away but the incredible plot and characters. You discover new writers to love and read, and others to avoid. Regardless of your interests for a specific type of story involving the walking dead, you will find many entertaining and terrifying tales in The Living Dead 2 that will make you keep looking up at that dark window, wondering if you just heard something scratching that could be a branch . . . or perhaps the decaying fingers of a zombie.

Originally written on December 21, 2010 ©Alex C. Telander.

For over 500 book reviews, and over 40 exclusive author interviews (both audio and written), visit BookBanter.

angelsaves's review

3.0

i only stole two stories from this one, "rural dead" and "who we used to be."