In a novel being hailed as the “thinking person’s zombie novel,” Mark Spitz patrols Zone One of post-apocalyptic Manhattan, searching for skels (zombies) of both varieties—the violent and the catatonic. He’s part of a patrol responsible for clearing the way for surviving humans to return. Narrator Beresford Bennett delivers Spitz’s account of events as the character’s memory is inspired by found relics. Bennett adopts the existential mood of this novel as Spitz examines the evidence of the former city with deliberate, unsensationalized observations. Bennett’s subtly ironic tone controls the narrow range of emotion that reflects the monotony of life on patrol in a civilization that is no longer. J.E.M. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine
In his new novel, Colson Whitehead tells the story of a woman’s flight from slavery to freedom — along a path conjured out of equal parts history and imagination. Review by Walton Muyumba.
The Walking Dead returns on February 8 with its mid-season premiere, and I, for one, have my “I <3 Daryl Dixon” wristband on in preparation. Even in this time of excitement, it’s still important to remember the corpses that, er, cleared the path for our current undead addiction. There’s probably no easier way to get horror fans […]
The sky is cloudy, casting gray light on the plain walls and sparsely populated streets of your hometown. With your government-issued uniform buttoned tight against the cold, you make your way down the sidewalk to your office job. That’s when you spot it: a battered, unassuming rectangle poking out from behind a trash bin. It’s […]
Back in the ‘80s and ’90s—during my time as a bookstore manager—zombies weren’t even on the radar when it came to genre fiction fodder. Sure, there were some well-written and innovative zombie-powered novels on the shelves (like Lansdale’s Dead in the West and Lumley’s Ship of Dreams, to name just a few) but, for the […]