Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Review: Extreme Zombies

This thick book, edited by Paula Guran, contains 25 stories (all reprints) and a health warning.

It's not unwarranted (although as a Brit, I'm amused by the word choice on the cover. Does Guran know what "bloody" means in Britspeak? She could have known and picked it anyway). These stories are absolutely not for the fainthearted. Or to be read alone at night. Or to be read while eating.

Yup. You've been warned. Extreme Zombies contains stories that avowedly cross the line into splatterpunk. "Jerry's Kids Meet Wormboy" by David J. Schow turns certain parts of the zombie trope around. "An Unfortunate Incident At The Slaughterhouse" gives a new meaning to mad cow.

This is a reprint anthology, which probably helps keep anything within it from being terrible and the stories frankly range from good to excellent. My favorite is "Meathouse Man," but that may speak more to my great liking for George R.R. Martin than it's real quality.

They're all good, but none of them are for the kiddies. If you are a zombie fiction aficionado or simply love extreme horror, you need this book right now. If your "horror tolerance" is low, stay away.

Four and a half stars.


(Copy acquired at Balticon)

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