The Buzz...About Books

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently posted an article about surviving a zombie apocalypse on its website.  It’s a fairly straightforward guide to disaster planning but with zombies. The author, Rear Admiral Ali S. Khan, MD is a zombie fan whose favourite movie is Resident Evil.  He’s also the Assistant Surgeon General and Director in the CDC’s Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response.

Dr. Khan is not the only one with a soft spot for zombies  During the past few years a new genre called zombie apocalypse appeared quite suddenly and is now lurching relentlessly throughout libraries and bookstores.  It may be impossible to stop, so why fight it? 

Here is a selection of some recent zombie fiction.

Breathers: a Zombie’s Lament by S.G. Brown 
Newly reanimated Andy discovers that being a zombie isn't that much fun in this social satire.

Cell by Stephen King
A pulse sent out over cell phones turns most of the population into zombie-like killing machines.  A small band of “normies” must fight for survival against all odds.

 
 Feed by Mira Grant
A team of bloggers hunts for the truth about the infection that cured most diseases but unfortunately also raised the  dead. 
 
Monster Island: a Zombie novel by David Wellington
After most of the world’s population has become zombies, an army of teenage girls travels to Manhattan in an attempt to locate medical supplies.  The first of an expected trilogy, this book has gotten rave reviews.

Paul is Undead: the British Zombie Invasion by Alan Goldsher
Zombies Paul, John and George want to make music and eat brains, while ninja lord Ringo Starr tries to keep the violence to a minimum in this alternative history of 1960s music.

 The Reapers are the Angels by Alden Bell
This well-regarded novel has been described as “Flannery O’Connor with zombies”.  It has been nominated for this year’s Philip K. Dick award.

The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror by Christopher Moore
The residents of Pine Cove, California are all set to celebrate Christmas, but then zombies come along and ruin everything.

World War Z: an Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
Through a series of interviews, a United Nations official describes the history of World War Z, a zombie pandemic that nearly leads to the extinction of human beings.

Related posts: 
Mashed Up Fiction and the Ick Factor
Walking Dead