Zombies! By Paul Kane
I would like to thank the author for an advance copy of this collection in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher – Grinning Skull Press
Published – Out Now
Price – £12.73 paperback £4.01 Kindle eBook
A group of teenage friends think it's a good idea to hang around in a graveyard, while a young thief gets more than he bargained for when he breaks into a local property. We’re given a first-hand account of struggles in the aftermath of a post-apocalyptic event and the reminiscences of a musician with a very unusual talent. A woman wakes with no memory of who or where she is… and also no pulse, then we’re flung through space to a planet where a grave discovery is made—one which has deadly repercussions… Ladies and gentlemen, these are the Zombies! a collection of stories by award-winning and #1 bestselling author Paul Kane (Hooded Man, Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell, Before, Arcana, The Storm), including a brand new short novel, one of his popular Dalton Quayle novelettes, and a steampunk poem. With an introduction by award-winning and bestselling author Brian Keene (The Rising, City of the Dead) and cover art by Dominic Harman (The Hellbound Heart, Cabal), this is one book that simply refuses to lay down and die!
Ah Zombies always a modern classic and having had a renaissance may not be our monster of choice now but a bit like themselves that probably not going to stop them for long. There is something modern life recognises in the zombie – the loss of identity, the monotonous routine we all follow and how crowds of people can be something alien and inhuman when acting as the mob that I suspect means we will eventually gfind new stories for them. Into which Paul Kane has now published a fine and varied collection of zombie fiction to entertain and scare us worth a look if you enjoy these biters!
Among this collection I enjoyed: -
He Is Legend – why yes that title is indeed a sign of the story that it homages. But Kane imbues this with a British sensibility as zombies attack the UK and one man finds himself alone in a city trying to find a way out of this. Kane though creates pathos as our narrator diarises how he lost his wife and child in the attack. There is a sense of a ticking clock as he thinks he may find a cure, but the zombies may have other ideas. Very entertaining and grows unexpectedly sombre towards the end.
Dig (This) – a very fine and startling tale as three teenagers who love to visit a graveyard decide the most logical thing to do would be to dig up a corpse. Kane makes you see the teenagers as people first before subtly dropping the other shoe and the story gets more macabre and nastier as things go very very horribly wrong. Neatly explained too!
Dalton Quayle and the Teatime of the Evil Resident Living Dead aka The Voodoo Hullabaloo – Why, yes that title does suggest this tale has tongue in cheek and it’s a faux Victorian supernatural adventure filled with pun and characters not understanding one another. It is very very funny and well worth a read!
Pay and The Piper – This story feels suspicious as a Piper who looks familiar deals with an undead menace. He tells his story and things become a lot clearer. Deliciously dark
Planet of the Dead – This is a SF novella of a doomed space mission going to an alien planet that looks dead. While a plotline we all know means doom what I enjoyed is how Kane here delivers character; you care about the people in danger and had a unique explanation for what is going on. Throw in escapes, tension and fights to the death there is very little to complain about. Fun will be had.
The Face of Death – a ghoulish doctor enters a morgue for his secret experiment. The strange start heralds some dark revelations; and we get to understand but not warm to our main character as we discover what he has done and why. A fine supernatural coda to the collection.
This is a very entertaining and impressively varied selection of zombie tales that demonstrate Kane’s versatility and knowledge of the genre. It is never repetitive and yet clearly in love with he subject matter. Well worth a look!
