Rating: 
Summary: WOW! I couldn't put it down
Review: This is not your typical Christian fiction book. I tried to read it in one sitting but had to finally go to bed in the wee hours this morning.I grabbed it as soon as I got up and started reading it with my first cup of coffee. This book has everything: zombies, demons, the rapture, believers, atheists, horror, and gore; lots and lots of gore. It definitely isn't for the squeamish. It's been a long time since a book grabbed me like this. After the rapture, demons possess the bodies of the dead and earth is transformed into hell. The living try to escape but are usually brought down by the dead. Nobody gets an easy death. They are usually tortured, bit, and finally strangled to death. After a certain length of time, they rise up to join the dead in chasing down other survivors. The group of people we follow are a mixed bunch. One is a priest, another a
self proclaimed savedChristian, and the rest are atheists and those unsure as to what they believe. As they run from thousands of demons we get to see the changes they go through. Their lives are changed and they see a side of themselves that they never acknowledged before now. I was glued to the book until I finished it. Unlike another reader, I thought the ending was very good and worth the read. If typos and mistakes bother you, all I can say is get over it. I admit there are way too many mistakes but it has nothing to do with the story. This book is too good to miss.
Rating:
Summary: Frightening
Review: This book is much more than just a creepy horrer story. It all starts with a dream, God has given his final judgement. People are diasapearing into thin air, modern technology begins to fail, and the sun is growing cold. Non believers are faced with the fact that god may exist, and believers faced with gods existance and their own shortcomings. And throughout all this the dead are rising to claim the souls of those that are still alive and to create hell on earth. Fast paced and action packed this book is a great read that makes you think, and those of you who don't enjoy thinking you're in for a treat also the action is very very descriptive and exciteing. If you've never read anything by Mark Rogers you are in for a treat, for those who have you know what to expect.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding read!
Review: I've always been a huge horror fan, and am intensely happy when somebody gives it a rough, jolting twist and throws something in that I'm not expecting. The horror throughout book (IE - my idea of 'wacky hijinks') is a great deal of fun, and since I'm also a sucker for apocalyptic stories, I was practically salivating at the 'idea' of the horrific extinction of the human race throughout the book. The story presents a lot of very interesting theological ideas and arguments without being preachy about it, which is a definite bonus. It presents very good points without hammering them constantly into your squishy greymeat. The one thing that I'm most fond of with Mark's writing is that his good characters aren't entirely good. There is a great deal of shade to them, which keeps me from wanting to choke them because of possible overly paladin characteristics. Also, his evil characters are so viciously dark and bile filled that it's really a treat to get to know them. The quips and jibes that his characters trade back and forth always make me smile - if not laugh outright, and his depictions of violence and mayhem are absolutely dreamy. Go buy this book now or you will surely knock your head against that little part of the ceiling that juts out just far enough to crack it painfully as you go bounding downstairs for whatever nebulous reason. :: Rogue ::
Rating:
Summary: Oh man where to begin...
Review: I first read the book The Dead, in the early 90's.
I was still in high school and this kid beside me in study hall says to me.
"Hey man, you want to read something freaky?"
He knew I read Clive Barker, King and anything else I could get my hands on.
He let me borrow it and that night. I finished it.
Let me just say that it scared the hell out of me. Legion was a very intimidating character and left an impression on my young mind. I stumbled upon this on Amazon.com...I was reading a review of the Max Brooks book about Zombie survival and they had this book as type of "if you like this book then try this one." My mind rewinded to day I read this book. So I ordered it for the library that I work for. I can't wait to read it again. Mark Rogers was a major influence on me as writer.
Rating:
Summary: AWESOME!!!
Review: This book was incredible! I couldn't put it down. I loved this book because it was not your typical brain-eating zombie book. In fact, these weren't your run of the mill zombies...they were angels from Hell assuming the bodies of corpses. No brain eating here...only torturing and murder for those left behind. The book had a great plot to it and a little bit of religeon and theology thrown in. This book could even make an atheist start to wonder. Read it and you'll see what I mean!
Rating: 
Summary: Setting the Zombie genra back to the stoneages...
Review: With very few good zombie survival books to choose from, wasting your money on The Dead is exactly that, a waste of money. Do not let the cover of this book fool you, it's really just a sermon in sheeps clothing. Filled with fire and brimstone, it places the action behind the thinly laid subtext, God God and more God. By page eight you're already tired of the thinly laid debates between all of the main characters (who are all religious figures of some kind). The plot is somewhat pacing for the story but the dialog thrown in is truly a tragity. The characters are predictible and poorly thought out. Do not waste your time. If your in the market for a good book minus the sermon, buy Reign of the Dead and call it a day.
Rating:
Summary: Believe the hype!
Review: So often a book has been labled a page turner or a must read which so often is hyperbole. Well guess what? This book is all that and a bag of chips! Those of us who are big fans of the horror genre, especially involving Satan and the undead, will not be dissapointed. In fact one should be warned that they may want to make sure they have plenty of time to read this book because, quite possibly, one might to attempt reading it in one sitting. It is that engaging! Mark Rogers takes the reader on a terrifying journey where Satan and his minions of undead stalk the earth in order to torment those not immediatley raptured into heaven on judgement day. Rogers handily paints vivid imagery in one's mind with his writing and even those of us not accustomed to the environs of the state of New Jersey can easily see in our mind the characters and locations that he describes. Rogers transports the reader into the thick of the battle. As far as rumors regarding the possibility of this work being turned into a motion picture, I am torn with that. If it comes to pass, I can only hope that the movie will be even minutely true to the spirit and imagery conveyed by Rogers in the book. Yes, its that good! With the depth of philisophical and theological questions stirred up by Rogers in The Dead I would even suggest this book could be a required reading in college level philosophy and theology classes.
Rating: 
Summary: A very captivating book
Review: This is a hard book for me to review with only one or two paragraphs, so I apologize in advance for being long-winded. Simply put, this is a biblical end-of-the-world story, about the rapture, Judgment, and ordinary people being tempted between heaven and hell. There are believers and non-believers alike, trying to come to terms with the apocalypse around them, which consists of an untrammeled onslaught of the living dead. If you genetically engineered a chimeric clone from C.S. Lewis and George Romero, and hopped it up on amphetamines, it would probably try to write a book like this. I have to admit, my feelings about this book were mixed at first. While reading, I thought some of the characters seemed like simplistic archetypes, and some of the theological discussions appeared to be unfair brow-beatings between the primary characters and their feeble-minded antagonists. But as I read on, and especially when I reached the book's conclusion, I realized that much of what I took issue with was far from simple. In fact, it was necessary, clever, and even daring. So for me, this book was at its most-rewarding when I was finished and I could look back on everything that transpired. Fortunately, getting there wasn't a challenge because the story was very engrossing. It wasn't a typical horror story at all, and regardless of any problems I had, I just had to keep on reading, only to find out how it was going to end. (I guess, in book-review parlance, this means it's a "page-turner".) All of my predictions of where the book was going turned out to be false, and it moved with a such a grisly momentum that I was compelled to keep reading, regardless of the fact that it was 2:30 a.m. At the same time, Rogers keeps the story accessible. He doesn't turn it into another by-the-numbers eschatological allegory, with the typical Book of Revelations checklist, and he doesn't burden the reader with gee-whiz "scholarly" topics like premillennialism and the tribulation, just to show off his big brain (much like I did just now, I suppose ... sorry). He sticks to the story and the characters and lets it work itself out. Admittedly, I didn't think this book was very scary, but I can go through most horror fiction unfazed. (Well, the last horror novel I can remember having any sort of effect on me was actually made fun of in this book.) So I have to admit that "The Dead" didn't turn my hair white or leave me jumping at every strange sound. But ... the concept behind the story was so effective, it haunted me and begged me to ponder my own personal fate under the same circumstances. That is: if I was a character in the book, how would I react? What would be my fate? What could I do -- what would I be able to do -- to get out of it? So, in that sense "The Dead" lingered in my head and weirded me out. "The Dead" isn't as solid as Rogers's fantasy works, and I think I'm getting spoiled by his illustrations, which this book doesn't have, alas. Even though I'm not a Christian myself, I still thought "The Dead" was a good read. Great imagery, relentless action, and Rogers's rampant, twisted creativity. I'll be candid: if you're a stubborn atheist, then you'll probably find this book to be a waste of time. However, if you're a Mark E. Rogers fan (and you want to see what he does when he takes a vacation from "Samurai Cat"), or if you're looking for a unique and smart mix of horror and theology (honestly, you haven't read anything like this before), then it's definitely worth checking out.
Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate Zombie Story
Review: Finally, a novel that brings together my two favorite subjects, philosophy and zombies! THE DEAD is definitely the most well-thought out and SCARY books I've ever read. You'll never look at New Jersey State Troopers the same way again!
Rating: 
Summary: Not recommended
Review: I read this on the recommendation of another horror novel fan; unfortunately, "The Dead" has significant problems. First, the book suffers from serious editing and format errors. There are numerous spelling errors, examples of incorrect usage, awkward dialogue, and inconsistent proofreading. For example, it's often unclear which character is speaking because the author uses italics to indicate speech AND thought, but doesn't apply this consistently. The author's spelling is atrocious - you would think a book about zombies would spell "cemetery" correctly. Finally, there are numerous examples of excessive spacing, as well as run-on words (and a couple of run-on sentences as well). The presentation gives the distinct feel of a self-published vanity book. The rather derivative story aims for a James Blish "Black Easter" apocalyptic feel. The plot involves a supernatural end-of-the-world scenario, with the dead rising to torment the living. Think of "Army of Darkness" meets "Night of the Living Dead" with some religious overtones and you've got the feel for this book. We're given some characterization exposition for the protagonists, but the shift from normality to apocalypse is abrupt. This is a difficult topic to write about, but the author is not really able to convey a sense of global doom in this end-of-the-world novel. The world is coming to its end, but we're told this in a sentence or two in an off-hand fashion without descriptive and interesting writing. The "rules" are a little different than other genre novels - the dead are fast, use technology, are intelligent and organized, and really malevolent. Unfortunately, the logic is somewhat inconsistent in terms of the dead's motivations and weaknesses. Ultimately the threat is somehow "bad", but we're never sure why. We get very detailed (and confusing) details, then the author "gains altitude" and glosses over details that would more clearly explain what is going on. The author also is given to pseudoreligious exposition in character dialogue that further serves to confuse the issue. It is essentially a thinly disguised religious diatribe that has more in common with right-wind eschatology than with contemporary science fiction or horror. There are some definite nuggets of an interesting book in here. As written, the reader must work through some editing sloppiness and some confusing artistic decisions to find these.
| 
