The Ultimate Zombie

Rating:
Summary: I took a chance on this...
Review: And I wound up sorely disappointed. If you're like me, and you enjoy the latter-day "Romero" style of zombie characterization, then this book will be a complete disappointment. Not a single dismemberment or instance of human flesh eating in sight! Perhaps a quarter to a third of the stories don't even deal with zombies, and more than half of the total are voodoo zombies, which I consider dreadfully boring. The remainder are random in nature, with zombies that are atypical.

Some of the stories are mildly entertaining, but most are boring and pointless, attempting social satire and failing. If you don't find voodoo zombies fascinating, you will find this book pretty worthless.

Rating:
Summary: Rather good collection of horror stories
Review: The trouble with a zombie collection is that zombies don't have quite the same depth of history as some of our old familiar monsters. So the interpretation of some of these authors as to what constitutes a zombie is a little in question. In the Anne Rice story (lifted pretty directly from the Witching Hour, I believe) a zombie is anyone who doesn't respond and is under a spell. In others we get the more classical Haitian zombie. In the Robert Silverberg story the zombies are what we become when we're inhabited by passengers from somewhere else. Many of the stories are meant to be comic or satirical, and those-- for me-- packed the weakest punch. Others, like "Emma's Daughter" (by Alan Rodgers) and "Though I Walk Through the Valley" are really impressive and inventive variations on the theme.

Rating:
Summary: An awesome collection of zombie stories
Review: This is, obviously enough, a collection of zombie stories. I was kind of expecting to like some of these stories but then to find an equal number of just OK or bad stories. Instead I found a collection that just blew me away. Almost every story impacted me and became well liked. Definitely try this collection! Some of the stories with the biggest punch are listed below.

"Though I Walk Through The Valley" by S. P. Somtow - A boy helps his uncle love his son.

"Dead Right" by Geoffrey A. Landis - A professional boxer tries to defeat a zombie by using a new strategy.

"Passengers" by Robert Silverberg - Malicious zombies who can take people over at will.

"Larger Than Life" by Lawrence Watt-Evans - A producer gets some help to save his latest film.

"The Potable Zombie" by Larry Tritten - A malicious bartender plays a trick.

"Corruption In Office" by Don D'Ammussa - The President of the United States gets some special help.

"The Toddler Pit" by A. R. Morlan - A young woman remembers her past as a pre-school teacher's assistant.

"The Silent Majority" by Robert Weinberg - The silent majority make their presence known.

"The Dead Speaketh Not, They Just Grunt Now And Then" by Lionel Fenn - A reluctant Lord assists with some mysterious deaths.