The Living Dead - Edited by John Joseph Adams

For zombie literature neophytes, this is an excellent place to start because reading these stories can make one realize there are far more ways to think about zombies than what you may have experienced from George Romero or The Walking Dead. 

John Joseph Adams, as usual has put together a good mix of tales here.  Many are what I would term “literary” while others are heavier on action or the fear factor.  Like most anthologies, some stories are better than others but each one belongs here and serves to round out the sub-sub-genre of zombie horror.  Major authors like Stephen King, Clive Barker, Dan Simmons, Laurell K. Hamilton, Neil Gaiman, Joe Hill, and George RR Martin offer stories in this anthology but for my money, I tended to prefer the entries by those authors that were new to me.  There are a total of 34 stories included and it is difficult to name my favorites but among them are “This Year’s Class Picture” by Dan Simmons, “Followed” by Will McIntosh, and “How the Day Runs Down” by John Langan.

I read these stories at the rate of one per week, early on Saturday mornings before the rest of my family gets up which is always a good time for me to really get into a story.  I think if I had read one right after another, it would have grown tiresome pretty quickly.  For me this sort of story is best enjoyed in small doses. 

Overall a fairly nice collection of zombie fiction, especially if you prefer a more philosophical approach to the apocalypse.