Aarrggh! Zombies!!!!

As you get older, life starts to become less carefree and you have to start thinking about ‘adult stuff’. Mortgages, a house, children, a pension, there’s certainly enough to make your hair go grey before its time and for you to make heavy inroads into the bottle of whisky you got for Christmas. However, none of this matters if you haven’t got a plan mapped out just in case zombies invade your hometown (it could happen!) I’ve got mine all sorted out (not telling you though, you might get there first!) so I thought I’d do the decent thing and point you folks in the direction of some good books that will prove useful in making your plans…
‘The Zombie Survival Guide’ (by Max Brooks) is essential reading when making your preparations, it will tell you everything you need to know. Perhaps the best piece of advice it gives is to “use your head, and cut off theirs”.
There are other good books out there where you can learn from the mistakes of others and be in no doubt what you must NOT do in the face of a zombie invasion. Here’s a few of them…

David Moody’s ‘Autumn’ is a great piece of zombie fiction that details the events of a lethal plague as seen through the eyes of the survivors. It’s strange enough when the dead bodies get up and walk again but when they start trying to eat the living then it’s time for hard decisions to be made. Three people leave a shattered city for the isolation of the countryside but find that the problem reaches further than they thought. The lesson to be learnt here? Don’t wait for help to come because it won’t, you’ve got to help yourself. If you google David Moody, you can download ‘Autumn’, for free, from his website.

In Joe McKinney’s ‘Dead City’, a series of natural disasters set loose a virus that returns the dead to life (and would you believe they want to eat us!) Police Officer Eddie Hudson is caught up in a zombie onslaught (that wipes out the San Antonio Police Department) and tries to make his way across the city to rescue his wife and son. This is a fast paced tense affair with lots of zombie encounters (although I think McKinney chickens out with the ending) that is well worth a look. Is there anything we can learn though? I think so; for a start, don’t even think about opening a door unless you’re very sure what’s on the other side! Also, think very carefully before sheltering in a building, they may not be able to get in but you very well not get out either…

Finally, Brian Keene’s ‘The Rising’ and ‘The City of the Dead’ introduce us to zombies that are actually corpses possessed by demons. As such, they can do whatever we can (just not as quickly). Keene’s two-parter follows the attempts of Jim Thurmond (and friends) to rescue his son and their continuing attempts to stay one step ahead of ravening zombie hordes. This is difficult to do when the zombies are coming after you on motorbikes! Fans of zombie gore and action will absolutely lap these books up but think before you pick them up. Keene chooses to focus on the evil that men can do (when freed from the constraints of civilisation) and pulls no punches with the depravity. If you’re a little bit squeamish, or there are certain things you don’t like to read about, then give these books a miss. There’s only one lesson to learn here, if a zombie can drive a truck and operate a rocket launcher then there really is nothing left that you can do…
These are all good books that I would recommend to the hard-core zombie fan if they haven’t read them already. Best read in a deserted shopping mall or behind the dead-bolted doors of your local pub…