In the January 2013 issue of Nightmare Magazine, E.C. Myers interviewed award-winning editor Ellen Datlow about horror writing.
The interview is worth a read, not only because Datlow has some really interesting things to say about horror and sci-fi, but because she gives some examples of books and anthologies that she has worked on or that should be read.
At one point, she was discussing horror tropes, and found that despite finding certain tropes worn out, there were always stories that could make them fresh for her again. She gave the example of zombie stories, and gave Dan Chaon's "How We Escaped Our Certain Fate" in the anthology 21st Century Dead as a prime example, calling it "a fantastic, wonderful zombie story."
Well, that was good enough for me. I've been on a bit of a zombie kick recently, so I checked out the collection.
Dan Chaon's story was indeed wonderful, a meditation on loss and what happens when someone comes back. But this was just one of the outstanding stories in this anthology.
S.G. Browne's "Reality Bites," is a humorous look at the ambiguous morality of Hollywood and the reality television craze. It explores what a TV executive is willing to do when he meets the perfect reality star.
Actress Amber Benson (from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") has a story, "Antiparallelogram," that touches on zombies, but is really about the lengths an orphan will go to in order to raise his state.
Among the creepier and more traditional zombie stories are John McIlveen's "A Mother's Love," about the lengths a mother will go to save her child, Jonathan Maberry's "Jack and Jill," which along with Ken Bruen's "The Dead of Droore" will probably appeal the best to Romero zombie fans (I recently discovered Maberry's work and have read 4 or 5 of his novels and several anthologies featuring his work), and "All the Comforts of Home," a story about post-zombie apocalypse San Francisco by John Skipp and Cody Goodfellow.
Other favorites of mine in this anthology include the Kurt Sutter's creepy "Tic Boom: A Slice of Life" and the sci-fi zombie story, "Parasite" by Daniel H. Wilson. There is even a zombie tale about homelessness, Simon R. Green's "Down and Out in Dead Town."
21st Century Dead is a strong, well-crafted anthology (and the introduction by editor Christopher Golden should not be skipped). If the zombies don't keep you awake at night, the desire to know what the next story holds will.
Nightmare Magazine - January 2013
21st Century Dead - Kindle
21st Century Dead - Paperback
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