It’s hard to know when it’s a good time to start in on a new comic so to help you out I have listed some jumping on points I have found from personal reads and around the internet. If you are looking to add a little flavor this week but don’t want to heavily invest in trades consider picking one...
There is always speculation as to the cyclical prevalence of certain types of fiction that becomes popular. We love to analyze pop culture popularity. Especially the things we choose to frighten us. Often the media has the habit of seeing only the surface of things. Speculating, for example, that we like Vampires for their glamorous immortality and tortured souls.
Zombies, for a long time, have been symbolic for the monsters we could become. But too often, they were and sometimes continue to be used as monsters. Monsters that were likely created by or were part of an apocolyptic event. With that, many zombie tales are of the humans attempts to survive the situation. Which really makes that type of fiction survival horror stories where the zombies are just the tool which is used to push the human protagonists along the story. Revealing the strengths and weaknesses of humanity through the interaction of the living as they battle monsters that were once human. Don’t get me wrong. There is definitely a place for these types of stories. George Romero‘s films are legendary cult classics. Danny Boyle‘s 2002 film 28 days Later breathed new life into the genre with its fast spreading rage virus and zombie-like monsters that could sprint after you. And of course Robert Kirkman‘s Walking Dead comics and wildly popular AMC series, which feature classically styled zombies but take survivor tales to the next level. And don’t forget the fantastic Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z novel by Max Brooks.
Yet, the popularity of the comic and AMC series TheWalking Dead is the tip of the iceberg of the resurgance of Zombie fiction. With the popularity at an all time high, many would believe that those previousely outside of the genre who are now creating zombie related fiction are just jumping on the bandwagon.
And here is where my review of I, Zombie by Hugh Howey begins:
Now that it has been released and it has already been delivered to my Kindle app on my iPad, time to take a bite. Or, if Hugh Howey’s other novels are an indicator, likely finish in under two days.
So in this book Howey takes the Zombie genre and puts it on its head. For in this novel he explores the human souls who do not make it. The ones left to turning into zombies themselves with their humanity trapped by their condition. If Howey’s previous works are an indicator I will finish this book with many thoughts about humanity at its core. About whether or not we deserve to survive an apocalypse, Zombie or otherwise. Oh and in case you missed it. It is a Zombie book. And, I love zombie books.
We are huge fans of the Wool series by Hugh Howey. Here is a video from random house and a new site to promote the series. More of a teaser than a trailer. But, if you’ve read the books you will understand how satisfying this story will be as a film. Found thanks to Hugh Howey himself. Check out his site:http://www.hughhowey.com/?p=2548and new Wool Focused site here:http://www.thisiswool.co.uk/
Sometimes it takes seeing a future mapped out by a complete lack of faith in humanity to renew it. This is a huge reason post-apocalyptic fiction always has a place on my bookshelf. I finally finished the Silo series by Hugh Howey. Beginning with 1-5 which are contained in the Wool omnibus and following with The First Shift – Legacy (Book 6 of the Silo series), Mr. Howey blew me away. The future he envisions is both surreal and yet you have that itch in the back of your mind that this scenario could actually be a possibility. Far in the future when the survivors of the cataclysmic events have gone generations, and the spread of disinformation has become the only truth they know. Where wrongdoers, or even those who dare speak of wanting to leave the underground structure they call home, are sent out into the deadly outside to “clean”. To remove the grime from the only windows that show why they live where they do and to die soon after. These books contain such layers of forethought on Howey’s part it amazes me to no end. A place so simple in that everyone lives and works to survive is shown to be filled with a psychological horror more frightening than any monster.
Thanks to Slashdot, this will be my next read. Awesome thing is it was self published and collection of 1-5 can be purchaced for only $5.99 on Amazon or just the first short for $0.99. It has some amazing reviews and it feels great to support a self-published author like Hugh Howey.
