Here are 66 books that The Mammoth Book of Zombies fans have personally recommended if you like
The Mammoth Book of Zombies.
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I am a young adult fantasy author and paranoid survivalist. I have spent years curating items for my end-of-days go-bag, and nothing gives me greater pleasure than hanging out in universes that are about to go bang!
Legends are made of powerful stuff, and nothing has greater power than a total flip in perspective. I still recall the gut-punch end to this book, though it’s been decades since I read it.
Robert Neville is a vampire hunter by day and a tormented man by night. As seemingly the only living human in post-apocalyptic Los Angeles, Robert faces depression, isolation, alcoholism, and his undead neighbor, Ben Cortman, who appears outside Robert’s front door each night chanting, "Come out, Neville."
But when Robert is finally captured, and the truth of his situation is revealed, he gets a good look at the world through the eyes of the undead and is forced to ask himself, who am I? What have I become?
An acclaimed SF novel about vampires. The last man on earth is not alone ...Robert Neville is the last living man on Earth ...but he is not alone. Every other man, woman and child on the planet has become a vampire, and they are hungry for Neville's blood. By day he is the hunter, stalking the undead through the ruins of civilisation. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for the dawn. How long can one man survive like this?
In the 1970s and '80s, I lived in New York, made noise in downtown bands, wrote incomprehensible texts. And obsessed about dinosaurs, ancient civilizations, Weimar, and medieval cults. The past became my drug (as I tapered off actual drugs). I couldn’t cope with the present, so I swallowed the red pill and became a historian. Took refuge in archives, libraries and museums (my safe spaces), and the history of anatomy. Because it was about sex, death, and the Body and seemed obscure and irrelevant. Pure escapism. But escape is impossible. Anatomy seems a fact of nature, what we are. But its past—and present—are tangled up in politics, aesthetics, the market, gender, class, race and desire.
You know the movies, but maybe not Mary Shelley’s novel. Published in 1818 and revised in 1821, it’s a disquieting story of things going very wrong between a negligent parent (Victor von Frankenstein) and his sensitive child (the monster he created).
I identify with both sides of the equation. I also take Shelley's Frankenstein as a rich historical document of Romantic fascination with anatomy and the illicit grave robbery that supplied bodies to the dissecting tables. And “galvanism,” which Giovanni Aldini publicly demonstrated in 1803 by placing electrodes on the corpse of an executed criminal, causing his legs and arms to twitch spasmodically, seemingly making the dead man come alive.
Combine that with ambivalent meditations on the wilds of human and non-human Nature. And monsters and murder. And wow! The novel that invented gothic horror. (Don’t worry about the florid old-fashioned prose. Once you’re in the flow, this book is…
One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World'
'That rare story to pass from literature into myth' The New York Times
Mary Shelley's chilling Gothic tale was conceived when she was only eighteen, living with her lover Percy Shelley on Lake Geneva. The story of Victor Frankenstein who, obsessed with creating life itself, plunders graveyards for the material to fashion a new being, but whose botched creature sets out to destroy his maker, would become the world's most famous work of horror fiction, and remains a devastating exploration of the limits of human creativity. Based on the third…
I’ve read a lot of horror fiction over the years. It has been something I’ve come back to again and again over the years. Horror is a great way of exploring our fears and dread of what is around us. Sometimes we can’t look at these directly but through the medium of horror stories we can catch a glimpse and gain some understanding.
Now this isn’t in the zombie genre but it has that sense of being overwhelmed by numbers of nameless foes that seems very much a central tenet of the modern zombie genre. It has the outpost of an empty island that put our narrator (a pacifist) in the position of having to kill again and again. So often the zombies are faceless hordes – perhaps that is the fear they encapsulate but here, in what feels like the setting of a late-night movie I used to watch as a kid, here the narrator is tested again and again. A fantastic novel that defies categories.
'A troubling, hammering and glorious novel' DAVID MITCHELL
On the edge of the Antarctic Circle, in the years after World War One, a steamship approaches a desolate island. On board is a young man on his way to assume the post of weather observer, to live in solitude for a year at the end of the earth. But on shore he finds no trace of the man whom he has been sent to replace, just a deranged castaway who has witnessed a horror he refuses to name. The rest is woods, a deserted cabin, rocks, silence and the surrounding sea.…
Truth told, folks still ask if Saul Crabtree sold his soul for the perfect voice. If he sold it to angels or devils. A Bristol newspaper once asked: “Are his love songs closer to heaven than dying?” Others wonder how he wrote a song so sad, everyone who heard it…
I’ve read a lot of horror fiction over the years. It has been something I’ve come back to again and again over the years. Horror is a great way of exploring our fears and dread of what is around us. Sometimes we can’t look at these directly but through the medium of horror stories we can catch a glimpse and gain some understanding.
I’m a 70s kid so the Six Million Dollar Man was a staple of TV viewing but Deathlok, a cyborg created from dying/dead soldier Luther Manning, chilled and thrilled me in equal measures. The idea of waking up in the remains of your shattered body with cold metal taking the place of most flesh and a computer talking in your head: your consciousness, a voice forever trapped in a dead but unable-to-die body was something that struck deep. ‘Alert: human personality reasserting itself. Repress immediately before…’
Col. Luther Manning has been locked in a state of living death. He is no longer a man, but a mockery of a man. He has become an amalgam of reanimated flesh and computer circuitry, stripped of his family, his humanity -- but not his will. He has become Deathlok the Demolisher -- a weapon of war programmed solely for destruction.
I have been a voracious zombie fan since George A. Romero changed the nature of zombies with his low-budget breakthrough film, Night of the Living Dead over 40 years ago. Since then, I have watched a ton of zombie movies and shows and read even more zombie books and comics. It was inevitable that they would star in my own books, including my zombie trilogy, The Deadland Saga along with several novellas and short stories.
This book is the first part of a limited series by some of the biggest names in the genre. They’ve teamed up to bring you zombies that are absolutely insane. There were multiple times in the book where my jaw dropped in unexpected shock or I jumped in my chair at these zombies. I just have to say, if these zombies take over Earth, we are screwed. These zombies will maim, eat, and do many, many other horrible things to us and have a blast doing it. If you’re in the mood for a high-octane zombie book that stars the most disturbing zombies out there, read this book.
The first episode in the acclaimed apocalyptic military thriller series by Craig DiLouie, Joe McKinney, and Stephen Knight!
As a new disease turns people into sadistic, laughing killers, in Boston, a battalion of light infantry struggles to maintain order. As the numbers of infected grow, the battalion loses control, and the soldiers find themselves fighting for their lives against the very people they once swore an oath to protect.
During the ensuing collapse, the lost battalion learns the Army is still holding out in Florida, which has been cleared of the Infected. Harry Lee, its commander, decides the only hope…
Growing up in Chicago, I’ve always had a fascination for history, (even if it was sometimes a bit gory!), from Capone and the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre to reading about monsters and the unique worlds created by favorite author Stephen King. So, it’s probably not too surprising that I combined both interests and offered a new solution to the infamous Lizzie Borden axe murders of 1892 in my own book series. I enjoy reading, and writing, the serious to the not-so-serious, often incorporating touches of humor, or at least the absurd, where and whenever I can.
If you love reading about English royalty and history as I do, then it’s not too hard to let go of reality and let the legendary Queen of England, Queen Victoria, take on an even larger role in her vast empire. I can’t think of anyone I’d rather see keep the kingdom free from zombies and demons than a strong-willed Queen willing to vanquish evil with her scepter.
For all the rabid fans who devoured Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, comes A.E. Moorat’s Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter! This outrageously entertaining and deeply irreverent tale of palace intrigue and bloody supernatural mayhem features the most unlikely monster-slayer ever to go toe-to-toe with the living dead. It’s George A. Romero meets the Bronte sisters—it’s Max Brooks’s World War Z in Victorian garb! Watch out flesh-eating zombie scum, it’s Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter!
Conditions are Different After Dark
by
Owen W. Knight,
In 1662, a man is wrongly executed for signing the death warrant of Charles I. Awaiting execution, he asks to speak with a priest, to whom he declares a curse on the village that betrayed him. The priest responds with a counter-curse, leaving just one option to nullify it.
Like many of my generation, my formal introduction to the zombie genre started with George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead. Stories of the zombie apocalypse, and the arterial sprays, dismemberments, and eviscerations that accompanied it, have fascinated me ever since. But, I'm also a psychology professor. Although I was initially captivated by the carnage of the undead, I quickly found that the mindsets of the survivors were equally fascinating. More than anything, I love seeing how fictional worlds represent real-world psychological concepts.
Work smarter, not harder. If you want to survive a zombie apocalypse, you'll need to understand the behavior of the undead. And it all starts with a necrotic brain. If you know why zombies hunt, infect and kill their victims, you can devise effective strategies for avoiding and moving among the undead and, if necessary, killing them. I loved that the neuroscience in this book is very real, even if the zombies are not (yet). It is one of the best applications of nonfictional content to a fictional world available today — a must-read for lovers of brains, both alive and dead.
Even if you've never seen a zombie movie or television show, you could identify an undead ghoul if you saw one. With their endless wandering, lumbering gait, insatiable hunger, antisocial behavior, and apparently memory-less existence, zombies are the walking nightmares of our deepest fears. What do these characteristic behaviors reveal about the inner workings of the zombie mind? Could we diagnose zombism as a neurological condition by studying their behavior? In Do Zombies Dream of Undead Sheep?, neuroscientists and zombie enthusiasts Timothy Verstynen and Bradley Voytek apply their neuro-know-how to dissect the puzzle of what has happened to the zombie…
I’m a member of the Horror Writers Association and have been a professional writer since 1997. I got into writing horror because I love reading horror and watching horror movies. Even as a kid, I watched horror movies on Saturday afternoons and read horror books late at night—under the covers, with a flashlight. I collected Universal monster models as a kid too and still have my collection and have even added to it. I love all things horror and believe I have a deep understanding of what scares people and how to scare them. I guarantee that the books on my list will scare you to the bone.
Get your horror on! This collection of flash fiction will activate your taste buds like zombies drawn to fresh brains. These stories oozed from the brains of some of the best horror writers from around the world, the likes of Ramsey Campbell, Nate Kenyon, Tim Lebbon, William F. Nolan, Eric Guignard, Lisa Morton, Jack Ketchum, Nancy Kilpatrick, Del Howison, (yours truly) Fred Wiehe, and many more. Also, Mike Mignola of Hell Boy fame designed the cover art! I was honored to be included in this anthology and thoroughly enjoyed reading the other stories by these masters of horror.
Do you like your horror in small bite-sized chunks? If so, then SLICES OF FLESH from Dark Moon Books will activate your taste buds like zombies drawn to fresh brains. These flash fiction stories oozed from the brains of some of the best horror writers from around the world and will fit perfectly into your daily diet of "scary." SLICES OF FLESH includes the following short horror tales: Acceptance (Reesa Brown), Air Baby (Stephen Volk), All Paths Lead to Psychopath (Sephera Giron), Althea's Mistake (Jennifer Word), Angst (Fran Friel), The Bastard Called Hope (Jennifer Brozek), Big Bite (Rick Hautala), Blame…
Like many of my generation, my formal introduction to the zombie genre started with George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead. Stories of the zombie apocalypse, and the arterial sprays, dismemberments, and eviscerations that accompanied it, have fascinated me ever since. But, I'm also a psychology professor. Although I was initially captivated by the carnage of the undead, I quickly found that the mindsets of the survivors were equally fascinating. More than anything, I love seeing how fictional worlds represent real-world psychological concepts.
I will never survive a zombie apocalypse. I'm pretty sure my last words will be, "OMG, Zombies! I'm going to take a selfie! Arrgghh." But for those with good sense and practical intelligence, plans for defeating the undead will need to be developed and set in motion. That's where The Zombie Survival Guide comes in. Max Brooks' offering is a fascinating "how-to guide" for living in a world overrun with the living dead. This book has it all, from weapons and combat techniques to offensive and defensive strategies. The information in this book is invaluable for those prepping for the inevitable plaque of the undead.
Don't be reckless with you most precious asset - life. This book is your key to survival against the hordes of undead who may be stalking you right now without your even knowing it.
It covers everything you need to know, from how to understand zombie behaviour to survival in any territory or terrain.
The Zombie Survival Guide offers complete protection through proven tips for safeguarding yourself and your loved ones against the living dead.
It might just save your life.
'A bloody-minded, strait-laced manual for evading the grasp of the undead.' Time Out
It’s Seb’s last day working in Turkey, but his friend Oz has been cursed. Superstition turns to terror as the effects of the ancient malediction spill over, and the lives of Oz and his family hang in the balance. Can Seb find the answers to remove the hex before it’s…
I heart zombies. I have always loved them. Even when I was a baby. Every time I could watch a zombie movie, I did. I even secretly rented zombie films from Blockbuster Video (remember those?) and the library without my parents knowing.
Some people hate the idea of combining bloggers and zombies, but I loved that it was something different and new. But what I loved most about this series is that it offered us a glimpse into a world after the zombie apocalypse.
The first book is the best but the whole series is worth reading.
Now, for the first time, Mira Grant's complete New York Times bestselling NEWSFLESH trilogy is available in a single volume.
"Alive or dead, the truth won't rest. My name is Georgia Mason, and I am begging you. Rise up while you can."
The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beat the common cold. But in doing so we created something new, something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED.
Now, twenty years after the Rising, Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail…