Everybody likes zombies, right? Of course they do. Who wouldn't? But, do they have enough drive to keep an entire publishing company alive. That's what The Library of the Living Dead is counting on. It was on one of my bi annual trips to a convention called Cinema Wasteland where I ran into the people behind this concept. I asked the guy behind the table to give me his best book. It was a novel called Dead Tide which I have just started. Too soon for an opinion. I also caught the cover of Zombology and I liked the word. I also like short, zombie fiction so I took a shot.
Like a lot of anthologies, it has it's ups and downs. There are old concepts and some newer twists on the theme, but none of that matters.
What matters is 'Stop Requested' by Rhiannon Frater.
I have read a lot of fiction. Some you plow through. Some you turn each page with expectations. This is one of the few times where I amp up the speed reading abilities and the pages turn in a blur. Kind of like The Flash reading a book. Pages all a flurry. See, I actually have been trained to speed read and I can, if I focus, manage about a thousand words a minute.
This was one of those times where I wished I could have gone faster.
As an avid reader you pray for those things where the writing immerses you completely and you can't read fast enough.
I think the last time was Bite by Richard Laymon.
Does that make it worth it? Is one story worth buying a book that is filled with a great deal of mediocre fiction with a couple of gems floating within?
I considered it for quite some time and finally came up with an answer.
This story is so unique, so immersive, so compelling that I would have to say yes. The Kindle edition is only three bucks. Used it's around eight bucks. That's a lot for one story, but it's a really good story.
I'll let you know how Dead Tide turns out.
