Cold Flesh Reviews

Review 1: by Brian Keene, from a personal e-mail

A great line-up of talent. . . . I dug the hell out of [D.L. Snell’s “Limbless Bodies Swaying”].

Review 2: by John Hubbard, from AllThingsZombie.com

Cold Flesh was excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Only one story was bad (and it was AWFUL) but the anthology has over 300 pages of very cool zombie fiction. Everson’s story is great and so is Shiflett’s and Snell’s.

Review 3: by Garrett Peck, reprinted by permission of Cemetery Dance Publications

It seems you just can't keep zombies down. That other form of the undead, the ubiquitous vampire, has been dominating horror fiction for some time, but lately zombies have been giving them a run for their money. They've been flexing their rotting muscles at the box office with a remake of Dawn of the Dead and the parody Shaun of the Dead. Even the master who redefined zombies forever returned to his roots with Land of the Dead. But the resurgent interest in zombies hasn't been confined to theaters. Zombie anthologies have also become quite popular, as with Eden Studio's All Flesh trilogy. Mondo Zombie, the long-awaited and delayed third volume of The Book of the Dead series, is to finally be released. Even your humble reviewer's Charles Grant benefit anthology Small Bites is one-third zombie stories. With all these zombie stories shambling around, are there enough good ones to go around for another one? Well, its seems there's at least enough for Cold Flesh.

Though the list of contributors to Cold Flesh contains more unfamiliar names than known ones, the stories are uniformly readable and action-packed. The bulk of them are simply vignettes from Romero land. Many end with the hero or heroine escaping immediate danger with no guarantee of their ultimate fate, but no one should be bored by any of them.

There are not a whole lot of new ideas presented here either, but there are a few standouts. "Maternity Ward" by Jennifer Loring presents a memorable portrait of a pregnant woman going into labor entering a hospital that's been overrun by the dead. Robert Morrish's "Do the Trains Still Run on Time?" concerns a man who works at a pharmaceutical company that's developed a drug which prevents infection from zombie bites-if administered in time. The most original story of the lot-smartly presented last by editor Paul Fry-is J. F. Gonzalez's "Ménage Á Trois," in which a hedonist makes the mistake of bringing a couple of party girls from the overrun city to join him at his mountainside mansion.

Although Cold Flesh doesn't break a whole lot of new ground, it does provide fine entertainment for zombie fans. Though you're not liable to remember it well a few months after you've read it, you will remember you had a good time reading it.

Review 4: by Collin Burton, from AllThingsZombie.com

Overall Cold Flesh is the best collection of zombie stories I’ve read in years. Each of the stories manages to provide a unique take on the same theme with minimal overlapping of plot--beyond zombies, of course. Well done.

“Maternity Ward” by Jennifer Loring. After reading this story, I was a little bit concerned about my decision to get the book. Don’t get me wrong, it was well written. Very moody and very descriptive. I just didn’t like the main character. I had absolutely no empathy for her. If anything the story seemed to be written so that the reader would hate her. She came across to me as a selfish, man-hating vegetarian, who had no positive feelings for her unborn child, and it felt as though she deserved whatever came her way.

The problem was, if I disliked the character how could I feel any sympathy for her situation? Without sympathy, how could I develop an emotional investment and be at all concerned for her? The only thing that I felt concern for was her child and unless it sprang from the womb brandishing an axe and an uzi it’s future would be decided by a mother that didn’t care about it and the zombies that wanted to snack on it. I won’t provide anything more about the plot except to say that it didn’t take the turn I was expecting, yet even that didn’t help me like it when it was done.

I did appreciate the attention to detail throughout the short story. The author certainly has a way with presenting vivid descriptions that help to draw the reader into the situation; however, since my dislike of the character drew me back out again it left me on a neutral, detached ground all the way through.

Overall: Well written + good pacing + descriptive - a character that was shallow and unsympathetic = didn’t like.

“The Day I Killed Hitler (Again)” by Patrick Lestewka. If I’m not mistaken--and I may be--this was the longest short story in the entire book. I really liked how it started, and the flashback that filled the reader in on how things came about and why the protagonist and first-person narrator, Deacon Jacks, was in a coliseum, facing off against the zombie of Adolph Hitler for the entertainment of 5000 zombie onlookers, was done quite well. The length of the story allowed the author to go into far greater detail than most of the other writers could, so he could really flesh out his world, an opportunity that wasn’t wasted.

There was some knowledge about world events that would be difficult for the main character to know, specifically the details of the “first” zombie to rise. The author would know who the first zombie was, but how would Deacon Jacks? By the time police arrived on the scene, I imagine there would be far more shambling corpses to deal with, and unless it was a very small outbreak with some time before the next one, it would be pretty hard to determine a “first.” But it was entertaining and it added to the overall world view, so I can forgive it. I also feel the author captured quite well what would likely happen around the country during such a disaster as people tried to continue their lives as best they could. Also nicely portrayed are the type of people who would turn a profit from the catastrophe and what they would be willing to do to protect that profit.

While reading this, I had no trouble picturing it as a graphic novel or a series of comics, possibly with a spin off or side story involving the exploits of the Dead Boys. That’s actually praise.

What I don’t feel was sufficiently explained in the story is why the dead were motivated to do what they were doing once they had the upper hand. It had a slight feeling of “if they didn’t behave this way then the main character would be dead and there would be no story” justification to it. But in the end, I felt it was a fun, well-told zombie story with a hint of Twilight Zone tossed in at the end. As long as it was, I still wanted more.

Overall: Well written + good pacing + spots of humor + detailed + gruesome + good dialog + The Fugitive reference = Really liked.

“Ménage Á Trois” by J.F. Gonzalez. As I was reading this, the last story in the Cold Flesh anthology, I found myself enjoying this author’s writing style, although by the end I realized the story itself was very light on zombies.

As near as I can tell, it takes place about a year after the dead began to rise up with the mad munchies. The world of the living seems to have avoided total collapse after all that time. There’s still power in some places, long distance communication is possible at least by way of the internet, and there are some survivors who feel safe enough to dress up and go to dance clubs to hook up for some bedroom boom-boom. It’s almost as though the battle between the living and the dead has come to a standstill or may even possibly be tipping into the favor of the living. I base some of this on how easy it was for Doug, the main character, to get from his home in the High Sierras, 50 miles from civilization, all the way to a club in Hollywood.

The undead just weren’t menacing in this story, which is a shame. The first zombie Doug faces when he stops in Hollywood is handled with a considerable lack of concern on his part. He seems to view the undead somewhere between a nuisance and a form of entertainment. The focus instead seems to be on the motivations and intrigues of the living, with the walking dead serving as a distant backdrop. In fact, if this story were to take place during some other end-of-civilization event I could see it essentially working out the same way without much alteration.

The author gives us a lot of background about Doug; how he acquired his boonie paradise, how it continues to function in isolation after the plague, and his personality and urges. I can tell he’d given it a lot of thought. He also does a good job bringing in the other two central characters that Doug focuses his energy on, showing how they met and taking us along as the relationship develops and then dissolves. They never really get as much depth of character as Doug is given, although by the end I felt that I knew them as well as he ever did.

I would love to talk about the end of the story, but obviously I can’t without ruining it. Ultimately I wasn’t satisfied with how it played out, although it did bring zombies back into the story.

Overall: Well written + fair amount of details + good dialog +/- sexually explicit - zombies were secondary to the story = Good.

“Limbless Bodies Swaying” by D.L. Snell. This story was a fun ride. By making his protagonist a vampire, D.L. Snell put the readers in an interesting position. The vampire, Roman, doesn't have to fear the zombies themselves. They can't hurt him, at least as long as he's attentive. He's far more powerful than they are and his obvious superiority is established early on. However what he does have to be concerned with is how they are quickly decimating his food supply. It would be like opening your refrigerator and seeing your milk devouring the last of your cookies and you REALLY needed a cookie because you were diabetic or something. I don't know. Regardless, it was a new point of view, for me at least, and it was handled quite well. The writing in the story was very descriptive, without being distracting: "... Roman swept his kick in smooth arc, cracking the cadaver's jaw askew, splattering slimy cheek onto the pebbles." He uses this detail quite effectively throughout the entire story and the ending left me wanting more.

Overall: Different perspective + descriptive + action + left with a desire for more = Excellent

Review 5: by Lee Pletzers, from Spell Bound Newsletter, August 2005

First off, it’s probably not good form to review a book that contains my work, but after finishing Cold Flesh, I just have to tell you about it.

This book rocks, once you get past the first four stories. Most of the following stories are excellent and worth more than $9.99. Now, I’m sure you’re thinking, “Why the hell do I want an anthology on only zombie stories? How much can be done to such a tired theme?”

First off, think 28 Days Later. That rocked the tired old zombie theme. Sure it had a few problems, but most movies do once you decide to review the thing. Then, there’s Shawn of the Dead--another good zombie movie, a tad different from all the rest.

As is the case of this book.

Most of the stories add a new flavor to the standard zombie stories. Take for example some of the best stories in this anthology:

“The Dead Shall Have No Domain” by James Cooper. In this story, zombies are accepted into society, and the government has enacted policies that control them. Or do they? Add to this the first talking zombie and a long lost uncle that pays a visit, and you’ve got a damn good story.

“Herman Krenshaw” by Richard Wadlow. A good story, but I seriously don’t think it fits this anthology, as the zombie element is barely there. Still a nice story to whittle away spare time.

“Ground Floor” by Rebecca Brock. Intense--a group of people stuck in an elevator. Add claustrophobia to the MC and you get a damn interesting story. You almost don’t want it to end.

“When She Died, He Came” by Neil McAdams. Teenage lust with zombies almost upon them. This is their first and only chance to make love, as the girl has been bitten. There’s little time left.

“Cover” by James Futch. One of the most interesting, where the MC dresses as a zombie and lives among them for survival.

“Limbless Bodies Swaying” by D. L. Snell. A vampire hunting for real humans while fighting his way through zombies. Very entertaining story.

“Incident At Hell Creek” by Ron Shiflet. Adds some humor to break up the feeding. Buster and Wylie are after a perfect get-rich-quick scheme, and after wasting six weeks at a worthless gold claim they return to the town of Hell Creek and discover it empty. They head off to the saloon and encounter outlaw zombies controlled by a Shaman.

“Colder Still” by Marc Paoletti. About a woman fighting her way through the harsh winter wilderness, trying to get to the next town she can find. She is pregnant, and wolves are surrounding her. It doesn’t sound like a zombie story, but trust me, it is.

And the stories just get better and more interesting.

Investing $9.99 in this anthology is money well spent, and with this large paperback, you’ll spend any lovely hours curled up on the sofa . . . with all the lights on.