Having just finished World War Z I have discovered that I love zombie literature. I don’t need more Max Brooks zombies, any zombies will do. On the other hand, I suspect there are some real duds out there. Are there any other good zombie writers?
I’m currently reading The Living Dead, an anthology of zombie short fiction. Some of them are great, but I’ve just hit a rough patch about 3/4 of the way through and I’m all zombied out. I’ll finish it, but the bad stories are bad.
How about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith? (Yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like. Pride and Prejudice with zombies tossed in!)
Edited to add: Also, The Serpent and the Rainbow by Wade Davis, for an anthropological zombie ride in Haiti.
I’m waiting for the sequel, Abe Lincoln: Vampire Slayer.
Yes, I’m serious… and I’m giddy.
Dying to Live by Kim Paffenroth is a not-too-bad zombie book. Zombie apocalypse survivor staggers into the city, where he discovers two groups of survivors fighting zombies and, eventually, each other. A good ‘B’ movie of a book.
George R.R. Martin wrote some decent zombie-oriented short stories. Most of them were set in the future, where remote controlled zombies are used for manual labor. The best (and most depressing) of them is probably “Meathouse Man.”
There are also zombies in his Song of Ice and Fire series, but you have to wait a while for them to show up.
Ugh.
This is the one that sapped my will to continue reading The Living Dead collection. I thought it was just awful.
Really? I thought it was an excellent character study. Martin does loneliness better than any writer I know.
I’m with Justin_Bailey. I got The Living Dead thinking it would be dynamite, and was disappointed to find that many of the stories aren’t proper zombie stories at all. Meathouse Man may be interesting in its way, but it doesn’t really belong in the same category as Romero movies. Likewise the political zombie story. The one with the stolen painting is both sucky and has almost nothing to do with zombies.
On the other hand, The Undead: Zombie Anthology is quite nifty. In fact, I ought to go back and re-read it soon. Off the top of my head it has a humorous story of nuisance zombies infestation right before a big party, a zombie-eye view story that’s disturbingly sympathetic, and a kickass tale of a zombie giant squid.
Brooks’s Zombie Survival Guide is also worthwhile. It’s at once humorous zombie fiction and deadly serious nonfiction, which is weird but fun.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is cheerfully awful, but fun if you like zombies and Austen.
Someone remind me - there’s a series that’s somewhat popular in zombiephile circles but that I couldn’t get into because every animal becomes zombified, and it was a bit too much to contemplate zombie goldfish (yes, they were a key plot point), zombie rats, and (shiver) zombie mosquitoes. Don’t recall the title or author though.
Speaking of which, Stephen King’s Pet Sematery probably qualifies.
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson is good. It is the story on which the Will Smith movie is based. One note - the story is more of a novella, and the book also contains numerous short stories (not zombie-related).
I just checked Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament out of the library, I’ll let you know how it is. It strikes me as more potentially more “tongue in cheek” than “eating cheeks” (I much prefer stuff like 28 Days Later and Dawn of the Dead!). Love zombies though, so I’m going to give it a go.
If you like graphic novels Walking Dead is AMAZING. Bleak, bleak, bleak.
I was thinking about Plague of the Dead. It looks interesting. Has anybody read that?
Let me cast a second vote for Walking Dead. It was everything I was looking for in zombie fiction in graphic novel format. I’d actually say its better than the bulk of the other zombie novels/stories out there. My only problem with it is the extrememly short monthly doses. Not as big a problem for a new reader since there are 60 issues so far. If you try it take your time catching up. I’d say hold off and read them in 10 issue spurts.
They are vampires, not zombies.
Walter Greatshell, the bloke who edited The Undead (mentioned above) has one out called Xombies (because they’re fast!) and has a sequel called Apocalypse Blues out in September.
There’s also Jailbait Zombie by Mario Acevedo, although that’s part of a series and the earlier three don’t feature zombies, and also Zombie Queen of Newbury High. It’s by Amanda Ashby. ‘Don’t wear white to the Prom, it could get very messy.’
Both of them are as tacky as their titles!
Mark Rogers’ THE DEAD- If George Romero & C.S. Lewis wrote LEFT BEHIND.
All virtuous people of various faiths are Raptured leaving the wafflers & the wicked to be the prey of demonized cannibal zombies. I thought it would be crap. IT FREAKIN’ ROCKS!
The author saw my comments on Amazon & wrote to thank me. He also sent me a copy of another book he wrote- ZORACHIUS. Regretfully, I’ve never yet finished it.
Tim Powers- On Stranger Tides
Cordwainer Smith - “Scanners Live in Vain” (hey, it works…)
That would be The Rising by Brian Keene. The sequel is City of the Dead. Keene also wrote Dead Sea which is also about zombies but technically not a sequel of The Rising. Dead Sea features a zombie whale 
Keene might not be for everybody, but he’s a cool guy - really nice to his fans and I find his books fun to read.
I have a related question that probably belongs here: any suggestion for what the FIRST zombie novel might have been? I’d be interested to know if this is a phenomenon that can be traced significantly farther back than, say, 2000.