Recent Reviews

Goblin Grapple (Silver Gaming Co.) Brothers (505 Games) Pathfinder Card Game (Paizo Publishing) Cthulhu Invictus Companion (Chaosium) Boss Monster! (Brotherwise Games) Murder of Crows (Atlas Games) More...

The Book of More Flesh
Edited by James Lowder
Published by Eden Studios
Cover design by George Vasilakos
Cover art by Christopher Shy
Contributors (comprised of many award-winning horror authors) include David Dvorkin, J. Robert King, Tom Piccirilli, Scott Edelman, Mark McLaughlin, Darrell Schweitzer, and Steve Eller, among others.
320 pages

Just after Presidents Day Weekend, I settled in with a short story anthology about zombies. Pretty focused topic, and I wasn't expecting much. I certainly never expected it to revive my muse, which has atrophied over the years of running plot after hackneyed RPG plot, but revived it is. And having been thusly reborn, I bring to you this tribute to the book. Better than a review, better than a simple synopsis, better than the book itself.

Um, maybe not that good.

But it certainly samples and compresses the wide range of wildly entertaining stories in the The Book of More Flesh into a very... palatable format. Don't think that just because you know the key players and a few of the settings, that you can't be surprised by the unarguably inventive and talented authors who dug deep into their own heads to come up with some necrotic gems.

You won't have much of a brain left when the zombies get through with you, so don't think about it - just sing!

In a Zombie's Craw
(Sung to the tune of "Turkey in the Straw")

Oh the dead they walk by day and night and bring with them a blight.
See, the dead they make us dead like them with just one bite.
All the stories in this book will leave you squirming with delight.
Funny, happy, scary, sad or deep, but always right.

Chorus:
Corpses rot black and spirits turn wight.
Listen to their moans all through the night.
Zombie men and women with their putrefying parts,
Their zombie boys and girls and pets will eat your brains and hearts.

There are zombies from the West and still more zombies from the East.
There are body-hopping zombies who on brains do feast.
Post-apocalyptic zombies and Victoriana too;
From everywhere and everywhen they're all after you.

(chorus)

Zombies sailing on the ocean, zombies mining on the moon,
Pistol-wielding zombies 'mongst the tumbleweeds at noon.
Employees cadaverous and zombie 'Nam platoons.
If you ever see another it will be too soon.

(chorus)
-

Buy the damned book. It'll kill ya.