The scariest – and best – book your should be reading
“In a world ruled by the dead, we are finally forced to start living.”
I discovered this book less than a year ago after a friend recommended it. Now it is, in my opinion, one of the best horror stories I’ve ever experienced.
It started out normal enough: a man wakes up from a coma to a world that has been taken over by what appears to be the living dead. He is alone and must find a way to survive in a world that, literally, is dead.
But from that point on the story diverges from a typical horror tale simply due to the fact that the plot moves from the reasons of the living dead to the motivations of those that survived. “The Walking Dead” creates a world where the old rules are gone and now people are forced to figure out how to act in a new and extremely different type of world. And the outcome is surprising and even shocking at times. Some seek the basic needs of love and family. Some relent to there brutal sides. Others take on roles that before the change they would have never considered – ranging from lover, friend, to even murderer or judge, jury and executioner.
Another compelling point of the series is the feeling that no one is ever safe. Anyone at any point in time can be and most likely will be killed. It gives the title of the series an entirely more powerful meaning – ‘the walking dead’ not only refers to the zombies that infest the world, but also to those few survivors that face their own fates as the true ‘walking dead’.
The series still comes out on a monthly basis through Image comics, but there are currently six collected editions available from bookstores.
April 2, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Agreed. The series has a good comprehension of subtlety, nothing is ever done too blatantly, or in a predictable manner. After all, that’s the undead’s #1 advantage, too often are they underestimated. What begins as one can easily swell into tens, hundreds, and ultimately thousands.
Also, the author supports a very indefinite quality that zombies retain, one that’s been altered far too many times in other novels, movies, etc. They’re LETHARGIC. None of that sprinting bullshit. Slow moving, whited eyes, and blank expressions are what truly define a zombie’s image, and Kirkman & Moore capture it PERFECTLY.