Monday, December 31, 2012


"If anything, the zombie releases of 2012 showed me just how limitless
the narrative potential is for the walking dead." – Paul Goat Allen







By the Blood of Heroes by Joseph Nassise was an undeniably cool fusion of WWI alternate history, zombie fiction, and steampunk – and I included Paula Brandon’s The Wanderers on the list for the fascinating way she in which utilized zombies in a storyline that was predominantly aimed at fantasy and romance readers.

If anything, the zombie releases of 2012 showed me just how limitless the narrative potential is for the walking dead. I know so many mainstream fiction readers who utterly detest zombie fiction – although they have never read one zombie novel! There is an entrenched prejudice here that all zombie fiction novels will be like a George Romero gore fest – and that’s just patently ridiculous. The titles below run the gamut from horror to mainstream fiction to fantasy romance to science fiction.

Just like the undead characters in these novels, zombie fiction is exceedingly hard to eradicate. Although it certainly has its detractors, zombie fiction will be around long after they have passed away.  It’s continuously evolving – and although some significant series ended this year (Littlefield’s Aftertime, Grant’s Newsflesh, Frater’s As the World Dies, etc.), I’m hopeful that 2013 will bring exciting new zombie-powered storylines that will continue to reinvigorate and redefine the genre...

So, without further ado, here are my top zombie fiction releass of 2012!



























































































































































Paul Goat Allen has been a full-time book reviewer specializing in genre fiction for the last two decades and has written thousands of reviews for companies like Publishers Weekly, The Chicago Tribune, Kirkus Reviews, and BarnesandNoble.com. He is a member of the National Book Critics Circle. You can follow him on Twitter at @paulgoatallen and get all the latest Barnes & Noble book news from @BNBuzz.

No comments:

Post a Comment