Re: Zombies vs unicorns
@Shadow, who writes that series? it's not one I've heard of. I don't know if it'd be a bit too american focused (white trash is a very Us specific term), but I'm always up for a bit of fantasy and humour.
@Dragomier, zombies are definitely more fun to kill than unicorns, a point made in the series actually. However Unicorn riding paladins have been a staple in dungeons and dragons for years, though or some silly reason in traditional D&D instead of unicorns having the virginity thing, it's said to be only female paladins who ride unicorns which is a bit irritating.
A unicorn with a barbarian would actually rock!
As regards the anthology I'm getting through it. I actually rather liked the fairly disturbing first zombie story, a zombie romance where the zombie in question can't decide whether to eat or sleep with his beloved, and finishes up forswaring brain eating because of it. Also a story where the crazy fbi nutjobs come of as as bad as the moderately psychotic zombie which is good.
As I said, Zombies are far more common and perhaps even a bit derivative than unicorns in fiction it seems, since while I can think of a fair few unicorn appearences in fiction in the sidelines from Terry Pratchett to Harry potter, I can't think of that many stories that focus on the unicorn exclusively. Very different to dragons, much as dragons are awesome and I love dragon stories .
@Tj, As I said, While I've mostly encountered unicorns on the sidelines in other works, there are lots! of zombie stories kicking around, some unfortunately pretty dam dire, some on the other hand very awesome. If you go to fantasybookreview.co.uk you will actually find a section of the site devoted to zombie stories.
For my favourite zombie stories, the first and formost has to be Justin Cronin' ;s passage trilogy, which I actually just read and reviewed the final volume of recently find that review here
Great characters, an interesting world, and amazing writing style, plus an author who, while he definitely has the zombocalypse happen, doesn't just rehash the old cliches. Of course Cronin's Virals aren't exactly the traditional brain eating shambling zombies, they could also be considered vampires since they drink blood, although are again nothing like vampires either. Cronin's work has been compared to Steven King's The stand. While I can see the similarities, at the same time the passage trilogy is very different. No amazing dark forces, no demons or appearences of the hand of god, just people, unfortunately often people with the virus that lets them exact a bit too much of personal revenge on the world.
I really can't recommend cronin
highly enough!
Richard MAtheson's I am legend is the book on which the film Night of the living dead was based. Though not a modern book (it was published in the sixties), at the same time it manages to write all the zombie ideas in a very fresh way, indeed matheson largely invented them. Again, matheson's monsters are vampires, but they behave far more like zombies. It's a surprisingly short book, and one thing I will say is that the final point of the book (and why the title is I am legend), is very very unexpected!
Actually I'd urge any fan of zombies to read this, since like most cultural tropes it's always better to go back to the source and matheson definitely has his merrits as an author. Also, I'll say as I recall Matheson's work has aged extremely well.
_______________________________________________ Audiogames-reflector mailing list Audiogames-reflector@sabahattin-gucukoglu.com https://sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/audiogames-reflector
