Dead Sea

Features

• Cover Type: Mass Market Paperback with 337 pages
• Published by: Leisure July 31, 2007
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 084395860X
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0843958607
• Book Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Weighs: 5.6 ounces

From Publishers Weekly
With another bleak vision of the zombie apocalypse, Keene makes a triumphant return to the still-thriving subgenre he helped revive with his 2004 debut The Rising (a movie version of which is currently in the works). Trouble begins when a virus infecting the rat population of New York City begins spreading among animals and humans alike—one bite, one drop of blood or one string of saliva is all it takes to kill its victims, within minutes, and instantly revive them as mindless, flesh-eating zombies. Narrating this grim tale is gay 30-something Lamar Reed, who makes a hair-raising trip through the carnage of zombified Baltimore before he and a small group of survivors manage to commandeer a Coast Guard ship and get it out to sea. Together, the eclectic group search the coast for a safe harbor; meanwhile, an endless parade of zombies search the survivors' floating haven for a way in. Keene piles on the gory thrills as Lamar and his shipmates struggle through this diseased world, though they can be overly chatty at times (dialoging on everything from religion to Joseph Campbell). Delivering enough shudders and gore to satisfy any fan of the genre, Keene proves he's still a lead player in the zombie horror cavalcade. (Aug.)
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Reader Reviews
This book seems a major step backward from the innovative "the Rising." The inital chapters, involving the protagonist Lamar's escape from zombie-infested Baltimore, move along at a healthy pace. Once he reaches the relative safety of the Coast Guard cutter Spratling, however, things come to a screeching halt. We're introduced to a couple of stock characters (the cop, the professor, the captain), and a dozen or so interchangeable zombie fodder. Instead of spending the peaceful "downtime" learning more about these characters, however, we're treated to page after page after page of characters summarizing what they've read in Joseph Campbell's books on mythology. ("Am I a monomyth? Funny, I don't feel like a monomyth.") Keene spends so much time on his "The Power of Myth" book report, that in the end, the majority of the cast has to be killed off-screen. On the whole, there are a number of interesting ideas here that deserve to be fleshed out a lot more fully than Keene has done. Perhaps his next project could be a companion piece, detailing what was going on while Lamar was chewing the fat in his book club. Comment | | (Report this)