Talking Dead? Slithering Dead Snakes, flying Dead Birds and Dead Zoo Animals? Just not my thing. Obviously a lot of people like this book. Great character development and an exciting, fast-paced plot.

Other than the total cliffhanger ending, because this was the first in a series of what will soon be five books. It does have a good story and good editing - which says a lot. Reading The Rising is like watching a thrill-ride indie zombie flick or one of those crazy, low-budget Syfy Channel movies. Unlike many Zombie novels, this one flows. I give Keene props for great writing and a decent story. I've read many other novels too, where the dead take on other forms and identities, and like I've said before, you can only do so much with the genre so it has to change into other things - and Keene did just that. Not exactly my definition of the living dead. The source for the risen dead were different in the fact that the cold flesh-eating machines that are plodding along to eat you are actually flesh-eating, car-driving, word-speaking demons from Hades. The story was not meant to be the same, yet it was not entirely different. Romero's Night of the Living Dead), I had to tolerate its many differences from the original, and I did, which is why I gave it an Average rating.

Being a diehard fan of the living dead and zombie fiction (ala George A. (Even Brian Keenes sissquism would be screwed). Brian Keene's book The Rising fulfilled my zombie fixation, but it really took more than what I wanted to give, and I really wanted to like this book. Brian Keene is an American author of horror, dark fantasy, crime and thriller novels, graphic novels and comic books.

The Rising by Brian Keene