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The Living Dead

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The Living Dead

By: George A. Romero, Daniel Kraus
Narrated by: Bruce Davison, Lori Cardille
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin

It begins with one body. A pair of medical examiners find themselves facing a dead man who won’t stay dead.

It spreads quickly. In a Midwestern trailer park, an African American teenage girl and a Muslim immigrant battle newly-risen friends and family.

On a US aircraft carrier, living sailors hide from dead ones while a fanatic preaches the gospel of a new religion of death.

At a cable news station, a surviving anchor keeps broadcasting, not knowing if anyone is watching, while his undead colleagues try to devour him.

In DC, an autistic federal employee charts the outbreak, preserving data for a future that may never come.

Everywhere, people are targeted by both the living and the dead.

We think we know how this story ends. We. Are. Wrong.

©2020 George A. Romero (P)2020 Penguin Audio Ghosts Horror Scary Haunted Zombie

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Critic reviews

A horror landmark, a work of gory genius marked by all of Romero's trademark wit, humanity, and merciless social observations. How lucky are we to have this final act of grand guignol from the man who made the dead walk. (JOE HILL, author of NOS4A2)
A sprawling, timely, scary epic that honours the zombie tradition but also goes in new directions and takes risks that pay off. (PAUL TREMBLAY, author of A Head Full of Ghosts)
Like a lost Romero classic, which will play out on the inside your skull long after you’ve finished it. (CLIVE BARKER, author of Hellraiser)
Most relevant  
The story in itself was interesting but labored. It jumped about a fair bit in the beginning. This didn't help. At almost 30 hours long, it was easy to miss parts that were meant to be connected. I enjoyed it for what it was. I would recommend it to anyone if they asked.

Lots of detail.

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To many pleonasm word's for a zombie book the narrators were ok but eventually gave up on chapter ten

Not so good

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This book is the culmination of a lifes work and took Goerge 36 years to write (but not finish). for any fans of the zombie genre this is a must read.

best thing I've listened to for years

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This is without doubt A the best Zombie Novel written and B the top 5 books I have listened to on audible.

Brilliant characters, immersive and passionate narration and brilliantly paced storytelling.

Amazing characters, brilliant prose!

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The introduction to the zombies was quite good and the characters were well fleshed out.

The book does suffer from very intense description on sometimes minor details while somehow avoiding the zombies and actual horror aspects of the story. There's a lot of pointless depth to characters which in fairness did become more relevent in the end for some of them.

Overall it's more of a character study than a zombie horror book. If that's your thing then go for it.

Mixed feelings on this one.

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It’s all here, like a Frankenstein’s monster made anew between Romero and Kraus. An epic, aptly conclude post-life in the case of George.

This is truly beautiful work. The book unfolds to become a re-membering of existing native threads and characters that bleed seamlessly into this new story as yet untold. This definite end to the Dead chronology could not have been executed with more exquisite care.

The deepest dive yet into the goo of the Dead

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I'm a big zombie film fan, though I'd contend that only a handful of truly great zombie films have been made. With his original 'Dead' trilogy, George Romero was responsible for three of them. Great - or even just good - zombie novels are even rarer, so I was hoping this one, part-written by the master himself, would join their ranks.

The first part of the book is overlong, and it is overwritten, especially in the early stages. Action set pieces are drawn out to absolutely intolerable lengths. There are action scenes, which in a film might take 30 seconds of screen time, take about an hour of narration time. At one point, a teenage girl caught in the thick of some bloody mayhem lets out a scream, and we get to hear her musings on how she perceives her own cry to be like a feminist roar. Maybe that's something she might reflect on later, but surely not while a dead woman is trying to bite her arm off, or whatever?!

The characters are well-rounded but not all of them feel real. Worst of all, they display 'horror film stupidity' at various points. Characters acting totally against type - or suddenly losing their basic good sense - because the plot needs to be driven forward. A battle-hardened survivor, 15 years after the outbreak begins, gets bitten after running her fingers along a zombie's lip, lost in some silly reverie. I mean, c'mon.

Despite all this, I'm glad I persevered past the first 10 hours or so. After those endless introductory scenes, and as we move into the more sprightly middle section (The Life of Death), and the third section, the quality picks up and it contains some really cool ideas. One character's death scene is genuinely moving. The occasional use of zombies as characters, written using the second person perspective, is properly creepy and works very well indeed. The discussions about politics and leadership, after a Trump-like populist insinuates himself into the group, are packed full of ideas you can really chew over.

Though I'd question the need for two readers, the duo have great voices and are good performers, particularly the gruff Bruce Davison. But there's some occasionally dodgy editing and it doesn't help that much of the writing appears to be a little difficult to read. Big, unwieldy, needlessly complex sentences. AND where do you PUT... the emphasis?

Whatever. I'm glad I stuck it to the end. This is a good zombie novel. The final essay by Daniel Kraus is great. I recommend it.

The Ups and Downs of the Dead

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Hands down one of the best if not THE best audible book I have ever listened to and I have listened to a lot, Superb

SUPERB!!

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So you know when you see the name George A Romero before a movie more than likely it’s going to be about zombies, zees, the undead, gore, death and carnage so you can guess this books is the same. Well it is but Romero died before it was completed and Daniel Kraus picked up the reins, tweaked it and then finished the book. And I have to say I think Mr Romero would be proud of what Mr Kraus has achieved.

One of my first dates - away back in the mists of time I may add - was going into see the original Dawn of the Dead and I became hooked on the “.....of the Dead series” and you know this book fits right in there. It follows the same formula which in my opinion never gets boring. Can mind the movie but not the lad who took me into see it!

In a nut shell we have a cast of characters who we follow over a set amount of years - that is from the beginning of the outbreak till the end or is it.... well no spoilers here! But more interestingly we find out what it is like changing into a zombie and being a zed. This is an interesting twist and I enjoyed these parts the most.

It is a long book but I think it needs to be as our main characters backstories need to be told ...fleshed out as it were and I have to say I was rooting for some more than others! There are some really scarey moments in this book - I’ve a tendency to listen to horror late at night in the dark and on my own. 🤪

What can I say ...it’s a really good 27 hours worth Zombie Apocalyptic book with all the usual tropes and I liked it! It’s well narrated with each character having their own identifiable voice and it’s worth a credit.

‘When there’s no more room in Hell....the dead will walk the Earth’ Romero Dawn of the Dead...cheers!

By Romero....the King of the Zombie Flick....

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had me gripped from start to finish! a great tribute to George! plenty of twists and gore, so much gore :-D

loved it!!

would b one hell of a movie/trilogy/tv series *wink wink*

MASTERPEICE!!!

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