Rising, The (2004)

Fiction Review by The Gravedigger	03.09.04

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Brian Keene's new novel is a surprisingly fresh take on the zombie genre.In the near future the dead starts coming to life, feeding on the living and increasing their legions. Jim Thurmond, who has been hiding out in his backyard bomb shelter for two months since the catastrophe happened, gets a call from his son on his cell phone. He finds out that the boy is alive and desperately needs his help-but in order to get to him he has to travel hundreds of miles and avoid getting killed by the thousands of zombies roaming about. This is not easy. Along on his quest are an elderly black preacher, a scientist and an ex-prostitute. Rather than having the dead come to life via some space virus or man-made disease, Keene has them resurrected by demons who have managed to break into this dimension. They were able to do so through a scientific experiment. As soon as the human soul departs the bodies a demon takes over. But they don't just possess human bodies-there are cat zombies, rat zombies, flocks of dead birds, and escaped zombie zoo animals. As to why there are so many demons, their leader named Ob tells the scientist 'We are legion'.But the zombies aren't the only danger to the living. There's a psychotic army commander who is taking people prisoner. He makes the men do slave labor and the women give 'recreation' to his troops. His desire to take over a hidden government base which the scientist knows about-yet this is where the zombie takeover started and this is where there will be a huge, violent confrontation between humans and the walking dead.Sure, there are parts that will remind you of everything from THE STAND to 28 DAYS LATER yet it's unique enough to stand apart. If you're not able to wait for the next zombie movie then you should definitely grab this novel. THE RISING is a page-turner and delivers the goods for all those zombie fans out there. Available from www.dorchesterpub.com Author's website: www.brianekeene.com Read it? Rate it Currently nan/10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Rating: nan out of 10.0 - votes cast total buy horror book del.icio.us  |  digg  |  reddit » BACK TO HORROR FICTION REVIEWS LIST