Zombies are Still "Alive and Kicking"!





After the movie of World War Z was released, I wondered if that was the peak of the zombie obsession. Au contraire...according to what I'm seeing in the media. Now, I know it's October, month of all things monster and ghoulish, but it seems that zombies still have enough fans to keep them "fresh" in the minds of popular culture above all the other dark beasties of the world. A co-worker recently told me about a local event of some curiosity--"Bicycling and the Zombie Apocalypse". It's a workshop at that teaches you which bikes are the best for escaping the grabby hands of the undead as well as tips for survival in a zombie-ridden world. In the Denver area, there are all sorts of zombie-related events this month, including the eighth annual Zombie Crawl, zombie theater at the Adams Mystery Playhouse, "Night of the Living Dead" at the Bug Theater, a zombie fashion show at the Shoppe, and of course lots of Walking Dead parties this weekend as the Walking Dead series on AMC is about to begin its fourth season. For more about these events, check out Joanne Ostrow's article in  the Denver Post.

Review of Demons by John Shirley



In Demons by John Shirley, sheer terror develops as varied sorts of demons invade the world and begin to devour humanity like a hungry teenage boy attacking a bag of potato chips. The fact that they cannot be killed seems to lull much of the populace into a catatonic numbness as they continue their daily routines with death lurking around every corner. The Gnashers were almost comically interesting—talking their victims' ears off like a Chatty Cathy with a long, rambling monologue, before consuming them.  The story continues as Shirley leads the reader down a slow, winding path towards the explanation for the appearance of the demons and the beginning of the next invasion. That section (Book Two: Undercurrent) felt a little like wading through molasses in comparison to the horrific invasion in the earlier part of the story, but I was more satisfied by the time I got to the ending. Shirley's theme of mass sacrifice as a vector to bring more evil into the world by a power-hungry few is food for thought in our post 9/11 world that doesn't seem to be able to halt the advance of chemical and GMO suicide.