Like most of Keenes’s book, while grounded in traditional tropes, it’s far from a traditional zombie novel.

City of the Dead isn’t just a novel about inter dimensional “demons” inhabiting the bodies of the dead to eliminate life on this earth, it’s also an often heartbreaking look at a man reconnecting with his child and understanding what it means to be a father. Also, as I followed Brian Keene’s career, one thing that truly stuck out to me in City of the Dead was how personal this novel must have been for him. Over a decade later, and I can now truly appreciate how truly cutting edge and influential this novel has become. When I first read The Rising and City of the Dead, the current wave of Zombie fic was in it’s infancy. It’s really hard to review the audio version of a book you read originally over 10 years ago. I think this would be a good tale to read with a child, and may lead to some interesting conversations.Ĭity of the Dead: Author’s Preferred Edition by Brian Keene There is no agenda or attempts to teach moral lessons, just revealing a potential world as realistically as possible. Keene delivers the tale in a way that brutally honest to kids, yet never gratuitously so. Keene doesn’t attempt to make his main character anything more than he is, a normal kid dealing with a situation that most adults would have trouble grasping. This isn’t some cozy apocalypse, but a brutal landscape seen through the eyes of a child.

Inspired by his sons view of the apocalypse, Keene doesn’t cute it up. Yet, where this novella stands out is in the voice of it’s main character and the pure visceralness of the writing. In School’s Out, Keene doesn’t break much new ground in the post apocalyptic world. The Lost Level series is the most fun I have had reading a print novel since Joe Lansdale’s Drive In series, and I can’t wait to see which roads Keene takes us down next.

While I love the novel as a whole, the little side peeks into some of the alternate realities was the highlight for me, as well as the cool little short story attached to the end. Yet must importantly, it’s pure joy to read. The Lost Level series is the perfect blend of modern science fiction concepts, classic pulpiness and Keene’s own special mythology. Return to the Lost Levels offers a quest, some “new” characters, death defying (and not-quite-defying) action and just enough interdimensial weirdness to through me into full on squee mode. In the second book in the series, Brian Keene cranks up the pulpy goodness to 11.

Brian keene the rising series