The Walking Dead Invasion by Jay Bonansinga

I have already read several of the Walking Dead series of books, written by Jay Bonansinga, which have little in common with the television series seen on AMC network. This book, “The Walking Dead Invasion” deals, for example, with a villain not seen on the show (yet?) – a crazed preacher named Jeremiah. His nemesis here is Lilly Caul, the woman who takes over Woodbury after “The Governor” – another villain who was used on TV – is dead and gone.

I really like Lilly, and I like the storyline where the survivors of Woodbury have had to go underground, using the old “underground railroad” tunnels between towns, to avoid the hoard of zombies on the streets above them. I also like Jeremiah as a villain, since he has that nasty, “Governor” edge. He is able to charm people with his slick and handsome preacher persona, but deep down, he is one troubled pup. He often sees his father, who didn’t treat him very well, in visions, and in one of those, he decides that the answer to the plague is to turn the undead into a controllable army. Like the insatiable hatred the Governor felt for Rick Grimes, the hero of the television series, Jeremiah has it in for Lilly, and will do anything, even destroy his flock of survivors, in order to destroy her first.

The story begins when Jeremiah and some of his flunkies come upon an almost abandoned church. Some zombies are chained into the pews, and a lone human woman is holding down the fort there. She tells them a friend of hers had run away to join a mobile group of survivors, and Jeremiah decides that’s just the place he wants to be. Fortuitously they find the group, which consists of a caravan of various vehicles and a number of families. The group is being led by a Catholic priest, but using a trick the Governor would have used, Jeremiah leaves the Reverend’s RV door open and lets the zombies do their magic. Unfortunately, the priest is hardier than that, and Jeremiah has to shot him himself, taking charge of the caravan in the power vacuum that results.

Next he overpowers some nasty bikers, using them as bait to draw his zombie army. He finds out which tunnels Lilly and her friends are using, and makes his plans to kill them all. It culminates in a showdown, but if you’ve seen either the TV version of the Governor’s showdown with Rick’s group, or have read the books or comics, you’ll find this all very familiar territory. Another crazy baddie gets what’s coming to him.

Along the way, Bonansinga writes great characters, undead and living, although I did get tired of working my way through another yet description of a “squishy” demise of a zombie. I don’t know how many of these books Bonansinga and Kirkman plan to put together, but I do enjoy them as a whole, some more than others. This one – “Invasion” – falls in the middle. I love reading about Lilly, but Jeremiah just seems like a more religious Governor character. Still, I think it would be worth reading for true fans of the AMC series, or Kirkman’s comics.   

I am Legend and Other Stories by Richard Matheson

Reviewed by Gerti

If you’re like me, you've heard of the movie with Will Smith called “I Am Legend”, but you've never heard of author Richard Matheson. That’s why his collection of short fiction is a delightful discovery. Not only do you find the short novel that was the impetus for the Hollywood blockbuster (although the plots are very different), you will also find another horror classic – the story of the Zuni fetish doll made famous by Karen Black in “Trilogy of Terror”. Yes, that’s Matheson’s story, too.

Spanning from 1951 to 1987, this collection of one short novel and 10 short stories penned by Matheson is a fascinating look at the author’s twisted takes on what it means to be human. Just about every story contains death, often with the main character killing others, but there is also a hint of the paranormal. One story features 7 beautiful teen-aged witches who kill men in horrible but unique ways; another has a witch doctor’s curse which threatens the life of a successful New York City man. Each story contains an extraordinary conflict – my favorite being between an author and his “Mad House”, a home which he has filled with so much anger and frustration that the inanimate objects in it conspire to kill him.

I am bothered that the headlining story “I Am Legend” is actually more like the 1964 Vincent Price film “The Last Man on Earth” and the even campier 1971 movie “The Omega Man” than Will Smith’s movie. Robert Neville in Matheson’s novel is not plagued by fast zombies so much as by a form of infected but evolving humans, and they are angry that he has been killing them, so they send in a “healthy” decoy to kill him. Even though Neville is suspicious of her, he has been alone (and lonely for female company) for so long, that he wants to believe she is human, like him. While she can’t kill him, she instead warns him that the others will come for him, because they are setting up a new society and his very existence threatens their world. I far prefer the unknown Hollywood script writer’s version with Smith where Neville is not a sex-crazed creep, but a charming hero who eventually comes up with an antidote to cure those infected by this disease.

There are psychological depths to the Zuni fetish doll story, “Prey”, which features a female protagonist - Amelia. She has purchased a birthday gift for her boyfriend, Arthur, but her controlling mother wants to spend that Friday evening with her instead. The doll, called “This is He Who Kills” when she takes him out of his wooden coffin, represents her pent-up rage at being treated like a child by her mom, and the gold chains around him are her frustrated struggle for independence. When she is finally possessed by the doll’s warrior spirit before the old lady comes to visit, we are almost pleased that Amelia has found some form of internal strength and a way to fight back.

In all, these short works make worthwhile reading for science fiction fans. While some are sexist and old-fashioned, Matheson has an engaging writing style, and his tales themselves are all uniquely twisted versions of a very strange world.