Best New Zombie Tales Volume 1

Includes Amazing Fiction by:

WHC Grand Master Award Winner, Ray Garton
New York Times Best Seller, Jonathan Maberry
Bram Stoker Award Winner, Kealan Patrick Burke
Bram Stoker Award Nominee, Jeff Strand
Edgar Award, Bram Stoker Award Nominee, Bev Vincent
Micro Award Finalist, Robert Swartwood
Emmy Award Nominee, Harry Shannon
British Fantasy Awards Nominee, Gary Mcmahon
Bram Stoker Award Winner, Kim Paffenroth
And so much more…
Creepy, scary, and sometimes funny, these stories are all quite enjoyable but if I had to choose favorites I would say that the Ray Garton story "Zombie Love" and Jonathan Maberry's "Pegleg and Paddy save the world" were the best of the bunch.

Letting The Demons Out - Ray Wallace

"The demons are waiting... Ancient gods. Flesh-eating immortals. Sentient machines. A gun wielding monster. And a man with a unique and terrible addiction. They all reside within the pages of LETTING THE DEMONS OUT, the debut collection from Ray Wallace, author of ESCAPE FROM ZOMBIE CITY: A ONE WAY OUT NOVEL and THE HELL SEASON. Face your fears. Enjoy the nightmares."

Looking for thrills, chills, and a few giggles too? All can be found in Letting The Demons Out. 

My favorites of these 16 entertaining tales were..

"It Came From The Swimming Pool" Aside from the fact that what is in that pool may scare the bejeezers out of you I loved these characters and was reminded that happiness is all about perception.

"A Dream Of An Endless Highway" A scary little story set in the not too distant future where cars drive themselves. I'm still laughing over the head of CETA but I'm not going to tell you what that stands for because I don't want to deprive you of your giggle when you read the book.

"Letting The Demons Out" Because I have a fear of psychotic religious fanatics the way some people have a fear of clowns.

"Who's Laughing Now" A fun read in which the author tips his hat to Evil Dead 2
and last but not least..

"Test Run" which surprised me to enjoy it so much because I am not usually a fan of alien stories, and I definitely didn't see the end coming.

Peaceable Kingdom by Jack Ketchum

Description

This landmark collection gathers more than thirty of Jack Ketchum's most thrilling stories. "Gone" and "The Box" were honored with the prestigious Bram Stoker Award. Whether you are already familiar with Ketchum's unique brand of suspense or are experiencing it for the first time, here is a book no aficionado of fear can do without.
This novel contains graphic content and is recommended for regular readers of horror novels 


32 short stories that won't let you down.  My favorites were Megan's Law, about a man who is informed that a sexual predator has moved into his neighborhood, The Rifle, in which a mother finds her own way to deal with her very troubled child, and The Great San Diego Sleazy Bimbo Massacre, a dark but humorous story of a woman who enlists the help of a friend in her plan to do away with her husband. Peaceable Kingdom will haunt me for a while.

Coven by Edward Lee

"Born in darkness, they arise. Seductive angels of murder, madness, and horrors beyond imagining. COVEN Bathed in moonlight, they feed their darkest hungers in a festival of perversion and death, demented orgies that serve a cruel, unspeakable will... COVEN They are irresistible sirens in black, corrupting the living and raising the dead. Now the silent town of Exham will surrender to their loving embrace, their haunting beauty, and their ravenous need for human flesh. Surrender--and die... COVEN Beauty is only skin deep. More like a revved-up gross-out ‘70s B-movie, COVEN revels in its ultimate editorial no-no: it’s science-fiction dropped into a contemporary horror plot, something that horror editors seem to never buy. Maybe this one sold...because it works. Originally entitled THE WOMEN IN BLACK, this "turgid," original take on the There’s Something Fucked-Up At The College plot highlights Lee’s gross-out skills early on and demonstrates that pulp horror writers really can create fresh, well-developed, easy-to-realize characters. Cameos of Lee’s then-favorite beers--during his beer-snob days--appear in abundance, and Lovecraftian symbols abound (it’s fun just picking them out), but wait till you meets the gals in this book. This is the only existing novel that Lee wants to sequelize"




I wish I had looked into this before I bought it, but I saw the title and Edward Lee's name and automatically clicked the "buy now" button. I mistakenly thought it would be to do with witches or at the very least vampires since some authors don't use the term "nest."  However that was not the case. The story started out well enough, but turned silly fairly quickly. It is more of a gory comedy/sci fi than the horror I was expecting. Coven is actually a story about Aliens who plan to repopulate the earth. Had I known I would have passed.