I won't lie to you; I do not understand the current fascination with taking classic works of 19th century literature and "invigorating" them with supernatural gore. Have you missed this trend? Deliberately avoided it? Well, like any literary phenomenom (i.e. Harry Potter), there's a slew of authors out there that are willing to ride the coattails of a winning formula. Here's some examples:
- Mummies and Mansfield Park by Vera Nazarian
- Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Ben H. Winters
- Jane Slayre by Sherri Browning Erwin
- The Undead World of Oz by Ryan C. Thomas
- Emma and the Werewolves by Adam Rann
- Jane Bites Back by Michael Thomas Ford
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Zombie Jim by W. Bill Czolgosz
- Vampire Darcy's Desire by Regina Jeffers
- Robin Hood and Friar Tuck: Zombie killers by Paul A. Freeman
- The War of the Worlds Plus Blood, Guts and Zombies by Eric S. Brown
- Alice in Zombieland by Nickolas Cook
If you lean more toward a nonfiction take on the flesh-eating walking dead, perhaps you might prefer a biography:
- Queen Victoria, Demon Hunter by A.E. Moorat
- Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith
Seth Grahame-Smith started this whole thing with his mash-up
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which proved so wildly successfully that it not only spawned this mass of imitators, it was made into a graphic novel (of course!). We've just added this to the collection, along with the prequel
Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith. You know, if you're into that sort of thing.
1 comment:
I received an email from one of the authors mentioned in this post, so I thought I would pass along his comments and the link to his website:
Hi Rainbird
I read the piece on your blog about 'Monster Mash-Ups' and of similar books riding on the coattails of P&P&Z.
I'm the author of 'Robin Hood and Friar Tuck: Zombie Killers - A Canterbury Tale by Paul A. Freeman'. The book's secondary title is 'The Monk's Second Tale' and it is actually part of my Canterbury Tales project aimed at creating interest in Chaucer and encouraging students to read Chaucerian narrative poetry.
The project is explained on my website, the link to which is below:
www.paulfreeman.weebly.com
Also, my Robin Hood book has an original storyline, unlike the majority of mashups, although I have drawn from several of the Robin Hood legend fragments in creating my story.
www.coscomentertainment.com/robinhoodzombies.html
My book has been independently reviewed several times and with the exception of one lukewarm review has been surprisingly well received. Below is my favourite - I'm sure you'll see why.
http://bittenbybooks.com/?p=24844
If this gives you further fodder for your blog, feel free to use the information I've given you access to.
I feel it's important that narrative poetry isn't thought of by youngsters as the realm of academics, and that was my main purpose in writing 'Robin Hood and Friar Tuck: Zombie Killers - A Canterbury Tale'.
Good luck with your blog. I wish all other libraries were so farsighted.
Regards
Paul A. Freeman
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