Thread of the Living Dead

[S14_Kouki]

Originally Posted by exitspeed

Really the whole scenario seemed like a perfect start to a zombie flick. Everything was fine/normal though when we got outside.

One day it might not be fine or normal when you walk out. Stay on your toes.

[S14_Kouki]

Im close to being done with the book (WWZ). But I have learned so much reading it. I knew alot but its the little things you dont think of that makes all the difference.

[Future240]

Originally Posted by mehsilvia

Am i sensing an "Official Vampire Thread" coming soon?

It scores a close second to Zombies, for things that i have a passion for.

Originally Posted by exitspeed

Hell yeah. Me too.

Ahem,

http://zilvia.net/f/off-topic-chat/2...ires-bish.html

[FaLKoN240]

YEAH

Edit: I didn't look through the thread to see if anyone said anything about the crazies, but a lot of the scenes from the movie remind me of L4D.

[Fries]

Just ordered Rising and the sequel from Keene.

My co worker has all the books of The Dead Walking on the way to his house. Fuckinggggg YES.

[Future240]

How is that book series?

[ronmcdon]

Think its called the 'walking dead'.
Its very good, but its an ongoing comic series.
Im sure you can find it on the internet.

The sequel to 'the rising' was a bit dissapointing imo.
I think just ending the book at the rising would have been more effectve.
Good read, all in all.

[Future240]

Originally Posted by ronmcdon

Think its called the 'walking dead'.
Its very good, but its an ongoing comic series.
Im sure you can find it on the internet.

The sequel to 'the rising' was a bit dissapointing imo.
I think just ending the book at the rising would have been more effectve.
Good read, all in all.

Maybe a spoiler:]It was a bit anti-climatic IMO. I would have figured more would have happened at the end. Frankie was a gangster ass character though. Especially in the second book.

I think just the part I mentioned above was disappointing. Other than that I love the second one. It was fucking wild.

[Fries]

Walking Dead graphic novel/series is amazing. The intro to the very first one tells you how indepth the character development will become in the coming books. Which is one of my favorite things about zombie movies/books is how people change when theyre put into survival mode.

The art is also great!

[Future240]

Originally Posted by Fries

Walking Dead graphic novel/series is amazing. The intro to the very first one tells you how indepth the character development will become in the coming books. Which is one of my favorite things about zombie movies/books is how people change when theyre put into survival mode.

The art is also great!

That seals it. I'm going to amazon right after this post.

Damn there is a lot of these. I am thinking about this one as it seems to be the most complete.

http://www.amazon.com/Walking-Dead-C...2295227&sr=1-4

What do yall think?

[driftking777]

Ive read all the walking dead books minus the last one so far. Awesome series.

Get it in hardbook format if you can, much nicer, plus easier to read then a comic setup.

Like this one
Amazon.com: The Walking Dead, Book 1 (Bk. 1) (9781582406190): Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, Charlie Adlard, Cliff Rathburn: Books

[ronmcdon]

Originally Posted by future240

Maybe a spoiler:]It was a bit anti-climatic IMO. I would have figured more would have happened at the end. Frankie was a gangster ass character though. Especially in the second book.

I think just the part I mentioned above was disappointing. Other than that I love the second one. It was fucking wild.

SPOILER (read at your risk)

The main issue imo, is that it fell short to the original.

The Rising's ending was wonderful.
It was vague and played on how the reader interpreted events
It can be bleak or optimistic.
It also effectively end's Jim's quest in search for his son.

The sequel's ending (as you say, and I agree) was terribly anti-climatic.
It's like everything was fought for nothing.
Kinda like the easy way out.
I also don't like the fact that Frankie and Jim's son kinda gave up towards the end.
It's just not consistent with the rest of the novel.


Aside from that, the sequel didn't work for me on several levels.
The pacing wasn't as fast and consistent as the first.
Whereas the action is fast paced from beginning to end in the Rising.
The Sequel is a sloth in the first half, and feels rushed towards the end.
That's just predicatable and uninteresting imo.

The narration was multi-faced in the Rising.
It documented how different protagonists saw the same Zombie outbreak and their respective stories (not unlike WWZ).
Then the stories merged seamlessly into 1.
The sequel was a flat, one dimensional typical plot.
You get a group & ppl die off one-by-one.
It's nothing creative.

The human element was missing
The evil human element (militants on the first novel) wasn't there.
Sure, the 'demons' were bad guys but they weren't anywhere near as cruel and complex as the militants imo.
If you enjoy the "Walking Dead" series,
the real villian and interesting dynamic are humans themselves.
The zombies (while charming and awesome by default) are merely a tool to see what ppl become when pushed to desparate limits.
To me, this is one quality that distinguishes a good zombie film from a 1-dimensional action film.

You also see FAR more character development in The Rising.
Characters develop throughout the crisis.
Some are just sinister, but nonetheless intriguing.
In the sequel, it's just clear cut dry case of Good vs. Evil.
The badasses, predicatably remain so from begininng to end.

Further,
It's just more of the same.
Just how much can you go on about how Zombie's do their mutilation?
It gets repetitive.
Even the author's writing becomes predicatable & formulaic.
I lost count of the routine line "For every 1 zombie killed, x # took it's place"

The Rising is good.
The sequel gives me the impression the book was just half-assed, passe, and rehashed to death.
I got the impression that author didn't give a damn by this point.

Rising gets a solid 'B'.
Sequel deserves a 'D', imo.
It's only redeeming merit is that it's such an easy and somewhat entertaining read.
As a sucker for cheesy horror, i don't consider myself too harsh in this particular genre of books.

Thanks for the discussion.

[mrmephistopheles]

My feelings on The Rising - SPOILERS ABOUND!!!!


Got around to reading 'The Rising', and while I enjoyed it, I thought the 'zombie motivation' subplot was extremely underdeveloped (and had great potential), and that every single character but Frankie was generally flat and uninteresting.

The only other character I really liked was Pvt Skip, and while his character was interesting, his ultimate relevance to the plot was nil. Keene could have utilized Skip in a variety of ways, but he ultimately trivialized a strong character.

Jim and Martin were and interesting pair, and the discussions of faith and religion they had were pretty good, but Baker and Worm were another example of high potential misused.

Baker could've been used to expand the plot and explain the backstory more (beyond 'HURR DURR I DUN MADE ME A BLACK HOLE AND LET HELL OUT HURF DURF), and Worm could've been given much more purpose.

I didn't like the fact that Keene portrayed Worm as a simpleton - he was just deaf. Also I didn't like that he couldn't make up his mind if Worm was a boy or a man. He never called him a teenager, Baker always considered him a boy, the Guardsmen called him a man, and Schow dispatched him without consideration of his age. ?????????

Anyway, Worm could've been much more, and was instead just used as a puppet.
Most of the supporting character deaths seemed trivial, such as Skip, Worm, Aimee, etc. Baker's death was obvious and pointless. Sure, he killed some of the asshole Guardsmen, but Ob still lived on (and in his corpse, no less). Why not use that rocket launcher to blow yourself to bits? All of this was your fault anyway.
Martin should've died. I liked the character, but his was a flat character. It would've been painful but understandably necessary to see him perish. Jim's fate should've been left a mystery. He should have escaped the battle on his own and headed toward NJ alone. His character is also very flat (despite the initial conflict of having to 'kill' his new wife and baby).

I think that if Keene had written the other characters half as well as he'd written Frankie, the book would've been 10x better. Frankie was great. She went from sniveling junkie who was scared of everything to tough, cunning badass who feared nothing. She was a survivor in the truest sense. Seriously, she's ready to suck a dick covered in the blood of a young raped (and murdered) girl just to be able to exact revenge on the guy who did it. Not pretty by any means, but definitely tough.
Would any of the other characters in this book be so tough? NO.

Skip just tried to run away, then considered suicide by balcony.

Worm was a sniveling simpleton who died like a bitch (sorry Bro, blame Keene).

Jim jumped out of a moving truck and killed two zombies who were formerly his family. I'd say those are pretty typical responses.

Martin saved Jim, and killed a guy who was trying to kill him. Also he took a bite out of a zombie. Meh.

Baker 'saved' Worm, and pussied out to the Guardsmen. BLARG.


So yeah. Frankie was the best character by far. She had great internal struggle, great external development, etc etc etc. I just wish 'Troll' could've come back later in the story.

I give The Rising a B-/C+

[Tom25666]

the crazies trailer looks AWESOME

[Future240]

Originally Posted by ronmcdon

Rising gets a solid 'B'.
Sequel deserves a 'D', imo.
It's only redeeming merit is that it's such an easy and somewhat entertaining read.
As a sucker for cheesy horror, i don't consider myself too harsh in this particular genre of books.

Thanks for the discussion.

Originally Posted by mrmephistopheles

My feelings on The Rising -
I give The Rising a B-/C+

For those who want to see what they rate the book, without having to spoil any of it.

[exitspeed]

NOT READING the reviews on the Rising. I wanna read it myself.

I got the most thoughtful gift from my brother-in-laws girlfriend of all people.

I open up this box and inside is a neoprene lunch box thingy. Inside is WWZ, The Zombie Survival Guide, water proof matches, a Mag Flash lite, and a bag of Jolly Ranchers.

I couldn't stop telling her how awesome I thought her gift was. It seriously was the most well thought out gift anyone got me.

I'll start reading WWZ as soon as I'm done with the last Twilight book.

[90hatchie]

i had pandora radio playing and just as i clicked this thread thriller came on
brother told me his plan for zombies
when the outbreak first happens steal a money truck or something heavily armored
go to a gun store and get as much as you can then go to a supermarket and get asmuch as you can bring
gather ur troops (no more then 10)
drive to the middle of the country and keep moving between states till the zombies all decompose

opinions?

[exitspeed]

Originally Posted by 90hatchie

i had pandora radio playing and just as i clicked this thread thriller came on
brother told me his plan for zombies
when the outbreak first happens steal a money truck or something heavily armored
go to a gun store and get as much as you can then go to a supermarket and get asmuch as you can bring
gather ur troops (no more then 10)
drive to the middle of the country and keep moving between states till the zombies all decompose

opinions?

IMO, too risky to start out. Here's why.

When the outbreak starts, all hell is going to breaking loose. If you attempt a risky thing like robbing a armored money truck you're just asking for it. You're either gonna get killed by a zombie because of the number of them or the guards who will be think thin same thing and are willing to kill you to protect their ARMORED zombie truck. That's just MO.

Our plan is this. My wife and I will gather all of our supplies and the food and water we need for at least a week, or two if possible and stock up the bunker. Next I would fortify my house. I have enough scrap wood and wooden furniture to board up every window that needs to be boarded up. And then we will barricade ourselves into our zombie bunker. Then we wait it out. Wait for shit to die down (no pun intended). With any luck of avoiding rioters or scavengers (which should be a strong possibility due to the area we live in) our house will still be intact and more importantly our car should in tact safely in our garage.

Next would be to make sure the garage is secure then quietly load up the Camry. Open the garage door and floor it all the way to Rhinelander WI. Where our family has a lake house that is on a peninsula. I'm sure the drive won't be easy. The roads will probably be blocked here and there. Hopefully the GPS is still working, but I won't count on it. We have maps too. The drive is normally about 3 1/2 hours. I'd assume it might take longer...who knows if could be shorter. There obviously won't be a lot of traffic. Depending on location I might stop here and there to search for more supplies.

Once we get up there first thing to do would be to see if any of our other family members made it up there. I'd do a sweep of the house and land. I guess things would depend on what went on there at that point. There is food literally for years in the basement. So that won't be much of an issue. At that point if other family members aren't there and haven't done so already I would fortify that house as well.

That's pretty much it. Obviously things will come up that are unexpected. But you just have to deal with them as they come.

At this point the thing that concerns me most is that my wife is 6 months pregnant. Hopefully nothing happens any time soon.

[mrmephistopheles]

Here's the cover of The Rising.

It keeps yelling .RAR!!!!!! at me. I can't figure out why.

Can someone save me? I'm as scared as a .rare crusted peahen in a deli dept.

[mehsilvia]

Originally Posted by mrmephistopheles

Here's the cover of The Rising.

It keeps yelling .RAR!!!!!! at me. I can't figure out why.

Can someone save me? I'm as scared as a .rare crusted peahen in a deli dept.

What you should have already read, or learned by now - you need to be prepared to SAVE YOURSELF!


Mel,

WWZ. Make sure you set asside at least 2-consecutive days to read straight through. Youll thank me for it later.

[S14_Kouki]

I just bought The Rising and The Zombie Survival Guide today. Iv read The zombie Survival Guide before but I wanted my own copy to read again and keep handy just incase. I cant wait to read The Rising im almost done with WWZ right now.

[Fries]

I got Rising.
I can't get into it really.
Author is too generic and the talking zombies just pisses me off.
Sorry.



p.s. AMC got the rights to do The Walking Dead T.V. series. I'm curious how they'll pull this off since they wont be able to put the graphic shit [which the book series is filled with] into prime time T.V.

We'll see I suppose.

[ronmcdon]

AMC has done a great job with some of the TV series to date.
I enjoyed Mad Men quite a bit.
I'm optimistic.

[exitspeed]

Originally Posted by Fries

p.s. AMC got the rights to do The Walking Dead T.V. series. I'm curious how they'll pull this off since they wont be able to put the graphic shit [which the book series is filled with] into prime time T.V.

We'll see I suppose.

Yeah we've talked about previously in this thread.

Originally Posted by ronmcdon

AMC has done a great job with some of the TV series to date.
I enjoyed Mad Men quite a bit.
I'm optimistic.

I'm optimistic about it also. Breakin Bad really pushes the boundaries of cable TV. Dont' expect this to be as PG as stuff on Fox or CBS.

They also said they are giving this show the biggest budget that the network has had. So that is a positive.

[exitspeed]

A recent photo inspired me to whip this together.

[Future240]

Damn that is cool.

[ronmcdon]

got my hopes for a moment there, lol.
good job

[MikeisNissan]

The Crazies?

[2Slow40]

Originally Posted by mrmephistopheles

Here's the cover of The Rising.

It keeps yelling .RAR!!!!!! at me. I can't figure out why.

Can someone save me? I'm as scared as a .rare crusted peahen in a deli dept.

lol sneaky

[S14_Kouki]

Well I just got done with The Rising and City of the dead and they are both great great books. Now is there any other books ppl might wont to tell me about???