Customer Reviews
Sprinting Zombies, with a twist - By: T. Cowell, 17 Nov 2008 
I've not really read much horror since I got bored with Stephen King stuff years ago & got this because I was waiting for a decent Sci-Fi or Fantasy series to come out & felt like a change.
Fast paced, characters that became likeable after only a few pages, characters that felt like leads being snuffed out unexpectedly, psychos, horrific story lines, the right amount of gore & thinking, gun-toting, car driving zombies.
Brilliant!!!
King of the dead - By: P. M. May, 11 Aug 2008 This was my first Brian Keene novel & it won't be my last
Brian Keene is the King of the Undead
Peter Mark May
Author of Demon
Zombies with rocket launchers! - By: B. D. Wilson, 05 Jan 2008 
Buying "The Rising" was quite an impulsive purchase for me, & I'm really glad now that I went through with it.
This is an awesome apocalyptic horror novel. The action & suspense come thick & fast, the characters are mostly easy to connect with, & the story is good. Keene shows some originalityin his depiction of the zombies: these are not shambling, stupid things. Oh no, they are intelligent & can do everything they couldin life, including driving cars & wielding weapons. They are human corpses reanimated & possessed by demons from another dimension, set free after a scientific experiment goes disastrously wrong. How awesome!
I was quite impressed by the religious themes running through the book. It also came to an excellent climax - kind of a mini urban war between living humans & zombies toting rocket launchers & grenades. And at last, it ends on a classic cliffhanger that quite literally leaves you gasping for morein the form of the sequel, "City of the Dead". I can't wait to start that one.
Should Carry 18 certificate !! - By: Mr. R. Coleman, 04 Sep 2007 Before I start my review, I would like to suggest for anyone intending on buying this book to think seriously about buying `City Of The Dead' by the same author at the same time. The reason for this is that this book continuesin COTD, & I pretty much guarantee that readers will want to pick up the next instalment as soon as they finish `The Rising'.
I came across this author purely by accident when searching for Zombie novels on Amazon - for some reason I had the urge to read some good old zombie hardcore for a change ! And I am sure glad that I did. Keene's writingin my own opinion seems to take the form of a good story encased with as much gore & stomach churning detail that would be legally available for him to do before he would be encasedin a padded jacket & lockedin a cell. This book is certainly the most blood filled, intestine dripping story I have ever read & certain people out there may well be horrified at the pure amount of pages taken up by Keene's obsession almost of babies, children & other less unfortunates being mutilated & turning into the un-dead. But then it is not so shocking when you think that those less well able to protect themselves would actually be more susceptible than most.
Unlike Monster Island by David Wellington, I felt this book went into detail about why the dead were returning to life, & Keene also came up with a reasonable explanation for why the head zombie & major `bad guy' OB wanted to create his army of the dead. (More filled outin COTD).
The book is primarily about the struggles of one man to reach his son, who he believes is still alive & hiding outin the loft of his ex-wife's house, along the way meeting up with other travelling companions who aid himin his quest. The heroesin this book are not gung ho types but rather the down trodden & forgotten people that we all pass byin the street - a heroin addicted prostitute, an old preacher, a soldier with a conscience.
The other thing I really liked about this book was the reaction of the army to the outbreak. The general idea that the military would remain sane & unaffected by the momentous events of `The Rising' is clearly destroyed by Keenein this book. Indeed the zombiesin this book would on occasion seem to be the better option !!
However, traditional fans of zombie novels & movies may well be disappointedin the amount of living dead - other than human - that populate this book. If you cannot stomach the thought of zombie bunny rabbits, mice, cats & dogs, squirrels, lions, apes, reptiles, boa-constrictor, deer, birds, bats, general road kill & yes..........even a herd of Zombie cows that I had joked aboutin my review of Wellington's Monster Island, then this novel may well not be for you. Zombiesin this book can also talk, drive motorbikes & cars, aswell as firing guns & rocket launchers !
I would normally want to give this book 4 out of five, because I really do not like the idea of creatures other than humans turning into zombies - society I feel would be destroyedin days rather than weeks - but this book is just so addictive that I feel I have to give it the full five ! Incidentally an explanation as to why more than humans turn into zombies appearsin the first 40 pages of COTD.
As much as I would like to say this is the best horror book I have read, I would be too afraid of menin white coats knocking at my door, strapping me to a gurney & wheeling me away. But it is an excellent read none-the-less.
Knock. Knock....
Terrific zombie novel - By: P. N. Hussey, 30 Aug 2007 This was a very entertaining zombie novel which brings a few new things to the genre with zombie's being able to drive cars & fire guns. It has a fairly cliched plot device (father racing to save his son) but this works very well with keeping the pace going & giving a sense of purpose to the story. Plenty of blood & guts & a terrific ending. Great stuff
