REVIEW: The Rising by Brian Keene

The Rising was just one big rip-roaring zombie carnival ride! I found this book to be a lot of fun-- much better than the last Brian Keene book that I read (Castways). A bit vulgar, grossly violent, but what else could be expected from this genre?

It seems the "end of the world" has come, but this zombie story has a slight twist. Whenever reading a zombie story, you always wonder what the plot will be that will explain how the zombies are created. The common storyline usually involves an errant virus that man unwittingly unleashes, but occasionally a story will surface that posits a different cause, as does this story.

The story follows several characters, each on their own mission, the main character simply a father trying to find his son.

Moments of this book read like an Evil Dead movie. Irreverent, even comical. I consider a book of this nature to be sort of "light reading". It's just an enjoyable story and a fun ride. It's reminiscent of old time Stephen King. In fact, I think that Brian Keene borrowed a little from "the King" for this story, even including a close duplicate of The Stand's character Tom Cullen in this book's character Worm. And the father's quest for his son was a little reminiscent of Stephen King's The Cell. But that's okay. It wasn't enough to distract me from the enjoyment of the story.

I wasn't thrilled with the ending of the book, but I still thoroughly enjoyed this story. A little creepy and a lot of fun, I would recommend this one to any horror buffs out there.

Product Details

* Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
* Publisher: Leisure Books (January 2004)
* Language: English
* ISBN-10: 0843952016
* ISBN-13: 978-0843952018

My Rating: 8.5 out of 10