Zombies invade classic fiction
It's got the best book cover of the year, so far: "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies." When I first saw it -- a few weeks ago, on a friend's Facebook page -- I thought it was a cleverly done illustration, like one of those parody motivational posters.
But is actually a complete novel from from Quirk Books, and it'll sound familiar. This is how it opens: "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains."
At this point I'm thinking two things:
1. <snort> hilarious!
2. Wait, is that enough to carry a whole book?
"Pride and Prejudice and Zombies," apparently, maintains the zombies-n-Jane-Austen mix all the way through. I haven't seen a copy, but neither have the readers of science fiction site io9, who weighed in on the idea.
Some say they're sick of zombies -- see, zombies are kind of 2008 (2009 was supposed to be the year of the werewolf). Others feel equally strongly about Jane Austen -- some don't want her, um, defaced by zombies.
Then there's the contingent that likes the zombies, but isn't so hot on Austen. There's a selection of other classic works they've suggested for the zombie treatment: "Madame Bovary," "The Great Gatsby" and the oh-so-obvious "Walden."
-- Carolyn Kellogg
