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Showing reviews 451-455 of 465
 Jane Austen ate our brain long ago! April 6, 2009
Laurel (Seattle, WA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
And so Gentle Readers take heed. A mysterious plague has befallen Regency England killing the living and reviving them back to life as the undead who must feed on the living to survive. The conflict in town is fierce, spreading to the countryside and into the village of Meryton where Elizabeth Bennet and her family reside nearby at Longbourn. Mr. Bennet extricated from his library has dedicated himself instead to training his five daughters from an early age in the deadly arts, traveling with them to China to attend Ninja finishing school with a Shaolin Master. His business in life was to keep them alive. The business of Mrs. Bennet's was to get them married. When Netherfield Park is let at last, Mrs. Bennet is hopeful that the new resident Mr. Bingley and his friends might marry one or another of her daughters. When Meryton society finally meets Mr. Bingley, they agree that he is was good-looking and gentlemanlike, but his fine friend Mr. Darcy with his noble mien gave immediate disgust even though he was reputed to have slaughtered more than a thousand unmentionables since the fall of Cambridge. After he slights Elizabeth, claiming her to be only tolerable and not handsome enough to temp him to dance, the warrior code in her demands she avenge her honour and open his throat with her dagger. Her warrior duty delays her instincts as the dance is suddenly invaded by a maraudring horde of unmentionables who break through the windows, attack the guests, and devour the head of Mrs. Long. Elizabeth and her four sisters rip out their razor-sharp daggers and make short work of beheading all the sorry stricken. Darcy watches in wonder, knowing of only one other woman in England that who could match her skill, her grace and precision. The spark has been ignited. The love, *cough* zombie story begins.
It is now "a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains." We continue along in this manner following Jane Austen's plot interjected with Grahame-Smith's fanciful parody of zombie bedlam. If the concept of Jane Austen's refined country gentry and gory zombie destruction are in conflict, think again. Like the warrior Bennet sisters who have refined their deadly skills into an art of precision and style, Grahame-Smith knows his zombie lore, skillfully incorporating a genre wholly at odds to the context of Jane Austen's elegantly refined prose, yet working within its strengths to achieve his goal to have fun with a literary classic, and well, lets face it, make money.
So who will like this book? Certainly not the Austen purist without a sense of humor. They will not even get past the gruesome cover. Not zombie fans, who will be annoyed having to trudge through a masterpiece of world literature to get to the scant zombie action. So that leaves the rest of us. Those loyal and devoted members of The Gentle Reprove and Witty Banter Society who, like Jane Austen, enjoy a good campy and gory Gothic novel, recognize tongue-in-cheek humor, and have been happily doing so for over 200 hundred years.
Laurel Ann, Austenprose
 Precious Roy Would Be Proud April 6, 2009
Dmitri Ulinov (California, USA)
13 out of 18 found this review helpful
I stumbled across this book whilst browsing for a safe and effective way to deal with my serious pirate problem. I typically don't like classic literature unless there are lots of killer clowns, baby geniuses or both. I didn't realize that Jane Austen -- who I would guess is related to the original $6 million man -- could be so entertaining.
My wife thought it was horrendous that somebody would write a book like this, but I told her that it was okay since the romance parts really didn't get in the way of the good stuff.
She then said, "How would you like it if they put zombies in the middle of your favorite Christmas movie -- Die Hard." "Whoa!" I said, "That would be sooooo awesome!"
I can just see the dialogue now:
John McClane says ""Come out to the coast, we'll get together, have a few laughs... and now if terrorists aren't enough, there are flesh-eating undead!"
John McClane: [talking to himself] Why the **** didn't you stop 'em, John? 'Cause then you'd be just like the undead, too.
Just as good as the original? April 5, 2009
D. Denham III (LA USA)
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
Well, maybe not the same as reading the original, but it is a darn good read for anyone who has labored any of Jane Austin's novels. I enjoyed Pride and Prejudice, and loved the characters in the novel. To read them portrayed in such a serious, yet comidic way as in this novel, it is truly an amazing experience.
Stronger, yet falls short. April 3, 2009
Brian Lynch (Jersey)
9 out of 13 found this review helpful
Interestingly enough, the addition of the walking dead to Austen's text does little to damper the spirit of Pride and Prejudice. In fact, the wit seems sharper for it. The subtle dramatics and social intrigues take on new, dangerous undercurrents, and even Mrs. Bennet, written as a worrying, overprotective mother, becomes an entirely new character in light of the zombie threat.
Unfortunately, For every great moment- such as the roadside ambush of a zombie bride, or Elizabeth in full flourish as a Regency heroine - there are weak moments of ridiculousness that border more on parody, rather than compliment the text. While satire is the author's intent, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies vacillates between an effective, clever, strong parody, and the weak, contrived mockery of the source material. This disparity between the two, although entertaining , becomes an overall detraction from the quality of the book.
Often, it seems as though Grahame-Smith revels in the fact that he's able to get his shenanigans in, a page at a time, before returning to the confines of Austen's prose - like a schoolboy too happy to spike the punch, who ends up pouring in far more than he intended.
Regardless, the good moments of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies far outweigh the bad; and in that sense, it is a truth universally acknowledged that fans of horror and satire should be in want of a book like this.
 Even with zombies, Jane Austen is still unbearable. April 2, 2009
Jeff Bridges (Denver, CO USA)
So I had heard great things about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - that the added flair of killing Satan's spawn spiced up this rather dull and coma-inducing classic. And while the thought of taking classic literature and adding zombies makes me laugh out loud, the book itself didn't.
Don't get me wrong, I loved the zombie killing parts. Blood and guts and partially eaten household staff - that's great stuff. But please, God, don't make me read any more about these pathetic people with their constant blathering and uninteresting, empty lives!
The simple fact is that I cannot read Jane Austen, whatever the window dressing. Set it in space with killer aliens, add in shoguns and samurai, have everyone run around completely naked - it still wouldn't matter. The only way to make this pile of rubbish interesting to me would be to kill off all the main characters in the first twenty pages and then get on with something worth reading.
I know, I know. My girlfriend loves the original version of this book, as does nearly every other woman I've ever talked to about it. If I were in high school and forced to read Pride and Prejudice, I would credit the Zombie version author with at least making the task possible. But even after forcing myself through 150 pages I just couldn't bring myself to keep going. I'm afraid that this classic, with or without zombies, will remain on my "never finished" shelf forever.
Showing reviews 451-455 of 465
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