Bantam Press publishes the colossal hardback The Living Dead, by George A. Romero and Daniel Kraus. The latter is probably best known for co-writing both the Oscar winning The Shape of Water, and the Emmy Award winning TV series Trollhunters with the great Guillermo Del Toro. The late Romero needs no introduction, having set the template for zombie movies with the original black and white classic Night of the Living Dead. He carried around the film in his car boot, trying to publicise and sell it, and was ground-breaking by featuring a black actor as the main protagonist. He was involved in both TV and movies, and went on to cement his reputation with Dawn of the Dead, The Crazies, and Day of the Dead...

There is no doubting Romero’s credentials. However, although this is a valiant attempt to reveal the entire story from the initial breakout of the virus – through various different locations and perspectives – to an ending of sorts, this weighty tome proves to be disappointing. I believe the main problem is that it jumps all over the place, offering alternative scenarios and personal tales of the afflicted and the confusion and terror of the victims/survivors. There is the medical examination of a body, an African American and a Muslim fighting newly-risen friends and family, and Navy personnel on an aircraft carrier pursued by the dead. These are just a few examples. The moment you begin to empathise with the characters you are torn away and sent scuttling off to another location. This would work well in a short story collection, but in a novel it becomes disjointed. The only associate player you can hook onto here is the sheriff – ironically, the one character who kills the exhausted main protagonist in Night of the Living Dead, because from a distance he believes him to be a zombie.

One of the scenes centres on a cable news station broadcasting the latest information to the survivors out there, while zombies attempt to break in and devour him. It’s more than possible that two separate writers can come up with this scenario independently of each other, but it appears on the face of it to be lifted directly from Pontypool. Having said that, Dead Air has a similar premise.

On the press release there are complimentary quotes from such horror aficionados as Clive Barker and Joe Hill (son of Stephen King). This book is not without merit, but it takes some getting into; plenty of time and commitment is required. It is the Prog Rock of the horror world, with plenty of meandering and a certain amount of misdirection. Some of it works and some of it doesn’t, making for uneasy reading (in both senses of the word!). However, the denouement is worth the wait, with a more than a conventional end. This is the last word on zombies from the master, so it is worth adding to your home library simply for that fact.

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Ty Power