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City of the Dead: Author's Preferred Edition by [Brian Keene]

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Brian Keene

City of the Dead: Author's Preferred Edition Kindle Edition

by Brian Keene (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

365 ratings

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The sequel to one of those most popular zombies of all time in a new, uncut, author's preferred edition!

In this sequel to THE RISING, cities are overrun with legions of the undead, intent on destroying what's left of the living. Trapped inside a fortified skyscraper, a handful of survivors prepare to make their last stand against an unstoppable, merciless enemy. With every hour their chances diminish and their numbers dwindle, while the ranks of the dead continue to rise. Because sooner or later, everything dies. And then it comes back, ready to kill.

Deadite Press is proud to present this uncut, Author's Preferred Edition of Brian Keene's seminal CITY OF THE DEAD

Print length

369 pages
Language

English
Publication date

December 3, 2013
File size

1027 KB
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this sequel to the Stoker-winning The Rising (2003), Keene ingeniously asks, if human corpses can be reanimated, why not dead dogs, rats, sparrows, goldfish, etc.? His other innovation is the news that the zombie swarm is inhabited by demons who are angry at God for trying to exile them in the Void. They want to get revenge by killing everything on Earth, and they are numerous, clever and indestructible enough to accomplish the task. Opposing the demon-zombies are a few living survivors, chiefly an ex-hooker, a young father and his little boy. Finding no shelter elsewhere, they wind up in a fortified Manhattan skyscraper, commanded by an old millionaire who's certain he can outlast any attack. Keene does a fine job keeping the mechanics of the siege clear, while switching viewpoints among his large cast of characters. He's also inventive in imagining ways the human body can be disassembled, with vivid descriptions of torn flesh and spraying fluids. After a while, though, the relentless dread becomes tiresome. Reading this book is like being trapped in a long, gory, unwinnable video game. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

BRIAN KEENE is the author of over thirty books, including Darkness on the Edge of Town, Dead Sea, Urban Gothic, Ghoul and The Rising. He has also collaborated on novels with J.F. Gonzalez and Nick Mamatas. He also writes comic books such as The Last Zombie, Doom Patrol and Dead of Night: Devil Slayer. His work has been translated into German, Spanish, Polish, Italian, French and Taiwanese. Two of his works -- Ghoul and The Ties That Bind -- have been adapted for film. Keene's work has been praised in such diverse places as The New York Times, The History Channel, The Howard Stern Show, CNN.com, Publisher's Weekly, Fangoria, and Rue Morgue Magazine. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00H3REZYA
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Deadite Press (December 3, 2013)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 3, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1027 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 369 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #302,133 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #9,402 in Horror (Kindle Store)
- #16,039 in Horror Literature & Fiction
- #66,280 in Literature & Fiction (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
365 ratings

About the author

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Brian Keene

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BRIAN KEENE is the author of over forty books, mostly in the horror, crime, and dark fantasy genres. His 2003 novel, The Rising, is often credited (along with Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead comic and Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later film) with inspiring pop culture’s current interest in zombies. Keene’s novels have been translated into German, Spanish, Polish, Italian, French, Taiwanese, and many more. In addition to his own original work, Keene has written for media properties such as Doctor Who, The X-Files, Hellboy, Masters of the Universe, and Superman.

Several of Keene’s novels have been developed for film, including Ghoul, The Ties That Bind, and Fast Zombies Suck. Several more are in-development or under option.

Keene’s work has been praised in such diverse places as The New York Times, The History Channel, The Howard Stern Show, CNN.com, Publisher’s Weekly, Media Bistro, Fangoria Magazine, and Rue Morgue Magazine. He has won numerous awards and honors, including a World Horror Grand Master award, two Bram Stoker awards, and a recognition from Whiteman A.F.B. (home of the B-2 Stealth Bomber) for his outreach to U.S. troops serving both overseas and abroad. A prolific public speaker, Keene has delivered talks at conventions, college campuses, theaters, and inside Central Intelligence Agency headquarters in Langley, VA.

Customer reviews

5 star		70%
4 star		18%
3 star		8%
2 star		2%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Travis_T

Much worse than it's predecessor "The Rising."

Reviewed in the United States on July 22, 2018

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I wasn't sure if I should give this book a 2 or a 3 star rating. I think i'ts probably a 2.5, but closer to a 2.
The main reason for such a low rating is because it's quite boring (except for the first 80-or-so pages.) Unlike it's predecessor "The Rising," "City of the Dead" has no sense of adventure to it. I think that stems from the fact that the entire book takes place in a skyscraper, (except for the first portion of the book and the last little bit.) Not only is there a severe lack of adventure, the dialogue is terribly written in A LOT of the book, I don't mean spelling errors or things of that nature, but just bland dialogue. I understand that this was an issue with "The Rising" but it wasn't as noticeable in that book, probably because whatever character the story was following at any given time was always doing something, whereas in this book not a whole lot happens.
Speaking of characters; Aside from the main cast from the first book there isn't one single character that I cared about. None of the new characters were very fleshed out, at times it was difficult keeping track of who was who due to the lack of character development. Also the character "Frankie" isn't in the book all that much, which might not bother some people but I thought I'd mention it because she was my favorite character from "The Rising."
The ending (I won't spoil anything) is bitter-sweet, but it is at least better than "The Rising's" ending. I can tell you that much.
If you've read "The Rising" then you know just how absolutely ridiculous some things are in that book, weather it be dialogue related, or something happening in a scene, this book cranks that gear to 11. . .for the worse. I wont spoil anything but I did at times think "wow did I really just read that? How absolutely moronic. . ." A shining example of what I'm talking about is the scene (no spoilers) where zombies rush a guy, pull down his pants, cut his penis off, and then eat it. . . That is the level of some of the ridiculousness in this book, it's completely okay if you like that kind of writing but when I read something like that it takes me out of the book entirely and it feels like something I would have written when I was a kid.
I ended up giving "City of the Dead" a 2 star review because although I don't think it deserves a 3 star, I also wasn't so bored with it that it would deserve a 1 star. Even with it spiraling downhill FAST as soon as the main characters entered the skyscraper I still enjoyed the bit of the book when they weren't in that damned thing, and I also liked finding out what happened to Jim and the rest of the gang.

4 people found this helpful

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The Hunt

Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2018

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CITY OF THE DEAD by Brian Keene gives Ob and his army of zombies just as much coverage as the survivors. Not only do readers discover what has become of the characters from the first book, but Keene also reveals the motivation and plans of the undead. The sequel could have easily been titled, The Hunt.

Once again, the humans are forced to run a gauntlet in order to stay alive, but, this time, they must navigate a privately owned skyscraper. With birds and bats attacking from above, rats trying to work their way in from below, and Ob's army overtaking the city, there appears to be no place to escape to. The human race will only be able to survive if they leave science behind and accept a new way of thinking.

One person found this helpful

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The Rising and City of the Dead

Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2005

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I'm going to post this same review to both of these books. To my minds, they are one book. That they became two books is either a function of novel length (some publishers don't want novels over a certain word count as demand drops for heavier tomes and cost go up) or a test for the first before dropping out the second.

Both books aren't horrendous. The author does have a tale to tell, but the uneven tone of the story (consistently uneven...even in its unevenness) and the cardboard cutouts for most of the characters really impacts his telling of the tale.

I like zombie movies. Zombie books have been much more miss than hit because, after all, it is a visual horror. To say 'The zombie sat up and said "Boo!"' is not as scary as seeing it. But I'm a fairly devoted follower of Romero. I log in daily to (...) and have even contributed 4 stories to their fiction section. (if you're interested, they are The Colonel and the Farmboy, My World Ended on a Wednesday, When the Lights Go Down In The City and The Dead Ones Walk and I Sleep.)

This is going to be a long review, but between the two books, I've been reading for two weeks and it ought to be a little long

Although Keane's books follow different rules than Romero's universe (the zombies can move quickly, some talk and the animals are also zombified)that isn't a detriment. What seems lacking is imagination. Every aspect of this universe is derived from other sources. The demons that imhabit the dead are straight out of Lovecraft, the cannibalistic habits are Romero, the attack on the City of the Dead (the building) are Land of the Dead. The apocalypse itself is served up as a combination of the video game Half-Life (and Doom III) and The Stand. The ghost helping them is also reminiscent of The Stand, substituting a black preacher for a black woman (Mother Abigail if I remember my Stand right)

Wierdly, there is a certain thread of faith running throughout the book. Despite everything, there is insistance that G-d is up there and all this is being done to spite him. There's never any proof, other than a cat called God, a wierd little allegory that is overused in the second book and a preacher named Martin.

Another thing that Keane overdoes is the horrors he details. I get the nastiness of it all, the goriness but he described the same worm dropping out of a dozen noses/wounds/etc. From there, he goes on to necrophilia, child abuse, forced prostitution and, of all things, the Courtship of Eddie's Father.

The ending of the first book (I won't ruin it) does nothing but sell the second book. If you haven't read the first book, buy them together or you're likely going to be pretty angry. It ends on a cliffhanger but cliffhangers are generally about scenes. This book's cliffhanger leaves the actual resolution of the first book unresolved.

Ok, enough. It wasn't torture but it wasn't as good as it could be. I'll check in again with Mr. Keane, but its going to be a couple of books further down the pike. Somewhere in him is the ability to tell an interesting story but it isn't there yet.

10 people found this helpful

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RG69

Another Winner

Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2007

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I really enjoyed this book, the sequel to "The Rising". I have read a lot of horror over the years. This is certainly not the best written, the most unique, or even the goriest, but it is a fun ride. Lots of action, fairly skimpy plot, but loads of enjoyment. Keene knows how to write action, and he doesn't let up from the first to the last page. This book takes place immediately after the first book. It actually backs up a few moments. The story basically involves humanities last stand in a fortified high rise in New York City. We get a lot of new characters besides those who survived the first book, and we get to learn a lot more about the demons/zombies. The ending is a dark one and it may not be to everyone's taste. I liked it just fine. I get enough of the Hollywood happy endings in my movies, a nice bleak ending is refreshing. Pick up the Rising, and then grab this book.

7 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

S. Buchan

Very Enjoyable and a must if you've read the Rising!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 28, 2010

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OK first things first. I read the Rising and I didn't get it...not at first. However as I bought the two books together, I read City of the Dead straight after finishing The Rising. Have to say once you get your head around the fact the zombies are not the usual unintelligent shambling bags of rotton meat and something much more sinister you'll get much more from the two books!

I can honestly say that I loved The City of the Dead and in doing so changed my mind about The Rising! Solid 4 stars for both! Try them and just try to forget anything you've read or watched when it comes to the undead & I think you may come to enjoy these books!

2 people found this helpful

gary bowers

As described

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 5, 2019

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Good

Martin Loughlin

City of the Dead

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 30, 2010

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This was the follow up to the Rising and whilst I rated both books 3 stars, I would recommend them to action horror fans more than the strictly zombie fiction hardcore. I could well imagine this as a movie, or rather an animation due to the large scale of the story.

Give it a go. you might not be sorry.

Chris Hall

357 pages of blood drenched zombie action!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 19, 2006

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Brian Keene's `City Of The Dead' is the sequel to the post-apocalyptic zombie novel `The Rising'. The novel begins by reliving word for word the last chapter of `The Rising'. This is because the novel takes off from exactly where `The Rising' ended (with its nail biting cliffhanger). From here on in, the novel races ahead with building tension as the survivors join up with others within a massive fortified building.

New characters are soon introduced whilst others are soon killed off. Keene manages to inject a vivid personality into each `important' character, creating a desperate situation which the reader feels part of.

The building is soon compromised by the huge attacking army of zombies lead by the undead character Ob. The story becomes packed with blood-filled action as the survivors try desperately to fight off this ever growing army.

The origin of the zombies is explained more fully within this novel, developing the basis of the whole storyline. This adds nicely to Keene's original take on the whole zombie genre.

Again, the reader is treated to plenty of zombie animals, with undead birds and rats becoming a massive threat as they pack together.

All in all, this novel forms a great sequel to Keene's "The Rising", delivering fast paced action, nail biting horror and blood drenched gore that will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout.

4 people found this helpful

gail halliwell

...Not much difference

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 13, 2014

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Good book, the follow on to 'The Rising'. I already had this in paperback form but downloaded it because it was supposed to be a better version....don't get me wrong, it's a good read but not that much different to the paper book.

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