Rating:  -
It was difficult enough to find a mate in England in the 1800s. There were balls to attend, social conventions to follow, and lots of time devoted to deconstructing the looks and words of a potential suitor.
Oh, and the zombie attacks were distracting, too.
I find Pride and Prejudice to be charming enough in its original form, with interesting characters and a compelling story. But add in zombies, and it's even more so. This book preserves most of the original story, but tweaks the characters and situations enough to make the zombie aspect fit. The result is an Elizabeth Bennett who is not only witty and self-confident, but who also is capable of killing ninjas with her eyes closed. I like that about her.
In places the story gets a bit choppy as the zombie parts are added in, and several characters came to a different end in this story than they did in the original. Overall, though, this was a very amusing story and one I'd recommend to fans of Pride and Prejudice who have a sense of humor about the book.
Rating:  -
I am not sure what I was expecting when I got this book. I know that I was struck by the absolute idiocy of the premise - Jane Austen fighting zombies! It is not a bad effort, and I think that I will try out the Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. If you are expecting non-stop zombie action, this is not for you. There are large sections of unaldulterated Austen prose, which is probably not what most zombie lovers are looking for. But when the zombie action occurs, it is well written and very funny due to the absolutely ludicrous situations in which our hapless heroine and hero find themselves . Phenomenally silly, but quite good fun.
Rating:  -
This book has so much potential that it completely fails to achieve. It ends up reading like a serious alternative to the original novel by Jane Austen to which its humblest aspirations cannot hope to achieve. It should be funny, it isn't. I assume the additional 'author' hated Austen as his only achievement is to create a totally useless and pointless version of possibly one of the best novels ever written.
Rating: -
I have to say that I was immediately drawn to this book. The cover is fantastic! Unfortunately, the book itself in no way lives up to the promise of the cover. Every piece of writing (particularly dialog) added to Jane Austen's words feels clumsy, amateurish and puerile it truly is an effort to turn each page. The idea could have been irreverent fun but to do so the wit and light touch of the original words absolutely has to be maintained. And that, sadly, has not happened. Perhaps Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters will be better but, on the basis of this outing, I will not be finding out.
Rating: -
"Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" gets the 2009 Truth in Advertising Award. This is not so much a "retelling" of Jane Austen's beloved "Pride and Prejudice," as it is a reworking of the original story with a few passages about zombies, ninjas, and vigorous exercise. Indeed, this book is so loyal to the original work that for many pages the reader can essentially forget that zombies are part of the picture.
The highbrow in me thinks that's a good thing - generally the world is better off if more people read Jane Austen. And so if we read Austen cleverly disguised in "and Zombies" packaging, so much the better.
And yet . . . I have a considerable low-brow streak that wanted to see how far this zombie idea could play out. To the extent there are zombies and ninjas in this book, they are used to fantastic effect. From disrupting the legendary party scene in the first act to laying low the miserable Charlotte to being used as a device to demonstrate the joyous bond between Darcy and Elizabeth, these zombies never fail to disappoint. Often referred to as "unmentionables" by the prim living, the zombies are quite creepy and properly focused on devouring as many human brains as possible.
Also welcome are the ninjas employed by Elizabeth's nemesis, the Countess de Bourgh. Only the most gifted and demented author would have thought to use the timeless clash of superiority between Chinese and Japanese martial arts as a metaphor for British classism, but it works here. The humble, eccentric Bennett clan has studied Shaolin combat techniques, while the uber-aristocratic Countess prefers the Japanese martial arts. Not only does this work for terrific social commentary, it leads to the scene where Elizabeth eats the still-beating heart of a mortally-wounded ninja. And who doesn't relish that scene?
And yet, there are many pages of this book that completely lack any mention of zombies, ninjas, Katanas, or Shaolin monks at all. When your hook is "ultraviolent mayhem," we need constant refreshing of this theme. All things considered, if I want to read the real thing, I will do it sans zombie, thank you very much.
And so, in a nutshell, you might not find a more clever book this year. But I have to say that, as a zombie-themed book, it is quite thin gruel that is rather unsatisfying. After all, while the zombie genre is no stranger to wit and humor, it is the enemy of subtlety.
I laughed out loud reading this book, and wholeheartedly recommend it.
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