I understand, Zombie-phobes out there, I really do. I was once a lot like you. I was afraid of Zombies. I’d seen the movies, read the books, played the games, and internalized the messages of hate and fear of the Differently Animated so endemic to our culture.

But then one day, it suddenly occurred to me; what was I afraid of? I mean, despite the apparent ubiquity of Zombies and Zombie ‘outbreaks’, I hadn’t been in any danger. Maybe Zombies weren’t a threat after all, and the only reason I’d had to be afraid was that I believed I had to be afraid. Maybe living in a world free of the fear of a Zombie Apocalypse was as simple as putting that fear away and extending a hand of friendship to our Undead brethren?

I don’t mind telling you that so far, it’s worked out fantastically.

If only I could get that message across to authors like Joseph Talluto, who created ‘White Flag of the Dead’, a series whose initial entry is described thusly:

White Flag of the Dead: Book 1 Surrender of the Living.

Millions died when the Enillo Virus swept the earth. Millions more were lost when the victims of the plague refused to stay dead, instead rising to slay and feed on those left alive. For survivors like John Talon and his son Jake, they are faced with a choice: Do they submit to the dead, raising the white flag of surrender? Or do they find the will to fight, to try and hang on to the last shreds or humanity?

Surrender of the Living is the first high octane installment in the White Flag of the Dead series.

How hard it must be sometimes for the Living to give up the fear they’ve become so invested in. After all, what other explanation can there be for the persistent refusal to accept reality? Here we have a character with a small child who is apparently waging some sort of guerrilla war against the Differently Animated when he knows full well that they will accept his peaceable surrender! I mean, to put a small child through that is just astonishing; only hubris, foolish pride, could drive a person to such self-destructive behavior.

Of course, in literature this situation is hardly without precedent. The first work to leap into my mind for comparison is the seminal manga series ‘Lone Wolf and Cub’, which also featured a man blazing a bloody trail across the countryside with his infant son in tow, motivated largely by his own stubborn pride. At least there, however, there wasn’t an agreeable enemy to negotiate with, and a peaceable solution easily reached.

It’s such a pity that John Talon can’t convince himself to reach that solution in the spirit of brotherhood with his Undead fellow citizens. I can only assume that this book reads as an accidental take on Greek tragedy, exploring the inevitable downfall that faces all those possessed of hubris.

Perhaps I’ll pick it up from Amazon and find out.

I keep meaning to offer more direct links to works we discuss here on the ZRC, so here, I’ll provide one. We always want to give our readers the chance to evaluate things on their own, after all.

Tags: Books

This entry was posted by John Sears on Monday, March 28th, 2011 at 9:28 pm and is filed under Zombie Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.