Eat, Slay, Love by Jesse Petersen

 This was an extraordinarily quick read. No idea why. Dave and Sarah have decided to head for the Midwest Wall, which it is reputed that the government has built to contain the zombies and keep them from attacking cities in the eastern half of the country, as the disease began in Seattle and moved that direction. There are supposed to be scientists behind the wall, and they hope to deliver their vial of the zombie cure that they liberated from the mad scientist in Flip This Zombie.

On the way, they rescue a former tabloid journalist from being devoured by zombies, and reluctantly add her as a traveling companion. The three of them are captured by a bunch of rednecks in an isolated community and Dave is forced to enter a swimming pool full of about thirty zombies, where we discover for the first time that zombies totally ignore him. This seems to be because he was infected with the zombie virus before Sarah injected him with the cure, so he's gone part-zombie; all of the benefits and none of the downside.

Having lost their vehicle in their escape, and with Dave suffering a gunshot wound inflicted in the resulting chaos when he frees the zombies to attack the rednecks, they hole up in an abandoned hospital for a while, where they encounter an old but still zoned out former rocker who came for rehab and stayed for the zombie apocalypse. He's been pilfering the drug stashes to keep himself fried for several months, and he ends up tagging along with our heroes, too.

When they finally reach the Wall, things are not exactly what they expected, and instead of a rapid conclusion to the series when the cure is duplicated and all are made well, we're in for another installment, it appears.

Flip this Zombie by Jesse Petersen

 It's a bit disappointing when an author begins with a good gimmick, but fails to follow through. Some of the Pratchett Discworld novels have lost their sense of humor at the midpoint, and Tom Kratman's very intriguing use of the final sentence of each chapter to set the scene for the first sentence in the next chapter was fun to dissect, until he abruptly stopped doing it. In the Living with the dead series, the really cute bit was the motivational saying at the beginning of each chapter; in Married with Zombies they were about marriage counseling and relationships, and this one started out with business slogans, but the connection to zombies became very tenuous after the first chapter, which had the heading, "Do what you love, and the zombies will follow."

Sarah and Dave have shifted south, just like the snowbirds, to Arizona to avoid the cold winters of the Northwest, and have established a reputation as very good zombie killers. They begin to hear rumors of "bionic" zombies, which are much more aware of their surroundings than ordinary shamblers, and faster, too. The pair are contacted by a scientist, Dr. Kevin Barnes, a survivor living in a pre-Apocalypse military facility and asked to help him by capturing zombies instead of killing them, they are initially reluctant to help, even though he shows them his serum which can restore zombie guinea pigs (I know, right?) back to normal life.

The clinching argument, however, turns out to be a hot shower for Sarah. Electricity and hot and cold running water have gotten scarce since the zombie plague, and the chance to get clean and smell good trumps all. During their first outing to capture a fresh zombie for Kevin, the duo rescue a 12 year old boy, Robby, who is being chased by a pair of zombies, and keep him from being eaten. He is so grateful to them that...Naw, he's actually a rotten little conniving brat who demands a share of the proceeds from the captured zombie which he "led to them." They end up dragging him back to the secret underground lair of the mad scientist, and he tags along on their next excursion as well.

Again, some fun zombie killing action, some snarky dialogue, and a believable protagonist duo make this an entertaining and very quick read - took me about three hours from start to finish.

And there's a sequel.

Married with Zombies by Jesse Petersen

Crap. I don't know whether to list Zombie fiction as SF or Fantasy. Ah well. This book just had too hokey of a title for me to read it right away, after my friend Law bought it for the collection. The mood struck the other night, and it turned out I actually rather enjoyed it.

Sarah and David's marriage is on the rocks. They've been seeing a counselor, but making no progress. Just like Brangelina in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, they needed something earth shattering to motivate them to communicate, and they finally get it in the form of a zombie apocalypse. It seems that some researchers at the University of Washington near Seattle have allowed a zombie virus to escape, and it rapidly infects nearly the whole population - contagion by being bitten, of course.

First, they find their therapist busy chewing on the bodies of the couple that had the appointment just ahead of them. After they dispatch her with the weapons at hand, that couple comes to un-life and attacks Dave and Sarah, as well. They have to fight with the zombie security guard on the way out, and a zombie receptionist, too.

One of their neighbors from the apartment complex has gone undead on them, but his girlfriend remains unbitten, so they ally with her and grab all the guns and ammo out of the boyfriend's safe after dispatching him, and set out to find Dave's sister in Longview (hey, I've been there!). Plenty of typical zombie mayhem along the way, and I doubt there's anything new here for Z-afficionados.

However, the really clever thing about this book is that each chapter begins with a heading drawn from a marriage counseling book, such as:

"Balance the workload in your relationship. No one person should be responsible for killing all the zombies."

"Don't discuss your relationship problems with friends. Your zombie problems are another story entirely."

"Never go to bed angry. Terrified is OK."

I really have to post some of these on my fridge.

Fun. Quick. And there's a sequel.