Okay, so between vampires and zombies, the undead have officially conquered pop culture. It's not really new - I was fascinated when young by Michael Jackson's Thriller and Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles - but it does seem a bit out of hand.
With the release of "Robin Hood and Friar Tuck: Zombie Killers," I feel like we have slalomed down the slippery slope marked by "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies," ducked under "Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters," and smacked a tree with our collective faces. From the synopsis:
Soon after 'twas apparent that the fate
Of all on Earth--the evil and the good--
Was in the hands of Robin of the Hood
Whose outlaw men, along with Friar Tuck,
Against rampaging hordes of zombies struck.
They fought to save the likes of you and I,
Not caring that one slip might make them die.
Their tale lies here, within this humble book--
I pray you'll spare the time to take a look.
Er, no. But I will be posting a review soon of National Geographic's take on the whole vampire legend.
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Sadly, it takes zombies and sea monsters to make Jane Austen readable. How anyone can like her is beyond me. I've read poorly translated neo-fascist screeds from the Balkans with better writing.
Anyway, zombies are awesome. A positive additional to work.
It should not surprise History Punk, nor anyone else, that I disagree with him/her. :)
I'm the author of 'Robin Hood and Friar Tuck: Zombie Killers - A Canterbury Tale by Paul A. Freeman', and I would like this opportunity, if I may, to put my book into context.
Although my novella includes zombies, it's not actually part of the 'monster mash' movement. The Robin Hood legends we all know and love are actually composed of myth fragments from a number of different sources. Although I allude to one or two of these in my book, my novella is in effect an original tale. In fact, the first half takes place not in Sherwood Forest, but in the Holy Land during the ill-fated First Crusade.
Also, 'Robin Hood and Friar Tuck: Zombie Killers' is alternatively titled 'The Monk's Second Tale', and is the longest of a series of eight 'new' Canterbury Tales that I've so far written.
And before you start berating me for jumping on Chaucer's coat tails, let me explain! 'The Monk's Second Tale' is part of my ambitious 'Canterbury Tales' project, and involves each of Chaucer's pilgrims telling a second story in narrative poetry. They are all original tales, though I've borrowed Chaucer's pilgrims for the short prologues and epilogues to the tales.
Chaucer envisaged his pilgrims each telling four stories - two on their outward journey and two on their homeward journey. Unfortunately he died before completing even a quarter of his tales.
The Canterbury Tales I've written so far (which chronicle the pilgrims' homeward journey) are all in different genres, varying from fables to fabliau, and from crime fiction to chick lit. Since Coscom Entertainment offered me a chance at publication, 'The Monk's Second Tale' became my horror Canterbury Tale'.
My Canterbury Tales project is now going quite well. My 'Miller's Second Tale' is being edited for an anthology of neo-medieval literature, and the abridged version of my 'Knight's Second Tale', an Arthurian legend, will appear soon in Every Day Poets' inaugural poetry anthology.
Sorry I've been a bit long-winded, but this project of mine is very close to my heart and is not meant to be exploitative at all.
Thank you for giving me this chance at explaining what on the face of things is a sensationally titled, band-wagon book, but it is, in reality, anything but.
All the best
Paul A. Freeman