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annathepiperThere's an old Calvin and Hobbes comic strip in which Calvin, like he is wont to do, goes off on a particularly wild flight of fancy about T-rexes flying F-14s and bombing his school. The joke of the strip is Calvin shrieking happily "THIS IS SO AWESOME!" while Hobbes sighs "THIS IS SO STUPID".
That is pretty much the exact right description for this book. It is sublimely silly, capable of being so over the top that you cannot help but laughingly go along with it, even while you're muttering "oh for--" at other parts of it. The concept is, of course, a reworking of the original Pride and Prejudice storyline and adding in a whole extra angle of the English countryside being infested with a plague of zombies.
This necessitates a whole host of changes to various details of the cast and setting: Elizabeth and her sisters in this version are for example trained students of Shaolin martial arts and are among the deadliest fighters in the countryside when it comes to taking down the undead. In fact, this is an England where it is quite commonplace for young women and men of breeding to receive extensive training in the "deadly arts" for the express purpose of dealing with the "unmentionables" who are swarming the countryside. As a result, Oriental influences have become highly fashionable in English society; Darcy's Pemberly shows much Japanese design, and the redoubtable Lady Catherine keeps an entire household of attendant ninjas.
And as you might guess, this leads to some of my favorite scenes in the original story being made infinitely more entertaining by the addition of martial arts. Just imagine the original scene where Darcy proposes to Elizabeth; now imagine it with Elizabeth and Darcy both being deadly, trained warriors. Muaha.
It doesn't always work, mind you; Grahame-Smith is not on Austen's level as a writer, and the seams between the original prose and his additions are not as hidden as they should be. He adds in some unnecessary scatological humor and sexual innuendo that, for me at least, were far more jarring to wedge into a Jane Austen story than the hordes of zombies. Some readers may also find the extent to which Elizabeth has been transformed into a bloodthirsty warrior too jarring against the original state of her character.
Overall, though, even as I acknowledge these flaws, I don't worry too much about them. Because this book is sublimely silly, and is definitely not to be taken seriously. If you are an Austen fan, a fan of zombies, or a fan of kung fu movies--or better yet, a fan of all three--you'll want to check it out. Four stars.
That is pretty much the exact right description for this book. It is sublimely silly, capable of being so over the top that you cannot help but laughingly go along with it, even while you're muttering "oh for--" at other parts of it. The concept is, of course, a reworking of the original Pride and Prejudice storyline and adding in a whole extra angle of the English countryside being infested with a plague of zombies.
This necessitates a whole host of changes to various details of the cast and setting: Elizabeth and her sisters in this version are for example trained students of Shaolin martial arts and are among the deadliest fighters in the countryside when it comes to taking down the undead. In fact, this is an England where it is quite commonplace for young women and men of breeding to receive extensive training in the "deadly arts" for the express purpose of dealing with the "unmentionables" who are swarming the countryside. As a result, Oriental influences have become highly fashionable in English society; Darcy's Pemberly shows much Japanese design, and the redoubtable Lady Catherine keeps an entire household of attendant ninjas.
And as you might guess, this leads to some of my favorite scenes in the original story being made infinitely more entertaining by the addition of martial arts. Just imagine the original scene where Darcy proposes to Elizabeth; now imagine it with Elizabeth and Darcy both being deadly, trained warriors. Muaha.
It doesn't always work, mind you; Grahame-Smith is not on Austen's level as a writer, and the seams between the original prose and his additions are not as hidden as they should be. He adds in some unnecessary scatological humor and sexual innuendo that, for me at least, were far more jarring to wedge into a Jane Austen story than the hordes of zombies. Some readers may also find the extent to which Elizabeth has been transformed into a bloodthirsty warrior too jarring against the original state of her character.
Overall, though, even as I acknowledge these flaws, I don't worry too much about them. Because this book is sublimely silly, and is definitely not to be taken seriously. If you are an Austen fan, a fan of zombies, or a fan of kung fu movies--or better yet, a fan of all three--you'll want to check it out. Four stars.
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no subject
Date: 2009-04-03 05:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-03 05:43 am (UTC)But right then. To be avoiding that other book should I ever encounter it!
no subject
Date: 2009-04-03 06:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-03 01:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-03 03:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-03 08:48 pm (UTC)Also, the "reader discussion" questions at the end are hy-larious!
no subject
Date: 2009-04-04 01:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-05 12:57 am (UTC)