Man, what a book. I haven't read too many classics in my life, though I have seen movie adaptations of the classics. I've seen David Copperfield, Sense and Sensibilities, and Pride and Prejudice, all very good stories (with more than a few stars in each to tempt us). Pride and Prejudice I saw quite recently, and I thought reading the book would be pretty cool, since I read Jane Eyre last year and hadn't fallen asleep in the middle of it. Then I remembered a book I'd seen on a shelf at Borders once or twice. Yes, the thought was creepy, but I reserved it from the library anyway, willing to give it a go.Well, here's my verdict: I loved it. ^_^ It's really just the original text of Jane Austen's book with zombies and zombie warriors mixed into the plot. The main character, Elizabeth Bennet, and all her sisters were trained by their father in the ways of fighting and killing so they could battle the unusual plague that has been around for more than 55 years already. That zombies are dealt with so calmly and matter of factly is strange, as if it's a fact of life. Like, say you're at a nice ball and suddenly zombies break through the window and decide to attack. Well, the 5 Bennet sisters will simply jump and kill them all off, and the evening will continue as normal. Weird. Same thing if you're traveling by coach or something. Zombies can pop up from anywhere. It just makes the story more exciting and entertaining.
Anyway, the central plot is much the same, for anyone who knows the story. The characters have the same personalities as I observed in the movie, only some of them are zombie warriors, either trained by the Chinese or Japanese masters. It's a whole complicated love story, but like Jane Eyre, Elizabeth is a confident, strong-willed female who I can totally relate to. And the fact that she can also take down a horde of zombies is a plus. From the look of things, if you come from the point of view of the author, it seems as if this story was begging to have zombies thrown into it. Boy, I never thought I'd write a post that had the word "zombie" splattered all over it. =P To make a long story short, if you want to read a classic but are reluctant to pick it up, check this book out. It's got the language of an old book, but is as entertaining as anything written in this century.
The books I now have waiting to be read on my shelf are Compound and Shades of Grey, which I actually picked up from the library yesterday! I can hardly believe that this is circulating in the library just weeks after it got published, and I can read it without buying a copy at the signing event tonight! Speaking of which...
You don't know how excited I am to meet this guy! He'll be the first British author I've ever met, the third famous author I've been in the same room with, and hopefully the fifth author to give me his autograph. ^_^ I'm a little worried about the last part, though. Instead of buying his brand-new book to get his signature (I try to avoid buying books as much as possible, and plus I already have a copy to read), I ordered his first Nursery Crime book, The Big Over-Easy, on Amazon for only 80 cents (plus shipping and handling) for him to write in. It hasn't arrived yet, so I won't be able to use it.
