It is known as "the strange plague", and its unfortunate victims are referred to only as "unmentionables" or "dreadfuls". All over England, the dead are rising again, and now even the daughters of Britain's best families must devote their lives to mastering the deadly arts. Elizabeth Bennet is a fearsome warrior whose ability with a sword is matched only by her quick wit and even sharper tongue. But she faces her most formidable foe yet in the haughty, conceited, and somehow strangely attractive Mr. Darcy. As the two lovers meet in the ballroom and on the battlefield, they soon learn that nothing - not even bands of ninjas, hordes of flesh-eating zombies, or disapproving aunts - can stop true love...

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies mixes Jane Austen's classic with all-new scenes of zombie mayhem. Now, I know the original novel has been successful, but I still don't understand who thought mixing two very different genres would work. Very few men enjoy tales like Pride and Prejudice and few women like Zombie tales. Okay, I'm generalising, but you get my point. So why would anyone enjoy a story that combined the two?

The idea behind Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is possibly one of the laziest pieces of fiction I've ever read. Take a classic piece of literature, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and copy the basic storyline but stick a few zombie attacks in here and there. And that's it, really. There's nothing that much more original to it than that.

The biggest problem I had is that I got bored well before I was even a quarter of the way through. And, to be honest, if I wasn't being paid to read it then I would probably have stopped there.

The artwork is another sticking point. A lot of the panels look like rough pencil drawings that someone has then hurriedly inked over.

All in all I wasn't overly taken by this collection. But then if you're a fan of the book you'll probably enjoy this edition too.

3

Nick Smithson