Night of the Living Trekkies by Kevin David Anderson

In the midst of a zombie uprising, though, our protagonist finds himself forced into a position of leadership with a lot of potential for personal growth. Our hero is an Afghanistan veteran whose has come home with the intention of hiding out in a job with no responsibilities and zero potential for danger. Where the book starts to deliver on more than the stock premise is in its characterization. (Here’s a test to rate yourself on the Trekker/Zombie-fan scale: Can you picture a Klingon decapitating a zombie with a bat’leth? How does that mental picture make you feel?) The Trek trivia runs both broad and deep: while die-hard trekkers will be tickled by some of the references, those whose appreciation for the series runs shallower shouldn’t feel as if they’re missing out on much. There’s no discernible contempt here for either Star Trek or zombies as the authors write from an insider’s perspective. We’ve covered the essentials: it affectionately presents some of the fun surrounding a Star Trek convention (even if it’s one shut down early for cause of the rising undead), then overwhelms it with the Zombie Apocalypse. Night of The Living Trekkies manages to deliver what it should deliver and add a little bit more on the top. As a reader looking for a bit of escapism, I was expecting the usual zombie-invasion narrative arc, some Trek references and (hopefully) a happy ending deviating from the usual “everybody dies” cliché.įortunately, Andreson and Stall are good at exceeding expectations. We know how this thing’s going to go from years of zombie movies. The entire plot is almost entirely explained in the title: Mash a Star Trek convention with a zombie invasion and, well, there you have it. My expectations weren’t particularly high. That’s how I ended up cracking open Kevin David Anderson & Sam Stall’s Night of the Living Trekkies, my first novel in months that’s not motivated by having just seen the movie adaptation. But my birthday is this month, and, heck, I deserve the occasional treat.

I’m a newly-minded dad, my time is limited, and one good way to give myself more time is to cut down on reading.

I should probably start this review by reminding infrequent readers that 2012 is my first semi-sabbatical year as far as reviewing stuff on the internet is concerned.

Night of the Living Trekkies by Kevin David Anderson