Chapter Six
by Stephen Graham Jones
Date: 2014
Publisher: Tor Books
Reading level: A
Book type: short story
Pages: 32
Format: e-book
Source: Tor.com
"Chapter Six", by Stephen Graham Jones, is an anthropological zombie story about Crain, a grad student, who has a theory of mankind’s evolution. As he and his former professor scavenge on bone marrow left behind by the local zombie horde, he makes his well-reasoned argument.
(synopsis from Goodreads)
This is a different sort of zombie story. Very cerebral. Even though we don't really see any brain-munching going on...
It was just okay for me. It read too much like a textbook, with these two anthropology nerds talking shop. The story did pick up eventually, but only at the end. It almost felt like... well, Chapter Six of a novel. All the technical discussions about evolution would've been okay as part of a larger work, but they took up way too much of this short story and made it kind of boring. The ending makes up for that a little, but it's still not something I'd read again for fun.
Quotable moment:
Once it was dark enough that they could pretend not to see, not to know, they used a rock to crack open the tibia of what had once been a healthy man, by all indications. They covered his face with Crain’s cape, and then covered it again, with a stray jacket.
"Modern sensibilities," Dr. Ormon narrated. "Our ancestors would have had no such qualms."
Plot: 2/5
Characters: 3/5
Pace: 2/5
Writing & Editing: 3/5
Originality: 3/5
Enjoyment: 3/5
Overall Rating: 2.71 out of 5 ladybugs
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