The Rising: More Selected Scenes From The End Of The World
by Brian Keene
January 2025
Death’s Head Press
120 pages
Horror / Survival Horror / Zombies
I am a zero-day fan for sure, and I like multiple points of view on the apocalypse. It is a tapestry style double-page spreads in the Crossed comic book. You get a front-row seat and can look and see what is going on in this little corner or that little altercation. You can focus on this group of people or what this lone person is doing and reading this book works like that, or how World War Z did. Little slices of fucked up lives.
Not only is this a zero day zombie apocalypse story. Each story deals with the subject’s pets. Mostly, that means dogs-although there is a cat story and a fish tank is featured-because of the way this book came about. Brian Keene had spearheaded a crowdfunding campaign for his friend Kristopher Triana‘s dog’s surgery and healthcare. This is recounted in the introduction to the collection. While I enjoyed singular plot of The Rising just fine, I’d say I liked The Rising: More Selected Scenes far more. Probably because it is short stories, but also with the unique addition of pets. I have had a few dogs in my time and am sitting next to the sleeping furry ball of a sixteen-year-old pup as I write this.
It takes a long time to get a book in print traditionally so the crowdfunding and the dog in question have a long past. The sincerity of this drive and the sentiment behind it, and the crowd funders names being immortalized in the stories is precious to me as well as fans and friends of both writers. Now, don’t think that stories concerning our furry friends would take any of the brutality out of the stories. They are still gory shocking, fun, violent romps through a dangerous landscape.
From the back jacket:
“Twenty years ago, multiple Bram Stoker Award winner and World Horror Grandmaster Brian Keene’s The Rising was credited with “revitalizing the horror fiction genre” and “giving zombies an upgrade”. In the decades since then, the series has spawned three sequels and earned generations of eager fans from all walks of life–united hoping the author would return once again to the franchise. This is that return.
The Rising: More Selected Scenes From the End of the World features a splattering of new stories set within the world of Brian Keene’s The Rising franchise, complemented with original illustrations by Anthrax’s Charlie Benante. Featuring tales set both before and after the events of the previous books it will appeal to long-time fans and new readers alike.
Brian Keene’s The Rising: More Selected Scenes From the End of the World–zombies just got another upgrade.”
The stories are short, and the small collection is a quick read. Near the end there is a two-part story that follows one of a pair of survivors, then the next story follows the other through Equatorial Guinea. I liked those very much as a call-and response-literally as they lose then search for one another in the rubble.
Stories feature characters’ names we know as readers of the horror genre since the funders’ names and pets’ names were used, adding an extra appeal to this collection. Into the Fire is set in the desert of New Mexico and is short and sweet, but features a more sentient undead creature than usual. Any story based in Pennsylvania catches my eye and the collection opens up with the best ground zero aftermath story in The Rising entirely. There is a wider swath of hopelessness in the opening than anywhere else, as the other stories do have a glint of hope; even if only reflected in a faithful dog’s eye.