Prior to his passing two years ago, the legendary George A. Romero had been working on a brand new zombie novel aptly titled The Living Dead, which was set to be the first print entry into his long-running film saga. Sadly, Romero never got the chance to complete the novel, but this is one project that won't stay dead!
Daniel Kraus, who penned The Shape of Water‘s novelization, signed on to complete the novel around this time last year, and in a tweet last night, Kraus announced that he has turned in "the massive zombie epic" which he co-wrote with Romero.
He also revealed that The Living Dead will release June 2020 from Tor Books!
In the novel, "On October 24th, John Doe rises from the dead. Assistant Medical Examiner Luis Acocella and his assistant Charlene Rutkowksi are vivisecting him when it happens, and so begins a global nightmare beyond comprehension.
“Greer Morgan is a teenager living in a trailer park, and when the dead begin their assault, the true natures of her neighbors are revealed. Chuck Chaplin is a pretty-boy cable-news anchor, and the plague brings sudden purpose to his empty life.
“Karl Nishimura is the helmsman of the U.S.S. Vindicator, a nuclear submarine, and he battles against a complete zombie takeover of his city upon the sea. And meanwhile, a mysterious woman named Etta Hoffmann records the progress of the epidemic from a bunker in D.C., as well as the broken dreams and stubborn hopes of a nation not ready to give up.
“Spread across three separate time periods and combining Romero’s biting social commentary with Kraus’s gift for the beautiful and grotesque, the book rockets forward as the zombie plague explodes, endures, and finally, in a shocking final act, begins to radically change.”