When awesomeness met awesomeness - Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Sometimes, there are things the mind cannot comprehend. Blaise Pascal thought love was one. Maybe it's when you find out that the beautiful woman is actually a man. I know I couldn't do anything the day I found out the actors who play the siblings Dexter (Michael C. Hall) and Deb Morgan (Jennifer Carpenter) on TV's Dexter are married to each other in real life. Well my brain has short-circuited at the awesomeness that is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

I've read a number of P&P continuations - from the shockers that are Emma Tennant's books and Linda Berdoll's Mr. Darcy Wants A Wife (incidentally, who has my copy of that?), as well as various reinterpretations such as an okay version that tells the story from Darcy's POV. Well step aside because P&P&Z just blew you all out of the water! You're probably wondering how this can work with the insertion of all that ultra-violence. All I say is there is nothing better than having Mr. Darcy introduced as having ten thousand a year and a hero of the Battle of Manchester, where he killed innumberable unmentionables (zombies)! You see? Pure win.

But apart from the fun aspect, believe it or not, the introduction of Oriental martial arts and the undead into the plotline of P&P actually exposes some extra things that may not be readily apparent from reading the original text. Lady Catherine isn't just angry at Lizzie for catching Darcy's eye via her fine eyes that have been heightened by her battling against the zombies - it also stems from Lady C's insecurities in the waning of her social influence. After all she may be losing her mantle of one of the fiercest female warriors in the land to young upstart Lizzie who was trained in Chinese techniques instead of Japanese! And then of course there is the plotline about Charlotte Lucas who marries the dreadful Mr. Collins because *SPOILER*she has been afflicted and wants to have a small measure of comfort in life before her passing - but it is testament to Mr. Collins' self-absorption and Charlotte's personality that she endures all the terrible changes that are occuring to her and he (or for that matter anyone other than Lizzie) doesn't even notice due to his self-absorption*END SPOILER*.

There are of course some liberties taken with the insertion of new scenes to demonstrate the role the Bennet sisters have in protecting the town of Meryton and therefore the compression of others to stop the book from being huge but these are mere trifles in my mind. Check out the book club discussion questions at the end for even more jollity!

Read this book and remember that it is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains!