The plan is to reread all of Brian Keene’s available works in roughly the order that they were published. I’m doing it because I’m an author in need of improvement and a reader who enjoys a storyteller willing to bleed out on the page in a powerful and interesting way. I’m a fan of Keene’s work. I think there is something to be learned through this process.
You can also go back to the Introductory Post: A Gathering of Books to read more about the how and the why of this or any of my other posts up through this one and beyond by checking out the Master List of all my #BrianKeeneRevisited posts.
The Rising: Selected Scenes From the End of the World is collected flash fiction from Keene’s zombie universe and the mythology of Ob and the Labyrinth. Real people’s names and backgrounds are used for the stories. Being flash fiction, you get a lot of great, quick tales one after the other. Together, they tell a bigger story, expanding and enriching this universe. You see The Rising event unfold across the world. You also get a timeline that takes you beyond the end of the books into the future waves of the mythology that is only hinted at in other works. And for real fans of the books, we revisit beloved characters to see what happened to them before, after, and “off camera” from their appearances in the books. You’re getting a lot out flash fiction tales here.
The usual suspects at Deadite Press are thanked. The roster has changed over the years, but the names still matter. A litany of other important people are acknowledged as well.
Of course, I read The Rising and City of the Dead first. Keene recommends you read those books first before tackling this one in order to enjoy this more. I agree.
There are three additional stories from the original special release. Other stories only appear in the limited edition hard cover, adding to its growing collectable value.
I love short stories. I strongly feel that short fiction shows the real talent of a writer and allows that writer to explore and expand that talent further afield in more experimental storytelling. Flash fiction as an even shorter short story tests the writer’s abilities even more.
These stories are quick sharp punches. They are raw and stripped down like being clubbed in a bare-knuckle brawl that ends with one punch. Some of them are jabs or body blows that hurt deep. Others hook up under your jaw too fast to see, so they feel like cheap shot sucker punches even though you signed up and squared off to engage in this violence on the fighter’s home turf in front of the home crowd. You better hope your chin is as strong as you think it is. Maybe a few are glancing blows that flicker the lights and ring the bells in your head anyway. And there are a few rabbit punches to your back as you’re trying to turn your body away from the strike. Feel free to tap out at any time, but I think this work is worth going all the rounds.
Keene’s talents are on display here, but I think these stories read with a different energy and style than many of his more fleshed out short stories. That is neither a good nor bad thing. It’s just a fact about how he made the most of the concise space.
There is great detail about each story in the author notes at the end. I enjoyed those insights after reading all the stories. And you get a lot of stories in this collection with them all being flash fiction.
Don’s Last Mosh
This is short and direct as all the stories are. Being a nice guy does not pay off for Don at all. The detail of the metal scene makes the short tale work really well.
Family Reunion
We have a Smeltzer in this story like in Ghoul, if I remember correctly. Sometimes, family business is best left behind, especially in an apocalypse. But you can’t always see the disaster coming. There’s no escaping family sometimes though. Very early on, you see these stories are going to be short, brutal, and interconnected. We have the dramatic irony of seeing the bigger picture unfold as the characters in each tale are all in desperate survival mode.
As Above… Sisters Part I
Good layers of meaning throughout this tale and the one that follows it. We know what the father is really doing as he tries to spare the kids. The older sister is written really, really well.
So Below Sisters Part II
The younger sister shines in this continuation of the saga. Good suspense in a tight space.
Last Chance for La Chance
You don’t want to be in an airport during the apocalypse. You don’t want to be anywhere in a Brian Keene story now that I think about it. Catch a cab as soon as you can though because the streets are getting bad out there.
Watching the World End
Great exploration of insanity and self-destruction. A few keys scenes from The Rising are recapped on TV as a backdrop.
The Fall of Rome
He got some pretty good and accurate details of this city that he wove into the story well. I went to school here in this specific city, not at the college mentioned in the story, but at a smaller one not far from the locations he used in the story. The history and feel of the location are spot on. IPods are a very specific window in history, but it allows our character to listen to Pink Floyd as he does his thing.
Walk About part I
Good characters captured well. I had a suspicion of where this might go, but had to wait until part two to see I had guessed wrong.
The Waiting is the Hardest Part
I shouted out loud when I realized who we were visited in this story. Keene did a fine job of connecting small details from The Rising and piecing together a narrative that closed some potential contradictions.
Hellhounds on my Trail
Don’t want to be in a hospital or trying to learn how to navigate a boat during an apocalypse. This is the story of one last shred of dignity and robbing the dead of what they want.
Spoilers
That night the cat came back. Always a great line packed with horror potential. The need for companionship, conversation, and to know how the books ends are strong for everyone from every dimension.
The Man Comes Around
Don’t mess with a man’s dog. We see the work of a potentially big character mentioned offhand in the original The Rising. Characters from this story will pop up in connections with future stories.
The Summoning
Religious fervor and old-fashioned insanity power this tale. We find ourselves bargaining with madness in human form. Good switch from who we thought the story would be about when it started.
Pocket Apocalypse
We get the backstory on a favorite side character from The Rising.
The Ties that Bind
Some couples are meant to be together forever.
The Viking Plays Patty Cake
One of my favorite stories in the collection. Respect and loss play big in this one. We have creative survival and questionable coping.
If You Can See the Mountain
It began to rain. There is great set up throughout this story to deliver power and doom with a simple turn of phrase at the end.
You Only Live Twice
Good character with simple motivations. Probably avoided a trap, but we’re not sure. There’s good balance of trouble with either choice, so the obvious answer is not there for the reader or the character. I can’t speak for all Keene fans, but I like these endings.
And Hell Followed with Him
Bob Ford! The great Bob Ford. This one story expands on the mythology to create a great revenge tale. Adds a new trope to Keene’s zombie universe.
The High Point
The Keene zombie universe foils the best laid zombie plans set up with mostly Romero universe rules in mind. Still, moments of triumph are possible.
Where the Down Boys Go
Another look into the mysterious General’s kingdom. This is a great story that implies there was an epic tale at play on the West Coast during our adventures in The Rising set in the east. This might mark a pivotal moment in what might have been the most successful military action during The Rising event.
Walkabout Part II
I was glad to get the second part of this story. 10 km, 11 days, and one flight of stairs can be very, very far under certain circumstances.
I Corinthians 15:51
In the hands of a lesser storyteller, this story could very easily have just been a copy of a previous tale, but we get something entirely different instead. Sometimes escape means taking care of what has you trapped. This is a good riff on the title verse.
All Fall Down
“It’s a long way to fall.” This is the Devil’s line and Keene uses it in one of the essays in Sympathy for the Devil. Birds are a game changer in Keene’s zombie universe.
Through the Glass Darkly
The aftermath of the disruption of the California troops plays out here. It’s a good scene described well. One graphic feeding in the midst of it all may be some of Keene’s best grisly business in the whole franchise.
A Man’s Home is His Casket
Great set up. Good continuation of an earlier tale. Great action twists through to the end.
Ballroom Blitz
Some of the best dialogue banter in the whole collection. This is lighter, campier, and funny. I like this story a lot.
Zombie Worm
This title was chosen as a meta joke for Keene fans. We get a deeper insight into Keene’s demonic mythology. We also visit an important character from The Rising. Dark torture and a fitting punishment play out for the creature who took this character.
The Night the Dead Died
We get to see past the ending of City of the Dead. Nice character work too.
The Morning After
Celebration interrupted. You thought zombie birds were bad? You’ve seen nothing yet.
March of the Elilum
An interesting echo of the father-son relationship from The Rising. Arguably a more successful one, for what it’s worth. The interplay of the threat in this tale was hinted at in Dark Hollow a bit.
Best Seat in the House
The peaceful loving couple sits at the center of a storm beyond their control. Maybe it’s an extreme contrast in this tale, but that sounds like the struggles of any relationship in life, doesn’t it?
American Pie
Just when you let your guard down, the threat proves it’s still there in many forms. All things come to an end one way or another.
Two Suns in the Sunset
This is a good story to close out the collection because now we really get to see the end. This might be the most successful character in the franchise, and we know so little about him. He knows very little about himself in the end too.
My next post in this series will be Take the Long Way Home #BrianKeeneRevisited which can be found on the Master List of all my #BrianKeeneRevisited posts. Note: The photo of Brian Keene used in the banner image of these blog posts was taken by John Urbancik and used by permission of both Keene and Urbancik.
Jay's Patreon Page | Purchase Signed Books
Gotta love Brian’s short fiction. I particularly enjoyed watching him take on the challenge of making a whole short story collection set in one world as The Rising plays out and the way we see it all unfold chronologically. And the stuff I enjoyed the most was the stuff towards the end that we didn’t get to see in The Rising or City of the Dead and that is when the Elilium take over and the plant life starts killing survivors and ultimately when the Terraphim show up and destroy everything before we go to the Labyrinth at the very end when the world is fully destroyed. I read this back in 2008 and I was soooo excited to read his Labyrinth series. I had no clue we would have to wait for it as long as we did.
I’ve read his short fiction a lot of different places including what he shares on Patreon. This was my first time reading these. It’s kind of amazing that he figured out an overarching mythology this early in his writing career.