by Joe McKinney
“Dating in Dead World” was written about the time that Kensington Publishing asked me to do another zombie book. I had made a few readers mad with the ending to Dead City, and I wanted to address the criticism before I went on with the rest of the series.
And that meant writing about Eddie Hudson again. The thing to remember about Eddie Hudson is that he is not a reliable reporter. Most people get that wrong about him. He’s deeply fractured by the events he recounts in the novel, and the optimism he expresses at the end of the story is… well, let’s just say he’s not telling you everything. He’s telling you about the world he wants to believe in, not the world as it really is. “Dating in Dead World” came from that issue. And because “Dating in Dead World” was written to refute Eddie Hudson’s optimism, the logical lead for the story was Eddie’s son, Andrew Hudson. So this story really becomes as much a conversation between father and son as it does a commentary on the Dead World series itself.
John Joseph Adams, editor of The Living Dead 2, asked me where “Dating in Dead World” came from—not just the idea for the story, but the personal background of the story. I think the answer hinges on personal accountability. I find it impossible to respect people who can’t accept responsibility for their actions. That’s something I learned from my dad, and something I’ll always be thankful for.
Case in point. He gave me some important advice on personal responsibility. Right before I left for my first date, he gave me the only bit of parental sex education I ever received. “Remember this,” he said. “You will be held personally accountable for everything that happens to that girl from the moment she leaves her front door to the moment she walks back in it. Conduct yourself accordingly.”
It wasn’t until after I’d written “Dating in Dead World” that I realized I was channeling that advice. I guess it took.
Read Andrew Hudson’s take on his first date and see if you don’t agree.
Toward a Preferred Chronology
People keep asking me if they need to read the Dead World in a certain order. With the exception of Mutated, I’d so no. You can read any piece in the series in any order and still come away with a perfectly clear understanding of what’s going on. And come to think of it, you could even read Mutated first and still have that understanding.
So the simple answer is no, there is no preferred chronology. Read on. Enjoy yourself.
Okay, that was for all those folks who are completely new to the series. The rest of you, those who have read at least one of the books and are looking for some insight into the rest of the series, what follows is for you. If you want to read the Dead World series the way the author would like the series read, this is it:
Flesh Eaters
Dead City
“Survivors”
“Ethical Solutions”
“The Crossing”
Apocalypse of the Dead
Mutated
“Dating in Dead World”
Joe McKinney has been a patrol officer for the San Antonio Police Department, a homicide detective, a disaster mitigation specialist, a patrol commander, and a successful novelist. His books include the four-part Dead World series, Quarantined, Inheritance, Lost Girl of the Lake, The Savage Dead, Crooked House and Dodging Bullets. His short fiction has been collected in The Red Empire and Other Stories and Dating in Dead World. In 2011, McKinney received the Horror Writers Association's Bram Stoker Award® for Best Novel. For more information go to
http://joemckinney.wordpress.com.