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Dying to Live: Life Sentence | 
| Author: Kim Paffenroth
Publisher: Permuted Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $13.45
You Save: $1.50 (10%)
Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 32394
Media: Paperback
Pages: 232
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.8
ISBN: 1934861111
EAN: 9781934861110
ASIN: 1934861111
Publication Date: October 15, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
At the end of the world a handful of survivors banded together in a museum-turned-compound surrounded by the living dead. The community established rituals and rites of passage, customs to keep themselves sane, to help them integrate into their new existence. In a battle against a kingdom of savage prisoners, the survivors lost loved ones, they lost innocence, but still they coped and grew. They even found a strange peace with the undead. Twelve years later the community has reclaimed more of the city and has settled into a fairly secure life in their compound. Zoey is a girl coming of age in this undead world, learning new roles--new sacrifices. But even bigger surprises lay in wait, for some of the walking dead are beginning to remember who they are, who they've lost, and, even worse, what they've done. As the dead struggle to reclaim their lives, as the survivors combat an intruding force, the two groups accelerate toward a collision that could drastically alter both of their worlds.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Interesting little book January 4, 2009
D. Allen
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
An interesting approach to the zombie genre in general. Imagine for a moment the entire world ends by a zombie apocalypse. Everything you know and do today suddenly become meaningless. What would happen to the survivors of that? Well a hypothetical answer to that question is this book. It follows Zoey growing up and becoming a new proactive member of this horrifying new reality. If you read the first book, you would know the terrible truth of Zoey's birth and her parents. The book focuses on a first person perspective from the eyes of Zoey. The thing that makes this book interesting is a guy named Truman. He doesn't remember anything about who he is other than the name he found in his wallet. Another thing, he's a zombie, and like Zoey, his story is written in a first person perspective. The story primarily focuses on those two characters and with them, you learn a lot about the world they live in and more importantly, you sort of question your current world.
If I had to compare this book with another, I would say it closely resembles Starship Trooper by Heinlein. The reason why I say that is that it appears Kim is using his own personal childhood experiences and emulating those experiences with his characters. I say it resembles Starship Troopers only because the story mainly focuses on questions of society, being in the world, and ultimately ethics concerning punishments, right and wrong, and many other beauties and horror of human society. It appears that many of Kim's character somehow seem to represents something he learned or experienced as a child. It appears that zombies represents the "others" in our society, but yet in those "others," aka zombies, they too have feelings, fear, and love and understanding of things around them. Overall though, I was pleased with the book. Many times though, some of his characters were too "righteous" in my opinion and it sort of put me off because no one was perfect or correct in this book.
I think this book is quite good for a zombie novel. I was more happy at the end with this version than I was with the first. The first I was horrified, but then the second it sort of left you with a feeling of fulfillment that your characters are going to be alright and everything is going to be alright.
Paffenroth Elevates The Zombie Genre January 2, 2009
William M Miller (Bronxville, NY USA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
4 AND 1/2 STARS
This follow-up to Mr. Kim Paffenroth's book, "Dying To Live: Life Among The Dead" is everything I could have hoped for and more. If anyone thinks the zombie genre is growing tired or that there is nothing new to offer, they obviously have not read this book.
Placing the emphasis on the survivor's internal struggles (both the living AND the dead) of the world they live in, Paffenroth brings us back to our group of survivors into a climate - twelve years later - where many have never experienced a normal, civilized world. This community has adopted a very unique way of dealing with the undead. The characters here are incredibly well written and the twisting path Paffenroth takes the reader on is refreshing, thought-provoking, and utterly original.
While the construction of some of the sentences seemed awkward at times, I wrote much of that off as it being part of the character's personality, whether through narration or dialogue. My only other issue was the vocabulary of one of characters who was only twelve years old. Sure, she's a smart girl, but still, using words like dexterously, ubiquity, auspicious, visceral, intuited, and denouement seem a bit much.
Minor gripes aside, I encourage Mr. Paffenroth to continue his highly intelligent series. As strong as the first book was, I believe this one (Life Sentence) is even better. Even if you don't like the zombie genre, I am confident you will still love this book as much as I did. I've read A LOT of zombie novels over the years and this is at the very top of my list.
You suck if you don't enjoy this! November 25, 2008
Yohawn Parnelski
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Being that the first DTL was the first "zombie" novel I ever read it still holds a special place in my heart. Needless to say I couldn't freakin wait for the sequel. I blew thru it so fast I had to reread it again. It's great! It's a little on the short side but that's alright cause it's such a smooth read. Read this or your stupid!
Life's reflections, death revered October 29, 2008
Patrick S. Dorazio (Cincinnati, Ohio)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Kim Paffenroth has gone beyond what he did in his first zombie novel in many ways and in many different directions. I am both pleased and disturbed by this book, which I guess is to say that I both enjoyed it a great deal and yet was exasperated by it. But then again, so few books do that, I consider that to be a good thing.
The plot is as different from the traditional zombie tale as you can get, with two parallel storylines. We see the world through the eyes of Zoey, a young girl who lives in a community that believes it is the last of its kind on earth, with the living having come to terms with the undead that surround it. She is on the edge of becoming an adult and taking on new and more challenging responsibilities. We get to see her perspective change as the world around her changes, expands, and also contracts in many ways, tightening and wraping itself around her as she comprehends more of it, both the good and the ugly.
We also see the world through the eyes of Truman, a incredibly rare zombie that has retained much of what he once was when he was alive. Unlike nearly every other rotting stiff that dominate this world, he has a understanding of what he is and how he is different from the living. His intelligence is essentially the same as it once was though he is limited by his deteriorated body. Despite that, he is able to adapt and learn, not only about who he has become but what it means to be a human being, as he is exposed to more and more of them.
Their two stories intertwine as each character grows and transforms into something more than what they once were. Both characters start out filled with questions. In the end, they still have many questions but their experiences also grant them some knowledge, not only about themselves but of everyone else around them and perhaps of their purposes in the world.
It is hard for me to say I am actually fond of the idea of a intelligent and more importantly, sensitive and humane zombie. Perhaps this is because I already feel that zombies, at least the traditional Romero archetype, are not necessarily evil. They do what they are driven to do by instincts more powerful than anything else. Leave the evil up to us humans, who have the intelligence to perpetrate actual evil quite readily. Devious, diabolical evil. Truman not only resists what drives all zombies but he also does not have the drives and hungers that make humans what they are either. Given this lack of human needs and urges, he becomes almost transcendent. He is sincere, kind, caring, and has no distrust of his fellow zombie. He can feel love but not pain or the burn of sexual desire. He can ruminate on how wonderful and terrifying the human animal can be yet at the same time feeling guilt for what he is, despite the fact that he has done very little wrong in his entire existence as a zombie and certainly nothing wrong outside of defending himself from the hatred and fear of others.
Dr. Paffenroth has created a new variation on Bub, the zombie featured in the movie "Day of the Dead". But the difference here is that Bub slowly learns how to become human again--he learns how to appreciate friendship and communication but at the same time the idea of revenge and hatred are not alien to him either. Truman has lost some of his memories of his life as a human being but still retains most of his intelligence and learning as a Professor of Philosophy. Thus he essentially is an observer who ruminates on what it means to be human but can not absorb those meanings and identify with them himself, at least not as far as the more crass parts of what it means to be human.
I am not sure if this is a criticism of the book. It is more of rumination on Truman and what he really is. Is he both more and less than what we are? Is he better because he has resisted the most basic urge that drives his kind and essentially has no other drives or urges that might corrupt or taint him? What would he become if he or someone he cared for was hurt or killed? Would he show anger and rage or would he be able to rise above those base emotions? For me it is something that bears consideration.
This novel challenged me and I like being challenged. I will say that if you are looking for a straight forward tale of undead violence and destruction, it would be best to steer clear of this book. But if you are willing to take a closer look at the human condition and perhaps stretch your perception of what a zombie story should be all about then this book is something you might really enjoy...and perhaps be challenged by as well.
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