Black Tide Rising

Ringo and Poole team up to deliver an uneven anthology of stories about life in Ringo's Black Tide setting, in which humans contend with the aftermath of the zombie apocalypse. The first of Ringo's two contributions to the collection, "Never Been Kissed," is also one of the strongest, bringing a touch of wistful humanity sadly lacking in many of the other stories. John Scalzi and Dave Klecha's "On the Wall" is a dialogue-only tale of two men bonding while defending a compound; it's easily the funniest of the batch, though Scalzi fans are likely to find some of the jokes familiar. Mike Massa's "Battle of the BERTs" is an action-packed, tense tale of bank-sponsored security teams patrolling and protecting New York. Eric Flint's "Up on the Roof," a story of neighbors in east Chicago making a go of surviving at a tank farm near an oil refinery, is nearly unreadable. Fans of the universe will find some works to like, but the anthology as a whole is disappointing. (June)