PDF Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Dawn of the Dreadfuls Pride and Prej and Zombies Steve Hockensmith Patrick Arrasmith 9781594744549 Books

Product details Series Pride and Prej. and Zombies (Book 1) Paperback 288 pages Publisher Quirk Books; First THUS edition (March 1, 2010) Language English ISBN-10 1594744548

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Dawn of the Dreadfuls Pride and Prej and Zombies Steve Hockensmith Patrick Arrasmith 9781594744549 Books Reviews

• When I first saw the movie I thought Elizabeth played by Lily James was brilliant. So I headed to the bookstore and bought a copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, determined to savor it page by page. It was really witty and had much more detail than the movie, which is what I was going for.
  
  When I read the line Elizabeth coldly said to her cousin Collins, not far into the book, I had to put the book down. I decided I had to read the prequel to understand who Elizabeth was at that moment and what had brought her to such cold sentiment.
  
  So I bought the version of Dawn of the Dreadfuls I was wondering if it was going to be as entertaining. It wasn't just that, it was awe inspiring. I understand now why the Bennets are considered the saviors of Hertfordshire and how they came to be that way. I understand her coldness came with her "coming out" ball, and the lessons she learned when her innocence died that night. Perhaps that's why, in the movie, her sisters had to persuade her to smile more. After what she's been through I'm amazed her character can pull it off when she meets Mr. Bingley.
  
  By the time we see her in Zombies, she is a full fledged warrior, as are her sisters. Before reading this prequel, I often felt I was missing so much of the picture.
  
  The appreciation for this book is that it fills in much of the missing universe in the Movie. Even before you read Zombies for the first time, I feel like everyone should read Dawn of the Dreadfuls. It makes Lizzy and Jane's marrying Darcy and Bingley all the more fulfilling.
  
  The book stops abruptly and really it should have ended with their father sending them off to China to train for real, but it ended on a good note.
  
  What I found appalling in both this and Zombies was the cultural disparaging. While it's feasible Mr. Bennett may have at one point trained in Japan, since he was richer before he was married, but his master was Chinese, a Master Liu, which means he must have trained in China. But he uses a katana, which is a distinctly Japanese weapon, honed by honored families sanctioned by Imperials to make blades. No self-respecting kung fu master or Shaolin temple priest would wield a katana because the Chinese looked down upon the Japanese for most of the existence of the Middle Kingdom. Shaolin kung fu precedes even samurai, hence the superiority complex. Also, no self respecting blade master of Japan would sell one to anyone who was not samurai. Anyone who has studied Asian history would know that the katana and the Chinese jian are NOT interchangeable. I'm not talking about historical accuracy but CULTURAL accuracy. Asians are not interchangeable nor are they all the same, so to interchange the cultures is really kind of insulting in this day and age. There is a thing called Google, you know; it's in the thing called the Internet.
  
  Cultural stupidity aside, I did like this book because it explained everything behind that one sentence uttered by Elizabeth in Chapter 15 of Zombies.
• 3.5 stars
  
  As one review stated you have to read this as a tongue in cheek farcical take-off of Pride and Prejudice. I was smiling at the nonsensical action all the way through. This is not my usual fare in reading although I have read hundreds of Jane Austen Fan Fiction books and P&P is my favorite variation. But it is almost unthought-of for me to read of fantasy creatures in connection with these romances. Books about Vampires, Werewolves, Sea Creatures, and Zombies belong on other book shelves in my opinion.
  
  However when I learned that a movie is being released in February of 2016 titled Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (from the sequel to this book) the thought of reading the novel began to rattle around in my brain. I then learned from a friend, Claudine, that there was both a prequel and a sequel. So I finally decided to dive in.
  
  I don’t want to relate too much of the story although I can’t really say that there was much mystery involved. Language from canon is used on various pages but rarely as in canon. The characters are few of those with which we are familiar Mr. and Mrs. Bennet and 5 daughters, Charlotte, Mrs. Long and Mrs. Hill and the setting is Hertfordshire with Meryton, Longbourn and Netherfield. We have 3 men posturing for 2 of the sisters. But nowhere to be found in this book are the Bingleys or the Darcys or even Colonel Fitzwilliam. There is, however, a mention of Lady Catherine and her role is a surprise.
  
  The undead/THE DREADFULS enter upon this tale immediately as we read of a funeral service during the which the corpse stirs from his casket. His wife is all happiness as she believes he was NOT dead and that a mistake has been made and she wants to embrace him. We learn here that a plague of the Dreadfuls occurred a number of years back and that Mr. Bennet was one of the successful warriors against that incursion, BUT he has failed in his oath…he has not reared his daughters to be warriors! Enter one Master Hawksworth, trained in the oriental martial arts, he wastes no time taking over a garden shed to use as a training center, a dojo, and ALL the Bennet girls are soon under his command. As this action evolves we read of a ripple in the connection between a Master and one of his students. But as we read of how he holds her in esteem we also learn of a secret he holds concerning his own abilities.
  
  Close behind the Master enters into Hertfordshire a Dr. Keckilpenny who seeks to use science to turn these savage undead creatures back into the English gentlemen and ladies on which the British Empire is founded. He too sees Miss Elizabeth Bennet as an asset to help him seek his goal. Meanwhile in Netherfield lurks a different type of monster. One who is not a fantasy creature, but nevertheless one who preys on the innocents and then makes sure they don’t get in his way. Lord Lumpley is no Charles Bingley but he does admire the beautiful and demure Jane Bingley.
  
  So can I recommend this book? I would say that if you plan to see the movie that you might want to read the books which are the source of that. But if you are looking for the romance for which P&P is so well loved, you may be disappointed. However I say that having only read this prequel and the first several chapters of the main book. Those chapters seem to follow canon very closely…except for a disruption at the Meryton Assembly. Poor Mrs. Long she will never be able to gossip about how Mr. Darcy sat next to her for all of a half of an hour without speaking one word to her!
• I really liked Hockensmith's prequel to Grahame-Smith's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
  
  I loved Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice. The interplay between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy was perfect. I didn't care too much for Seth Grahame-Smith's slow-moving and wearisome Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. The addition of the undead to the mix wasn't an improvement; although the confrontation scene--where Mr. Darcy first proposes marriage--was a hoot. In the original, Elizabeth rejects that first offer with an ice-cold and humiliating rebuff. In the Zombies version, she Kung-Fu kicks him into the fireplace, and they then engage in a martial arts battle. That scene did add a bit of spice to Austin's version.
  
  This prequel, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Dawn of the Dreadfuls, was not written by Seth Grahame-Smith but by one of my favorite authors, Steve Hockensmith, and is much better than the work it follows. It's funny, engaging, has lots of heart, and moves quickly. Hockensmith has not captured Jane Austin's style in the same way that Grahame-Smith did, but has produced in its stead a story that's far more enjoyable to read. Hockensmith has since written a sequel, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies Dreadfully Ever After, and is the author as well of the hilarious Holmes on the Range series.