It was back in 2022 when I first heard of horror author Bryan Way's Life After series of zombie stories. Life After: The Arising featured an unlikeable lead and told a relatively (for a zombie apocalypse) mundane story but something about it just worked. This was followed up by a sequel - Life After: The Void that was even better and showed the first novel wasn't just a fluke. So far that has been it in the main line series, but the author has also put out six short stories over the years set within the world of Life After and written in a more traditional third person form rather than the first person perspective of the novels. As the title hints at, Life After: Shorts Anthology Volume 1 brings together those first six short stories into one volume. Even more exciting is that there is an exclusive seventh short story set several months after the events of the second main novel.
I used my own photo of my battered and coffee stained copy of the book for the cover image as a mark of respect. It has been taken to my work to read on my lunch break countless times, and even travelled with me earlier this year when I went to Normandy with my father. I feel a sign of having enjoyed a book is how used it naturally comes to appear.
Reading the novels and the shorts I had in my mind a certain image of what the characters looked like, I admit that some of them didn't have the most flattering image in my mind, especially when it came to the main books protagonist character of Jeff Grey. This anthology introduces portraits of each of the main characters drawn by artist Seth Lang. If it had just been images based on what Way himself and Lang had imagined the characters had looked like I would have probably still defaulted to the images in my mind, but in a genius move Way cements these pictures by stating that that they were actually drawn by one of the characters in the books, meaning I have no excuses to discount them as not complete canon.
I won't go into too much detail for the first six short stories as I have previously given them their own review. I wasn't too sure if going back to them would be as exciting second time around. In another cool move though, Way has put the stories in the order they take place within the Life After universe, not in the order they were originally written. This makes them much more interesting as you are able to follow the flow of the unfolding apocalypse a lot better.
Each story and each chapter within that story begins with a date, making it easy to see how far along things have progressed. One of my few complaints is that I wish that each individual page had these dates as I found myself constantly flicking back to see how much time had passed between the individual stories. Anyway, it starts off with The Cemetery Plot that occurs even before the start of the first novel. Telling a story about a greedy man taking extreme measures to get his deceased relative's inheritance. I enjoyed this one about as much as the first time reading it. The same was true for the next few, The Phoenix (guy meeting his ex-girlfriend at her place of work gets caught up in the unfolding zombie crisis) and the excellent The Line of Duty (the perspective of the apocalypse from an embattled police station, this one I still think would be excellent as a short film). While Zugzwang was still a little bit confusing due to the amount of characters introduced, I thought this side story that takes place during the events of Life After: The Void had improved a bit, and becomes one of the more important stories in the anthology as many of the same characters reappear in the new seventh story.
The Maze was a purposely disorientating story first read around as it starts in the middle of a action packed situation. On a second read I picked up on so much more that I hadn't noticed the first time around due to the eventual revelations the story provides. Of the original shorts that just leaves The Basement which is certainly Way's most depraved story. Perhaps it was knowing what was to come, but I found this had improved massively on a second read through, plus since reading it the author has confirmed that the belief of certain characters as to what caused the dead returning to life was actually incorrect. I do dislike it when there is a neat and tidy explanation given in zombie stories, always takes away some of the mystique.
New and final short The Siege really was a case of saving the best till last. This features a story featuring the main novel characters, but used in an interesting way. I thought the cleverest idea was to not feature protagonist Grey in the story. Instead he is often referenced by other characters, and even glimpsed in the background at one point. The story here was exciting, without too many spoilers it is about the influx of new survivors to the school the rest are hiding out at, set to the backdrop of a siege from the walking dead who are all too aware that there are living in the school. It was a bonus that my favourite character - former national guard soldier Anderson features a lot in it.
Going into this anthology I was a bit worried that I had a biased opinion of the stories having enjoyed speaking to the author over emails. That worry was dispelled with The Siege, it really was a great story, and has made me really want a third main line entry, something I believe Way is currently working on. As always, you will get a lot more out of this anthology if you have read The Arising and The Void, but even without having done that, there is plenty to enjoy here.
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