Best zombie books of the decade

Zombies have been munching the brains of society since shortly after they first staggered out of Haitian culture, driven by their voodoo masters. With the success of films like George A. Romero's "Night of the Living Dead," pop zombie culture has been gnawing at the shackles of society for over forty years. As the literary genre continues to evolve, so too do the zombies within it, as you can see from this list of the top ten zombie novels of the decade.

10. "Cell," by Stephen King. While this isn't exactly one of King's best novels, it combines technological advance with the outright horror of its control over the masses. When a mysterious signal, "The Pulse," turns humanity into a host of crazy monsters, it's up to one man to keep himself alive so he can reunite with his son amidst the chaos.

9. "As the World Dies: First Days," by Rhiannon Frater is one of the few zombie novels out there fueled by the power of feminine protagonists in an apocalyptic world gone wrong. The first book in a trilogy, Frater self-published the novel and has received an abundance of praise from a fandom that has relied rather heavily on male contributors, as well as protagonists, for decades.

8. Z.A. Recht's "Morningstar Strain: Plague of the Dead" is the first in yet another trilogy, which was originally published by Permuted Press, but was later picked up by Simon & Schuster's Pocket Books division. When an African virus infects humanity, the dead reanimate and set out looking for flesh in classic zombie-style mayhem.

7. Podcast fiction has been making a name for numerous up and coming authors, including James Melzer, author of "The Zombie Chronicles: Escape." Escape was originally optioned by Permuted Press, but was picked up for publication by Simon & Schuster's Pocket Books, and though it has yet to come to print, it has a massive fan-following. To date, the podcast version of Escape has been downloaded over 520,000 times. It comes to print late 2010, but is still available for free download on the author's official site and iTunes.

6. David Dunwoody's "Empire," published by Permuted Press, has the Grim Reaper battling the living dead one hundred years after the zombie apocalypse makes hungry corpses of humanity. With Death getting a little tired of such meager harvests, he descends to take back his rights as Reaper. "Empire" is slated to join the Permuted Press deal with Pocket Books.

5. "Day by Day Armageddon" by J.L. Bourne chronicles one military man's fight to survive in a world overrun by the living dead. Originally published by Permuted Press, "Day by Day Armageddon" was the first book released from the Permuted Press / Simon & Schuster Pocket Books deal.

4. S.G. Browne's "Breathers," published by Broadway, is a comedic spin on the zombie genre, which takes place from the first person perspective of a recently reanimated corpse named Andy. From zombie self-help groups to recapturing the rights of the living dead so they can rejoin functioning society, "Breathers" has been described by readers as a mash-up of "Fight Club" and "Shaun of the Dead," but it's so much more than that.

3. "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies," from Quirk Books, was Seth Grahame-Smith's way of meshing classic Victorian literature and culture with modern zombie gore and mayhem. For those who always speculated how proper Victorian society might have fared in the event of a zombie apocalypse, wonder no more. While many literary purists may seem appalled by the notion of brain-hungry zombies running rampant through Austen's classic, you may be surprised by the hilarity of this mash-up.

2. Jonathan Maberry's "Patient Zero" published by St. Martin's Griffin, takes good old government conspiracy and terrorism and skillfully blends them into the zombie genre. Retired cop, Joe Ledger, finds himself neck deep in a government attempt to control a scientifically generated virus that reanimates the infected and turns them into unstoppable super soldiers. With a twist of wit and a dash of humor, Maberry keeps readers on the edge of their seats from page one right up until the very end.

1. "World War Z" by Max Brooks compiles the historical accounts of those who managed to survive an epic zombie war. The firsthand nature of the tales in this book capture the real notion of societal collapse in such a way that reading the book is likened to staring at a train wreck. It's so terrifying, you can't help but turn the page.

There were so many amazing zombie books released over the last ten years that compiling this list was almost impossible. Many excellent tales were left off the list, but not because they don't deserve to be here. With an abundance of fantastic zombie literature continually hitting the market, the next ten years promises to introduce new infections, unheard of conspiracies and maybe even an amendment to the Constitution, reinstating the rights of the living dead.