‘I Am Scrooge’ merges the Christmas classic ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens with the more modern zombie novel ‘I Am Legend’ by Richard Matheson. I am a huge fan of the original Victorian classic, with it’s lovable characters, strong morals and enchanting winter London setting, so naturally, when I spotted this in the library I was a bit apprehensive, having never read ‘I Am Legend’. I decided to pick it up anyway, and immediately fell in love with the writing style. It isn’t trying to immitate Dickens’ writing at all and includes some funny commentary from the author. It also references iconic moments from other famous pieces of culture such as The Shining and even Toy Story. This book is definitely not for the faint-hearted! Although it is only a mere 153 pages long, there is a lot of blood and gory descriptions about the actions of the zombies. I like the take on Scrooge that Roberts has taken, making him a bit less mean, and giving him a less selfish demeanour. I like some of the characters’ names too, such as; Terence Cratchitt, instead of Bob Cratchett (paying homage to Terry Pratchett of course) and Fred’s daughter Algernon (which I assume refers to Daniel Key’s classic sci-fi fantasy novel ‘Flowers for Algernon’).

Although until about halfway through this book I absolutely loved it, I found the second spirit’s language and speech a little jarring to the pacing of the novel. Personally I found trying to understand the language used really slowed my reading pace. I did, however, enjoy the appearances of Charles Dickens and H.G.Wells in the plot because I think that it added a bit more depth and contained references that I remember from their works.

The end pages of the book were definitely better, back to well-paced writing, full of really thought-provoking passages. I would give this book 4 out of 5 stars because, if you forget that it is based on ‘A Christmas Carol’, this book is a fun, quick read that is action-packed and raises interesting ideas about the nature of humanity. ( )

To be honest, there were a few points while I was reading this when I wanted to throw the book accross the room out of disgust. That said, except for a few sections, the story gets better as you go, and so long as you read with the appropriate silly attitude it can be an okay if not a good read. the confused narator bit i think has been done better elsewhere already, however, there were a lot of funny jokes. the christmas spirits...at times i loved them, at times i loathed them. over all, its worth reading, for those that love a good tale of zombies and christmas. ( )

Given that Yellow Blue Tibia by Roberts was both the maddest and best SF book I read this year, I had high hopes of this zombie take on Dickens’ A Christmas Carol as a bit of fun this festive season. Would it live up to the fun I had with Pride & Prejudice & Zombies ?

Whereas P&P&Z keeps Austen’s prose moreorless intact, adding the ‘zombie mayhem’ into the original, I am Scrooge keeps the main characters and then riffs on the story telling of a rather different Christmas night for Scrooge as the ghosts show him how the world will become populated by zombies if he doesn’t change his ways...

"Marley was dead, to begin with. Dead for about three minutes, that is: then he got up again. The clergyman, the clerk and the undertaker had all certified him dead: and these were all men experienced in the business of dealing with dead bodies. They were all astonished, then – and more than astonished – to hear his corpse groan, and to see it shake and move. If their surprise did not last long, it was only because it very quickly turned to terror as Marley reached out and sank his fingers into the soft flesh of the clerk’s and the undertaker’s throats, and, using them as leverage, pulled himself forward to bite down hard into the face of the clergyman…"

So it begins – and I stopped the quote before it gets truly gory! Marley is the first zombie of many lurching out in search of brains to eat, but Marley wants Scrooge’s in particular. The story starts promisingly, with touches of corny humour and bucketloads of gore, but goes downhill with the arrival of the second ghost of Christmas future. This phantom is irritating to the core, talking in modern argot like Ali G – with nah, innit, bruv and amirite all over the place – this was bizarre as the future Scrooge is shown is 1899. Sadly, this wasn’t funny at all and submerges the plot under its weight. I did like the twist at the end though …

This one misfired for me, but it won’t stop me reading more of Roberts’ SF though. ( )

This was a funny book (if you like Monty Python type comedy). The second spirit is annoying, but loved the first one. A good twist on an classic tale. ( )