Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls
Steve Hockensmith
 Set five years before the events described in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, the novel takes place in an alternative universe version of Regency-era England where zombies are a well-known menace spawned by an event known as The Troubles. After attending a funeral in which a zombie rises from his coffin, Mr. Bennet decides that he must finally keep an old promise to train his five daughters in the art of zombie-killing. To this end, he turns the family's greenhouse into a dojo and hires young martial-arts expert Master Hawksworth to teach the girls. Meanwhile, a scientist named Dr. Keckilpenny arrives in the area with the dream of domesticating the zombies. As the zombie plague continues to spread across England, Hawksworth and Keckilpenny vie for Elizabeth's affections while Mrs. Bennet plots to find suitably wealthy suitors for both Elizabeth and her older sister Jane. In a bid to get reinforcements against the plague, Jane becomes the bodyguard of Lord Lumpley, a fat nobleman with low moral standards. Meanwhile, Elizabeth and Keckilpenny capture a zombie for further research. Eventually, Hawksworth's incompetence as a warrior becomes obvious, as he never fights any zombies. When the zombies besiege Lord Lumpley's estate, Hawksworth feigns an injured knee, leaving the fighting to everyone else present. Soon, Master Hawksworth escapes the zombies by himself (with his usual grace, and without even drawing his katana), even leaving a young officer to be ripped to shreds. Keckilpenny gets bitten by his research subject, "Mr. Smith", and Elizabeth is forced to behead him. In the end, Captain Cannon, Lieutenant Tindall, Dr. Keckilpenny, and Ensign Pratt are all dead, but the others are saved by the reinforcements that Hawksworth managed to summon, despite his cowardice.