World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

published	2006 by Crown
binding	Hardcover
isbn	0307346609 (isbn13: 9780307346605)
pages	352
setting	China
description	The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences ...more [close] The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years. Ranging from the now infamous village of New Dachang in the United Federation of China, where the epidemiological trail began with the twelve-year-old Patient Zero, to the unnamed northern forests where untold numbers sought a terrible and temporary refuge in the cold, to the United States of Southern Africa, where the Redeker Plan provided hope for humanity at an unspeakable price, to the west-of-the-Rockies redoubt where the North American tide finally started to turn, this invaluable chronicle reflects the full scope and duration of the Zombie War. Most of all, the book captures with haunting immediacy the human dimension of this epochal event. Facing the often raw and vivid nature of these personal accounts requires a degree of courage on the part of the reader, but the effort is invaluable because, as Mr. Brooks says in his introduction, "By excluding the human factor, aren't we risking the kind of personal detachment from history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it? And in the end, isn't the human factor the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as 'the living dead'?" Note: Some of the numerical and factual material contained in this edition was previously published under the auspices of the United Nations Postwar Commission. Eyewitness reports from the first truly global war: "I found 'Patient Zero' behind the locked door of an abandoned apartment across town....His wrists and feet were bound with plastic packing twine. Although he'd rubbed off the skin around his bonds, there was no blood. There was also no blood on his other wounds....He was writhing like an animal; a gag muffled his growls. At first the villagers tried to hold me back. They warned me not to touch him, that he was 'cursed.' I shrugged them off and reached for my mask and gloves. The boy's skin was...cold and gray...I could find neither his heartbeat nor his pulse." — Dr. Kwang Jingshu, Greater Chongqing, United Federation of China "'Shock and Awe'? Perfect name....But what if the enemy can't be shocked and awed? Not just won't, but biologically can't! That's what happened that day outside New York City, that's the failure that almost lost us the whole damn war. The fact that we couldn't shock and awe Zack boomeranged right back in our faces and actually allowed Zack to shock and awe us! They're not afraid! No matter what we do, no matter how many we kill, they will never, ever be afraid!" — Todd Wainio, former U.S. Army infantryman and veteran of the Battle of Yonkers "Two hundred million zombies. Who can even visualize that type of number, let alone combat it?...For the first time in history, we faced an enemy that was actively waging total war. They had no limits of endurance. They would never negotiate, never surrender. They would fight until the very end because, unlike us, every single one of them, every second of every day, was devoted to consuming all life on Earth." — General Travis D'Ambrosia, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe
date added	12-10-06 edit book

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Jason rated it:

03/24/08

Read in March, 2008

(My full review of this book is longer than Goodreads' word-count limitations; find the entire essay at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

Anytime I hear of some funny, gimmicky book suddenly becoming popular among the hipster set, I always squint my eyes and brace myself for the worst; because usually when it comes to such books, the worst is all you can expect to find, an endless series of fluffy pop-culture pieces designed specifically for crafty point-of...more

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Brett rated it:

04/12/08

bookshelves: horror

I have fretted long and hard about what my choice for book club would be, when that time finally came. I wanted both to pick a piece of literature that would be surprising and that most others in the club would not have considered reading, but I also wanted it to be good. After all, I have spent the last few months reading the likes of The Kite Runner and Water for Elephants. If I can put up with that kind of sissy-pants literature (I am of course, joking. Partially.) then I wanted to make other...more I have fretted long and hard about what my choice for book club would be, when that time finally came. I wanted both to pick a piece of literature that would be surprising and that most others in the club would not have considered reading, but I also wanted it to be good. After all, I have spent the last few months reading the likes of The Kite Runner and Water for Elephants. If I can put up with that kind of sissy-pants literature (I am of course, joking. Partially.) then I wanted to make others endure something they would not normally consider. So I cast around for a while, and eventually landed on this little book. The deal was sealed when, in a strange coincidence, the day I started to read this book, the author turned out to be reading in town. So I went to hear him, and decided this book was fate. He signed my copy and added "survive book club".

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War is a hell of a fun book. Though not without moments of humor, it takes itself completely seriously. It is laid out as other "oral histories" are, with short, "man on the street" style interviews, as well as interviews with those that experienced certain unique aspects of the war. Humans have, at least for now, vanquished the zombie threat, though there are still zombies out there and no one knows if the plague might start again. Through the eyes of the participants we see the earliest outbreaks, the chaos of the Great Panic, fighting the hordes to a stalemate, the tide slowly turn, and finally the re-emergence of humanity. WWZ is full of intimate detail, some touching or inspiring; some brutal, remorseful, or bittersweet. There is a fair share of blood and guts--this is a horror novel, after all--but many of the snapshots are unexpectedly poignant.

Really though, the zombies in the story are only a stand in, a way to pique the interest of readers. It could be any kind of worldwide emergency, particularly disease, such as Avian Flu. The bulk of the story is showing lack of government planning and bureaucratic missteps. And it's impossible not to read and think of the inadquate disaster response to Katrina in the U.S., and other large scale catastrophes around the world. Also on this wavelength, there are some fairly clear allusions to modern political figures and to the war in Iraq. However, the novel is truly global in scope, and we spend time in a variety of countries besides the U.S. I was especially intrigued at the way the zombie war boosted the prestige of eastern nations, and helped to tip the balance of geopolitical power toward China and India, much like a major worldwide disaster might really do.

Criticisms I expect to have to deal with at book club: there are 40 or 50 different "voices" or characters in this book, most of them only getting a few pages to speak. As such, some voices will obviously be stronger than others. Also, we do not build up large amounts of attachment to a single character over the course of the book. I think Brooks did a great deal of research on what type of weapons the military might use to combat a zombie plague, and he spends quite a few pages detailing various sorts of tactics and specific weapons that could be used. To some degree, I lost interest in this topic. I felt that since he did the research, he felt like he had to use some of it, but honestly, I wasn't too in to learning about exactly how weapons systems work. Less would have been more. As someone who works in politics, as does most of my book club, some of the interviews with political figures were a little heavy handed.

One particular section I wanted to praise was the writing about zombies in the water. This was a very effective image for me and will have me thinking twice next time I'm swimming in a body of water after dark. And, of course, as with any story about zombies, during certain moments you have to ask yourself who the real monsters are. The zombies, grotesque as they are, have no choice in their actions. It is the humans that stab each other in the back and become their own worst enemies, willing to do anything to fellow survivors in order to gain their own advantage. Even in the last pages, as some survivors talk about the way the crisis brought people together, I had to wonder if they were already starting to gloss over the worst moments with familiar cliches. Do these sorts of crisis bring people together, or is that only the story we tell ourselves when it's all over, when we've done what we must to survive?

WWZ is a fast and interesting read. Obviously I think highly enough of it that I chose it to make my coworkers read. If you happen to be an interp coach reading this, you might seriously think about getting a copy; I think some very cool pieces could be cut from it, and I guarantee you'll be the only school in your area doing them.

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sarah rated it:

03/05/07

bookshelves: fiction, futuristic-dystopia, horror, humor-satire

Read in January, 2007

In 2005, the world watched in horror, and George W. Bush twiddled his thumbs, as Hurricane Katrina bore down on a defenseless Louisiana. The Bush administration's obsession with "homeland security" did not extend to taking the obvious measures necessary to save the people of New Orleans from disaster. And as climate change and the threat of pandemic disease grow each year, a recent study showed that very few US cities are prepared to care for their citizens in the case of a major dis...more In 2005, the world watched in horror, and George W. Bush twiddled his thumbs, as Hurricane Katrina bore down on a defenseless Louisiana. The Bush administration's obsession with "homeland security" did not extend to taking the obvious measures necessary to save the people of New Orleans from disaster. And as climate change and the threat of pandemic disease grow each year, a recent study showed that very few US cities are prepared to care for their citizens in the case of a major disaster.

What does this have to do with zombies? Everything, according to "World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War". Written in the interview style of Studs Terkel's classic "Working," "WWZ" is a fictional account of what happens when politicians put profit and ideology before human need. In WWZ's future, a mysterious virus appears in rural China around 2008, just as the Bush administration is winding down and the American people have finally insisted on an end to the war in Iraq. The virus, initially known as "African rabies," kills its victims within a few days and then reanimates their dead bodies, which then become zombies intent on eating human flesh. Anyone bitten by a zombie is doomed to become a zombie. (Brooks' zombies follow the rules horror fans will know from George Romero's classic "Living Dead" movies.) Initially, studies are issued showing that isolated outbreaks of the virus have the potential to become a global pandemic, but the reports are shelved in an election year, and those who protest the government's neglect of the issue are labeled 'NPR liberals' and ignored.

By the time world governments begin to acknowledge the zombie threat and take action, it is too late, and the zombie uprising is unstoppable. It results in a global human-zombie war that lasts ten years, devastates the earth, rearranges the world map and (perhaps) renders capitalism forever irrelevant. Brooks' narrator travels the globe ten years after the end of the war, interviewing survivors, soldiers, profiteers, politicians and others about their role in "World War Z". The interviews illustrate twenty years of world history from the point of view of ordinary people.

Brooks' vision of the future is cynical and bitter. Drug companies do their best to profit from the crisis by marketing useless drugs as miracle cures, causing the deaths of thousands. A nuclear crisis erupts in South Asia as Indian refugees stream through Pakistan and into Iran, causing a nuclear exchange between Iran and Pakistan. Israel, out of desperation, grants Palestinians the right of return and uses its apartheid wall to quarantine itself from the world; it remains safe from the zombie menace but is rocked by a civil war when right-wing Zionists revolt. The US military abandons its citizens on the East Coast, moves the federal government to Hawaii, and uses the Rocky Mountains as its line of defense. And Cuba, relatively safe as an island, finds itself overrun with millions of refugees from the US, houses them in refugee camps, and develops "guest worker" programs to allow Americans to "do the jobs Cubans don't want to do."

"World War Z" is an impressive achievement of speculative fiction: it is both a trenchant left-wing political critique and a well-written page-turner that will satisfy the most demanding horror and sci-fi fans. ...less

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Silvercharmer rated it:

08/03/07

bookshelves: scifi-fantasy, zombies

Read in January, 2007

recommends it for: Everyone. You don't have to like zombies, you just have to be able to stand them.

this book. is brutally fantastic. i'm not sure if i've ever used that particular combination of descriptors before, but it fits. this is the same guy who wrote the "zombie survival guide," though i will have to rely on the husband to tell me how much of that manual informs this book, as he has been reading that one. both books were his christmas presents, btw, and i had no real mission to read either, but i started idly flipping through world war z out of boredom, and the next thing yo...more this book. is brutally fantastic. i'm not sure if i've ever used that particular combination of descriptors before, but it fits. this is the same guy who wrote the "zombie survival guide," though i will have to rely on the husband to tell me how much of that manual informs this book, as he has been reading that one. both books were his christmas presents, btw, and i had no real mission to read either, but i started idly flipping through world war z out of boredom, and the next thing you know i had finished it. zombies have only recently been part of my life, and unfortunately, if there is a class of experts regarding this particular "virus," i belong in it. this comes from being married to someone who scouts out every place we go, be it wal-mart, the mall, a restaurant, for possible weapons, fortification sites, and plausible escape routes in the event of a zombie invasion. these things invade my dreams, frighten the living hell out of me, but still, this book rocked my socks.

what makes this book interesting is that it takes the form of an honest to god historical account, complete with footnotes. the author chronicles individual accounts of a zombie infestation that sweeps the entire world and puts the human race on the brink of extinction. it takes itself absolutely seriously from cover to cover, which is part of what makes it so successful. it's written for an audience who presumably knows the basic history of the war, which of course, we do not. it does not explain the timeline, it does not define certain events, just refers to them as though you will recognize what the speaker is referring to. you are expected to catch on, read between the lines, fill in the blanks on your own, which fuels your imagination while simultaneously leaving you begging for more. it's just the right amount of information, i think, because even though i would have liked to see a basic chronology of events, have some background information available, i think the writer was right to give me less than what i think i need, because having that information might actually detract in the end.

unlike the traditional zombie movies (the exception that comes to mind being the latest romero flick, land of the dead), this looks beyond the immediate desperation for simple survival, and explores the effects on economy, military, government, commerce, trade, etc. things you might not normally consider (if you spend time considering the fallout of a zombie infestation), such as what refugee patterns would emerge and how that would jeopardize different nations, the fortune that would suddenly be made in human trafficking, the impact on our oceans and atmosphere, which nations are tumbled to the ground and which ones rise from the ashes to gain prosperity and power, the desperate yet woefully ineffectual efforts made by civilians to survive (when they do not have survival skills), the spread of the virus through infected organ transplants, the zombie threat underwater, the fortunes made by pharmeceutical companies off of fake cures, and a LOT more. aside from these unique and fascinating perspectives, brooks writes a painfully honest account of the human factor. the danger facing humanity was not just from zombies: it was humanity itself. the psychological damage incurred by soldiers, witnesses, survivors...he paints a clear picture of how merely avoiding a zombie bite was not enough to keep you alive.

it's brilliantly imaginative, utterly fascinating on all levels, and so worth the read even if you have no interest in the living dead. though, if you are sensitive to nightmares, be on your guard. i've been dreaming about this stuff like crazy. the past couple of nights....less

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Pamela rated it:

12/23/07

Read in November, 2007

The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the livi...more The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years.
Ranging from the now infamous village of New Dachang in the United Federation of China, where the epidemiological trail began with the twelve-year-old Patient Zero, to the unnamed northern forests where untold numbers sought a terrible and temporary refuge in the cold, to the United States of Southern Africa, where the Redeker Plan provided hope for humanity at an unspeakable price, to the west-of-the-Rockies redoubt where the North American tide finally started to turn, this invaluable chronicle reflects the full scope and duration of the Zombie War.

Most of all, the book captures with haunting immediacy the human dimension of this epochal event. Facing the often raw and vivid nature of these personal accounts requires a degree of courage on the part of the reader, but the effort is invaluable because, as Mr. Brooks says in his introduction, "By excluding the human factor, aren't we risking the kind of personal detachment from history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it? And in the end, isn't the human factor the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as 'the living dead'?"

Note: Some of the numerical and factual material contained in this edition was previously published under the auspices of the United Nations Postwar Commission.

Eyewitness reports from the first truly global war:

"I found 'Patient Zero' behind the locked door of an abandoned apartment across town....His wrists and feet were bound with plastic packing twine. Although he'd rubbed off the skin around his bonds, there was no blood. There was also no blood on his other wounds....He was writhing like an animal; a gag muffled his growls. At first the villagers tried to hold me back. They warned me not to touch him, that he was 'cursed.' I shrugged them off and reached for my mask and gloves. The boy's skin was...cold and gray...I could find neither his heartbeat nor his pulse." — Dr. Kwang Jingshu, Greater Chongqing, United Federation of China

"'Shock and Awe'? Perfect name....But what if the enemy can't be shocked and awed? Not just won't, but biologically can't! That's what happened that day outside New York City, that's the failure that almost lost us the whole damn war. The fact that we couldn't shock and awe Zack boomeranged right back in our faces and actually allowed Zack to shock and awe us! They're not afraid! No matter what we do, no matter how many we kill, they will never, ever be afraid!" — Todd Wainio, former U.S. Army infantryman and veteran of the Battle of Yonkers

"Two hundred million zombies. Who can even visualize that type of number, let alone combat it?...For the first time in history, we faced an enemy that was actively waging total war. They had no limits of endurance. They would never negotiate, never surrender. They would fight until the very end because, unlike us, every single one of them, every second of every day, was devoted to consuming all life on Earth." — General Travis D'Ambrosia, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe...less

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John rated it:

08/02/07

Read in January, 2007

recommends it for: Sci fi readers, horror readers, fans of oral history

There are reasons to be wary of this book. The title is a little silly, and Max Brooks' Zombie Survival Guide was tongue in cheek. Hell, he's the son of legendary comedy director Mel Brooks. And zombies are creatures that gained popularity thanks to film, which is contrary to the nature of most good creatures. Vampires, ghosts, wizards, witches, dragons, orcs, goblins, angels, werewolves and even Frankenstein's undead abomination came from literature first, and entered film later. Film se...more There are reasons to be wary of this book. The title is a little silly, and Max Brooks' Zombie Survival Guide was tongue in cheek. Hell, he's the son of legendary comedy director Mel Brooks. And zombies are creatures that gained popularity thanks to film, which is contrary to the nature of most good creatures. Vampires, ghosts, wizards, witches, dragons, orcs, goblins, angels, werewolves and even Frankenstein's undead abomination came from literature first, and entered film later. Film seldom contributes originality to prose. Fortunately Max Brooks pulled off a minor miracle in adapting the largely theatrical terror into the written word, by use of the literary apocalypse convention and oral stories. Our familiarity with the outlines of a zombie outbreak (or any plague outbreak) from so many films helps fill in the gaps between his various storytellers' accounts.

Brooks has a remarkable sense of voice, and places the various interviewees well, such that they sound all the more distinct in contrast to the preceeding and following speaker. We get a lot of interesting subjects, from the country doctor in China who treated the first "bite," to a hitman hired to protect a millionaire mogul, to a blind man who somehow managed to survive in the most infested parts of Japan - Hiroshima. Thus we also get a total sense of the rise and fall of the outbreak, with each arc illustrated by brilliant personal narratives of "true" stories from those periods that give us a sense of not just the plot, but how culture changed in this fictional earth. The narrative is unified by the interviewer who visits them and directs parts of their story, but only enough so that we can both enjoy the overarching plot and the survivors' stories.

Like the best science fiction the outlandish premise allows us to get a fresh view of real human issues. Brooks approaches such issues on multiple levels, from simple human interests like base selfishness and how we act in desperation, to political crises, such as early on in the book when the Israelis and Palestinians blame each other for the plague, and even claim it is a hoax perpetrated by their enemies. Many of the characters are inspired by people from real life, like Howard Dean, Karl Rove and Nelson Mandela - but rather than coming off as cheesy, they lend an air of authenticity to the tale. There is just enough real tension, both base and topical, to lend it the right aura for a great exercise in modern fantasy/sci fi - it's easily one of the best fantasy/sci fi books set in the modern world I've read in quite some time.

The quality of Brooks' book was totally unexpected. This was supposed to be a spin-off from an impulse-buy. But by the time you finish World War Z I think you'll hope along with me that this, his first work of fiction, won't be his last....less

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Noah rated it:

11/21/07

Read in August, 2007

recommends it for: zombie fans, post-apocalypse lovers

When I first heard about the book World War Z my first thought was simply “cool”. This also seemed to be the sentiment amongst most people who saw the book or read about. While reading this book, often at work on my breaks, people would stop and ask questions like, “is that book funny?” or, “that looks neat, how is it?” And, each time questions like these were asked, I would put down the book and begin to tell them about many of the interesting ideas in the book, the fact that the...more When I first heard about the book World War Z my first thought was simply “cool”. This also seemed to be the sentiment amongst most people who saw the book or read about. While reading this book, often at work on my breaks, people would stop and ask questions like, “is that book funny?” or, “that looks neat, how is it?” And, each time questions like these were asked, I would put down the book and begin to tell them about many of the interesting ideas in the book, the fact that the zombie war could act as a proxy for the Iraq war or the hurricane Katrina disaster, or that it is written in a format using fake interviews. People seemed to respond very positively to these comments, yet, I have met only one other person who has ever read this book. It seems to me that your average reader who might be interested in the book, would never be caught dead reading it. No matter how positive or serious reviews for this book are only a select number of geeks like me will ever read this book. Does this affect the quality of the book? Not at all. However, a book that no one will read, does not a good book make. This made the going a bit slow. Also, when I first heard about this book, after thinking how cool it sounded, my first worry was that it would not be terribly original. Honestly, when I say zombie novel, how many people automatically start to wonder if the novel is really any good? Suffice it to say, despite all these first impressions going against it, Brooks’ World War Z is a highly engaging, and exceptionally original work.

While this book could be considered a sort of sequel to his first book The Zombie Survival Guide Brooks eschews the cold hard facts and chooses instead to focus on the lives of the people caught up in this unlikely, yet horrible scenario. We are given a wide range of highly developed and diverse people to get to know. Interviews range from meetings with war profiteers, to generals, to pregnant mothers, to blind gardeners, etc. This variety and detail renders each short interview highly engaging, and one is left with a feeling that these people could easily be your friends, family, or neighbors. However, it is the short interview format that also hurts the flow of the book. Once the reader starts an interview he will be hooked, but there is no sense of continuity, other than linear time and zombies, that links these stories together. We are not given characters to follow through the arc of the story and get heavily invested in. The only consistent character is Brooks himself, however, at the beginning, he states that he wishes to remain as invisible in these stories as possible. So, we are left somewhat high and dry. In the end, this really only results in making the book a bit more slow going, but does divide things up into small, highly digestible pieces.

I do not wish to go into too much detail about the world Brooks has constructed. Part of the fun is finding these small, highly detailed and imaginative nuggets along the way. Please, give this book a chance and do not let the concept or title put you off. This is a serious work of fiction. If I can read a book called Bimbos of the Death Sun you can read a book about a zombie war....less

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Alex rated it:

03/06/08

bookshelves: books-read-in-2006

Read in October, 2006

WORLD WAR Z BY MAX BROOKS: I’ve read two books about zombies this year: one I found fascinating, incredibly interesting, and decreed it the best book of the year!; the other was formulaic, predictable, kind of failed in its goal, and ended terrible – one of them was written by Stephen King, can you guess which one? Being an avid King reader (yes, I’ve read it all!), you would expect the King zombie book to be the former, but alas. Cell was abysmal, World War Z is the best book I’ve re...more WORLD WAR Z BY MAX BROOKS: I’ve read two books about zombies this year: one I found fascinating, incredibly interesting, and decreed it the best book of the year!; the other was formulaic, predictable, kind of failed in its goal, and ended terrible – one of them was written by Stephen King, can you guess which one? Being an avid King reader (yes, I’ve read it all!), you would expect the King zombie book to be the former, but alas. Cell was abysmal, World War Z is the best book I’ve read in a long time.

The key to World War Z is in its execution not as a horror book – even though it’s about humanity’s struggling war against zombies, and even though it’s most likely categorized as horror in every bookstore – but as a piece of thrilling and thought-provoking and contemplative fiction. Brooks’ genius with this book is in using a quasi-journal format where the narrator is traveling around the world interviewing a variety of different people from different backgrounds and cultures on how they managed to survive the war with the zombies. The book is set about a decade after World War Z, giving the reader the reassurance that we survived, and this book is about how.

Brooks’ first book, The Zombie Survival Guide, gave step by step preparedness for what to do when confronted by one or a host of zombies: it’s a humor book meant to make you laugh and snicker at this outlandish situation. World War Z is not a funny book, but a deadly serious one. It’s quite shocking to contemplate the extensive research Brooks must have done to find out crucial details not just about the thirty different countries the narrator visits, but to also find out specific slang and expressions to that country and culture, and to know how a member of the military would act as opposed to a ordinary person, or another specifically skilled member of society in that country. He must have gained a wealth of knowledge about the different societies of the world in general.

Brooks then takes it one step further in coming out with different operations and game plans for the different countries: what the government did, what the military did, and what its citizens did, all pertaining to the current regime of the time. The book is set not more than twenty years from the present time, so we are all familiar with the regimes and different governments of this world: from Bush’s conservative, military heavy America; to a clandestine and mysterious North Korea; to a potent and still racist South Africa.

World War Z is a book about zombies that changes the way you think about the world and its people. It makes you think about how we’re all in this together, we’re all the same – regardless of the world-threatening devastation, be it zombies, terrorism, or a pandemic virus. World War Z serves as a guide book to humanity, so that when the “big thing” – whatever it is – happens, we’ll be a little more caring of other people around the world, regardless of what god they believe in, or the color of their skin.

For more reviews, and writings, or to buy yourself a copy, please visit www.alexctelander.com....less

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Stephen rated it:

(review of isbn 0715637037)

04/17/08

Read in April, 2008

Subtitled “An oral history of the zombie war”, World War Z tells the story from the initial outbreaks to the ongoing aftermath. Brooks wastes no time trying to reimagine or justify the existence of zombies. There’s no scientific analysis of why their bite conveys the infection, or how their dead bodies can move. They are the zombies from Night of the Living Dead, plain and simple, with just the one difference. Here, only the infected rise from the dead; the previously dead stay where they ...more Subtitled “An oral history of the zombie war”, World War Z tells the story from the initial outbreaks to the ongoing aftermath. Brooks wastes no time trying to reimagine or justify the existence of zombies. There’s no scientific analysis of why their bite conveys the infection, or how their dead bodies can move. They are the zombies from Night of the Living Dead, plain and simple, with just the one difference. Here, only the infected rise from the dead; the previously dead stay where they are. The book is not about how a real world zombie apocalypse might happen, but instead about how the real world would respond to Romero’s zombies.

Having said that, Brooks does come up with a number of new (to me, at least) twists on the way the zombie plague spreads, none of which I’ll mention here for fear of spoiling someone else’s enjoyment of the book. I’ll just say that the best such story, for me, is told in Brazil.

World War Z has a lot in common with James Herbert’s Rats trilogy, though where Herbert has an onmiscient narrator floating around to take us to the most interesting bits, everything here is reported first hand by the survivors. That might be thought to lessen the suspense, since we know they survive, but that’s far from the truth – there’s a very real sense that surviving this war was much harder than dying in it. Hearing the stories straight from the survivors is what gives the book its power and purpose, dragging us right in amongst the moaning hordes.

I had a couple of small issues with it. For one thing, it’s a bit irksome to have the old nonsense about “no atheists in foxholes” getting trotted out, even in a first person narrative. The American soldiers in the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, for example, get very angry when people say things like that. It’s also amusing to see how often people from around the world say things along the lines of “As your great American writer once said…”, which often makes it seem as if the quotes were in place first and the character saying them came later. And I’m not convinced by how safe any safe zones could possibly have been, especially early in the war. I enjoy the odd zombie movie here and there, but I find them very depressing, because there’s no way anyone would survive (unless, as in 28 Days Later, the zombies would eventually run out of steam) – given the horrifying way in that things play out in the early sections of this book, I’m not convinced that anyone at all would have made it out alive.

But those are minor quibbles with regard to a powerful book. It’s so full of fascinating and terrifying episodes that everyone reading it will have their own favourite moment – for me it was the fleeting mention of the Queen and her castle. I’m far from being a monarchist, but that was cool. Also, Brooks is to be commended for fitting the whole saga into a mere 340 pages. I’ve no doubt that the resulting insensity has contributed to the book’s success.

I’m definitely looking forward to the movie....less

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Rob rated it:

02/13/08

bookshelves: ambulothanatophobia, apocalypse, vermont

Read in February, 2008

recommended to Rob by: E Fogus
recommends it for: anyone with braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaainsss...

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Where to begin?

I would be willing to say that Max Brooks has given us a "new classic" of zombie literature in World War Z. The novel is well-structured, is well-paced, and seems so ... plausible.

And when I say "plausible", I mean the Brooks has tried to carefully -- though not necessarily exhaustively -- look at the current geopolitical climate and imagine what a sudden "zombie" outbreak scenario w...more Where to begin?

I would be willing to say that Max Brooks has given us a "new classic" of zombie literature in World War Z. The novel is well-structured, is well-paced, and seems so ... plausible.

And when I say "plausible", I mean the Brooks has tried to carefully -- though not necessarily exhaustively -- look at the current geopolitical climate and imagine what a sudden "zombie" outbreak scenario would look like today or in some tenable near-future. Brooks makes what seems to me to be a sincere effort to leave no logistical stone uncovered: how does the plague spread? what are the consequences of a government cover-up? what about the navies and submarines? what about satellites and GPS? how do you "quartermaster" an army that is on foot going up against "the undead"? He tried to cover all the bases in as realistic a way as possible. Considering such an unrealistic scenario. Again: Brooks is not trying to be exhaustive but considering where he puts his focus, he certainly comes across as inventive. He gives us some sadistic twists throughout the narrative; for every up-lifting deus ex machina near-miss (e.g., Col. Eliopolis and "Mets Fan") there is some grim and ironic counterpoint (e.g., the slaughter at Alang's ship breaking yard). Wisely, Brooks tries to keep these stories diverse: military and civilian; American and Chinese; young and old; optimistic and jaded. He does not waste a great deal of energy discussing "Zack"; there is no in depth technical discussion of the virus -- just a few allusions to methods of transmission (those bites) and then we move on to what matters. That is where Brooks keeps the focus: it's on how people -- be they individuals or entire governments -- react to these extreme scenarios. And he does a decent job peeling the peach of the technological modernity while he's catapulting us through this tale.

Two closing points:

(1) Brooks is also graciously humble. He cites George A. Romero in the acknowledgments; can't get far with your zombie mythos without giving the right credit.

(2) This novel had but one thing keeping it from a full five star rating: many of the voices are not really distinct. We are presented with the novel as if it were a historical document -- the transcripts of interviews with survivors from "World War Z". But reading it, you can't help but think that the government official sounds an awful lot like the feral child that sounds a lot like the retired Indian army grunt... But don't let that stop you: there is plenty else in this novel to warrant reading it.

UPDATE:
* Almost forgot... Did anyone else catch the thinly veiled Colin Powell/Howard Dean administration in there? I'm like 88% on the thinly veiled Powell and approximately 111% on the thinly veiled Howard Dean....less

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Claire rated it:

(review of isbn 0307346617)

03/27/08

recommends it for: all fans of horror, politics or military writing

Loved, loved, loved this book. I am a HUGE zombie genre fan and this was great - it took it to a whole different level. So much of the fun of a zombie story is the "what if?" game - at least if it is a good story! And this one is a great story, zombie or otherwise. Not only did I love the entire plot idea (the zombies have basically taken over and won, we are fighting to regain lost ground - countries are in chaos and many have completely disintegrated), but I loved the details....more Loved, loved, loved this book. I am a HUGE zombie genre fan and this was great - it took it to a whole different level. So much of the fun of a zombie story is the "what if?" game - at least if it is a good story! And this one is a great story, zombie or otherwise. Not only did I love the entire plot idea (the zombies have basically taken over and won, we are fighting to regain lost ground - countries are in chaos and many have completely disintegrated), but I loved the details. He really thought about what would happen - to governments, people, military, families and even gave careful consideration to the different world government, cultures, etc that would impact how each would react to the crisis.
I also loved the writing style. This is not a linear story with one story teller, it is more excerpts of stories from different characters that add up to an overall picture. Sort of like a written documentary - bits and pieces from different perspectives and certain people that might appear a few times, as their knowledge adds to a particular area of discussion. (there might even be a back story that this is research for a documentary, or a reporter's notebook or something like that - I don't remember now as it has been quite awhile since I read the book -I read it when it came out.)
You can choose to read the book as a social commentary on world politics - it is incredibly intelligent and accurate in its knowledge of cultures, governments, etc etc. It is fascinating to see someone who truly knows that much about world politics play the "what if?" game. If politics just aren't for you, you can also read it as just a zombie book. I personally feel you would be missing out, but the story would work at on that level as well, it is just that entertaining.
I will also say that for once, I thought someone finally got the feel of the military correct. So many authors that are in the military write military geared books and that appeals to such a niche market. But authors who have never been in the military often write about the military and it is just a train wreck. It is always stereotypes. Either the military people are hero supermen OR they are baby killing, women raping monsters. The military community is very difficult to understand for an observer. Well, this man did his research or he knows someone or something -because it was dead on. Not just the big stuff (uniforms, weapons, structure of troops, etc) but even the little details - the things soldiers talk about, the things that they bitch about, the issues that are inherent in the chain of command and what can strengthen and weaken the troops. Brilliant.
If you like horror writing at all, if you like politics at all, if you like military books, then you have to read this book. FINALLY, an intelligent zombie horror story....less

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Shea rated it:

12/01/07

Read in December, 2007

Talk about a whole lot of awesome. Yes, I do enjoy the Resident Evil zombie movies. Yes, I do play the Silent Hill and Resident Evil video game series. But my love for the genre generally ended right there. I’ve never been much for the Horror knock-off books that never seem to come to an end (believe me, I know. I work in a bookstore that stocks up on all of them!). However, after this book sat on our top 10 fiction bay in the store for several weeks, I decided to give it a try, and I’m very...more Talk about a whole lot of awesome. Yes, I do enjoy the Resident Evil zombie movies. Yes, I do play the Silent Hill and Resident Evil video game series. But my love for the genre generally ended right there. I’ve never been much for the Horror knock-off books that never seem to come to an end (believe me, I know. I work in a bookstore that stocks up on all of them!). However, after this book sat on our top 10 fiction bay in the store for several weeks, I decided to give it a try, and I’m very glad I did.

There were two things that I loved about this book, and neither of them have to do with zombies: first, the current geo-political climate serves as the historical back story for the events leading up to World War Z. For example, every country that figures out what the infection attempts to keep it secret from the rest of the world. Israel is the first country to publicly announce the infection’s presence as well as their own quarantine tactics. However, parts of the Arab world perceive this as yet another Zionist threat and respond as you would expect. That response yields obviously disastrous results and only increases the number of zombies they have to deal with. In another example, when people in the U.S. attempt to migrate north (because zombies freeze solid if the temperatures are cold enough), a lot of them carry their Nintendo GameCubes along with their 20+ degree sleeping bags with similarly disastrous results. The cultural and historical influences on peoples’ behavior when the outbreak occurs is amazingly accurate, and it’s one of the major reasons I loved this book.

The other major reason I loved this book was the format Brooks chooses to tell the story of the outbreak, World War Z, and the aftermath of the war. Namely, he uses a fictional interview/narrative format to tell different stories from around the world. The main narrator of the book “interviews” everyone from soldiers in the US Army to priests in Russia to doctors in Israel, and each account of the outbreak and war has a vastly different view of what went wrong, who did what, and what could have been done to prevent the billions of deaths that occurred during the war. This is where the cultural, political, and even religious differences currently in existence today become so apparent, and Brooks handles this kind of story-telling masterfully. Even though the people being “interviewed” are entirely fictional, you find yourself wanting to know more about each individual and how they managed to survive the war. A format that shouldn’t work for a fiction novel somehow works beautifully in World War Z, and it’s one of the novel’s major assets.

Plus, there’s zombies. What’s not to love about that? ;)...less

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Patrick rated it:

(review of isbn 0307346617)

01/17/08

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: just about everyone

This book was shockingly great. It sounds like a cheesy conceit: some time in the very near future, the world is overrun by zombies. The world's response to the threat is slow and poorly executed, and it leads to a war against the living dead that lasts over a decade before order is finally restored, and even then the threat isn't completely gone.

So, you're thinking it sounds like a cheesy Dean Koontz or Stephen King-type knockoff, right? But that's not the approach Brooks takes at all. Rath...more This book was shockingly great. It sounds like a cheesy conceit: some time in the very near future, the world is overrun by zombies. The world's response to the threat is slow and poorly executed, and it leads to a war against the living dead that lasts over a decade before order is finally restored, and even then the threat isn't completely gone.

So, you're thinking it sounds like a cheesy Dean Koontz or Stephen King-type knockoff, right? But that's not the approach Brooks takes at all. Rather than presenting the story as an unfolding narrative sequence of events, focusing in on the story from one point of view (say, a plucky farmer or G.I. who fights their way through the zombies and finally triumphs at the end, a hero), he writes the story as a journalist collecting first person accounts of the war from integral survivors from around the world. In doing so, Brooks presents a global view of the battle with surprising pathos. The first-person testimonials are almost shockingly powerful, and it's hard not to imagine yourself in their shoes.

Each account of the global war against the zombies feels disarmingly real, as does the global response to the burgeoning threat. It's all too easy to imagine governments downplaying the news of the dead rising back to life and attacking the living, and the hushed, whispered reports that would spread from around the globe. The scariest thing about this book is just how real it feels. The allegories to the bureaucracy and battlefields of warfare felt accurate, and I suddenly found myself thinking that a global zombie apocalypse might not be that far-fetched (and maybe it isn't).

The only complaint about the book I had was that it maybe dragged on about 30-40 pages too long. While Brooks does a great job of covering a potential zombie apocalypse from all angles (and he clearly put a lot of thought into every single possibility of global warfare against the undead), he maybe over-thinks things a bit. Some of the testimonials got a little redundant, and some were just plain unnecessary. It also gets a little bogged down in cutesy-allegorical acronyms for powerful war machinery and government agencies, and the technical details of some of the machinery he envisions will be necessary to fight the army of the undead. If the book could have wrapped things up a little more efficiently, it'd probably be a five star review. As it is, there are minor problems that keep it from being all it could be, but still a surprisingly excellent and powerful read....less

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Jennie rated it:

08/24/07

bookshelves: zombies

Read in December, 2006

recommends it for: Zombie Freaks

The latest offering from Max Brooks is presented as a collection of survivor interviews collected roughly 10 years after a global outbreak of some dreaded zombie infection. World War Z is a difficult book to review, primarily because it isn't really written like a book.

While the book held my interest enough to finish it quickly, I guess I am mainly left with concerns about what the book didn't do. I read zombie tales to watch the world unravel--for the destruction and panic, to see the ...more The latest offering from Max Brooks is presented as a collection of survivor interviews collected roughly 10 years after a global outbreak of some dreaded zombie infection. World War Z is a difficult book to review, primarily because it isn't really written like a book.

While the book held my interest enough to finish it quickly, I guess I am mainly left with concerns about what the book didn't do. I read zombie tales to watch the world unravel--for the destruction and panic, to see the familiar slip away with a whimper. I want a sustained narrative. I want a few characters I can care about (I don't have to like them). I need to know some details about the world I am seeing, even if it is my own. There have to be some standards: how does the zombie outbreak start, how is it spread, how does it affect a healthy human, and finally show me the impact on the setting and the narrower world of the story.

I'm not insisting that I know the exact genetic process or path of infection (there is a good amount of believable speculation in World War Z), but I do need to have the whole rancid transformation described. (I really wanted to see someone succumb in grisly detail.) I want a writer to distract me from thoughts of urban escape and survival by showing me what I could become if I can't stay safe.

There were so many fascinating points, but none of them got the attention they deserved. I realize that chronologically, World War Z is after the conflagration, but let's hear it for nostalgia people! I got just enough information to long for more.

It's a shame. There's plenty here to peak the interest, but just as soon as you settle in, it's all over. Brooks did a pretty good job of creating realistic behavior and for a variety of different groups, governments, and individuals. I am still finding it difficult to judge his skill as an author. It's all too short to know if he is a writer capable of producing a lasting, memorable character. He is absolutely capable of describing vivid scenes, at setting up some sense of the horrific, but can he sustain a view for longer than 5 pages?

World War Z is worth a read, depending on your mood. It's a great escape book with fast paced, tiny little sections (most are about 4 pages). It doesn't matter if you get interrupted and it certainly isn't going to distract you from another book. If you love zombies, you'll probably end up being frustrated at some point, but may find a load of great ideas. If you prefer to see great zombie ideas fully rendered and explored, avoid it until you just want to breeze through something light.

...less

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Sammy rated it:

03/26/08

bookshelves: the-good

Read in February, 2008

Before you immediately discard this book because it's about zombies, hear me out. I'm not big into the zombie phenomenon so I was a little unsure about starting the book. I am big into dystopian novels and some dystopian movies, there's something fascinating about them. Certain ones hold messages that if we don't change our ways, bad things will happen, others are just plain fun. World War Z falls into the latter category.

There's a realistic tone that hangs over the whole novel an...more