false 4 0 false false Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 07 20:07:19 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 14 14:56:33 -0700 2009 1
The author does a superb job of suspending my disbelief (and apparently that of many people, since I personally know people who are prepared for the zombie war), but the format was a little hard for me to get used to. Every ten pages I had to switch gears and learn about an entirely new set of people, and after awhile, I thought, "Why do I care about this?"

After awhile, there's an interview with a young woman with a mental problem. Her descriptions sound like those of a child, which gives the book a refreshing change of voice.

There was a piece about the rich and famous people taking shelter in a giant complex complete with food, liquor, security, and (whoops) a live video feed to show everything they were doing to the struggling masses, which led to their demise. (Haha, fools.)

The interview with the director of DeStRes (what a farce of a name for a reconstruction program) talks about organizing a new labor force because of the zombie plague. People who used to be farmers and carpenters are rising to the top, and people who used to be lawyers and consultants become part of the underclass. This chapter was enough to give me pause about the kind of skills I have that might be worth a shit if I happened to survive an apocalyptic event. Well, I do have a functioning uterus.

One of the most relateable stories appears in the last third of the book, where a Japanese computer nerd finds himself fighting for his life after chaos has long since broken out. Despite the disappearance of his parents as evidenced by the lack of food at his door, he gets a good look at the world around him only when he couldn't go online anymore.

A couple of other fantastic realisms from this book:

Page 223: The blind farmer takes to the woods for solitude and what he assumes will be certain death only to find that he is a zombie-slaying badass that can take on more than a score at a time. He points out that most people take sight for granted; his lack of it made him more vigilant.

Page 277: One of the soldiers mentions a documentary that a filmmaker created to restore a sense of hope in the nation, saying, "Did you see the documentary with all the witty dialogue and whatnot. It was so not like that..." Although the filmmaker (who also got a chapter in the book) was trying to make something true to life, it just shows there's nothing quite like living through it yourself.

Page 290: The highest rate of suicide among any branch of service were the handlers in the "K" unit who lost their canine partners. Never try to come between a person and his/her dog.

In short, I wasn't sure about this book at first, but it grew on me. I heard they're coming out with a movie, but I think it would do better as a miniseries. There are so many directions to go with this, I'd love to see a live-action rendition, if done right.]]>