From the Bookshelf of The Sword and Laser…

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

Max Brooks

Start date: June 7, 2010

Finish date: July 15, 2010

Discussion: 2010 Reads

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2010 Reads

WWZ: Favourite characters in zombie Movies and T.V. shows
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SFU: Architectural concepts in Science Fiction
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What Members Thought

May 14, 2013 Emily rated it really liked it

Shelves: book-club

I wasn't quite sure what to expect going into this book -- I expected to enjoy the book, but otherwise anticipated sort of a dumb ride. I quickly learned otherwise. I'm still impressed that the author was able to craft such a creative, intelligent, and plausible story about a zombie apocalypse. I often found myself thinking, "Man. I wouldn't have thought of that. Of course that would be a thing that would need to be addressed!"

I really liked the structure of the book, in that it didn't necessar ...more

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Dec 14, 2010 Adrienne rated it liked it

Shelves: short-stories, post-apocalyptic, zombies, bookskype

This book was great for what it was, but unfortunately that wasn't my thing; both the style and the subject matter are not something that strongly interest me. An oral history of a future zombie apocalypse, it was told by many different people with the sole thread of their shared past and the narrator tying everything together. The oral history aspect made the book a lot more clinical; I couldn't connect to a large number of the characters and only really liked the parts in which people related ...more

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Feb 07, 2012 Charlotte rated it it was ok

Shelves: bookskype

In my eyes, both the greatest strength and greatest weakness of this novel was its structure as an oral history. Making it an oral history added a air of verisimilitude I admired and had not expected in a zombie novel. It also highlighted the parallels between the plot of the novel and world wide catastrophes we might actually face.

Unfortunately, structuring it as an oral history left me unattached to the characters. I knew them too briefly, their story arcs were too small, and I was eventually ...more

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Dec 05, 2011 Lauren Magee rated it it was ok

Seriously did not enjoy this much at all. The second half was a chore to trudge through and there were maybe 10 sections (interviews) that I enjoyed at all.

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