From the Bookshelf of Apocalypse Whenever…

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

Max Brooks

Start date: December 1, 2012

Finish date: January 1, 2013

Discussion: AW BOOK CLUB (spoilers)

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What Members Thought

May 30, 2008 bsc rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, fiction, read-2008, horror

Perhaps the best audio book I've ever listened to. It has a full cast of big name actors, including people like Rob Reiner, Mark Hamill, and Henry Rollins. This book is a collection of interviews that take you through the entire war. I'm don't think I would have liked it nearly as much as a paper book, but the audio book version was immensely entertaining. ...more

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Dec 25, 2007 Thee_ron_clark rated it it was amazing

Shelves: zombies

After reading Max Brooks' Zombie Survival Guide, I was left wondering what else he could possibly do with the genre. I thought that at best, Brooks might elaborate on some sections of his first zombie book in World War Z. I was wrong.

World War Z is another work of pure zombie genius. Brooks took the concept of what might happen in an outbreak and ran with it. The idea of this book being written at the tail end of a world-scale outbreak and including numerous interviews with survivors from all ov ...more

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Dec 05, 2007 Nocheevo rated it really liked it

Shelves: horror

As the title implies; World War Z is a collection of interviews from the survivours of a world wide zombie outbreak. Often the tales of the Living Dead imply a world scale but the format of this book is an interesting way of attempting to present an overview of a world wide outbreak and the varying experiences. Unfortunately it often means you feel you are just skimming over stories and find you craving detailed narratives regarding some of the stories.

I guess the best way to consider this book ...more

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Sep 03, 2008 Tracy rated it really liked it

this book was insanely captivating... even though i read the entire first 3/4 in half the time it took me to get through the last 1/4. i'm not sure why exactly, but from the other reviews i've read i'm not alone in this.

i'm not sure what i was expecting when i picked this up. for one thing, max brooks in the son of mel brooks, which doesn't necessarily indicate anything in particular, but sort of makes one expect whatever he puts out there to be funny. also, there's the fact that his other zombi this book was insanely captivating... even though i read the entire first 3/4 in half the time it took me to get through the last 1/4. i'm not sure why exactly, but from the other reviews i've read i'm not alone in this.

i'm not sure what i was expecting when i picked this up. for one thing, max brooks in the son of mel brooks, which doesn't necessarily indicate anything in particular, but sort of makes one expect whatever he puts out there to be funny. also, there's the fact that his other zombie book, the survival guide, used to be sold at urban outfitters alongside the jesus action figures and other hipster "ironic" merchandise. this book, however, was not a comedy (even though a man i met at breakfast in west virginia over thanksgiving, who saw me carrying my copy of world war z, apparently thought the book was hilarious. i sort of get the feeling he didn't really get it). parts of it were a little bit of course, but in the way that parts of dawn of the dead were hilarious. in fact, i would love (and in fact whole heartedly encourage, should any of the powers that be happen to read this review) if hbo or showtime decided to make a mini series out of this, sort of like band of brothers or masters of horror. brooks is just so descriptive and visual with his writing, which does sort of take away from the individualness of the speakers voices, but really paints a vivid, cinematic story. you can just tell he's watched and absorbed every single thing romero has put out there, plus probably every b zombie flick he could get his hands on.

the really scary thing is, in the midst of reading this book, i happened to come down with the flu. during the first night of my fever dreams, i dreamt about zombies. and somehow managed to figure out exactly where i would go and how i would survive. now, i've seen a lot of zombie movies in my life, but all of a sudden, i seem to have figured out exactly what i should do in the event of a surprise zombie apocalypse. so thank you max brooks, that's one thing i won't have to worry about. ...more

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Dec 25, 2010 Amy rated it it was ok

Shelves: post-apocalyptic, zombies, abandoned-perhaps-temporarily

With so much hype about this book, I was really surprised how boring it turned out to be. The book is written as a series of reporter interviews with survivors of the zombie apocalypse. Some of them were interesting and formed very specific pictures that will probably forever be with me. I might pick the book up again like I would a short story book. However, I didn't like feeling as if I was reading a book that was going nowhere. There was no cohesion or connection between the chapters. For me, ...more

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Nov 25, 2007 Amanda rated it it was amazing

i started reading this book because my brother chose it for an assignment at school, and i like to make sure that he actually reads the books.
have to say that i am not a big zombie fan, (or military for that matter), but the further i got into this book, the more i liked it.
i loved that everyones story was so different, from so many different points of view. i have never been so "involved", i felt like iw as really there most of the time. right along with these confused frightened people, just ...more

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Dec 31, 2007 Blythe rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008

It looks like I am in the minority with this one. The title should have clued me in, but this was way too militaristic. Brooks has done his research, and has created detailed and imaginative scenarios, but in the end it just left me cold. I didn't care about another soldier's viewpoint, another battle with the undead. I like the stories of early survival, like the Japanese guy's, but these were few and far between. The stories became redundant and each successive input became superfluous. ...more

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Jan 06, 2008 Jimm rated it it was amazing

well i loved the way this book unfolds. it is told like a documentary with the zombie epidemic seen from many points of view. if they make this into a movie i hope they are true to the reality of it. if you like zombies or apocalyptic futures this book is for you. i gots to get me a zombie plan for my home.

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Aug 21, 2008 Anne rated it really liked it

Yes, it's about zombies, but it's interesting and well thought out. I wish it had examined the moral and philosophical problems that zombies might present more than it did, but other than that it was an enjoyable read. ...more

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