World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

For anyone who is starting to grow tired of the new Zombie cycle in culture, World War Z should safisfy as a departure from the usual.

The fresh take is that unlike most zombie stories, WWZ goes far beyond the initial outbreak, and unlike Romero, the epidemic is viewed on a global scale, not just middle-America.

This may be a detraction for those who want a more horror-centric, flesh feast. But that card has been played out ad nauseum. It takes far more ambition to attempt what Max Brooks has done.

The only detractions I can pick at is the anecdotal style doesn't vary much, so many chapters have similar patterns. Also, the characters met in the book have very similar speech patterns, and usually all talk in a rhetoric that fails to provide much room for character development. Finally, a few scenarios feel a bit far fetched, such as one where an armed militia forms an assault line and literally walks across the US to clear out the undead. Logistically, this would be one hell of an undertaking, and would probably take decades to accomplish with a fairly unorganized and resource starved society in a post-apocalypse.

Minor gripes aside, this is a farily fresh take on the genre, who's real fear factor is not being eaten by a zombie, but surviving the collapse of our interdependent global state, and the many conflicts across the world in the present that could use the plague as a catalyst for all out war on their enemies.

enjoyed it to a point, but got bored.

it sure has a lot of good ratings...but i just couldn't keep my eyes open after a while.

but the audio version was much better.

i was also left wondering about the cause of the plague, the medical side of prevention, etc. maybe that was out of scope?

World War Z is a well-written book that turns the idea of a zombie infestation somewhat on its head by focusing its attention on the reactions, emotions and struggles of the humans who face(d) the zombies, emphasizing the very real impact such an event would have.

I greatly enjoyed the interview style for the most part, and generally found the characters to be fairly plausible and interesting (a couple didn't work for me, particularly the older Japanese man, though), and some of the imagery is quite gripping, particularly the short description of the Paris catacombs.

Overall, I highly recommend this as a great 'fun' read that also manages to be intelligent about its subject. I'm looking forward to the movie in 2010.

I read this book yesterday and couldn't put it down. The best part of the book was how the oral histories weren't just of people in the North America, instead the cast of characters were from all over the globe. And, it was obvious that the author took special care to cross different socioeconomic boundaries with the various survivor stories.

I have not read his survival guide completely. I read sections of it in a bookstore and opted to not purchase it. This book, though, is a real keeper for anyone interested in the "bad thing" genre.

Now that the Zombie War is over, it is time to start examining what went right and what went wrong. But, the author moved beyond all that, interviewing the survivors of "World War Z" to get their story - a boots-on-the-ground view of the trauma and the tragedy. This is the story of politicians and soldiers, and blind old men and little girls, as they survive a trauma such as the world has never seen before, and hopefully never will again.

Overall, I found this to be a very interesting read. Yeah, the author did allow his politics to intrude throughout the story, but it was nonetheless very well written, and quite fascinating. Indeed, at times it is not the zombies that are the true horror of the story, it is the situation and how people react to it. If you want a wonderfully different zombie story, one that moves beyond the tottering zombies and goes straight to the human horror of it all, then this is the book for you!