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60 of 67 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Engrossing account of humanity's greatest conflict, 22 Dec 2006
I read Max Brook's previous book "The Zombie Survival Guide", and enjoyed most of it. I liked the realistic assessment of just how things might go down in the event of a zombie crisis, and it was the perfect book for know-it-alls like me who when watching a horror movie yell "aim for the head!!!" at the screen. It took de-zombification to the next level with very practical tips; shotguns and chainsaws might look cool in video games but once you're out of shells and out of gas you're screwed. Contrast that with a shaolin spade or a genine katana however... Anyway, where I felt that book was less interesting was the appendix in the back listing various zombie encounters throughout history. The problem is that all outbreaks follow a similar pattern; mysterious illness, reanimation, fear and ignorance causing more harm than the zombies, discovery of how to defeat them, then resolution (or total ahnhilation of the population involved). Right? Well that's not particularly interesting for isolated outbreaks in Papua New Guinea. But what if we had a big outbreak today; with cheap air travel and people smuggling and loose borders and human rights laws and the internet and thermonuclear stealth bombers... we'd be fine right?
Maybe not. Where Brooks excels is highlighting the worst elements of human society in its initial response to the outbreak. The Chinese try to cover it up, big pharma tries to make a buck out of it, the government release a safety video and then go about winning the next election, and if your kids get worried just bang them on Ritalin and Prozac. When the swarms finally attack mainland USA and western Europe, everyone is caught totally unprepared. Suddenly sweaty executives who've never done a day's manual labour in their lives are having to live rough in the woods with no Blackberry and no lattes in sight. Isolated pockets of trigger-happy gun nuts have their apocalyptic survivalist fantasies brought to life, and the governments of the world have to make some hard, hard choices.
But as bleak as this sounds, the individual stories of heroism and daring demonstrate why it is that humanity ever got this far in the first place. In a not-too-subtle swipe at the way the military is turning into a video game, all the "advanced warfighter" strategies of battlefield technology, GPS, infra-red goggles, armour piercing bullets etc. are all rendered utterly useless, and it turns out the most useful weapon in the arsenal of the world's greatest superpower is the little shovel that their grunts carry as an entrenching tool. Whack a zombie over the head with it, repeat as necessary.
Although it's become somewhat of a cliche to draw parallels with modern "anti-terrorist" warfare, the rise of the zombies has one major echo with today's suicide bombers and jihadists; there is no fear of death, no centralised infrastructure, and very little point deploying tanks against them.
All in all Brooks has created a convincing alterate universe which is well informed by accurate geopolitical knowledge, group psychology, military doctrine, and genuine humanity.
Finally, I should state that this is the only book I've ever read where, having finished it, I turned back to page one and started over.
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16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
World War Z, 12 Jan 2008
'World War Z', like Brooks 'Zombie Survival Guide', draws you in until your actually start to live the story. It is written in an interview format, where various people recount their experiences during the zombie war, but half way through you really start to live the story and imagine it could be real. The level of detail Brooks adds to this story is staggering and really adds to the overall reality in the book. It is extremely easy to read and looks at all aspects of life around a zombie outbreak, army response and mutiny, new society development, government plans to escape and then fight back, living on water, eradicating the zombies in water, how civilians fought back, dealing with being stranded in a zombie infested area etc etc the list goes on and is exhaustive. If you like zombie books and movies and if you enjoyed 'The Zombie Survival Guide' (which I kind of recommend you read first) then this is the very book for you. Highly recommended.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An instant horror classic, 19 Jun 2007
Rather than one long story, `World War Z' is written as interviews, with stories based before, during and after the Zombie War. These accounts are given by the survivors, which include the Army, doctors, scientists, civilians and even from a guy in space.
Some of the stories are so creepy and realistic, you do start to believe that these tales are actually true.
The story is gory, gruesome and scary, as you'd expect from a zombie novel.
WWZ is great to read in bite-sized chunks (no pun intended!) and can be enjoyed more completely if you have read Max Brooks' first book "The Zombie Survival Guide" beforehand, as there are many references to it throughout.
After you've read it, expect to be questioned by other people who have read it who will ask you "which story is your favourite?" as there are so many good ones to choose from.
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