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World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
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MSRP: $24.95
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Manufacturer: Crown
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Additional World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War Information
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“The end was near.” —Voices from the Zombie War
The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years.
Ranging from the now infamous village of New Dachang in the United Federation of China, where the epidemiological trail began with the twelve-year-old Patient Zero, to the unnamed northern forests where untold numbers sought a terrible and temporary refuge in the cold, to the United States of Southern Africa, where the Redeker Plan provided hope for humanity at an unspeakable price, to the west-of-the-Rockies redoubt where the North American tide finally started to turn, this invaluable chronicle reflects the full scope and duration of the Zombie War.
Most of all, the book captures with haunting immediacy the human dimension of this epochal event. Facing the often raw and vivid nature of these personal accounts requires a degree of courage on the part of the reader, but the effort is invaluable because, as Mr. Brooks says in his introduction, “By excluding the human factor, aren’t we risking the kind of personal detachment from history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it? And in the end, isn’t the human factor the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as ‘the living dead’?”
Note: Some of the numerical and factual material contained in this edition was previously published under the auspices of the United Nations Postwar Commission.
Eyewitness reports from the first truly global war
“I found ‘Patient Zero’ behind the locked door of an abandoned apartment across town. . . . His wrists and feet were bound with plastic packing twine. Although he’d rubbed off the skin around his bonds, there was no blood. There was also no blood on his other wounds. . . . He was writhing like an animal; a gag muffled his growls. At first the villagers tried to hold me back. They warned me not to touch him, that he was ‘cursed.’ I shrugged them off and reached for my mask and gloves. The boy’s skin was . . . cold and gray . . . I could find neither his heartbeat nor his pulse.” —Dr. Kwang Jingshu, Greater Chongqing, United Federation of China
“‘Shock and Awe’? Perfect name. . . . But what if the enemy can’t be shocked and awed? Not just won’t, but biologically can’t! That’s what happened that day outside New York City, that’s the failure that almost lost us the whole damn war. The fact that we couldn’t shock and awe Zack boomeranged right back in our faces and actually allowed Zack to shock and awe us! They’re not afraid! No matter what we do, no matter how many we kill, they will never, ever be afraid!” —Todd Wainio, former U.S. Army infantryman and veteran of the Battle of Yonkers
“Two hundred million zombies. Who can even visualize that type of number, let alone combat it? . . . For the first time in history, we faced an enemy that was actively waging total war. They had no limits of endurance. They would never negotiate, never surrender. They would fight until the very end because, unlike us, every single one of them, every second of every day, was devoted to consuming all life on Earth.” —General Travis D’Ambrosia, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe
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What Customers Say About World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War:
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Brooks became too bogged down in the physical logistics of the various survival scenarios at the expense of drama, suspense or meaningful character development, in fact the characters all seem to be of nearly identical quality in spite of the many differences in their cultures or national origin. I was a teenager when I first saw it and was really impressed by the sheer horror of the realism. The protagonists in this film logically decide to fortify and hold up in a shopping mall for the obvious reason of availing themselves of the many provisions and supplies available there. The possibility that I chose a good book was even reinforced by the clerk at checkout who spoke very highly of it."World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War" essentially, is a collection of personal anecdotes of survival as told to the fictitious author who cobbled them together to paint a "compelling" picture of survival painted against the backdrop of global politics. It would seem that in his attempt to perhaps try something new rather than resort to yet another exercise in dwelling on various zombie metaphors or creating new ones Mr. As far as the zombie sub-genre is concerned, in addition to Romero's Dawn of The Dead there are few examples of this genre that I could seriously say I have really enjoyed. It was in fact this aspect of the film that really left its mark on me.
All fictional horror whether filmed, written or rendered in a video game is rife with subtext whether the intention to include this subtext was the result of a conscious decision or not, after all when you strip away all the trappings of horror we are speaking of matters of survival, of life and death itself, indeed one can almost imagine feeling a tingling in the amygdala just sitting in a dark theater awaiting the start of the latest, greatest scary flick. Also, just look at how certain role playing horror games are classified, with one of those rare instances in which a Japanese phrase is awkwardly translated into English but actually proves more apt than any already existent English equivalent: Survival Horror.Dawn of the Dead was not just merely an exhibition of zombies eating flesh as society crumbled around the survivors; it was in fact one of the most astute meditations on mindless American consumerism. "World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War"I'm not really a zombie kind of guy although I will confess to really liking George A Romero's Dawn of The Dead. Consumerism is but one of the many metaphors that can be illustrated by the zombie genre and the promise of exploring a few possible metaphors was running through my mind as I read the blurbs on the back cover of World War Z. I had already perused the books at my local Borders for over a half an hour and this book was the only one that really seemed interesting to my mood that day. While Max Brooks does display an authentic feel and flavor for the various settings around the globe in which these testimonies take place I must say he falls far short in the "compelling" department. Brooks had spent more effort fleshing out his characters and yes, pondering upon the allegorical richness inherent in the subject matter because regardless of how tiresome or quaint this approach may seem it is still vastly better than anecdotes that read slightly more interesting than dry testimony in some official report. Ironically I believe that this book might have benefitted from actually being longer if only Mr.
I don't just mean the realistic ways in which Tom savini found to render gore but also the way Romero showed just enough of a breakdown in society to let my imagination run wild. This is the part where I confess that I had to force myself to keep reading but finally gave up after having only read it three quarters of the way through. By visual example and also via exposition Romero exhibits a mall that first must be cleared of zombies who, having retained a faint, distant memory of their former lives return to the mall that once held a such prominent place in their lives. This would seem to suggest that mindless consumerism has so gripped our culture that the simple act of shopping has, by sheer repetition and reinforced by feelings of instant gratification, been retroactively hard wired into our brains as an actual instinct and this indeed is driven home by the fact that the zombies waddle through the mall lured like fish by the glitz and glare of shiny products in an apparent parody of real world shoppers that is sadly much less a parody than an accurate depiction. I could not help feeling that there would be no meaningful payoff as the preceding pages betrayed not a hint that the succeeding pages would offer any redemption.
While I wanted to love this book, I could only like it. How can a zombie survive unless its heart is pumping blood through its veins to supply its cells with nutrients and oxygen. While the author is realistic in most aspects in the book, he removes the logic of biological processes when it comes to the zombies. How can a zombie moan, unless it breathes, and thus has air to pass over its vocal cords. Otherwise this is a story of magic zombies, that can do anything. The discord between the rest of the novel's realistic real world ascompared to "do anything" zombies just did not work for me.
I read it and convinced my husband to at least read a couple chapters, and he got pulled into the story and didn't put it down until he'd read the entire book. I'm too squeamish to watch zombie movies or any other horror movie, so books are where I get my thrills 'n' chills fix. World War Z was an excellent book, it is so engaging. I need to read it again as I first read it when it came out, so it's been well over a year. It's that good, it has re-reading potential.
The idea of a world war against zombies is not something that actually appeals to me, not even as a bad movie, yet, compelled to at least flick through the book by the buzz around it, I found that it was a fast-paced and an intriguing read. World War Z is a short and punchy tale, something not normally my style, but I am pleased to say a lot of fun, and I'm glad that I was tempted by it. Personally, I'm more the dark fantasy kind of guy, where everything is serious and bleak. In some ways the style of the story, a collection of interviews taken ten years after the end of hostilities of a ten year long war, reminds me of Stephen King's Carrie. Now, I'm sure lots of books have used such a method to tell such a tale, but I can also imagine that in the genre of zombie lit, it is a rare thing to find.Well thought out and conceived, this is a thoughtful tale, and so short and punchy that any one feeling that they're moving into an experimental reading zone, should feel reassured that at least the trial will not be lengthy.If you like snippets from the frontline, and tales of global catastrophe, give it a try.
As more and more zombie books appear, its tough to make a decision as to where to start. This novel is a great introduction to the world of zombies and a thoughtful and entertaining story. The action moves quickly and the story is never dull. You won't be disappointed.
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