World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
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Book Reviews of World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
Book Review: Solid
Summary: 3 Stars
Let me start by saying that anyone who writes a fiction piece that deals with zombies in a serious way is a champion in my book.
With that said, World War Z was a solid sci-fi piece. I liked the medium he used to tell his story, which was a series of first hand accounts from zombpocolypse survivors. It sort of had the feel and flow of similar (non-fiction though) accounts from people who took part/survived the Vietnam War and World War 2. In that the accounts dealt not only with combating the enemy, but also with the politics/social situations that lead to/resulted from the conflict. I also like the fact that WWZ wasn't American-centric and dealt with other nationalities pretty extensively.
What bugged me about WWZ though is that many of his "interviewies" spoke in a very similar way to one another so that it was hard for me to suspend disbelief that they all weren't written by the same person. Also, and this is a totally subjective thing, I'm just not convinced that "slow-zombies" could produce the type of chaos WWZ describes. I've thought about this long and hard as a zombie fan and I seriously doubt that they could bite enough people to turn 99% of the world into zombies. Now, if the zombie-virus was an airborne thing or if the zombies were fast, now thats a different story!
Book Review: Disappointing and just plain boring...
Summary: 1 Stars
Easily the most disappointing book I've read in the past 5 years. I struggled just to get through it. If you like to pick up your favorite AP story and read a good interview in your USA today, then you'll love this book. For me, where is the thrill? The story line? The intrigue? At least give me some central character to root for or against!! And the the nerve of Brooks to attempt to invade Romero-style political comments relating to todays headlines...it just falls plain flat and childlike in his efforts. Not good...Book Review: Very entertaining.
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is not really a horror book filled with gore, but it is a fascinating page turner nonetheless. Through the multiple first person accounts of the battle for survival in a post apocalyptic zombie ruled world, Brooks is able to emerge the reader into a world that has been consumed by the living dead. His references to contemporary foreign policy and his accurate accounting of and maneuvering through the contemporary military mindset and lingo (at least American, according to this former Marine) gives his book a, "Wow, I could see this actually happening!" feel.
And rather than exploring the "LaMOE" (Last Man on Earth) perspective commonly found in zombie media, this delves into every reasonable facet of culture. If there were a WWZ, this book goes very far into encompassing all the elements that would make up contemporary policy and life on this little blue planet.
Book Review: Brilliance shadowed by bias
Summary: 5 Stars
What can I say about Max Brooks that hasn't been said already? On many levels this is an absolutely brilliant book that not only complements the zombie/post apocalyptic genre but actually transcends it. Max may well have surpassed George Romero as the authority of the Zombie genre. While George had inserted social commentary into a then new but often maligned genre and had elevated that genre to a more thoughtful and substantive level than the more conventional avenues of the general horror genre (i.e. the -YAWN--vampire, supernatural or slasher flicks), Max has brought it to a new level. To me, you might say that he's the Tom Clancy of the zombie genre. His take one the apocalyptic siege addresses both the individual and society in ways that Romero never did.
I must admit that I didn't buy this novel for more than a year because it was framed as a compilation of individual historical accounts of a zombie apocalypse. I was originally uninterested because I don't think there would be the possibility of a society to survive and tell their accounts.
I'm going to keep this short though I could go off for pages... and that is what Max had done. He made me think. Society has many levels to it and, in Max's book, many of them are addressed. This book is a fabricated account of not just individual's surviving but how societies survived only after difficult choices. And the plan to follow came from South Africa of all places and not the USA or another first world country. Cold and merciless pragmatism was the key and the individual who conceived of such a plan of survival was personally doomed from unrealized personal morals. Necessity and cold sacrifice decided by third parties and geographical advantage.
The scope of this novel is grand. It touches upon individual, national and global concerns. It features the perspective of everyday survivors, soldiers, leaders, beaurocrats (can we ever ditch them?) and head of states. Regret, shame, loyalty, madness and peace are all represented in accounts that are uniquely personal and yet cohesive in how they all worked together.
This is a thinking man's take on the zombie genre. And yet, how it plays out in each interview, it is a realistic template of how we as individuals and a society would react to any extreme situation. Again, it transcends.
In many ways, this is my favorite zombie related book. But it is so much more. It is a well done comprehensive analysis of us as individuals and as a society. Again, I could go off for pages and that's why I didn't go into details.... Or else I'd get trapped into describing each account in their glory (though one or two didn't ring... nothing's perfect.)
Max has accomplished, for the second time, something so unique and remarkable within the zombie genre. Except, this second time, he's gone further and has successfully described why the zombie genre is so appealing. It's not really about zombies, it's about us... more to the point, it's a hard look at us on all levels when presented with the extreme test.
Now a book of this level is impossible to write without the author's personal political perspective becoming obvious. Max thinly veils the Gulf/current war as the Brush war. I gather that I'm on the opposite side of the spectrum to his view of current/real events.) For me, that doesn't take away from what he's crafted. This book is brilliant.
I've actually listened to the audio version many times and read the book once. Though the audio version is abridged (wish it wasn't,) I'd recommend getting both. Each version is satisfying in different ways.
I understand that there is a movie in the making. I am doubtful that any two hour movie would capture this book's brilliance... even though an equally brilliant screenwriter, J. Michael Stravensky is writing said screen play. He's uniquely qualified but I don't know how he'd condense it into two hours for mass consumption. To do this book justice would take a six hour movie. I'd even go with a no frills 6 or 8 part documentary format on the history channel. This book is that good and so comprehensive... you don't need theater or special effects. Just having actors narrate the written word would be powerful enough. But then again, what do I know? I'm just another worthless opinion.
Book Review: World War Z
Summary: 2 Stars
This book was not at all what I expected. It is not about a War, as the title indicates. It "jumps" from one scenario to another every few pages. It is very hard to follow the story line.. The Earth is supposedly being overrun by the Un-dead, yet, people appear to be living normal lives and paying little attention to the possible end of life as they know it. It is just a lot of words.