World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

A brilliant - BRILLIANT, MWAH! MWAH! - gimmick marred by imperfect execution. This was (mostly) huge fun to listen to, with a sparkly all-star cast and ambitious world-building and clever plotting.

The gimmick is this: modeled closely on Studs Terkel's The Good War, this is a Near Future oral history of a world that has just emerged, panting and traumatized, from a global zombie apocalypse. We meet soldiers from the Ukraine, moms from the US, uber-capitalists and priests and doctors and policymakers and generals and lots and lots of more soldiers. We meet, in one brilliant moment, an Australian astronaut who was on the ISS when the zombies took over and watched it all happen via high-resolution satellite monitoring. We see countries rise and fall; the post-zombie world has Cuba as its economic powerhouse, Russia as an Orthodox Christian theocracy, and Iceland as a shitshow of semi-frozen undead. The scope is vast, ambitious, and - again, SO SMART. Such a great idea! Max Brooks! Great idea.

But! And this is a big, marring butt: there are two big aspects that kinda kill the joy. First, all the voices sound the same: they sound like Max Brooks. i.e. Over-written, over-wordy, white American guy-isms, military fanboy guy-isms. It's sort of absurd to hear ostensible South Africans, Russians, Indian, Israelis, and Germans speak in such obviously American ways. And while Brooks tries hard - very hard - to incorporate the socio-political realism of each country (the German soldier who recounts his prejudice against his east German commanding officer was spot-on; like, LITERALLY a German person IRL had explained to me the EXACT SAME cultural dynamic of West vs. East the day before I read that part) - anyway, while Brooks tries hard, he also frequently stumbles. Some countries feel vivid and real, but many also feel like Americanized stereotypes of themselves; and this is unfortunate, since it kills the suspension of disbelief in those sections.

Second big killjoy is how completely military fanboy/”who cares about ladies” Brooks's writing is. Honestly, I could have done with about 50 pages less of weapon laundry lists, in exchange for just ONE lady character who wasn't: a mom, an emotionally stunted girl-woman “with the body of a supermodel”, or a butch soldier. Seriously, those are your options? Mom, model, military? Sigh. Especially since there were a bunch of obvious places where, duh hello, you could have gender-swapped. But I guess Brooks's imagination - as vast and globalized and near futurey as it is - doesn't go that far.

Anyway, I didn't even get to the ZOMBIES. I love zombie apocalypses. If you love them, then you will love this. Even if you DON'T love them, you may love this. This takes the zombie apocalypse and disaster movie, and follows it to many of its logical/political conclusions. By the end of the “war”, you feel exhausted yourself: the world is so changed. Of course it would be! From the first inkling of a “human rabies”, to the worldwide “Great Panic”, to the various countries' various methods to try to contain the problem, to the desolation and eventual reclamation. There are some incredible set pieces - little micro-stories that would have been, on their own, amazing. (In a way, this was the most meta-realistic part, since I've always felt that with oral histories: we're getting small glimpses of amazing lives.)

Some of my favorites: the Chinese nuclear submarine crew who decides to go AWOL as a last-ditch ark of humanity; the Ukrainian soldier trying to help fleeing refugees across the Paton Bridge in Kiev, while moaning zombie hordes approach; the blind “hibakusha” man fleeing to a national park and fighting off zombies there; the helicopter pilot watching epic traffic jams, people locking themselves in their cars, freaking out, as zombies claw at the windows; the young, angry Palestinian kid whose family decides to try to enter Israel's self-quarantined fortress-state.

It's funny, because - while I did enjoy the movie's epic set-pieces (and Israel's fortress-state scene does appear in both the book and the movie), the movie also failed to capture some scenes that were so obviously cinematic: zombie hordes walking the bottom of the ocean, scratching at a submarine's hull? HELLO, THAT'S AWESOME. Zombie hordes approaching up winding Himalayan roads, as the Indian Army debates whether to nuke them? While World War Z the movie was a very satisfying disaster movie, it could have been a VERY EPIC disaster movie.

I do think that much of my enjoyment also came from the excellent audio production, and hearing all my long-lost fave actors. As I said, Brooks's writing suffers from being completely mono-voice, yet there's enough actorly talent here to make these characters their own: Martin Scorsese (!) as the unrepentant capitalist who sold a snake oil “zombie vaccine”; Alan Alda (!) as a privileged technocrat tasked with a New Deal-style national rebuilding project; Rob Reiner (!) as “the Whacko”, the odd and fascinating Vice President (who seems to have been modeled on a funhouse version of Joe Biden, even though this book predates Obama's election!?); David Ogden Stiers as the Ukrainian soldier (what an accent!); Alfred Molina as the Aussie astronaut (also what an accent!); oh yes, and Mark Hamill as a crazed “gnarly, dude!” Vietnam-vet-style veteran of the failed “Battle of Yonkers”. There's many more (F. Murray Abraham! Rene Auberjonois! Kal Penn! Common!), but those stuck out as particularly good readings.

Oh yeah, and the ONE THING that I was surprised Brooks didn't capitalize on - since its one of the most brilliant of zombie movie tropes - is the scene of subverting a zombie's Otherness. That is, usually, the zombies approach as mindless, horrifying hordes. But then there's a scene (such as this brilliant one in Shaun of the Dead), where one of your loved ones gets bitten. THE URGENT TRAGEDY OF IT! I thought an oral history would have a-plenty of such tales of family members turning on each other. But there was none of it: the zombie hordes remained an alien monolith. Oh well, missed opportunity.

Overall: listen to the audiobook, the cast makes up for the so-so characterizations. Plot is amazing.

Despite it's awful reviews, I enjoyed the movie for WWZ. It's hard to read a review of it without people mentioning how much it butchered the book. For what it was it was great – but the book is able to explore on a level that would never work for a movie. The book itself takes place after World War Z, the zombie war. The narrator interviews a series of people from around the world as they elaborate on how they participated in the war. These range from the origins of the disease and how it spread, to how countries adapted with it, to submarines, to how humans faced off and eventually cleaned up after the war.

If you've ever wondered “I like zombies, but what would it be like if we did ?”, then you'll truly enjoy this book. It's much less about action and more about strategy and motivations to keep on living.

A collection of small stories (20+) about the decimation of the world population by a plague, presented from the point of view of the survivors.

The stories are very well written, but take out the zombie part and they do not hold their own for me. This is a book I would recommend to anyone that does not like fiction.

Stories vary a lot in theme. One is about a suburban mom with a cheating husband, two kids and an apathy for the world events, only concerned about her life. Then the plague came. Another is about a doctor who finds his patient to be infected. Then another about the guy who saw an opportunity in the crisis an made up a fake medicine.

The audiobook is really exceptional; I read the abridged edition and may seek out the unabridged because the performances were so good.

Loved it. Just finished the book and couldn't be happier. I didn't know it was going to be a “documentary” style, but I really enjoyed the format. I had previously been a little worried that I'd be scared to read it but the format made it nearly impossible to be shocked by anything. Great story mostly about the human elements and how people interacted with each other in the face of a horrific tragedy than about the zombies themselves. Of course, the geek in me loved reading about the zombies as well. Definitely would recommend it to a wide variety of folks, not just those interested in zombies.

I don't normally read books like this. I know some people enjoy reading scary books, but I am not one of them. However World War Z was something I decided to read after watching the film version. And to be honest I only watched that as I wanted to see Glasgow all done up as Philadelphia.

So even though World War Z turned out to be a terrible movie, the book was brilliant (which made the movie even more disappointing). The book is written as a series of interviews compiled by the narrator which tells the story of the global war against zombies. It begins with the first recorded infection and ends with the clear up of North America and the world's slow return to normality while still dealing with the remaining zombie hordes.

One of the things I enjoyed most about the book was the fact that there was no simple cure for the zombie virus. In fact a large portion of the book focuses on how the US Army adapt to fighting an enemy that don't plan and work entirely on instinct. This means that their normal tactics are totally ineffective and they also have the added problem of every dead soldier means one more zombie to kill.

The book focuses on the short sightedness of humans. It makes you think about what you would do in the same situation. It makes you realise the terrifying nature of humanity. It shows how people will do anything, even kill others, if it means saving their own lives. And it annoys me that the film ignored all this in favour of Brad Pitt travelling the world looking for a cure. In my opinion the only similarity between the book and film is that they share the same name.

In conclusion, the book is very good and I would have quite happily read another 300 pages of zombie apocalypse goodness. However the movie was a giant pile of poop. Avoid if possible.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com

This was a 3.5 for me. Really enjoyed the different take on a zombie breakout and the style of storytelling

I know this might be heresy to say because this is supernatural canon, but I found this book pretty boring and had to force myself to finish. Parts of it were super interesting, but I think most of my general disinterest stemmed from the lack of present-time action and characters to root for.

Oh god. Not going to sleep much tonight, but damn that was good!

This is a very good book although i would describe it as more of a fictional retrospective look at the zombie apocolypse in a documentary style.

I'd definately recommend it as it gives an international perspective to the zombie apocolypse rather than the usual small town or group scenario.

Great book!

I loved both the book and the movie even though they have nothing to do with each other. The book is an exceptional commentary on the geopolitical, religious and social turmoil in the aftermath of a “walking dead” world-wide disaster, therefore making it a delicious piece of food for thought. The movie was fast-paced, suspenseful and very entertaining.

Not a huge zombie fan, but a really cool idea, telling individual war stories. A fantastic read.

Okay, so zombies are overdone. Once it was just me and my friends coming up with zombie contingency plans. Now, everybody and their mother has one and the joke is just... old. They've officially made a zombie rom-com. I'm over it.

However, this book brought me right back into the hype. I think the main reason I latched onto the zombie meme as my movie monster of choice was because I've played enough video games to believe I could handle that. Vampires? Real ones with speed and strength and an actual desire to drink human blood, I mean. No, I would die. Werewolf? I can barely take down my 6 month old puppy. Supertech aliens? Throwing in the proverbial towel. But zombies? They are slow, stupid, and can be bludgeoned to death. Their only power is numbers, and I believed myself fully capable of not letting those numbers get out of control. I'm a smart, zealously prepared individual, right? Confidence, yo.

This book made me lose my confidence.

Brooks tackles the zombie apocalypse from every angle. I am very close to literal when I say every angle. He not only hits dozens of countries, ages, and positions in the war, he goes on to explain what the zombie apocalypse would mean both to dogs and astronauts. For being under 300 pages, this book is thorough. I have some questions on the validity of some of the other countries' view points (the way he katakana-ed his Japanese made me double take, though I was impressed with his inclusion of an Ainu), but nothing destroyed my ability to enjoy the book. I doubt it would be popular in China, but even when Brooks throws around blame, he emphasizes showing lots of characters with lots of perspectives. There are brave Chinese, terrified Chinese, righteous Chinese, thus avoiding stereotyping a nation.

The K9 unit was by far my favorite section, showing both the most human and inhumane aspects of the world, often without a zombie in sight. My Lucy would make a hell of a zombie dog... except for the whole thing where she can't bite them. Actually scratch that. Stay away from zombies, Lucy.

Back to the novel, though Brooks shows a variety of people suffering the war, capitalizing on the war, steering the war, avoiding the war. I am famous for hating war stories of any kind, but you make it about zombies, and I am suddenly interested. He also distinguishes how different a zombie war would be from fighting living humans: an army that can't be bought or intimidated or even dented. It's a fresh perspective on a stale story.

One of my biggest pet peeves with zombie media is that they are always so vague about how things start. I can and do suspend my disbelief for a catalyst to the disease (this book is no exception), but how it spreads? It's not like the flu. The mythos dictates it is transferred by bite. Honestly, how hard could it be to not get bitten in the early stages of an outbreak? Brooks introduces the idea of organ transplant as a viable infection spreader. He looks at dozens of ways the virus could get out in the world undetected, and they all make a scary sort of sense.

Everything in the book feels viable, really. Brooks gives a nod to the Last Man on Earth (LaMoe's.... hah) stories in an almost derogatory way. It is pretty ridiculous to think only a single human or a smattering of civilian groups would survive. We have governments with much higher safety protocols and stakes in this industry. This is where the movers and shakers fighting the tide would be or where the civilians would end up once they had something to contribute. Brooks' focus is global, and therefore so are his viewpoints.

On that note, the documentary style of the book is gripping. Again, it feels fresh and keeps everything pointedly realistic. It's still clearly Brooks' voice in all of the tales, and some of the people are a bit cookie cutter (not so good at writing the female perspective except in the case of the stranded pilot. Loved her story.), but they each tell their tale and keep the audience tuned in. It would make a great movie. Too bad they don't appear to be actually making this book into a movie so much as slapping its title on a completely different movie.

The interviewer remains largely unidentified, allowing me to slip into a role I actually could handle during a zombie apocalypse. Interviews! Yes, I can do that. I like that while Brooks' makes a clear statement about how people with no blue collar skills (Hi! I'm a liberal arts major!) are kind of asking for this type of danger (perhaps not in the form of walking dead, but there are hundreds of other crises where the practical skills of daily life need to be much more available), he also points out the role the arts have in helping humanity survive. He doesn't dismiss white collar jobs so much as show the disparity between them, the value of being drywall repair tech. It's the most obvious theme of the book, and one that resonates with me.

I had fun reading this book, but I rethought my contingency plan while reading it too. I thought about it, for the first time, with other people. It's a book that makes you self-assess while at the same time gives you the thrill of humanity beating back the undead waves. Recommended for zombie enthusiasts everywhere, particularly those who need a change of pace.

I think that the overkill of zombie references in pop culture today hurt my view of this otherwise good book. It seemed a little boring compared to The Walking Dead (comic, not TV series). I liked the writing and perspective of the narrator, but the setting just doesn't have any suspense left in it.

Onder de dingen die mij ondertussen erg beginnen tegen steken bevinden zich spek en zombies.

Spek, omdat, serieus: bacon? Het is gewoon gezouten vet vlees, dat eventueel krokant kan gebakken worden, en dat als smaakmaker niet verkeerd is in stoemp, of zoals bij ons dit weekend nog rond witloof met gehakt in het midden. Maar in ‘s hemelsnaam, maak er niet het allerbeste voedsel ooit ooit van. En hou alstublieft op met dat eeuwige om nom nom bacon, alsof het ambrozijn was, godenspijs recht van de Olympos nedergedaald.

Idem me zombies, ongeveer. Waar bacon mij gewoon irriteert omdat het irritant is, geef ik ruiterlijk toe dat het gedoe rond zombies tegenwoordig mij irriteert omdat ik het ergens niet eerlijk vind dat iets waar ik al jàààààààren plezier aan beleef. Als jonge tiener uit het niets Night of the Living Dead en Dawn of the Dead ontdekken, dat doet iets met u. En dan zien dat de recente zombie-hype, dertig jaar na datum, met zo ongeveer tegelijkertijd de Walking Dead-serie en Max Brooks' Zombie Survival Guide, zombies uit hun ghetto gehaald hebben: dat doet raar, ergens.

Euh. Nu ik erover nadenk, het is eigenlijk alleen de hype rond bacon die mij tegensteekt, dat met die zombies is gewoon een geval van get off my lawn en ik-kende-dat-al-als-gulder-nog-niet-geboren-waart-hipsterisme. Ahem.

Walking Dead heb ik gelezen en bekeken op tv, maar Max Brooks had ik nog niet gelezen. Een vriend (die trouwens als personage voorkomt in de comic van The Walking Dead, how cool is that?) raadde mij World War Z aan, dus bij deze.

Helaas. Met alle sympathie voor Max Brooks, en omdat het de zoon van Mel Brooks is, is dat enorm veel sympathie, maar ik vind dit geen echt goed boek.

Het idee erachter is eenvoudig: er is ergens in China iets gebeurd, waardoor er een soort virus of zo losgekomen is, waardoor mensen sterven en dan weer “levend” worden, en dan gho ja, alle mogelijke tekenen van klassieke zombies vertonen. Het boek is geschreven jaren na datum, op een moment dat alles weer ongeveer onder controle is, en geeft in een hele reeks interviews met betrokken personen het verhaal van de Zombie-Oorlog.

Problemen die ik ermee heb, op een rijtje:

• Ik vond de personages voor het overgrote deel behoorlijk clichématig en eendimensionaal. De oude blinde Japanees die blijkt en zen-meester-achtige ninja te zijn. De Russen die uiteraard teruggrijpen naar godsdienst en tsaar. De Boer in Zuid-Afrika. De inwisselbare Amerikaanse soldaat.
  En veel is daar niet aan te doen.


• Veel is daar niet aan te doen, want een verhaal vertellen in tientallen en tientallen interviews, met een lengte van enkele paragrafen tot enkele pagina's: niet evident. Telkens het een beetje boeiend dreigde te worden en ik meer wou weten over iemand, was het interview gedaan, en hop, volgende sliever verhaal.


• Het verhaal speelt zich af enkele jaren in de toekomst, maar het leest nu (in 2012) al gedateerd: de verwijzingen naar conflicten zijn zo midden-jaren-2000 – een cameo van Nelson Mandela bijvoorbeeld, grmbl. Dat maakt het boek leutig om lezenin 2006, maar in 2016 geeft het meteen een effect van “hoe tiens, wanneer zijn die Eugenics Wars dan gebeurd?”


• Had ik al gezegd dat het allemaal interviews zijn? Er is zo'n beetje een vuistregel van Show, don't tell: les niet uit wat er aan het gebeuren is en hoe de mensen voelen, maar toon het, zodat we het zelf kunnen ervaren in plaats van erover te moeten horen. Ik krijg het gevoel dat het hele boek, ondanks zijn interviewstijl, één constantie expositie is. Eerst gebeurde er dat, en dan dat, en dan dit. Het heeft er ongetwijfeld mee te maken dat het in het boek allemaal mensen zijn die terugblikken, maar toch. Ik had weinig of niet het gevoel dat het over situaties ging waar de personages in het duister tastten.


• Ik kan mij niet van de indruk ontdoen dat het allemaal enorm (enooooormmmm) vanuit een Amerikaans standpunt geschreven is. En dat er dan gegoocheld wordt met stukjes Wikipedia-kennis over andere delen van de wereld en slechte Google Translate-vertalingen, helpt niet echt – met als absoluut dieptepunt het stukje over Frankrijk. Ik kan me inbeelden dat een gemiddelde Amerikaan in 2006 dacht dat men zich Frankrijk  ook zag als cheese-eating surrender monkeys, maar een beetje research zou toch kunnen geholpen hebben om Brooks van dat idee af te brengen. Om nog niet te spreken van de “leuze” van ze French resistance hon hon hon, die volgens het boek godgoeiehemel van de Slag bij Verdun zou gehaald zijn, en “On ne passé pas” zou geweest zijn.

I really liked this book. If you're looking for a traditional story, this is not the book for you. However, if you're interested in reading a book that's written very originally as a fictional history as told through the words of many people (to a reporter that's interviewing them), then it's a very fun read.

This was decent. Somewhere in the middle the interviews started getting on my nerves, but it had moments where the stories and the writing were superb. In other parts I just wanted to get it over with.

World War Z had an interesting take on the zombie genre. Instead of going for shock and gore the author takes the approach of a documentary. The story arch unfolds as a series of interviews with different people accross the globe, each interviewee talks about some of the events they had to deal with amidst a global “African Rabies” infestation. Not much is said about zombies in this book, other than the standard zombie lore. Audio works brilliantly as a medium for this book. The writing style is rather dry (because of the interview format) I'm not sure I would have liked it as much if I had read the story.

This book was good but it was hard to keep reading. I kept putting it down and then picking it up later. Because of the style of the book you don't lose anything by doing that. So I read passages while in between other books.

I started reading this book back in November and stopped after about 2 weeks. I had trouble getting into the story. I will probably try reading it again over the summer. It is an interesting take on zombie stories and I have heard good reviews about the book.

Great book about what could happen if some kind of epidemic ravaged the earth. Very creatively written.

I wasn't sure what to think about this, I'm not usually into zombies, but I kept hearing good things about it so I gave it a try. I really enjoyed it, but it will give me nightmares for some time to come. Not just the zombies, but the societal collapse. I wold definitely recommend.

No real plot, no real characters, no real conflict. If I were teaching a creative writing course, this book would be a great text to use to show kids how not to write.

No real plot, no real characters, no real conflict. If I were teaching a creative writing course, this book would be a great text to use to show kids how not to write.