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About This Book
ISBN13: 9780307346612 |
Powells.com Staff Pick
Brooks expands the small-scale premise of Shaun of the Dead, so there's humor here, to be sure; but make no mistake — this is a horror book. If you liked 28 Days Later and George Romero's Dead trilogy, you'll eat this book up like a zombie eats a slow runner.
Recommended by Clyde, Powells.com
Despite never having been into the whole "zombie thing," I picked up World War Z. Halfway through, it dawned on me that I was becoming really, deeply scared. A few more pages in and I was trying to figure out how, exactly, to make my house both impenetrable and easily escapable. (Let's just say that ladders came into play.) Finally, I was gripped by the solid fear born of the all-too-solid knowledge that something will eventually go wrong and that we, the human race, are unprepared. Woe. Well-written, absorbing woe.
Recommended by Christie, Powells.com
Review-a-Day (What is Review-a-Day?)
"The book speeds along at a nice pace and the explanations of the Zombies' origins make sense and, in some cases, are truly unique and inventive (in comparison to other zombie novels), making World War Z much more than just a good scare. Plus, Brooks isn't afraid to tackle current events — modern politics, terrorism, environmentalism, and universal healthcare — and does so through the eyes of both the humans and the Zombies." David Hannon, Powells.com (read the entire Powells.com review)
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
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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About the Author
What Our Readers Are Saying
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Average customer rating based on 3 comments:
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expectdelays, April 9, 2008 (view all comments by expectdelays)
I had wanted a quick and easy read as a break from studying, so I suppose technically I was disappointed. I became engrossed in this story immediately. This isn't so much a monster story as a description of human civilization reacting to an inexorable and universal assault that threatens its continued existence.
Brooks' depiction of the early stages of the war is fascinating. The secrecy over the initial outbreaks, the many mechanisms enabling the contagion to spread quickly and internationally, the different responses, if any, by various governments, and the breakdown of order, infrastructure and society itself.
The structuring of the book as an oral history allows for diverse characters whose stories give the narrative a gripping immediacy and intimacy. This device also provides Brooks with an arena for writing some truly outstanding dialog. His characters come from around the globe and all walks of life, and Brooks manages to give them all a distinct persona based not only what they say but on how they say it. His portrayals display an enormous range of speech patterns, from the clipped, precisely ordered diction of a career military man and the and smug, defensive patter of a fabulously wealthy profiteer to the hesitant, halting speech of some of the deeply scarred survivors. Brooks also manages to provide a sense of the language underlying the speech of his many characters who use English as a second language. Brooks' use of dialog alone is a remarkable achievement.
As an oral history, this is of course a collection of survivor's stories. Brooks provides plenty of action and drama including last minute escapes and the fight to survive in a polluted, ravaged landscape. There are heroes and victims, brilliance and incompetence, nobility and depravity, determination and despair.
And lots of zombies.
A great read.
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phoogoo, December 4, 2007 (view all comments by phoogoo)
One of those books I wished had 100 more pages. Each story is a little vignette giving you just enough information to spark your imagination.
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CjmsCapitalPM, October 31, 2007 (view all comments by CjmsCapitalPM)
A creative way to write fiction, as a documentary of a catastrophic event. Interesting facts(?) about zombies, and survival against the threat of attack. Lots O' fun
View all 3 comments
Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9780307346612
- Subtitle:
- An Oral History of the Zombie War
- Author:
- Author:
- Publisher:
- Three Rivers Press (CA)
- Subject:
- Fantasy - General
- Subject:
- War & Military
- Copyright:
- 2006
- Publication Date:
- October 2007
- Binding:
- Paperback
- Language:
- English
- Pages:
- 342
- Dimensions:
- 803x515x88 80
