The Stay-In Weather Sale: 20% off select books
Used, New, and Out of Print Books - We Buy and Sell - Powell's Books
Cart |
|  my account  |  wish list  |  help   |  800-878-7323
Hello, | Login
MENU
  • Browse
    • New Arrivals
    • Bestsellers
    • Award Winners
    • Signed Editions
    • Digital Audio Books
    • See All Subjects
  • Used
  • Staff Picks
    • Staff Picks
    • Picks of the Month
    • Book Club Subscriptions
    • 25 PNW Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books From the 21st Century
    • 25 Memoirs to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Global Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Women to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books to Read Before You Die
  • Gifts
    • Gift Cards & eGift Cards
    • Powell's Souvenirs
    • Read Rise Resist Gear
    • Journals & Notebooks
    • Games
    • Socks
  • Sell Books
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Find A Store
McAfee Secure

Don't Miss

  • Looking Forward Sale
  • The Stay-In Weather Sale
  • Indiespensable 90:
    My Year Abroad
  • Our 2021 TBR List
  • Powell's Virtual Events
  • Oregon Battle of the Books

Visit Our Stores


Emily B.: Black History Month 2021: Black Women in Science (0 comment)
The books below are a starting point for delving into the scientific legacy of Black women around the world and for inspiring the next generation to follow in their footsteps...
Read More»
  • Rhianna Walton: Black History Month 2021: Rethinking the Classics (0 comment)
  • Rachel Marks: No Bull, Just Books: Recommendations for the Year of the Ox (1 comment)

{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##

World War Z an Oral History of the Zombie War

by Max Brooks
World War Z an Oral History of the Zombie War

  • Comment on this title
  • Synopses & Reviews
  • Read an Excerpt

ISBN13: 9780307346612
ISBN10: 0307346617
Condition: Standard


All Product Details

View Larger ImageView Larger Images
$10.95
Used Trade Paperback
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Cart
Add to Wishlist
QtyStore
7Burnside
3Local Warehouse

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

WARNINGS GREATER CHONGQING, THE UNITED FEDERATION OF CHINA [At its prewar height, this region boasted a population of over thirty-five million people. Now, there are barely fifty thousand. Reconstruction funds have been slow to arrive in this part of the country, the government choosing to concentrate on the more densely populated coast. There is no central power grid, no running water besides the Yangtze River. But the streets are clear of rubble and the local "security council" has prevented any postwar outbreaks. The chairman of that council is Kwang Jingshu, a medical doctor who, despite his advanced age and wartime injuries, still manages to make house calls to all his patients.] The first outbreak I saw was in a remote village that officially had no name. The residents called it "New Dachang," but this was more out of nostalgia than anything else. Their former home, "Old Dachang," had stood since the period of the Three Kingdoms, with farms and houses and even trees said to be centuries old. When the Three Gorges Dam was completed, and reservoir waters began to rise, much of Dachang had been disassembled, brick by brick, then rebuilt on higher ground. This New Dachang, however, was not a town anymore, but a "national historic museum." It must have been a heartbreaking irony for those poor peasants, to see their town saved but then only being able to visit it as a tourist. Maybe that is why some of them chose to name their newly constructed hamlet "New Dachang" to preserve some connection to their heritage, even if it was only in name. I personally didn't know that this other New Dachang existed, so you can imagine how confused I was when the call came in. The hospital was quiet; it had been a slow night, even for the increasing number of drunk-driving accidents. Motorcycles were becoming very popular. We used to say that your Harley-Davidsons killed more young Chinese than all the GIs in the Korean War. That's why I was so grateful for a quiet shift. I was tired, my back and feet ached. I was on my way out to smoke a cigarette and watch the dawn when I heard my name being paged. The receptionist that night was new and couldn't quite understand the dialect. There had been an accident, or an illness. It was an emergency, that part was obvious, and could we please send help at once. What could I say? The younger doctors, the kids who think medicine is just a way to pad their bank accounts, they certainly weren't going to go help some "nongmin" just for the sake of helping. I guess I'm still an old revolutionary at heart. "Our duty is to hold ourselves responsible to the people." Those words still mean something to me . . . and I tried to remember that as my Deer bounced and banged over dirt roads the government had promised but never quite gotten around to paving. I had a devil of a time finding the place. Officially, it didn't exist and therefore wasn't on any map. I became lost several times and had to ask directions from locals who kept thinking I meant the museum town. I was in an impatient mood by the time I reached the small collection of hilltop homes. I remember thinking, This had better be damned serious. Once I saw their faces, I regretted my wish. There were seven of them, all on cots, all barely conscious. The villagers had moved them into their new communal meeting hall. The walls and floor were bare cement. The air was cold and damp. Of course they're sick, I thought. I asked the villagers who had been taking care of these people. They said no one, it wasn't "safe." I noticed that the door had been locked from the outside. The villagers were clearly terrified. They cringed and whispered; some kept their distance and prayed. Their behavior made me angry, not at them, you understand, not as individuals, but what they represented about our country. After centuries of foreign oppression, exploitation, and humiliation, we were finally reclaiming our rightful place as humanity's middle kingdom. We were the world's richest and most dynamic superpower, masters of everything from outer space to cyber space. It was the dawn of what the world was finally acknowledging as "The Chinese Century" and yet so many of us still lived like these ignorant peasants, as stagnant and superstitious as the earliest Yangshao savages. I was still lost in my grand, cultural criticism when I knelt to examine the first patient. She was running a high fever, forty degrees centigrade, and she was shivering violently. Barely coherent, she whimpered slightly when I tried to move her limbs. There was a wound in her right forearm, a bite mark. As I examined it more closely, I realized that it wasn't from an animal. The bite radius and teeth marks had to have come from a small, or possibly young, human being. Although I hypothesized this to be the source of the infection, the actual injury was surprisingly clean. I asked the villagers, again, who had been taking care of these people. Again, they told me no one. I knew this could not be true. The human mouth is packed with bacteria, even more so than the most unhygienic dog. If no one had cleaned this woman's wound, why wasn't it throbbing with infection? I examined the six other patients. All showed similar symptoms, all had similar wounds on various parts of their bodies. I asked one man, the most lucid of the group, who or what had inflicted these injuries. He told me it had happened when they had tried to subdue "him." "Who?" I asked. I found "Patient Zero" behind the locked door of an abandoned house across town. He was twelve years old. 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, not on the gouges on his legs or arms, or from the large dry gap where his right big toe had been. 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 as cold and gray as the cement on which he lay. I could find neither his heartbeat nor his pulse. His eyes were wild, wide and sunken back in their sockets. They remained locked on me like a predatory beast. Throughout the examination he was inexplicably hostile, reaching for me with his bound hands and snapping at me through his gag. His movements were so violent I had to call for two of the largest villagers to help me hold him down. Initially they wouldn't budge, cowering in the doorway like baby rabbits. I explained that there was no risk of infection if they used gloves and masks. When they shook their heads, I made it an order, even though I had no lawful authority to do so. That was all it took. The two oxen knelt beside me. One held the boy's feet while the other grasped his hands. I tried to take a blood sample and instead extracted only brown, viscous matter. As I was withdrawing the needle, the boy began another bout of violent struggling. One of my "orderlies," the one responsible for his arms, gave up trying to hold them and thought it might safer if he just braced them against the floor with his knees. But the boy jerked again and I heard his left arm snap. Jagged ends of both radius and ulna bones stabbed through his gray flesh. Although the boy didn't cry out, didn't even seem to notice, it was enough for both assistants to leap back and run from the room. I instinctively retreated several paces myself. I am embarrassed to admit this; I have been a doctor for most of my adult life. I was trained and . . . you could even say "raised" by the People's Liberation Army. I've treated more than my share of combat injuries, faced my own death on more than one occasion, and now I was scared, truly scared, of this frail child. The boy began to twist in my direction, his arm ripped completely free. Flesh and muscle tore from one another until there was nothing except the stump. His now free right arm, still tied to the severed left hand, dragged his body across the floor. I hurried outside, locking the door behind me. I tried to compose myself, control my fear and shame. My voice still cracked as I asked the villagers how the boy had been infected. No one answered. I began to hear banging on the door, the boy's fist pounding weakly against the thin wood. It was all I could do not to jump at the sound. I prayed they would not notice the color draining from my face. I shouted, as much from fear as frustration, that I had to know what happened to this child. A young woman came forward, maybe his mother. You could tell that she had been crying for days; her eyes were dry and deeply red. She admitted that it had happened when the boy and his father were "moon fishing," a term that describes diving for treasure among the sunken ruins of the Three Gorges Reservoir. With more than eleven hundred abandoned villages, towns, and even cities, there was always the hope of recovering something valuable. It was a very common practice in those days, and also very illegal. She explained that they weren't looting, that it was their own village, Old Dachang, and they were just trying to recover some heirlooms from the remaining houses that hadn't been moved. She repeated the point, and I had to interrupt her with promises not to inform the police. She finally explained that the boy came up crying with a bite mark on his foot. He didn't know what had happened, the water had been too dark and muddy. His father was never seen again. I reached for my cell phone and dialed the number of Doctor Gu Wen Kuei, an old comrade from my army days who now worked at the Institute of Infectious Diseases at Chongqing University. We exchanged pleasantries, discussing our health, our grandchildren; it was only proper. I then told him about the outbreak and listened as he made some joke about the hygiene habits of hillbillies. I tried to chuckle along but continued that I thought the incident might be significant. Almost reluctantly he asked me what the symptoms were. I told him everything: the bites, the fever, the boy, the arm . . . his face suddenly stiffened. His smile died. He asked me to show him the infected. I went back into the meeting hall and waved the phone's camera over each of the patients. He asked me to move the camera closer to some of the wounds themselves. I did so and when I brought the screen back to my face, I saw that his video image had been cut. "Stay where you are," he said, just a distant, removed voice now. "Take the names of all who have had contact with the infected. Restrain those already infected. If any have passed into coma, vacate the room and secure the exit." His voice was flat, robotic, as if he had rehearsed this speech or was reading from something. He asked me, "Are you armed?" "Why would I be?" I asked. He told me he would get back to me, all business again. He said he had to make a few calls and that I should expect "support" within several hours. They were there in less than one, fifty men in large army Z-8A helicopters; all were wearing hazardous materials suits. They said they were from the Ministry of Health. I don't know who they thought they were kidding. With their bullying swagger, their intimidating arrogance, even these backwater bumpkins could recognize the Guoanbu. Their first priority was the meeting hall. The patients were carried out on stretchers, their limbs shackled, their mouths gagged. Next, they went for the boy. He came out in a body bag. His mother was wailing as she and the rest of the village were rounded up for "examinations." Their names were taken, their blood drawn. One by one they were stripped and photographed. The last one to be exposed was a withered old woman. She had a thin, crooked body, a face with a thousand lines and tiny feet that had to have been bound when she was a girl. She was shaking her bony fist at the "doctors." "This is your punishment!" she shouted. "This is revenge for Fengdu!" She was referring to the City of Ghosts, whose temples and shrines were dedicated to the underworld. Like Old Dachang, it had been an unlucky obstacle to China's next Great Leap Forward. It had been evacuated, then demolished, then almost entirely drowned. I've never been a superstitious person and I've never allowed myself to be hooked on the opiate of the people. I'm a doctor, a scientist. I believe only in what I can see and touch. I've never seen Fengdu as anything but a cheap, kitschy tourist trap. Of course this ancient crone's words had no effect on me, but her tone, her anger . . . she had witnessed enough calamity in her years upon the earth: the warlords, the Japanese, the insane nightmare of the Cultural Revolution . . . she knew that another storm was coming, even if she didn't have the education to understand it. My colleague Dr. Kuei had understood all too well. He'd even risked his neck to warn me, to give me enough time to call and maybe alert a few others before the "Ministry of Health" arrived. It was something he had said . . . a phrase he hadn't used in a very long time, not since those "minor" border clashes with the Soviet Union. That was back in 1969. We had been in an earthen bunker on our side of the Ussuri, less than a kilometer downriver from Chen Bao. The Russians were preparing to retake the island, their massive artillery hammering our forces. Gu and I had been trying to remove shrapnel from the belly of this soldier not much younger than us. The boy's lower intestines had been torn open, his blood and excrement were all over our gowns. Every seven seconds a round would land close by and we would have to bend over his body to shield the wound from falling earth, and every time we would be close enough to hear him whimper softly for his mother. There were other voices, too, rising from the pitch darkness just beyond the entrance to our bunker, desperate, angry voices that weren't supposed to be on our side of the river. We had two infantrymen stationed at the bunker's entrance.

From the Hardcover edition.

Review

"[H]orror fans won't be disappointed." Booklist

Review

"[E]ven Michael Stipe, the antiwar rock singer, signs up to kick zombie butt." Kirkus Reviews

Review

"[A]ddictively readable....The sheer number of voices...that Brooks channels is impressive, and the abundance of movie-ready scenes...is geekily cool....[A] debut that will grab you as tightly as a dead man's fist. (Grade: A)" Entertainment Weekly (Editor's Pick)

Review

"Possesses more creativity and zip than entire crates of other new fiction titles. Think Mad Max meets The Hot Zone... It's Apocalypse Now, pandemic-style. Creepy but fascinating." USA TODAY

Review

"Probably the most topical and literate scare since Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio broadcast.... This is action-packed social-political satire with a global view." Dallas Morning News

Review

"Each story locks together perfectly to create a wonderful, giddy suspense. Brooks also has the political savvy to take advantage of any paranoia a modern reader might feel.... The perfect book for all us zombie junkies." Paste

Review

"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)

Synopsis

9/12/16 is the Tenth Anniversary of World War Z s publication

We survived the zombie apocalypse, but how many of us are still haunted by that terrible time? We have (temporarily?) defeated the living dead, but at what cost? Told in the haunting and riveting voices of the men and women who witnessed the horror firsthand, World War Z, a #1New York Timesbestseller and the basis for the blockbuster movie, is the only record of the plague years."

Synopsis

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - "Prepare to be entranced by this addictively readable oral history of the great war between humans and zombies."--Entertainment Weekly

We survived the zombie apocalypse, but how many of us are still haunted by that terrible time? We have (temporarily?) defeated the living dead, but at what cost? Told in the haunting and riveting voices of the men and women who witnessed the horror firsthand, World War Z is the only record of the apocalyptic years.

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, 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.

THE INSPIRATION FOR THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE

"Will spook you for real."--The New York Times Book Review

"Possesses more creativity and zip than entire crates of other new fiction titles. Think Mad Max meets The Hot Zone. . . . It's Apocalypse Now, pandemic-style. Creepy but fascinating."--USA Today

"Will grab you as tightly as a dead man's fist. A."--Entertainment Weekly, EW Pick

"Probably the most topical and literate scare since Orson Welles's War of the Worlds radio broadcast . . . This is action-packed social-political satire with a global view."--Dallas Morning News

Synopsis

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

Synopsis

Just in time for the release of the blockbuster Summer movie, World War Z, this boxed set includes two New York Times bestsellers from Max Brooks: World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide. The box features line art from the graphic novel, Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks. 

About the Author

MAX BROOKS' previous book, The Zombie Survival Guide, formed the core of the world’s civilian survival manuals during the Zombie War. Mr. Brooks subsequently spent years traveling to every part of the globe in order to conduct the face-to-face interviews that have been incorporated into this present publication.

4.5 21

What Our Readers Are Saying

Share your thoughts on this title!
Average customer rating 4.5 (21 comments)

`
Gold Gato , August 13, 2013 (view all comments by Gold Gato)
MISTAKES MADE WHILE READING THIS BOOK 1. It was past dusk, the wind had suddenly kicked up, and the doors started creaking. Not good. 2. The neighborhood dogs all started howling at once and I didn't immediately get up to see what was happening. 3. I was pretty confident my house was zombie-proofed...I am apparently wrong. 4. I realized I am the only person in America who doesn't own a gun. I am so screwed. 5. "Siafu". These are the Army Ants who will crawl over each other to get to their prey. I stupidly wiki'd the name. 6. One of the telly channels broadcasted the original NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD...three times in one week. I watched all three showings. And I only turn on the TV a few times a month. The good news is that this is just a book. Even though it hints of total environmental destruction (Brooks' zombies eat everything, even moles) brought on by lazy human self-entitlement (American suburbs, we need to talk) and ambitious greed (China, looking straight at ya), it's still a book. Brooks uses a potential virus-driven plague (Spanish Flu, you're on my hit list) to ignite this tale of zombies on a planetary destruction mode. I completely bought into it. It's written by "survivors" of the Zombie War (ala Studs Terkel) and features characters based on real-world leaders (our Queen emulates her father by staying, Colin Powell is the Big Guy President). The sad part is that I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, so it will be hard to figure out who's really who when the zekes start moaning. Book Season = Summer (safer by the beach...although they can come out of the water)

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(5 of 6 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

`
Naomi Amaya , January 02, 2013
This book is written as interviews telling the story of World War Z, from beginning to end. Mr. Brooks is amazing with description so much so that I was consumed by his words; as though I was the interviewer and the various individuals were telling me what they saw or what they went through. At times this book was scary and for a while I thought perhaps I needed to get my butt back to my local shooting range and log practice hours to hone my targeting skills. But, it's supposed to be fiction, right? (nervous laugh) I highly recommend this book, it is not the cheesy zombie story of old. To me, the main message is "fear and panic" and how it will, would be or is, the greatest weakness of the human race.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(2 of 4 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

`
Max , December 27, 2012 (view all comments by Max)
I don't read books about zombies, or war for that matter. This book sat on my bedside table for months until I finished every other novel I had, and I finally picked it up to check it out. I am so glad I did! It was utterly gripping, complexly political, and beautifully realized. While there is not a long enough focus on any character to become attached or see development, in the composite picture built up through vignettes the world is itself a character, and we witness its ending and rebirth. You will not be able to put this book down.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(1 of 3 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

`
Catherine L Mommsen , September 20, 2012 (view all comments by Catherine L Mommsen)
Post-apocalyptic zombies. I know, I know. Sounds pretty far out there, right? Well, it is. However, the well written and engaging story is pinned upon current-day social and political realities. A story of short-sighted isolationism and survival. I loved this book enough to buy it.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

report this comment

`
IAMNERO , August 31, 2012
It was a decent book, a series of short stories describing the even after the fact. I think it could have had more details and a wider array of experiences and the ending was a little weak. But all in all a decent, quick read.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

report this comment

`
j_l_belcher , August 06, 2012
Writers and filmmakers love using zombies as metaphors. Brooks takes a different approach, treating the zombies in a serious manner, using the humans in the story to make his socio-political points. You'll read about the Hollywood set holed up in a producer's mansion in a reality zombie survivalist show (really bad idea), among others. A solidly entertaining and worthwhile read.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

report this comment

`
TMC , January 19, 2012
I am not a zombie fan, but this book had me hooked right away! It was not only well written, but has a unique and involved story. The plot and the characters you meet keep your attention; you will most definitely want to read late into the night! It is really entertaining, I recommend it to all of my friends!

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

report this comment

`
B2bee , January 03, 2012 (view all comments by B2bee)
Wow. This book gave me the creeps. Thank God for fiction.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

report this comment

`
lcjalligator , September 20, 2011 (view all comments by lcjalligator)
OK, so I felt obligated to read it because my high-school-aged brother-in-law always reads books I recommend, and then he bought a copy of this for me. I finally read it, and I have to admit that I enjoyed it. I definitely liked the format for the book, which is a journalist driven report that spans the globe while weaving the tale of before the outbreak, the ensuing battle, and the aftermath. Yes, it's definitely a zombie book, but you have to remember that most zombie books don't become New York Times Bestseller's as this one did.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

report this comment

`
greg_palermo , September 18, 2011
I really like this book because it is a great description of a zombie war.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(0 of 1 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

`
GreenCat8 , January 03, 2011
A fantastic choice for any zombie fan/“believer”. Real and gritty, this book is written as though the worst has happened… A zombie apocalypse. Written after the event, the book follows how this mysterious and terrible event occurred and how it was handled—Good and bad… Politically, socially and economically through “interviews” from families, military officials, doctors and even smugglers who tell their brutal tale of survival, sickness, devastation and for some, healing… As well as what part they played in it. Each person’s view is candid; their feelings are vivid and poignant. Want to know what a real zombie apocalypse would be like and the how the world would recover? How people would? This is the book for you. A very well written and engaging read! Makes one think… What if…

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(2 of 4 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

`
Katie Walker , November 27, 2010 (view all comments by Katie Walker)
I loved the way this book just sucked me into the story. There were times when I could have sworn I was going to turn on the TV and see news about zombie attacks. Definitely, one of the best books I have ever read.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(2 of 4 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

`
Topher , September 07, 2010
My first delve into the post-apocalyptic genre has not left me disappointed. Post Zombie-War world portrayed through a series of personal interviews giving their first hand experience during, and after, the outbreak. I finished the book in about one sitting; the change in writing style, to depict different characters telling stories, kept me very engaged and entertained; monotonous is not something this book can be labeled. While the genre is definitely not for everyone, if you enjoy it, or want to take a stab, this is an excellent place to start. But be prepared for something different. :)

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(2 of 4 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

`
Angela Fuller , January 07, 2010 (view all comments by Angela Fuller)
By turns chilling and thought provoking, this book is a serious look at what a "zombie war" truly would do to civilization. This book is told in a series of hundreds of personal stories from around the world, tied together by the person interviewing them all. The reader is drawn in by each and every one of these stories. I have to say this was a book I wasn't expecting to take very seriously, and it ended up being one I can't stop thinking about.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(1 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

`
lilliehome , January 01, 2010
Funny, creepy and very memorable. Once I started reading it I couldn't put it down.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(1 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

`
Joe Anderson , January 01, 2010
I have gone through two copies of this book, and am on my third. I have loaned it out to so many people and given it away as gifts and read it myself so many times, it is definitely my favorite book of the decade.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(2 of 3 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

`
heinodj , April 20, 2009
Best Zombie book ever. Max Brooks is the Zombie Pro. If you love zombies this is the book for you!!! Also if you read Zombie Survival Guide you would like this book even more!!

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(6 of 9 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

`
relda666 , August 11, 2008 (view all comments by relda666)
This is an excellent book! It varies greatly from Brook's former How to Survive a Zombie Attack, however. You could find the humor in the first, this one is much darker, much more a horror novel than the first. You almost get the feeling that you are reading a true history.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(4 of 17 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

`
expectdelays , April 09, 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.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(9 of 14 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

`
phoogoo , December 04, 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.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(20 of 33 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

`
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

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No

(23 of 42 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment

View all 21 comments


Product Details

ISBN:
9780307346612
Binding:
Trade Paperback
Publication date:
10/16/2007
Publisher:
PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE
Language:
English
Pages:
342
Height:
1.00IN
Width:
5.10IN
Thickness:
1.00
Age Range:
13 to 17
Grade Range:
8 to 12
Number of Units:
7
Copyright Year:
2006
UPC Code:
2800307346614
Author:
Max Brooks
Author:
Max Brooks
Subject:
War stories
Subject:
General Fiction
Subject:
Horror fiction
Subject:
Zombies
Subject:
Popular Fiction-Military

Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$10.95
List Price:$17.00
Used Trade Paperback
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
QtyStore
7Burnside
3Local Warehouse

More copies of this ISBN

  • New, Trade Paperback, $17.00

This title in other editions

  • New, Compact Disc, $14.95
  • New, Hardcover, $28.00
  • Used, Compact Disc, $10.50
  • Used, Hardcover, $11.95
  • Used, Mass Market, $6.95
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram

Stay Connected

Keep up on the best new books, timely features, and special offers.
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram

Help

  • Contact Us
  • Help Topics
  • Guarantee
  • Shipping
  • Store Pickup
  • Terms

Explore

  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Store Locations
  • Events
  • Gift Cards
  • Sitemap

Account

  • My Account
  • Used Book Alerts
  • Wish List
  • Partners
  • Security
  • © 2021 POWELLS.COM
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##