Book Review -- The Zombie Survival Guide (2003)
Author: Max Brooks
From time to time, we may enjoy watching movies or shows featuring the war on zombies. Perhaps we enjoy them so much that we think we know them already. This belief is probably far from true, but do not fear. Should the catastrophic day come when we must fight the undead ourselves, we can decide the best techniques for our respective combat situations. Thanks to Max Brooks's exhaustive survival manual via horror fiction, nobody should excuse themselves from entering combat unprepared.
Logically, the book starts with explaining the creation and possible origin of zombies. Brooks's bizarre theory makes just as much sense as any movie you've seen. Basically, they just showed up somewhere and started raising hell. Although, he does add "scientific" backup to it, explaining the theory of the Solanum virus, which must be passed to a living creature for it to reanimate into a zombie. Once this happens, the brain remains dormant as the virus mutates its cells into a new organ, and is independent from oxygen. This theory is far fetched to say the least, but it's all we have to work with while we search for something probably even more far fetched.
The quick introduction of the physiological nature of zombies has its shining moments, namely the details of their proposed physical and mental capabilities. After this section, though, comes the real good reading: weapons. Everyone by now probably has their favorite weapon for a theoretical battle with zombies, but how does it apply in all scenarios? Brooks goes to great lengths in explaining the affectiveness of nearly all sorts of blades, firearms, bludgeons, explosives, slings and arrows, and more. While survivors of a zombie raid can fall for the temptation to find the biggest and baddest machine gun and start to rock and roll, unfortunately that may make them just another zombie. Brooks's applications of possible weapons will guide readers to making appropriate choices under his or her circumstances.
Following that, the various scenarios of zombie outbreaks and possible living situations is as entertaining and visually exciting as it is important to study. How large is the crisis? Can you manage to live in your home, or will you have to go on the run? This particular section of the book can really slow the pacing of the book since not all situations will apply to every reader, and quite frankly some look like downright nonsense. Perhaps this exhaustiveness comes from a genuine care for Brooks's readers, but suffice to say, unless you plan on going underwater zombie hunting or move to the arctic regions of the world, you can probably just skip it.
The inclusion of (I hope) fictional recorded zombie attacks can also serve for your education of surviving an attack. It serves to educate those reading on how to not make the same mistakes several seem to repeat, and follow the crafty ways of those who live to tell their tales of the undead. Also, as a nice gesture, there is an Outbreak Journal in the back of the book so you can record your findings of mysterious murders or missing persons near you.
What could be a major bomb of a joke actually turns out to be a goldmine of tongue-in-cheek humor. Brooks manages to keep a sense of realism in the all but realistic nature of zombies taking over the world. The extensive explanations of how to fight and survive them make him out to be the expert of experts, to the point where it can be tempting to imagine yourself in the scenarios he depicts. His tone remains as serious as a survival manual should, avoiding a string of easy jokes that anybody could throw in, which in turn makes the book excel as dark humor. Or is it?
Find this book and read it, or feel a set of rotting teeth sink into your neck.
A