Think About It Halloween Party: World War Z
The Think About It Central Halloween Party continues today, guys, this time with a complete review of Max Brooks' new horror book... World War Z.
A few years ago, author Max Brooks came on the scene and got a lot of notice for The Zombie Survival Guide (my review of which you can read here), a tongue-in-cheek parody of survival manuals that was surprisingly detailed and logical in its presentation of the subject matter, the "inevitable" Zombie apocalypse from which the readers were to shield themselves. This year, Brooks takes a chilling step forward with World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. The new book is a genuinely frightening look at humanity's struggle for survival in a world overrun by a plague of the undead.
While this is ostensibly a chronicle of the same "universe" as the Survival Guide (one character even makes a brief reference to people using the earlier book to stay alive), this is a very different book. The subtle humor is gone, drained away and replaced by harrowing stories about the things people need to do to survive in this situation. Brooks disguises his fiction as a series of interviews with people who survived a decade-long war with the undead -- some by wit, some by virtue of being protected and some by dumb luck. He covers virtually every angle, from civilians to politicians to doctors and scientists, with many stories set aside for the soldiers, pilots and generals who fought the furious war. The book is global in its scope and well-organized, putting the stories in a more-or-less chronological order, beginning with the doctor who identified "Patient Zero," the earliest confirmed victim of the zombie virus that would engulf the world. We also touch upon the likes of a Japanese hacker so lost in his online world he didn't notice his country evacuating around him, a pilot downed in the Louisiana swamp who finds an unlikely savior, the druggist whose placebo made the plague even worse and the final fate of a South African politico who comes up with a horrible, inhumane strategy that may be the best bet for survival.
The book is a very unusual take on the Zombie genre. Most Zombie stories focus on a small group of survivors and never quite tell you how the plague began or how (or even if) it ends. World War Z, by the very conceit of how the story is told, lets you know from the beginning that the zombies are defeated (in a fashion). It's the many, many individual stories of survival that make up the book.
The book is also constructed in an unusual fashion. It's not quite a novel, there's no single narrative or climax you can pinpoint. Instead, the series of individual survival tales makes the book read almost like an anthology of short stories contributing to a greater narrative. This, too, is a necessity of the book's format, and it works. One of the things it does have in common with the Survival Guide, though, is its realism. For all its tongue-in-cheek nature, the Survival Guide was very well researched, presenting a convincing argument for how Zombies would behave in various environments, and even going so far as to discuss the benefits and drawbacks of different weapons, vehicles and other pieces of technology. World War Z continues this tradition, drawing on current real-world politics and events to paint a thoroughly convincing world and extrapolating how a zombie plague would impact various nations. Brooks presents a lot of really unusual, but totally convincing arguments for the futures of nations like Russia, Cuba, South Africa and -- of course -- the United States.
The geopolitical chronicle is really the core of the book, but the zombie plague is the trappings that makes it easy to swallow. Reading stories like the disastrous Battle of Yonkers, the plight of a Chinese sub that chose to go on the run or a little girl who evacuated north in the hopes of escaping the zombies through the frost all make this a unique book.
Any fan of the Zombie genre should rush out and read this book right away. It's a fantastic read, a really unique experience, and we can only hope that when the movie is made (yes, the film rights have already been optioned) they do this story justice.
A few years ago, author Max Brooks came on the scene and got a lot of notice for The Zombie Survival Guide (my review of which you can read here), a tongue-in-cheek parody of survival manuals that was surprisingly detailed and logical in its presentation of the subject matter, the "inevitable" Zombie apocalypse from which the readers were to shield themselves. This year, Brooks takes a chilling step forward with World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. The new book is a genuinely frightening look at humanity's struggle for survival in a world overrun by a plague of the undead.
While this is ostensibly a chronicle of the same "universe" as the Survival Guide (one character even makes a brief reference to people using the earlier book to stay alive), this is a very different book. The subtle humor is gone, drained away and replaced by harrowing stories about the things people need to do to survive in this situation. Brooks disguises his fiction as a series of interviews with people who survived a decade-long war with the undead -- some by wit, some by virtue of being protected and some by dumb luck. He covers virtually every angle, from civilians to politicians to doctors and scientists, with many stories set aside for the soldiers, pilots and generals who fought the furious war. The book is global in its scope and well-organized, putting the stories in a more-or-less chronological order, beginning with the doctor who identified "Patient Zero," the earliest confirmed victim of the zombie virus that would engulf the world. We also touch upon the likes of a Japanese hacker so lost in his online world he didn't notice his country evacuating around him, a pilot downed in the Louisiana swamp who finds an unlikely savior, the druggist whose placebo made the plague even worse and the final fate of a South African politico who comes up with a horrible, inhumane strategy that may be the best bet for survival.
The book is a very unusual take on the Zombie genre. Most Zombie stories focus on a small group of survivors and never quite tell you how the plague began or how (or even if) it ends. World War Z, by the very conceit of how the story is told, lets you know from the beginning that the zombies are defeated (in a fashion). It's the many, many individual stories of survival that make up the book.
The book is also constructed in an unusual fashion. It's not quite a novel, there's no single narrative or climax you can pinpoint. Instead, the series of individual survival tales makes the book read almost like an anthology of short stories contributing to a greater narrative. This, too, is a necessity of the book's format, and it works. One of the things it does have in common with the Survival Guide, though, is its realism. For all its tongue-in-cheek nature, the Survival Guide was very well researched, presenting a convincing argument for how Zombies would behave in various environments, and even going so far as to discuss the benefits and drawbacks of different weapons, vehicles and other pieces of technology. World War Z continues this tradition, drawing on current real-world politics and events to paint a thoroughly convincing world and extrapolating how a zombie plague would impact various nations. Brooks presents a lot of really unusual, but totally convincing arguments for the futures of nations like Russia, Cuba, South Africa and -- of course -- the United States.
The geopolitical chronicle is really the core of the book, but the zombie plague is the trappings that makes it easy to swallow. Reading stories like the disastrous Battle of Yonkers, the plight of a Chinese sub that chose to go on the run or a little girl who evacuated north in the hopes of escaping the zombies through the frost all make this a unique book.
Any fan of the Zombie genre should rush out and read this book right away. It's a fantastic read, a really unique experience, and we can only hope that when the movie is made (yes, the film rights have already been optioned) they do this story justice.