World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks. Has anyone read this book? This forum seems all too appropriate so I thought I would mention it. I read it on a whim - a friend had given it to me and it sat on my bookshelf for months until I picked it up a couple weeks ago. OMG, this is a great book. I never expected it. It is written very seriously, as if this actually occured.
The premise - a virus breaks out in a remote village in China which causes people to become ill and die but when they die they reanimate as Zombies. This virus spreads and spread until it has engulfed the entire world causing the Great Panic. Humans are at the brink of extinction, 600 million dead, cities gone, the Undead number in the millions. The book is written as a collection of interviews taken by a UN worker(the author) who travels the entire world interviewing people from high-ranking military personal to the Vice President of the US to a blind Japanese farmer to an astronaut who watched the whole thing on satellites from space. The most striking thing about this book is first the awesome amount of research Brooks obviously did about military weapons, geo-political issues, different cultural norms and governments, he doesn't miss a beat. He is dead on as he delves into the response of the military and the governements around the world as they deal with a world wide refugee problem - millions and millions of people heading north because Zombies freeze in the cold causing monumental traffic build-ups leaving people stuck in hundred mile long jams while the zombies swarm the cars and then the refugee camps encompassing thousands of starving people. The whole way of life changes. People who were once the business execs, the hedge-fund managers have no place in this world because they have no labor skills for rebuilding the infastructure so suddenly it is the blue-collar class who rises and before you know it Hollywood movie stars are in re-trainment camps being taught by their old cleaning ladies and gardners. When you think about it that makes perfect sense and I love it that Brooks writes about that aspect of what a huge disaster like this would cause.
The way he writes about the unprepardness of these institutions to handle this situation is almost prophetic from the mass denial, media irresponsibility, greed and governmental incompetence. The way the military battles are described taking place in Yonkers, at the foothills of the Rockies, on a bridge in India are awesome and exciting. The scenes he invokes of people trying to swim to already choked boats as the zombies(who don't have to breath so can survive underwater) are reaching up and pulling them under or a Chinese sub sitting on the bottom of the ocean being swarmed with zombies are vivid and scary.
You forget that zombies are not real. You can see them coming over the horizon with an arm missing, half their intestines hanging out, some of them with no legs, just pulling themselves along. The only way to kill them is the destroy the brain. They feel no pain, no fear and just keep going spurred on by their desire to consume flesh.
It is a really, really good book. I finished it in less than a week - I was reading on my lunch break, on the subway(in which I got plenty of amused looks - a female reading a book about a zombie war apparently is amusing to some), when I got home on the couch, when I went to bed. More than anything the zombies are a metaphor for some other huge disaster whether it is disease, war, natural disaster and that is what makes it so interesting. I just read it is in production by Brad Pitts production company slated for a 2008 theatrical release but do yourself a favor and read the book first.
I got my fiance to read it who laughed at me when I gave it to him and two days later he had finished it and was lamenting how he didn't want it to be over already. I wanted to share and couldn't think of a better place to find people who would appreciate a book about a world wide virus outbreak causing people to reanimate into zombies and the aftermath that ensues.
Enjoy! Here are a couple links.
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1535157,00.html
http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/worldwarz/
Full Version: World War Z
After learning that this was about Zombies, I think I shall leave the thread in slight disappointment.
The Z in the title had me expecting the presence of Goku.
The Z in the title had me expecting the presence of Goku.
QUOTE (Death Sticky @ Dec 3 2007, 06:47 PM) 
After learning that this was about Zombies, I think I shall leave the thread in slight disappointment.
The Z in the title had me expecting the presence of Goku.
The Z in the title had me expecting the presence of Goku.
QUOTE (gaia227 @ Dec 3 2007, 12:23 PM)
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks. Has anyone read this book? This forum seems all too appropriate so I thought I would mention it. I read it on a whim - a friend had given it to me and it sat on my bookshelf for months until I picked it up a couple weeks ago. OMG, this is a great book. I never expected it. It is written very seriously, as if this actually occured.
The premise - a virus breaks out in a remote village in China which causes people to become ill and die but when they die they reanimate as Zombies. This virus spreads and spread until it has engulfed the entire world causing the Great Panic. Humans are at the brink of extinction, 600 million dead, cities gone, the Undead number in the millions. The book is written as a collection of interviews taken by a UN worker(the author) who travels the entire world interviewing people from high-ranking military personal to the Vice President of the US to a blind Japanese farmer to an astronaut who watched the whole thing on satellites from space. The most striking thing about this book is first the awesome amount of research Brooks obviously did about military weapons, geo-political issues, different cultural norms and governments, he doesn't miss a beat. He is dead on as he delves into the response of the military and the governements around the world as they deal with a world wide refugee problem - millions and millions of people heading north because Zombies freeze in the cold causing monumental traffic build-ups leaving people stuck in hundred mile long jams while the zombies swarm the cars and then the refugee camps encompassing thousands of starving people. The whole way of life changes. People who were once the business execs, the hedge-fund managers have no place in this world because they have no labor skills for rebuilding the infastructure so suddenly it is the blue-collar class who rises and before you know it Hollywood movie stars are in re-trainment camps being taught by their old cleaning ladies and gardners. When you think about it that makes perfect sense and I love it that Brooks writes about that aspect of what a huge disaster like this would cause.
The way he writes about the unprepardness of these institutions to handle this situation is almost prophetic from the mass denial, media irresponsibility, greed and governmental incompetence. The way the military battles are described taking place in Yonkers, at the foothills of the Rockies, on a bridge in India are awesome and exciting. The scenes he invokes of people trying to swim to already choked boats as the zombies(who don't have to breath so can survive underwater) are reaching up and pulling them under or a Chinese sub sitting on the bottom of the ocean being swarmed with zombies are vivid and scary.
You forget that zombies are not real. You can see them coming over the horizon with an arm missing, half their intestines hanging out, some of them with no legs, just pulling themselves along. The only way to kill them is the destroy the brain. They feel no pain, no fear and just keep going spurred on by their desire to consume flesh.
It is a really, really good book. I finished it in less than a week - I was reading on my lunch break, on the subway(in which I got plenty of amused looks - a female reading a book about a zombie war apparently is amusing to some), when I got home on the couch, when I went to bed. More than anything the zombies are a metaphor for some other huge disaster whether it is disease, war, natural disaster and that is what makes it so interesting. I just read it is in production by Brad Pitts production company slated for a 2008 theatrical release but do yourself a favor and read the book first.
I got my fiance to read it who laughed at me when I gave it to him and two days later he had finished it and was lamenting how he didn't want it to be over already. I wanted to share and couldn't think of a better place to find people who would appreciate a book about a world wide virus outbreak causing people to reanimate into zombies and the aftermath that ensues.
Enjoy! Here are a couple links.
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1535157,00.html
http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/worldwarz/
The premise - a virus breaks out in a remote village in China which causes people to become ill and die but when they die they reanimate as Zombies. This virus spreads and spread until it has engulfed the entire world causing the Great Panic. Humans are at the brink of extinction, 600 million dead, cities gone, the Undead number in the millions. The book is written as a collection of interviews taken by a UN worker(the author) who travels the entire world interviewing people from high-ranking military personal to the Vice President of the US to a blind Japanese farmer to an astronaut who watched the whole thing on satellites from space. The most striking thing about this book is first the awesome amount of research Brooks obviously did about military weapons, geo-political issues, different cultural norms and governments, he doesn't miss a beat. He is dead on as he delves into the response of the military and the governements around the world as they deal with a world wide refugee problem - millions and millions of people heading north because Zombies freeze in the cold causing monumental traffic build-ups leaving people stuck in hundred mile long jams while the zombies swarm the cars and then the refugee camps encompassing thousands of starving people. The whole way of life changes. People who were once the business execs, the hedge-fund managers have no place in this world because they have no labor skills for rebuilding the infastructure so suddenly it is the blue-collar class who rises and before you know it Hollywood movie stars are in re-trainment camps being taught by their old cleaning ladies and gardners. When you think about it that makes perfect sense and I love it that Brooks writes about that aspect of what a huge disaster like this would cause.
The way he writes about the unprepardness of these institutions to handle this situation is almost prophetic from the mass denial, media irresponsibility, greed and governmental incompetence. The way the military battles are described taking place in Yonkers, at the foothills of the Rockies, on a bridge in India are awesome and exciting. The scenes he invokes of people trying to swim to already choked boats as the zombies(who don't have to breath so can survive underwater) are reaching up and pulling them under or a Chinese sub sitting on the bottom of the ocean being swarmed with zombies are vivid and scary.
You forget that zombies are not real. You can see them coming over the horizon with an arm missing, half their intestines hanging out, some of them with no legs, just pulling themselves along. The only way to kill them is the destroy the brain. They feel no pain, no fear and just keep going spurred on by their desire to consume flesh.
It is a really, really good book. I finished it in less than a week - I was reading on my lunch break, on the subway(in which I got plenty of amused looks - a female reading a book about a zombie war apparently is amusing to some), when I got home on the couch, when I went to bed. More than anything the zombies are a metaphor for some other huge disaster whether it is disease, war, natural disaster and that is what makes it so interesting. I just read it is in production by Brad Pitts production company slated for a 2008 theatrical release but do yourself a favor and read the book first.
I got my fiance to read it who laughed at me when I gave it to him and two days later he had finished it and was lamenting how he didn't want it to be over already. I wanted to share and couldn't think of a better place to find people who would appreciate a book about a world wide virus outbreak causing people to reanimate into zombies and the aftermath that ensues.
Enjoy! Here are a couple links.
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1535157,00.html
http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/worldwarz/
The read was ok..
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