Hardcover, 352 pages
English language
Published Sept. 12, 2006 by Crown.
“The end was near.” —Voices from the Zombie War
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 …
“The end was near.” —Voices from the Zombie War
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’?”
I listened to the audiobook and really liked the performances of all of the voice actors. I'm not sure I would have liked the book as much if I'd read it, but having it 'acted' out made it very enjoyable.
I can't believe how much I enjoyed this book. It was recommended to me so I thought I'd give it a go, I had already seen the movie but very little in the movie is in the book.
This book is just a collection of interviews of people who survived the War, sounds pretty dull but it makes for a brilliantly gripping book.
Best book I've read in 2013.
This book was recommended to me by no one, and yet somehow it's the 3rd post-apocalypse story I've read in a row.
I thought it was terrific; the narrative conceit is basically a semi-official recounting of the zombie war through interviews. Each interview is brief, telling stories of death and survival from a completely different point of view, gradually revealing the bigger picture.
The end result is a high quality set of parables that will stick with me for a long time. I haven't seen the film, but now I intend to, I can't imagine how they accomplish telling this story.
Zombies vs. the living. The living win. Pretty straightforward. Mildly curious to see how they turned it into a movie, since it's really just a bunch of mostly disjointed interviews.
I was surprised by this one. A zombie book but it was actually pretty well written, captured reasonably well a large variety of voices, and lent an interesting point of perspective on a zombie apocalypse. Instead of being a frantic narrative account of growing danger and frantic action, the narrative reflections created a distance from the events and allowed the characters to recreate their feelings about living through the events. Strangely, some of the most important points of the book, such as the most important policy in combating the zombies involved saving some of the population while leaving the rest behind as bait, were almost throwaway comments in some of the narratives.
I did 'read' this one through the audio version (an all star cast and one of the best done audio books I've read). Brooks did a reasonably well job of creating a wide variety of characters from many …
I was surprised by this one. A zombie book but it was actually pretty well written, captured reasonably well a large variety of voices, and lent an interesting point of perspective on a zombie apocalypse. Instead of being a frantic narrative account of growing danger and frantic action, the narrative reflections created a distance from the events and allowed the characters to recreate their feelings about living through the events. Strangely, some of the most important points of the book, such as the most important policy in combating the zombies involved saving some of the population while leaving the rest behind as bait, were almost throwaway comments in some of the narratives.
I did 'read' this one through the audio version (an all star cast and one of the best done audio books I've read). Brooks did a reasonably well job of creating a wide variety of characters from many different countries and cultures, but I'm not sure that that wasn't a result of the excellent performances on the audio book rather than skilful writing.
I'm also not entirely comfortable with the politics embedded in the narrative or sure what that is supposed to say or comment about present day politics. Whether that is Chinese democracy, Cuban triumphs, the failures/successes of various militaries, the successes/failures of various armed/unarmed populations, and the prepreparedness to tackle a zombie invasion.
But an entertaining read and surprisingly well done one for a zombie novel.
I can think of nothing wrong with this book, and it surprised me with its ability to evoke emotions beyond just your regular garden-variety dread and fear from zombies.
Et donc, en plein visionnage de la saison 2 de The Walking Dead, me voilà prise d’une envie de zombie. Dans World War Z, l’action se situe plusieurs années après la fin de la guerre contre les zombies, le narrateur parcourt le monde et rencontre des individus ayant vécu la guerre en tant qu’acteur ou spectateur. Au fil des nombreux témoignages recueillis, on en apprend beaucoup sur le début de l’épidémie, son expansion, et les premiers affrontements. Les différents récits et points de vue donne un éclairage à plusieurs niveaux, géopolitique, économique et financier, humain et social et psychologique. Les réactions face à la crise (ici, l’invasion de zombies, mais cela pourrait être n’importe quelle catastrophe réelle), de la part des individus ou des gouvernements, sont rarement à la hauteur. Ces derniers sont tous plus ou moins incapables de faire face à ce qu’ils ne comprennent pas, leur gestion du …
Et donc, en plein visionnage de la saison 2 de The Walking Dead, me voilà prise d’une envie de zombie. Dans World War Z, l’action se situe plusieurs années après la fin de la guerre contre les zombies, le narrateur parcourt le monde et rencontre des individus ayant vécu la guerre en tant qu’acteur ou spectateur. Au fil des nombreux témoignages recueillis, on en apprend beaucoup sur le début de l’épidémie, son expansion, et les premiers affrontements. Les différents récits et points de vue donne un éclairage à plusieurs niveaux, géopolitique, économique et financier, humain et social et psychologique. Les réactions face à la crise (ici, l’invasion de zombies, mais cela pourrait être n’importe quelle catastrophe réelle), de la part des individus ou des gouvernements, sont rarement à la hauteur. Ces derniers sont tous plus ou moins incapables de faire face à ce qu’ils ne comprennent pas, leur gestion du fléau laissant longtemps à désirer, avant de pouvoir réagir efficacement.
Malgré un démarrage efficace et accrocheur, le principe du recueil de témoignages n’a pas répondu à mes espérances. L’auteur nous propose une accumulation de points de vue certes très pertinents, le principe et la forme du roman sont vraiment brillants, le propos de fond est assez poussé, et malgré tout, malgré quelques épisodes assez prenants mais trop rares, l’ensemble m’a profondément ennuyée. De nombreux témoignages sont d’une froideur quasi-militaire, et les récits concernant les tactiques de combats sont carrément soporifiques. Dans le genre froid, impersonnel, j’ai nettement préféré La submersion du Japon, beaucoup plus captivante malgré ses allures de rapport scientifique. Ma curiosité déclare forfait à tout de même 70% du livre.
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Too much history book and not enough novel.
An interesting and fun take on the zombie apocalypse. It was an easy read and I was able to experience the terror and chaos of the war through the character narratives. Some character narratives were easier to get into than others, but they all shared a common theme of how they dealt with the war. Focusing on characters at specific events of the war gave the story a very human aspect, and this book could have easily been people describing another outbreak or catastrophic event.
The zombie war was a terrible event and they proved to be a challenging foe, but what I enjoyed about the story was how people bonded over this world altering event. The world stood together and worked towards defeating something as a team. This isn't a theme I thought I would find in a book like this but I was pleasantly surprised by the human …
An interesting and fun take on the zombie apocalypse. It was an easy read and I was able to experience the terror and chaos of the war through the character narratives. Some character narratives were easier to get into than others, but they all shared a common theme of how they dealt with the war. Focusing on characters at specific events of the war gave the story a very human aspect, and this book could have easily been people describing another outbreak or catastrophic event.
The zombie war was a terrible event and they proved to be a challenging foe, but what I enjoyed about the story was how people bonded over this world altering event. The world stood together and worked towards defeating something as a team. This isn't a theme I thought I would find in a book like this but I was pleasantly surprised by the human aspect of the book more so than how the zombies attacked.
This book scared the shit out of me, in places. And it was so, so well done. I knew it had been well done before the Robopocalypse guy tried to rip it off, but after slugging my way a third of the way into that piece of crap I really know how well this was done. There are fits and starts of twee-ness and implausibility, but I read the book hunched over, brow creased in worry, probably breathing fast, from beginning to end. One of the best books of the 21st century.
If you don't happen to have that particular perverse interest in zombie movies or after disaster stories there is absolutely no reason to read this book, but if you do like this sort of thing. This is a particularly well done zombie story. Mr. Brooks tells the story through a documentarian doing an Oral history after the war is over. So he gets to tell the story through lots of people in lots of circumstances. Much of the book is about how different governments would react to a zombie invasion. I don't think Brooks went for the obvious reactions that governments or individuals might have. He comes up with some truly unique ideas. Some of which I almost wish I never read. If you do happen to read the book his description of a “quisling” freaked me the f**k out. There are several sections that got pretty heavy on the …
If you don't happen to have that particular perverse interest in zombie movies or after disaster stories there is absolutely no reason to read this book, but if you do like this sort of thing. This is a particularly well done zombie story. Mr. Brooks tells the story through a documentarian doing an Oral history after the war is over. So he gets to tell the story through lots of people in lots of circumstances. Much of the book is about how different governments would react to a zombie invasion. I don't think Brooks went for the obvious reactions that governments or individuals might have. He comes up with some truly unique ideas. Some of which I almost wish I never read. If you do happen to read the book his description of a “quisling” freaked me the f**k out. There are several sections that got pretty heavy on the technical description of military equipment and tactics which left me pretty cold (no pun intended). There were several very touching stories. If you are looking for scary, this isn't the right book. I genuinely enjoyed the story with all its flaws.
No real plot, no real characters, no real conflict. If I were teaching a creative writing course, this book would be a great text to use to show kids how not to write.
If NPR covered the zombie apocalypse
This book is like ordering ice-cream and receiving a punch in the mouth.
I've been wanting to read this book for a while, since it seemed right up my alley; I love a good apocafic, and zombies are always fun. I made it to page 69 before putting it down with great force--I would have thrown it, except it was a library book.
This book is, as advertised, about the global zombie apocalypse as told by the survivors. You don't stay with a narrative voice very long; each one speaks to the 'interviewer', telling their experience of the global plague, and then moves on. It's not worth becoming fond of any of them, and frankly, not very likely either; personalities only go about as far as classing a person as “stupid,” "naive", or “evil,” with the occasional “if only we'd listened to that farsighted man!”
The personality that comes through …
This book is like ordering ice-cream and receiving a punch in the mouth.
I've been wanting to read this book for a while, since it seemed right up my alley; I love a good apocafic, and zombies are always fun. I made it to page 69 before putting it down with great force--I would have thrown it, except it was a library book.
This book is, as advertised, about the global zombie apocalypse as told by the survivors. You don't stay with a narrative voice very long; each one speaks to the 'interviewer', telling their experience of the global plague, and then moves on. It's not worth becoming fond of any of them, and frankly, not very likely either; personalities only go about as far as classing a person as “stupid,” "naive", or “evil,” with the occasional “if only we'd listened to that farsighted man!”
The personality that comes through the strongest is the writer, not the in-story journalist who has supposedly compiled the stories, but in fact [a:max brooks]. I don't know the man, but from the 69 pages of his writing I already dislike him.
The overall tone I get from this book is 'smug.' I twitched in the introduction when the journalist describes his motivation writing the book; his boss who pays him rejects his first draft which contains the interviews which contain the “human factor”, dismissing them as “too intimate … too many feelings.” Obviously, this boss is a robot-hearted beaurocrat!
Or maybe the journalist is an idiot. He was told to write up a report containing “cold, hard data,” and “clear facts and figures,” and he handed in an oral history? What did he think was going to happen?
I could handle it if the framing device was “idiot-journalist is idiot,” but it's not just him. It quickly becomes apparent that the actual subtitle of this book is “How the people and institutions I despise will doom us all in the upcoming zombie apocalypse.” Nearly every account falls into “Oh, I was so foolish and innocent then!” or “I remain a selfish bastard, and refuse to feel guilty for my actions.” It's like a whole book of stories ending with “And then the entire bus gave me a standing ovation, and the bus driver told me I was his adopted brother.”
AUGH. Look, 69 pages produced that much aggravation. Imagine if I'd finished it.
