World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War | 
 enlarge | Author: Max Brooks
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  461 reviews
Sales Rank: 255
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 352
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 0307346617
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780307346612
ASIN: 0307346617
Publication Date: October 16, 2007
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Product Description
“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’?”
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
From the Hardcover edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 456 more reviews...
 Loved it! Read it twice! December 2, 2008
Well I first like to say I HATE zombies, just the thought of the dead coming back alive makes me quiver, so when I bought "the zombie survival guide" I just had to pick it up. I read it over and over. I loved it. So when I saw that he written another book, I had to check it out. I purchased it while I was in the desert. I was easy to read and visualize everything that had happened to all the people. I'm glad to see that the world wasn't completely destroyed and that the world had been to able to fight back the plague that seems to be destroyed in all other recreations. I loved it!
 A Thoughtful Re-Imagining of the Zombie World December 1, 2008
While I have always shown a fondness for zombie films and books - 28 Days Later is truly epic - and I plan on writing my own in due time (check back around Book 5), Max Brooks took this title to another level following the success of his Zombie Survival Guide. Following the conclusion of the Zombie War, the piece follows like a well-edited war documentary: the narrator interviews survivors from a multitude of locations to draw the reader into a deeper understanding of the horrors within a zombie world. Rather than employing a passive narration, it is the unique voice of each character that pushes this title to new levels, leaving the darkest sections vague and obscure like any person accustomed to war would keep them.
There is such depth, though, to his imagination that it is almost staggering to question how long Brooks sat in development of his zombie world. The varying responses by governments, the responses by different citizens, or even the effects of weather and climate on zombies are all explored to full, yet sometimes questionable, understanding. My personal favorite: the "Lobo," a combination shovel and battle-axe put to great use throughout the novel. It is one of but many ingenius concepts envisioned by Brooks in his personal post-apocalyptic world - one that everyone should explore.
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Compellingly Entertaining November 27, 2008
It's rare that I come across a book that I just can't put down, but this was one of them. It is organized like a series of short stories, and each one was so vividly realized that I wanted to know more about that vignette's character. Together, the stories paint an incredibly detailed and believeable picture of what such a conflict might be like. So much so that I found myself occasionally caught in the reality of the book's world when I wasn't reading it. Handled properly, this could be adapted into an incredible film.
Great Read November 26, 2008
Realistic, exciting, suspenseful, and eerie. The interview-style story-telling really adds to the suspense and feel of the book.
great book November 25, 2008
Book got here in good time. It was a great book. Loved the realism behind the fantasy type story.
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