The oral history format enhances the suspense, drama and story. A great zombie novel.

For a book with they "silly" premise of a zombie uprising threatening all of humanity, the stories contained within are poignant, touching, and most important believable.

The book was so engrossing, I purchased it and had it completely read in a single weekend.

It's hard to describe the emotions this book stirred up. Anger, remorse, pride, all of these things. And joy at discovering someone making a daring escape. Sorrow when learning that the person being interviewed has lost a bit of his or her mind because of what they've been through.

I didn't know what to expect when I purchased this book. Not really. I have had the Zombie Survival Guide for a while. When I bought it, it was in the "humor" section. "World War Z" took the tongue-in-cheek approach from that book and turned it on its head, taking itself completely seriously and *pulling it off!*

Only a few bits of data truly date the story (such as Fidel Castro being around at the end of the war).

The audio-book will be my next purchase. I've heard the few clips from the website and I feel that will give the story even more impact.

This book makes you see how the war against the living dead was seen on several fronts. Highly recommended, a must have.

WWZ is the first piece of zombie anything that actually scared me! It's not just the horrifying way the Zeds are described, but the collapse of society that sends a realistically chilling shudder through you. A must have for any fan of horror!

THIS IS A GREAT BOOK. IT STARTS OFF A LITTLE SLOW BUT PICKS UP QUICKLY. ITS IS COMPRISED OF SHORT STORIES THAT TIE TOGETHER. THE AUTHOR IS A TRUE ZOMBIE FAN SO THE BOOK IS VERY WELL THOUGHT OUT. MAX BROOKS HAS SET THE BAR VERY HIGH WITH TRADITIONAL ZOMBIES.

It's finally happened. The zombie apocalypse has come and devastated civilisation...but in the end, civilisation rallied and won. Using tactics pioneered in South Africa and bankrolled by Cuba, the largest nation to remain infection-free, the world's armies successfully defeated the undead menace, but only at a staggering cost in lives and resources. Ten years after victory was declared, a journalist travels the world, listening to the stories of the survivors, from those who were there when the outbreak began to those who listened in the corridors of power as key decisions were taken to the stories of everyday men and women thrust into circumstances beyond their control. From Hawaii to China, even to the isolated crew of the International Space Station, this is the story of that war.

World War Z is that most beloved of Hollywood ideas, 'high concept'. One of those ideas that makes other writers go away smacking themselves in the head thinking, "Why didn't I think of that?" Zombies are very much 'in' these days, but after several years of zombie movies and computer games the appeal was waning, until Brooks' interesting take on the concept revitalised interest. Most zombie fiction is somewhat nihilistic, ending with the world overrun by the undead hordes or humanity reduced to tiny enclaves battling the mindless hordes, so the fact that World War Z features a victory is interesting enough. The stories of what sacrifices were necessary to achieve that victory makes up the book, which is essentially a 'mosaic' novel rather than a standard work of fiction. The book shifts between the different interviewees, some of whom appear only once but most of them reappear periodically throughout the book, as we find out how they survived the decade of the war and what happened to them along the way.

It's an excellent device and Brooks employs it skillfully. Some of the stories border on the silly - the blind Japanese gardener taking on the zombie hordes with a sword in a park full of traps stretches credulity - but elsewhere Brooks nails the feeling of total horror, with the computer nerd trying to flee his infested Japanese apartment block or the soldiers fighting to clear the catacombs under Paris. Elsewhere Brooks takes the capabilities of the zombie menace to their logical conclusion, with heavily-armoured divers fighting off zombie forces underwater, or the US army making full use of dogs (who are driven wild by the presence of zombies) in fighting the hordes and the fates of both the animals and their handlers during and after the war.

This is a widescreen story, with a truly global perspective, told economically and well. There are some good laughs (the new US zombie-dispatching firearm is nicknamed a 'Meg', as it resembles a Megatron toy from Transformers; during one battle a nun and REM lead singer Michael Stipe help fight off the zombie hordes), but Brooks takes his subject mostly seriously and sounds some cautionary notes along the way. To some extent the story isn't really about the zombies, but about people and what they are capable of when their backs are against the wall.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (*****) is a gripping, page-turning, memorable read which throws some fresh impetus on an old idea, and makes it work brilliantly. The book is available in the UK from Duckworth and in the USA from Three Rivers Press. A movie version is in development, with a script being written by Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski.

I bought this book as a gift for my son,
He loved it. He is all in the Zombie thing.

In need for a quick distraction between "heavier" reads, having read Brooks' other book _The Zombie Survival Guide_, and as a genre fan, _World War Z_ was an easy choice. I was, in a word, impressed. While his _Survival Guide_ was largely tongue-in-cheek, _World War Z_ fits more comfortably into the category of sci-fi, with a more serious take on the theme.

Subtitled "an oral history of the zombie war," Brooks' story arc covers the beginnings of the "zombie war", the reaction of various nation's leaders (and scientists) to it, the global spread of "zombies" and the reaction and resistance to them, with the eventual victory over the un-dead. (Or "victory" as much as can be hypothetically possible.) I was impressed for a variety of reasons.

First, Brooks did a remarkable job of presenting a wide varitey of voices - from Chinese peasants, to Palestinian youths, to scientists, soldiers and civilians - even an "account" by a young woman who lost her mind as a result of the horror of the event - each character was unique, tied together by a common experience. With a bit of suspended belief for the topic, the reactions, words and accounts of these people were wholly authentic-sounding.

Brooks clearly gave the scenario a lot of thought in his "oral history" as well. (This is apparent in his survival guide, too, but the matter is much more fully fleshed out - sorry about the pun - here.) Issues of the spread of zombies, media and scientific reaction, and the political and economic reprocussions a "zombie infestation" would cause are almost painstakingly presented here. The minute details made his "history" all the more believeable - for example, the challenges of fighting the un-dead with conventional weapons (designed to wound and kill the living, rather than the dead), or dealing with the un-dead in different climes are the sort of details that made the story come alive.

What I found most impressive, however, was the underlying social message of his "oral history." Good sci-fi allows us to look at current problems with a veneer of safety and implausibility. (Consider, for example, Romero's "Night of the Living Dead.") The initial disbelief, profiteering, panic, chaos and resulting state of nature Brooks details as the result of a "zombie epidemic" is frighteningly similar to what the reaction of the world's populace would be to a *real* pandemic (or other global disaster of your choice.)

This is a no-brainer (sorry - couldn't help myself) for zombie fans. More serious readers may want to pass, although the authenticity and detail Brooks presents is impressive.

I've read that zombie fiction has been on the rise since 9/11 as it plays on our renewed "end of the world" fears. World War Z succeeds by playing off of those fears but also from our memories and new fears of our nation's crumbling infrastructure.

I just finished this book in September '08. As I made my way through the "accounts" of survivors of the zombie plague it was impossible to not have images from Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath passing through my mind. The truly unsettling and lingering terror of Brooks' interview -style tale is how easily and realistically he paints the fabric of our society coming undone.

Governments here and abroad fail to see the situation (the zombie epidemic) for what it is. Some hide it and some hide. And all slowly collapse in some form while citizens try to survive.

Taking away our electricity, our power, our roads, or our access to food is a lot easier than many used to believe. Cities can fall to their knees in a couple of days while those in power do nothing rather than do the wrong thing. Hurricane Ike was a small reminder. The current financial "crisis" has a nation holding its breath waiting to see if we'll be eating each other alive to survive.

It's not thoughts of the undead that haunt you while you try to sleep while reading World War Z but the musings on the fragility of our modern world.

I knew nothing about this book, but I bought it just for kicks. Once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down. It was like reading hundreds of different zombie movies in a row, but from the unique views of people all around the world. Max Brooks creates a very shocking and sometimes scary view of what the world would be like if a massive zombie outbreak should occur. Amazing detail of every account makes this book a must read for any zombie enthusiast or horror lover. A+ reading all the way.

I was skeptical about reading a book that included zombies, but I gave it a go when my scifi book club chose it for September, and I'm so glad I did. Brooks did such an amazing job using this interview/documentary style. The prose is intelligent and almost scholarly, yet fresh and very personal. He also masterfully weaves elements of the story arc throughout various first person accounts from different viewpoints.

What I think I really enjoyed about this book was its depth -not only in character development, but in the human response to the zombie crisis. A lot of movies and books around the subject never really get past the superficial or first response.

I still don't think a zombie apocalypse is possible, but while reading the book it all made sense.

I'm pretty big on sci-fi/apocalyptic genres, but this book just has a feel of a childish comic book throughout. The main problem I will lament about is the character substance of the book. The book is written as if it were a compilation of interviews with key people during all phases of the zombie war. So since the story is told from the perspective of different characters along the way, you can imagine that this is pretty important.

Every character is puzzling because not only is each one a ridiculous over-dramatic stereotype (i.e. the Jewish character lamenting how the Arabs wanted to destroy the Jewish race, the Arab character discussing how he wanted nothing more than to destroy the Jewish race, the political insider overly concerned with an upcoming election instead of the impending Zombie threat, the pharmaceutical CEO feeling justified in lying to people regarding the effectiveness of his antidote, etc etc), but the reader will also sense that each character is introduced in the same writing style (although it is supposed to be the character's own words). This shows obvious limitations in both the author's command over the subtleties of character display and the author's imagination.

So yeah, go ahead and get it for your 12 year old cousin. But I would skip on buying it for anyone with a post-high school reading comprehension.

One of the creepiest books I have read in a long time and it had nothing to do with the zombies! A interesting view of our modern society.

This story goes back to WWII where contact was made in an unnamed Asian country in which the British (U.K.) fought the Japanese. What can be guardedly ascertained is that the U.K. came by zombie specimens in that conflict. A zombie research facility was established in the mid-1950's in Kuwait by the U.K. government unbeknown to Kuwait authorities. The United States government was unaware of the nature of this facility until shortly after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1991. Since Iraqi forces captured the ZRF, it was feared that they gained the benefits of British research. While all of the specimens were accounted for after the Gulf War, it is believed that the Iraqis created their own. That is hindsight. The United States was called into the war to prevent the Zombie Option (a U.K. reference).

Some of the zombie specimens were transported back to Iraq proper (ascertained after the war ended). Most of the Iraqi developed specimens were destroyed by Allied forces. Very few troops who neutralized the zombies were allowed to carry their knowledge back to their respective countries (one of the primary complaints of Gulf War Syndrome is memory trouble). Nearly all bombing missions in Iraq by U.S. & U.K. forces, including Operation Desert Fox (Dec. 16 - 19, 1998), were designed to eradicate Iraqi zombie research and specimens. It should be noted that the Clinton Administration justified a portion of its bombing campaign due to fighting Saddam Hussein's Weapons of Mass Destruction program.

Part of the U.K. research was designed to turning zombies into a weapons system. This includes: 1) extending zombie effective shelf-life, currently about one year, 2) implanting zombies with a RFD type device that would render coded human troops invisible, 3) increase speed, 4) [invalid entry].

Since further information regarding actions in Iraq are currently too "hot", I shall mention a few minor points about WWZ.

Since this book was published prior to Hurricane Katrina, how could the author have predicted the ineptitude of local, state, and federal response to an overwhelming disaster? Remember, it took what, five days for bottled water to reach City Hall? [Not to denigrate the noble efforts of the U.S. Coast Guard and the Dept. of Fisheries and Wildlife, and other eventual responders.] So what if the zombies get loose? Another minor point: I am somewhat familiar with the fine city of Claremont. It is doubtful that any Claremont College student would be able to find a working firearm on any of the campuses let alone fire one at an entity that most of the faculty would insist needs to be protected.

To be cliche this book is thought provoking. I'll admit zombies are a far cry from reality, but then again you never know. But the subject matter does bring into sharp clarity the fact that we as a civilization are too complacent, slow to act and to reliant on the poor information and sensationalist reporting of the local and national media. But these are just a few of the examples that will make you think about what is not quite right with out society and world after reading this book.
The subject matter is as I said far fetched but extremely well thought out and Max Brooks really must had did his research on the subjects that he deals with in each little "interview." The format of the book is fantastic and it's a great zombie universe he's created. I'd love to see more stories come out of this universe.

I whole heartedly recommend this book to anyone that is a zombie fanatic or anyone looking for a different and thought provoking read. I won't be putting a zombie survival pack in my trunk anytime soon, but I will start to be more prepared for the other more realistic disasters that may come our way.

A good effort I must say it in short describes zombie warfare first the outbrack then the panic that follows and finally the determination with which the remaining uninfected population fight back against the invader. There is also almost none of this "superman syndrome" stuff that permeates everything Science Fiction related these days. Over the course of the narrative it is clear that if humanity is going to survive it is going to have to fight as a team.

If I had to pick my two favorite installments it's the exploits of one professional bodyguard on a "Long Island" near New York basically a morality tale about how celebrity is irrelevant in the new world and the story of how Cuba of all places becomes the "arsenal of victory". If some point of views like the former computer nerd and Hiroshima survivor that become the guardians of Japan seem far fetched...well it is a book about zombies and if I were writing a book about the subject I'd have some fun with it too.

It is an excellent book providing a balanced account of the war from all fronts from land based armies to people who spent the entire war on the Open Ocean and even outer space. I would even go so far as to say that it was too short I wanted more.

If I have one compliant however is that whereas most books that run along this kind of theme are usually hampered by a single viewpoint this one while it is good is too cosmopolitan. It seemed that I was just getting to like one character then that point of view would end and we would be on to someone else a different theater of the war. This is not a bad things its just sometimes it can be abrupt.

Overall-Wonderful book I look forward to further installments if there are any.

This follow-up to the Zombie Survival Guide is less campy but some of the survivor interviews contain just enough snark to make you shake your head in amusement. One aspect that is fun is the interviewer narrating his own actions, typically in response to questions from the interviewee.

You get so many different types of people answering questions about their time during the war that you will no doubt have some you hate and some you love. There is a smattering of all types of people being interviewed and if you cross one that doesn't float your boat then you know it'll be over in a couple of pages. This isn't the type of book that has you getting attached to any characters, it is more like a voyeuristic pleasure of other people's misfortune.

Max Brooks, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (Crown, 2006)

If Studs Terkel were not still alive, I have little doubt that buy now, we'd have already had the companion volume to this book, telling the story of the zombie war from the other side. But Studs still clings to life (he's ninety-six as I write this, and for all I know he's still writing), and so we have only one side of the great Zombie War depicted here. Still, for those of us who lived through it, perhaps that's enough.

What, you don't remember the zombie war? Well, I'm not entirely surprised. Fewer and fewer people do. It's amazing how short our collective memory is. That's part of the reason Max Brooks wrote this book-- so that people wouldn't forget, that they'd have something to hold on to, some artifact they can consult. It's the same reason Terkel wrote his oral history of World War II; we all learn the dates and places in history class, but who ever dredges it up again, unless they go on to become history professors and propagate the same information? Terkel's book tells us what the battlegrounds were like from the perspectives of those, most of whom are now gone, who were actually there. So does Brooks'. No one who reads this will ever hear "Yonkers" and just think of a date and an event. You get an actual veteran telling the story and you can hear the explosions. You can taste the dirt. You can hear the moaning of the enemy. And Brooks captures it, as he captures the many other voices in this tome, by standing back and letting these folks tell it like they saw it.

This is an impressive compendium of voices, now that I'm n the subject. Men and women from around the globe, from the northern wastes of Canada to the South Pole (with the obvious exception of Iceland), offer their stories here. Some of them are still understandably bitter. Some are just angry. Some resilient, some defeated, some poignant. All of them together, give the clearest picture of a global conflict I've ever run across. Max Brooks is, truly, to be commended for his investigative work on this project, and his desire not to let the Zombie War fade until it becomes nothing more than a bad nightmare. For, as we all know, those who do not repeat history are doomed to learn from it. ****

i found thst this book to be a well done novel that gave true insight into this fictional event

I was so pleasantly suprised by the quality of Mr. Brook's second book. He clearly has done his homework with so many little details in this story. His understanding of governments, military equipment, geography and human nature are all evident in this story. This creates a rich tapestry on which to superimpose an epidemic of undead cannibals.

One of the best aspects of this story is that Mr. Brook's has truly taken a world's eye view of the conflict. He relates narratives from sources all over the globe including China, Japan, Iran, Indian, the Artic and the good old USA.

A good yarn, if maneating reanimated corpses overrunning the world is your thing!

I suspect that I am in a minority that recalls the Mars Attacks and Dinosaurs Attack card sets. For all I know, there was a zombie set as well. In these sets, a vast world-affecting event plagues the human race with horrible tragedy and drama. Each card would cover a different area of the world, and some wildly creative and unexpected takes on the events would be beautifully illustrated. One wanted to collect them all, because if you missed out on a couple - you knew that some really fun stories would be missing from your experience of the overarching story. The phenomenon of these collectible cards is the most fitting analogy to what is wonderful about World War Z that I can think of. Rather than a nasty crunchy rectangle of gum, though - this book is best suited for an accompaniment of your favorite wine.
Dozens of vignettes - each elaborating on the state of a world of humans desperately trying to survive the zombie menace. All very intelligently told, by a writer with an incredible breadth of knowledge about other cultures, military procedure, sociology, science and psychology. My sole complaint is that each vignette almost begs to be a novel of its own, and I wish I could have spent more time with the characters and watching the progressions within the scenarios. Not to say that they lack a satisfying conclusion, because they do not - the `point' of each section is crystal clear. They are amazingly original, as well - something hard to pull off since zombies have become the monster of choice in pop culture over the last 6 years or so (a resurgence from 20+ years ago).
I've read other zombie novels that came highly recommended - including a couple of the best selling books from a publishing company that actually tries to specialize in zombie fiction. In my opinion, none of them hold a candle to WWZ - or a match, even.
Max Brooks has managed to create a story that taps into whatever social anxiety it is that makes these nasty shambling viral beasts into the monster of choice in western culture right now. He takes the plague to its most logical and creative lengths, giving me my first truly satisfying zombie fix in book form. It is also the first time I've seen a story bring humanity out the other side of such an outbreak - painfully and after much strife, and possibly (dare we dream it?) a changed set of beings.

This book is definitely overrated.

"World War Z", like other zombie apocalypse stories, had the potential to be interesting beyond the puerile appeal of gore and gung-ho survival situations by using setting to expound upon the human condition, or to address some phenomenon that has real-world relevance. Science fiction has a long history of intelligent commentary illuminated by strong characters, even while dealing with very similar scenarios (e.g. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson).
But Brooks did none of the above successfully in "World War Z." By getting too geekishly involved with technical details, he fails to devote enough time developing his characters. He adds to this neglect a barrage self-consciously hokey and unbelievable, DeLillo-esque name-dropping as a cheap attempt to add realism, and a substantial quantity of cardboard dialogue. The result is pretty tedious.
One could argue that the merit of this book is the detail he puts into his presentation of systems and cultures, though that would also be difficult to defend. Although I don't claim to know a lot about all the cultures presented, I am quite familiar with a few, and Brooks' presentation of them bares more similarity to stereotypes than to the truth. In particular, the sections about Japan show how little he understands about that culture, which leads me to wonder how many others he failed to understand.
Ultimately, "World War Z" attempts and fails to be an intelligent book. In making the attempt, Brooks left out any chance for suspense, thus this book fails on the visceral level too. My advice is to read Matheson or David Michell's "Cloud Atlas" for intelligent sci-fi, or stay with Stephen King, who is at least a good storyteller.

because this book does such a good job of mimicking a work of oral history, it's easy to forget that this is actually a NOVEL, and as such is one of th most inventive, fun, compelling, and unconventional novels in a while.

as someone who loves the zombies-destroy-civilization genre, i found this a really well-done look at how exactly human civilization crumbles (and, in this case, survives, but i won't hold that against the book). Most zombie movies just show us the tunnel vision of a handful of survivors, with minimal info on what the rest of the world is going through, or how other countries are dealing with the menace, but WWZ shows us exactly how stuff plays out in Cuba, China, North Korea, Russia, Montana, etc.

Sorry if this sounds a little scattered. I'm pretty tired.

I write this as a guy who was never really into the Zombie genre. I've never even been into the horror genre. I am a history geek through and through. After hearing some friends talk about Brooks' "Zombie Survival Guide", I decided to pick it up. I actually found it very entertaining, so I decided to take a look at "World War Z".

I must say that I finished it lastnight, but I really wasn't ready for it to end. I already miss reading it.

To me this book seemed like so many historic books that I've read that were written in the interview format. I loved how diverse the characters were. I loved how people in different part of the world (even different parts of a same continent) had different nicknames for the zombies. I loved the variations of the characters' parts of a shared experience. I really enjoyed looking at the psychological impact of a worldwide pandemic.

I think Max Brooks is a very clever guy. He wrote about different types of people from different cultures, occupations, lifestyles as if he was an expert on all of them (or at least he came off convincingly enough to make it believable).

I will recommend this book to friends and strangers, even if they're not a fan a the Zombie genre like I am now.

I do wonder how they will adapt this into a movie (I guess Brad Pitt will be producing it).

C

This book is incredible. Each account that Max Brooks creates paints its own picture and adds to the horror that mankind would face if we ever were thrown into the middle of an undead apocalypse!! If you have ever been a fan of Zombie movies or horror in general, you owe it to yourself to read this book!

I'm fairly new to the Zombie genre, so it's difficult for me to compare this to other books. The last novel that I read about zombies was Cell: A Novel by Stephen King, an excellent book about zombies created by cell phones, but then King is a master of horror and suspense. WORLD WAR Z: AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE ZOMBIE WAR is perhaps a parody of other similar works. In any event, it was truly interesting and I highly recommend reading it. I liked how the action was seen on the global stage with the spread of the zombie problem. It makes one wonder how mankind might fare with pestilence or disease that can't be contained at the borders. It's a scary thought on many levels.

5 stars

First, this is not a novel -- it's a book made up of vignettes, so there's no real plot or character development. Second, it's highly focused on policies and strategies -- it reminded me of my husband's Army War College textbooks. If that's your idea of engrossing/interesting reading, you'll enjoy this book!

Ther are too many problems with World War Z for me to reccommend it to any but the most rabid zombie fans. There is no character development as each chapter is a story unto itself and that means there is no hero to root for. Any sense of drama stemming from anxiety about the outcome of the war is destroyed by the premise because its written after the war has been (sorta) won. Also, its meant to be a government report but the introductions at the beginning of each chapter are filled with melodramatic descriptions that belie anytype of objectivity. There are incongruities as well, which is a deal breaker in my book. For example, one moment a man puts his bloodied knuckles in a pool of zombie goo and lives to tell his tale, then in the very next chapter people are afraid to shoot zombies point blank because if the blood touches an open wound they will be infected. Last, each chapter has a different narrator and they come from communities as diverse as China, Tibet, Russia, etc., yet they all sound exactly the same with the exception of a foriegn word or phrase thrown in. Perhaps the worst issues for me are the lionizing of South Africa's apartheid masterminds and turning Isreal into a perfect, peaceful community that welcomes Palestinians and refugees back into its loving borders! That is really a stretch! All in all, a cool premise with poor execution and way too much hype.

Wow!

After reading the Zombie Survival Guide, I was compelled to pick this book up. And let me tell you...I was riveted! I've read quite a few horror books, but this one had me one edge. The interview format was unique to me, and perfect for the storyline. Max Brooks has simply sold me, I'd read anything he's written now.
On a broader sense though, when you think of how a world-wide pandemic might just play out in real life...I think he's pretty close to reality there with conveying mass hysteria, mob mentality, frantic large-scale responses, and finally the triumph of human adaptivity and spirit. Simply chilling and VERY well done. Read this book...

Personally im a very picky book buyer. My thoughts are if i get the book what if it sucks. This book is easily one of my top books to suggest to others. I was hooked from the beginning to the end. Some times i would look up at the clock and realize I had been reading for an hour. Zombie lover or if you just want a good book to read when your bored this is it.

Alright. So there was a lot of hub bub hoopla about this novel. Firstly, its a fantastic idea. Fictional recounting of experiences during the Zombie War taken down by someone hired/appointed by a global council of sorts. The book begins out well, the accounts of survivors and the roles and experiences they have. But...then I noticed I wasn't enjoying the quality of the writing. It wasn't very inspired or vivid. Sure, I could picture what was happening, but a lot of it came from my own imagination. No beautiful phrases, unsettling images, etc. And on top of this it becomes so repetative. Somebody struggling with surviving the war, over and over and over.

I gave it one star because I just was not interested at all in finishing this book and moved on.

For what started off very unique and intelligent, this book quickly turned into a snore fest. If you're looking for a socio-economic/political breakdown and loose, disjointed story concerning the aftermath of a theoretical zombie war then this is your book! Want a good horror/action novel? Keep browsing.This is like reading the Warren Report but with less likable characters and poor pacing. Too bad, I couldn't have been more disappointed :(

I found this book to be a very tedious read. (So much so, that I read two other books, in-between)
While The Zombie Survival Guide was a funny read, this book was completely opposite. It had its moments, such as what was happening, down in a submarine and up in a space station, however they were few and far between.
This may be one of the exceptions where the movie turns out better than the book. . .

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This is original writing at its best - yes it jumps from one scenario to another without explanation but it does what it says on the tin - And i really liked it - unlike DEATHDAY BY EUGENE BRUCE (No. 23 in the list if you type my name in)which i don't just like I LOVE and you should buy it right now - please - I love you America!

As others have said, this book is written from the point of view of a reporter interviewing survivors of "World War Z" which was a battle of zombies vs humans. Unlike many/most Zombie movies which focus on a few people trying to survive such an outbreak, this book covers just about every location on earth to some extent in the stories related.

For the most part, the book is well done. The interviews are arranged chronologically so that it creates a coherent narrative of the events. One minor issue I had was that since I read this over the course of a week, I didn't realize that some earlier interviews were broken into multiple sections throughout the book. It would have been nice to have a '... Interview continued with " type of comment to help the reader reconnect with the previous interview.

One other niggle I had is that the various people interviewed didn't really stand out from each other much. One or two had 'memorable' voices, but most of the rest 'sounded' pretty much the same. It's certainly not easy to create separate voices for characters, and when they primarily speak in 'monologoue' I'm sure it's even harder to do.

That said, it's a very good book. It feels as though it's a historical record, and provides enough details in cases to satisfy those who want a touch of the grisly and disturbing, but usually these moments are brief and certainly not horribly graphic most of the time.

Recommended.

Let me start by saying that anyone who writes a fiction piece that deals with zombies in a serious way is a champion in my book.

With that said, World War Z was a solid sci-fi piece. I liked the medium he used to tell his story, which was a series of first hand accounts from zombpocolypse survivors. It sort of had the feel and flow of similar (non-fiction though) accounts from people who took part/survived the Vietnam War and World War 2. In that the accounts dealt not only with combating the enemy, but also with the politics/social situations that lead to/resulted from the conflict. I also like the fact that WWZ wasn't American-centric and dealt with other nationalities pretty extensively.

What bugged me about WWZ though is that many of his "interviewies" spoke in a very similar way to one another so that it was hard for me to suspend disbelief that they all weren't written by the same person. Also, and this is a totally subjective thing, I'm just not convinced that "slow-zombies" could produce the type of chaos WWZ describes. I've thought about this long and hard as a zombie fan and I seriously doubt that they could bite enough people to turn 99% of the world into zombies. Now, if the zombie-virus was an airborne thing or if the zombies were fast, now thats a different story!

Easily the most disappointing book I've read in the past 5 years. I struggled just to get through it. If you like to pick up your favorite AP story and read a good interview in your USA today, then you'll love this book. For me, where is the thrill? The story line? The intrigue? At least give me some central character to root for or against!! And the the nerve of Brooks to attempt to invade Romero-style political comments relating to todays headlines...it just falls plain flat and childlike in his efforts. Not good...

This book is not really a horror book filled with gore, but it is a fascinating page turner nonetheless. Through the multiple first person accounts of the battle for survival in a post apocalyptic zombie ruled world, Brooks is able to emerge the reader into a world that has been consumed by the living dead. His references to contemporary foreign policy and his accurate accounting of and maneuvering through the contemporary military mindset and lingo (at least American, according to this former Marine) gives his book a, "Wow, I could see this actually happening!" feel.

And rather than exploring the "LaMOE" (Last Man on Earth) perspective commonly found in zombie media, this delves into every reasonable facet of culture. If there were a WWZ, this book goes very far into encompassing all the elements that would make up contemporary policy and life on this little blue planet.

What can I say about Max Brooks that hasn't been said already? On many levels this is an absolutely brilliant book that not only complements the zombie/post apocalyptic genre but actually transcends it. Max may well have surpassed George Romero as the authority of the Zombie genre. While George had inserted social commentary into a then new but often maligned genre and had elevated that genre to a more thoughtful and substantive level than the more conventional avenues of the general horror genre (i.e. the -YAWN--vampire, supernatural or slasher flicks), Max has brought it to a new level. To me, you might say that he's the Tom Clancy of the zombie genre. His take one the apocalyptic siege addresses both the individual and society in ways that Romero never did.

I must admit that I didn't buy this novel for more than a year because it was framed as a compilation of individual historical accounts of a zombie apocalypse. I was originally uninterested because I don't think there would be the possibility of a society to survive and tell their accounts.

I'm going to keep this short though I could go off for pages... and that is what Max had done. He made me think. Society has many levels to it and, in Max's book, many of them are addressed. This book is a fabricated account of not just individual's surviving but how societies survived only after difficult choices. And the plan to follow came from South Africa of all places and not the USA or another first world country. Cold and merciless pragmatism was the key and the individual who conceived of such a plan of survival was personally doomed from unrealized personal morals. Necessity and cold sacrifice decided by third parties and geographical advantage.

The scope of this novel is grand. It touches upon individual, national and global concerns. It features the perspective of everyday survivors, soldiers, leaders, beaurocrats (can we ever ditch them?) and head of states. Regret, shame, loyalty, madness and peace are all represented in accounts that are uniquely personal and yet cohesive in how they all worked together.

This is a thinking man's take on the zombie genre. And yet, how it plays out in each interview, it is a realistic template of how we as individuals and a society would react to any extreme situation. Again, it transcends.

In many ways, this is my favorite zombie related book. But it is so much more. It is a well done comprehensive analysis of us as individuals and as a society. Again, I could go off for pages and that's why I didn't go into details.... Or else I'd get trapped into describing each account in their glory (though one or two didn't ring... nothing's perfect.)

Max has accomplished, for the second time, something so unique and remarkable within the zombie genre. Except, this second time, he's gone further and has successfully described why the zombie genre is so appealing. It's not really about zombies, it's about us... more to the point, it's a hard look at us on all levels when presented with the extreme test.

Now a book of this level is impossible to write without the author's personal political perspective becoming obvious. Max thinly veils the Gulf/current war as the Brush war. I gather that I'm on the opposite side of the spectrum to his view of current/real events.) For me, that doesn't take away from what he's crafted. This book is brilliant.

I've actually listened to the audio version many times and read the book once. Though the audio version is abridged (wish it wasn't,) I'd recommend getting both. Each version is satisfying in different ways.

I understand that there is a movie in the making. I am doubtful that any two hour movie would capture this book's brilliance... even though an equally brilliant screenwriter, J. Michael Stravensky is writing said screen play. He's uniquely qualified but I don't know how he'd condense it into two hours for mass consumption. To do this book justice would take a six hour movie. I'd even go with a no frills 6 or 8 part documentary format on the history channel. This book is that good and so comprehensive... you don't need theater or special effects. Just having actors narrate the written word would be powerful enough. But then again, what do I know? I'm just another worthless opinion.

This book was not at all what I expected. It is not about a War, as the title indicates. It "jumps" from one scenario to another every few pages. It is very hard to follow the story line.. The Earth is supposedly being overrun by the Un-dead, yet, people appear to be living normal lives and paying little attention to the possible end of life as they know it. It is just a lot of words.

I am a big fan of the George Romero movies, 28 Days etc...but this book is truly the best. If you like political/current events literature or movies AND Zombie movies this book is the perfect mix. It weaves current political, social, economic and cultural events with a Zombie attack together for a thought provoking, fun, and sometimes deep but light hearted read. Great Book! It's like Meet the Press meets Zombies.

Another world war...only this time it is against ZOMBIES!

Max Brooks brings us a new approach to the zombie tales. This book contains the interviews of a reporter during this war. The interviews range from military personel, civilians, etc. The books do not delve into how the zombie plague started, just on how people were effected and the correct and incorrect solutions that people and governments tried.

WWZ was an enjoyable read. It looked at this zombie war through a nubmer of different individuals which made it interesting. While the book didn't go into the causes of the outbreak, it definitely went into the effects of the outbreak. The reporter takes us to several different countries.

It is a good summer read. Not too scary or graphic. Some of the interviews are great and bring the tension of the battles against the zombies and the struggles to sruvive. This book was far better than Brooks' 'Zombie Survival Guide' which I found too repetative.

I would recommend this book to all zombie fans.

I loved all the different stories about one theme from different times in the war. The writing is crisp. The stories are interesting. The characters are real. This guy can write!

I got this book for the holidays from my husband and I could not put it down. I finished it in a few days, took it to work & read with it hiding under my desk. It was completely engrossing & suspenseful & terrifying. It has so many perspectives, & all of them are completely believable. Max Brooks makes a zombie apocalypse seem like a very real nightmare, & has presented an image of what the world could actually be like in the event of one. You will prepare your home & family.

I would just like to say that I am a week out from finishing this book and I still cannot sleep! The author did a wonderful job of creating a post-apocalyptic world, I particularly like the descriptions of the changes the military had to make to face the zombies, as did my husband who happens to be a military weapons instructor. His descriptions are in depth and he created a good range of characters to give the full scale of the disaster. Very well written!

Honestly, I don't know what to say about this book other than it scared the crap out of me. The Zombies of this story could be replaced by anything a super bug, bird flu and any enemy; it would still apply. Each short story is told from a specific person's point of view, which I really enjoyed. I hope that the author writes more on this subject!!

What a great book! In a genius move, Max Brooks tells this story in the style of a Studs Terkel oral history by various survivors of the Zombie Wars. Set in the near future, the book starts as the author describes how his book first started off as a postwar UN report on the war. His interviews for the report forms the book he writes based on personal recollections of various people around the globe. A doctor in China who first noticed a mysterious disease, a US infantryman who battled the zombies, a Japanese man who, as a teen, had to make his way out of his apartment building against marauding zombies. Stories like these are woven together to tell a believable history of the Zombie Wars from the start to the final defeat of the creatures. A very enjoyable horror book! I have heard this book is being adapted into a movie. I hope they do it right.

Mr Brooks's accounts of the war was necessarily horrific and should inspire those of us who came out of it with a sense of responsibility to never let it happen again.

My family was lucky. My dad and my uncle foresaw the outbreak and moved us out into the farm less than a week before Utrecht was torched. While our survival tactics on the farm would neatly compliment Mr Brooks's collection, I am surprised that not much more material regarding the biology of Z has been made.

Suffice to say that a clan of veterinarians with the war years to keep busy (apart from staving off the odd Z attack) provided ample time and opportunity to dig deeper into the Z's. From my uncle's notes on Z autopsies, he theorized that the Z pathogen is likely a virus / prion hybrid. In simplest terms, he surmised that human to human transmission is via viral infection through bodily fluids and human to Z transformation is caused by a prion which attacks the human nervous system and blood. The Z virus's role seems to be to cause a severe type of flu raising the body's temperature leading to a comatose state. Once the human is comatose and its brain/bodily functions slowed, the Z prion somehow transforms the central nervous system and blood into a battery - battery acid combination which kills the person, but animates the body to keep transmitting the Z virus-prion hybrid into other humans.

Just as he was researching how the Z virus and prion "live together", my uncle was himself accidentally infected right at the end of the war. Before he fell into the coma, he willed that his brain and blood be extracted for observation. In a sealed chamber rigged by my dad, my uncle's brain / blood battery has been powering the light in the basement with a steady direct current since the end of WWZ.

I'm certain that my uncle's findings are not original. And yet I've found no credible discussions of causes and preventions for possible future Z outbreak. I pray that this is period of "peace" is not merely a lull in the storm. Until such time that a cure is found, we can be contacted on the farm.

I am a geog teacher and have recommended this book to other geographers (as well as most of my friends and family). There are many reasons to read this book - including the author's admirable creativity and consistency: many points are developed to their logical conclusion, in surprising and satisfying ways (which is also why I loved the ZSG, too).

But for those of you who have ever taken a college-level geography class, you might recognize a few overarching geographic themes:
- Some more obvious, but well thought-through points about how the physical environment shapes human action (new importance of mountains, polar regions, etc.);
- Immigration as bodies moving across porous borders through complicated, organized networks (i.e., border security cannot just be a "wall" between two countries);
- How exceptionally interconnected the world is, and how our current standard of living depends upon global flows of material and finance: what happens when that collapses? (Note where the U.S. economy rebuilds itself);
- Yet another downside to urban sprawl: cities that are harder to surround, conquer and clean out because of the fragmented, low-density development patterns;
- Many, many vignettes about the changing nature of war - from the difference in fighting a new enemy that sees no borders / no boundaries, to refuge in the sea, etc.

And finally, I appreciate how the author has thought about the current geopolitical situation, and then in a compelling way illustrated how a new virus outbreak would play out - the world is NOT flat, as Thomas Friedman has argued, but geography matters!!! Many of these lessons here would ring true for multiple types of global disasters - including pandemic, rapid climate change, etc. Scary to think about.

And don't get me wrong - this is not an academic book; its primary value is for entertainment, and it does deliver in this regard. It also made me think, and thus I highly recommend it.

This book begins to drag after you get about half way through it but it still is very cool that Max Brooks tries something different with the zombie genre. Well written and often very interesting. I can't wait to see what he does next.