World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Prepare to be entranced by this addictively readable oral history of the great war between humans and zombies.”—Entertainment Weekly
We survived the zombie apocalypse, but how many of us are still haunted by that terrible time? We have (temporarily?) defeated the living dead, but at what cost? Told in the haunting and riveting voices of the men and women who witnessed the horror firsthand, World War Z is the only record of the pandemic.
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, 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.
THE INSPIRATION FOR THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE
“Will spook you for real.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Possesses more creativity and zip than entire crates of other new fiction titles. Think Mad Max meets The Hot Zone. . . . It’s Apocalypse Now, pandemic-style. Creepy but fascinating.”—USA Today
“Will grab you as tightly as a dead man’s fist. A.”—Entertainment Weekly, EW Pick
“Probably the most topical and literate scare since Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds radio broadcast . . . This is action-packed social-political satire with a global view.”—Dallas Morning News
We survived the zombie apocalypse, but how many of us are still haunted by that terrible time? We have (temporarily?) defeated the living dead, but at what cost? Told in the haunting and riveting voices of the men and women who witnessed the horror firsthand, World War Z is the only record of the pandemic.
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, 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.
THE INSPIRATION FOR THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE
“Will spook you for real.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Possesses more creativity and zip than entire crates of other new fiction titles. Think Mad Max meets The Hot Zone. . . . It’s Apocalypse Now, pandemic-style. Creepy but fascinating.”—USA Today
“Will grab you as tightly as a dead man’s fist. A.”—Entertainment Weekly, EW Pick
“Probably the most topical and literate scare since Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds radio broadcast . . . This is action-packed social-political satire with a global view.”—Dallas Morning News
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Community Reviews
Highly recommend, fun read!!
I enjoyed the non-fiction-style delivery of fictional subject material. Itâs written like a âlessons learnedâ academic manual of how humans survived a zombie apocalypse. I had a lot of âWell, shoot, I didnât even THINK about that!â moments, because, yâknow, I spend a lot of time thinking about zombies...
It has loose ties to the movie of the same name (so donât be deterred if you didnât love the movie.)
I enjoyed the non-fiction-style delivery of fictional subject material. Itâs written like a âlessons learnedâ academic manual of how humans survived a zombie apocalypse. I had a lot of âWell, shoot, I didnât even THINK about that!â moments, because, yâknow, I spend a lot of time thinking about zombies...
It has loose ties to the movie of the same name (so donât be deterred if you didnât love the movie.)
I was going between a 4.5 and a 5 for a lot of this book already, but the last few chapters really pushed it to a 5 for me. I'm actually not a huge zombie fan because I get bored of them after a while, but this book is really not about zombies. It's about the political, economical, social, and other -als that develop in the face of a worldwide crisis. "Zombie" could be replaced by any other epidemic and much of the book would still hold true. This book really gets into what would happen if modern society broke down and people had to start working together or die.
I also really liked that this book had a happy ending, or at least a hopeful one. Most zombie literature out there is just depressing and stays depressing, but this book shows how human resilience is able to weather even the worst crises. Things aren't perfect at the end of the book, but it's getting there, and that is how the author gets to the heart of human nature's ability to endure and hope.
I also really liked that this book had a happy ending, or at least a hopeful one. Most zombie literature out there is just depressing and stays depressing, but this book shows how human resilience is able to weather even the worst crises. Things aren't perfect at the end of the book, but it's getting there, and that is how the author gets to the heart of human nature's ability to endure and hope.
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