World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

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Editorial Reviews

“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.

Customer Reviews

This is a wonderful book in all aspects

Reviewed by S. Robles, 2010-03-06

This is a book about people dealing with Zombies. How zombies affected the world. The craft involved in making this book is memerizing. A fantastic read.

Have not read it myself yet...

Reviewed by Michele Zerbe, 2010-02-25

This was a gift, and the person I bought it for reads it frequently. Definitely a must for zombie-fanatics.

I am just a kid who got a kindle

Reviewed by Anonymous, 2010-02-18

Unlike most books that i have read World War Z is written in complete interviews that tells storys of hard ship and the things we regret when we lose what we though we never had. This book is filled with intersting people who you would of thought would never have survived a zombie war theres generals doctors and even a disabled person who tells his story i recomend buying the zombie survival guide before reading this so then you know what may go on in the book it is a great book and seriously recommend it for anyone who likes zombies

great zombie book

Reviewed by Ronald E. Beffa, 2010-02-14

I can't believe I read a zombie novel. I can't believe I really liked that zombie novel. World War Z was a kick and a fairly fast read. It packs a fair amount of critical observation of the state of the real world within the pages of the imaginary world. Although there is plenty of zombie stuff, what the book is really about is human nature, the good and the bad, the selfish and the giving. Which is probably why it appealed to me.

It is written almost entirely as a series of short interviews with survivors from a years long war against a plague that left most of the world's humans undead. The good part of this format is also the bad part. Good because you get a lot of little vignettes, really dozens of very short stories that tell the larger story, that tell (usually) some interesting stories, but bad because with all the bouncing around of the stories and characters you sometimes miss the depth of a longer reflection on an issue. It also it makes for some disjointed reading in putting it all together. But my quibbles are mostly minor, because the big picture does come together. I really liked some of the characters, and I found the book to be very well written. Check it out.

Interesting, but sometimes a bit mondane and too detailed.

Reviewed by Independent Thinker, 2010-02-14

This book was recommended to me by a friend. I downloaded the sample and decided to give it a read. It started off fairly interesting, but then at times it slipped into a very tedious state. Over and over describing similar things (especially about the Zheads). A few of the stories were very interesting to me, while others were just dreadful to get through. While reading some of the slower parts of the book I started to feel like I was a zombie. Nonetheless, the book is a eazy read, and is interestingly put together. I understand the movie rights have been purchased for this book, so if it makes it to the big screen it will be interesting to see how they convey the story.