This will be a short review and it will mostly be about my (imaginary) relationship with Alan Alda and my creepy stalker habits. I apologize in advance.

I've always wanted to marry Alan Alda. Not because I find him particularly attractive, but because I enjoy hearing him speak. The way I see it, if I was married to him, I’d be allowed to wake him up at all hours and make him read to me in that sweet, nasal voice and with that subtle but charming accent. Ok, so maybe my view of love and marriage isn’t the healthiest one around, but a girl can dream, right? Since I obviously won't be marrying him any time soon, buying this audiobook was the next best thing.
That happens to me sometimes. I fall in love with people’s voices and/or accents and I lose all sense of shame. Once I’d even followed some Romanian tourists around all afternoon just to hear them speak. What?!? I said I have no shame!
So imagine my surprise and delight when I recognized Alan Alda as one of the narrators of World War Z. Max Brook himself was also a cast member. It’s no wonder I was thrilled with this audiobook!

World War Z is basically a collection of stories told by the survivors. The main character, also named Max Brooks, recorded their testimonies and shared them with the world. Every single story (and there are maybe 15) is very interesting, some more emotional than others.
Here’s another confession: every bone in my body is completely apolitical and there’s plenty of politics in World War Z. I didn’t care about that part too much, but I’m sure some of you will appreciate it more. Personally, I preferred the stories about survival that had nothing to do with politics, like the story of a female US army pilot (who may or may not be hearing voices) trying to survive in the swamps of South Louisiana.

I recommend this (audio)book to every one of my zombie loving friends, as well as those of you who aren't yet convinced. Maybe Max Brooks will be the one to change your mind.

I was a little hesitant about reading this book, being that the living dead aren't usually my thing, but it ended up being much cleverer than I thought it would be. The Zombie War is presented retrospectively, in short vignettes told from the perspectives of many unrelated characters. The collection of their viewpoints gives a broader idea of the events, but there isn't much of a plot. This isn't really a thriller or horror story. It's more of an imaginative exercise - how would the world handle a global threat to the survival of the species? There is political, social, and even environmental commentary woven into the chapters. It isn't overt or preachy. Instead it is presented in the context of the characters' personalities and backgrounds. As you might imagine, they don't always agree.

I "read" this book as an audiobook. This format doesn't always work for me, but here it was perfect. The characters were voiced by different readers, enhancing the story's overall effect.

this book. is brutally fantastic. i'm not sure if i've ever used that particular combination of descriptors before, but it fits. this is the same guy who wrote the "zombie survival guide," though i will have to rely on the husband to tell me how much of that manual informs this book, as he has been reading that one. both books were his christmas presents, btw, and i had no real mission to read either, but i started idly flipping through world war z out of boredom, and the next thing you know i had finished it. zombies have only recently been part of my life, and unfortunately, if there is a class of experts regarding this particular "virus," i belong in it. this comes from being married to someone who scouts out every place we go, be it wal-mart, the mall, a restaurant, for possible weapons, fortification sites, and plausible escape routes in the event of a zombie invasion. these things invade my dreams, frighten the living hell out of me, but still, this book rocked my socks.

what makes this book interesting is that it takes the form of an honest to god historical account, complete with footnotes. the author chronicles individual accounts of a zombie infestation that sweeps the entire world and puts the human race on the brink of extinction. it takes itself absolutely seriously from cover to cover, which is part of what makes it so successful. it's written for an audience who presumably knows the basic history of the war, which of course, we do not. it does not explain the timeline, it does not define certain events, just refers to them as though you will recognize what the speaker is referring to. you are expected to catch on, read between the lines, fill in the blanks on your own, which fuels your imagination while simultaneously leaving you begging for more. it's just the right amount of information, i think, because even though i would have liked to see a basic chronology of events, have some background information available, i think the writer was right to give me less than what i think i need, because having that information might actually detract in the end.

unlike the traditional zombie movies (the exception that comes to mind being the latest romero flick, land of the dead), this looks beyond the immediate desperation for simple survival, and explores the effects on economy, military, government, commerce, trade, etc. things you might not normally consider (if you spend time considering the fallout of a zombie infestation), such as what refugee patterns would emerge and how that would jeopardize different nations, the fortune that would suddenly be made in human trafficking, the impact on our oceans and atmosphere, which nations are tumbled to the ground and which ones rise from the ashes to gain prosperity and power, the desperate yet woefully ineffectual efforts made by civilians to survive (when they do not have survival skills), the spread of the virus through infected organ transplants, the zombie threat underwater, the fortunes made by pharmeceutical companies off of fake cures, and a LOT more. aside from these unique and fascinating perspectives, brooks writes a painfully honest account of the human factor. the danger facing humanity was not just from zombies: it was humanity itself. the psychological damage incurred by soldiers, witnesses, survivors...he paints a clear picture of how merely avoiding a zombie bite was not enough to keep you alive.

it's brilliantly imaginative, utterly fascinating on all levels, and so worth the read even if you have no interest in the living dead. though, if you are sensitive to nightmares, be on your guard. i've been dreaming about this stuff like crazy. the past couple of nights.

Initially I had thought World War Z was going to be a book I would be surreptitiously adding to my 'read' list, rating it and moving on to better reads quite unceremoniously.
I had considered not even the remotest possibility of reviewing it, because I assumed this was going to be one of those books one reads for sheer entertainment value and little else.
But here I am writing one anyway, because I think the author definitely deserves some praise for his powers of imagination, if not for the copious amount of research he must have put in to write this.

If you are looking for your regular dosage of blood, guts and gore or a deliciously disturbing montage of decapitated torsos and severed limbs, I suggest you look elsewhere. Because World War Z is different from your mainstream zombie book.
Sure it contains the appropriate number of grotesque scenarios and morbid imagery, but these are not its highlights.
Here the zombie apocalypse serves merely as a backdrop against which the fragility of the world order is exposed - how an unforeseen human crisis of unimaginably catastrophic proportions can make the painstakingly put-together fabric of our civilization crumble like a house of cards.
Instead of recounting the story of the survival of one particular group of humans, making their way from one safe haven to another, Max Brooks gives us the bird's eye view of the nature of the calamity.
The story of the human resistance against zombies unfolds from the perspective of not one but numerous survivors all over the world - military and navy men/women, war strategists, politicians, fraudulent businessmen, doctors, film directors, divers, ordinary civilians and so on. But the multiple points of view are compiled together in a single document, by an unnamed UN official to help create a clearer picture of the extent of the tragedy after the war has ended.
So what one finds in this book are minutiae regarding military equipment, weapons specially designed to fight off the living dead, strategies for quarantine and annihilation of infected people, psychological after-effects of surviving the disaster and living through it. Which makes it a lot more interesting and unconventional since the focus is shifted from the mindless violence perpetrated by a bunch of reanimated corpses and placed on human strengths and fallacies, instead.

So then why only 3 stars?

Because the different accounts start to sound repetitive and the novelty of the mode of narration wears off after you get past the halfway mark. The frequency with which the author bombards the reader with descriptions of tactics employed by military and navy men tires one out after a while. And often, he goes overboard while trying to display his ample knowledge of the socio-political landscape of various nations. The way the book feels like a piece of non-fiction rather than a fictionalized account, also curtails one's enjoyment of the story somewhat.
I would have rated this 4 stars had the book helped me maintain the same level of interest throughout.
That, however, does not mean it is unreadable. The 3 stars ought to say that much.
If you love your zombies yet cannot put up with mediocre writing and respect an author who cares to thoroughly research the topics he wishes to write on, World War Z is your next prospective read.

Recommended.

My zombie fetish has not entirely waned, so I followed my reading of World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War with the abridged audio version. All rumors you may have heard about the quality are absolutely true--it's a completely enjoyable and possibly preferable to the book. A full length audio is expected in 2013, and I'll likely be listening.

One way this audio stands out is its impressive casting. Since I borrowed from an online library, I didn't have a cover to refer to when I first listened, so names were separated from professional reputations and I focused on reading quality only. For reference:


Overall, I loved the voice acting--this book was made for a visual or audio documentary. One of the few complaints I had with the book--along with many other readers--is that the individual stories were not distinct enough. While the writing style attempted to capture the different speech patterns, a reading highlights the differences, and brings the personality of the speaker to the forefront.

Eammon Walker reads three different people, and his South African reading talking about Paul Redecker's plan to sacrifice civilians was extremely engaging and believable. I also loved Ajay Naidu's deep voice reading Ajay Shah, the Indian white collar worker staring at the rusting ships that had been his hope for escape. Dean Edwards read Joe Muhammad, the disabled community watch volunteer, so well that I believed his anger at political correctness. It felt real.

Of course, Carl Reiner was talented as the Israeli spy, and Alan Alda as the chief of DSTRS. I once worked for an Israeli psychologist, and Carl captured the accent perfectly, especially the variable way the 'r' comes through that sets the pronunciation of a second (or third or fourth) language speaker apart--some times as "twue" and sometimes that full, rolling 'rr.' (I always loved listening to her talk). Henry Rollins was note-perfect as the free-lance mercenary for the stars.

My chief complaint of the audio version is formatting--divided into four sections, it has a number of chapters in each section. The "chapters" do not correspond with the sections of the book, which confuses if listening in stops and starts.

A few actors didn't quite capture the tone I imagined from my read, particularly the military ones. General Travis D'Ambrosia (Dennis Boutsikaris) was a decent voice actor, but I felt like he was a storyteller, not a career military person telling a story. Likewise, the downed pilot, Christina Eliopolis, read by Becky Ann Miller. She reads it like a story--she definitely isn't military and doesn't capture the intensity the character is supposed to have. And though John Turturro is a great name to have attached to the project, I felt like his Cuban accent wandered and was inconsistent. The quality of that reading was most surprising to me. As it's not an unfamiliar accent to the American ear, inadequacies are easy to spot.

Strangeness--my jpg lists Mark Hamill as Todd, the soldier that was in Yonkers. Except I would swear on my library that Mark was the narrator. Hmmm. I call shenanigans!

At any rate, if you read the book and sort of liked it, I highly recommend the abridged reading. Fast, engaging, it highlights the wonderful things an audio book can do.

Hey, I have a booktube channel (youtube for book reviews) and I do video reviews for books like this one, epic fantasy, science fiction, media related to them, and more.  Please subscribe here!

Update: See end of review for movie review.

I've broken my cardinal rule for reading books just before the movie comes out. This rule I've alluded to is the following - I don't read the book directly before the movie (at least 1 year before or it must be read after or just wait on the movies). The reason for this is that I want to enjoy the story through both mediums and if you read the book just before the movie, you've set yourself up to be a critic - analyzing everything and complaining about every detail that's inevitably left out, but which is more often than not necessary for the medium.

If you read the book at least a year before, at least with my shoddy memory, the movie becomes a happy time of fond remembrances. Oh yeah, I remember that part, so cool! Yay! Happy! In this instance, I hear the movie doesn't quite follow the book exactly and what else can that mean than that it's a typical zombie movie. I don't think I've ruined much here.

You know, it could have been partly because of all the hype, but I didn't love this book. I didn't hate it either, which makes these the hardest reviews to write, but I think I have a few ideas why World War Z just didn't work all that well for me.

I'm studying for the bar at the moment, so you get an extremely well-organized review (at least with headings aplenty) since that's how my brain is thinking at the moment. :)

The Plot

Doesn't really exist. Yeah, there's a loose series of events that defines the book, or the Zombie War, but it's told through interviews with different survivors from different countries. And they're short too, I even checked this with the book (paper-form). Each interview amounts to a page or two, maybe 5 max. Each tends to discuss a certain important event, which ends up getting referred to by characters later in the book and often mentioned by the one directly following.

It's extremely clever and lets you see how well developed this whole idea is.

It's extremely clever

Max Brooks has literally thought of everything when it comes to a war against zombies. I thought the same in my reading of The Zombie Survival Guide, and it goes just as well here. EVERYTHING!

He goes into why tanks are all but useless against hordes of zombies - because you have to take out their heads! Anything else, and they'll still shamble and probably even become more dangerous when you trip over them on the ground. The airforce is just as useless because it's so much money and effort for such a little amount of good. Better spent on a bunch of soldiers with tons of amo. He even goes into better strategies for fighting this war, why the zombies are such a good enemy - because they don't need to be bred, fed, or led as I'll let the book explain.

Very clever and not even pretentious about it. Just captivating. And this isn't the only thing I liked although we're getting into the middle ground because I didn't love the audio either.

The Audio

One of the things that got me excited to listen to this on audio was that it's read by a full cast. That means they're trying REALLY hard and that tends to be a good thing, especially if you don't like one or two of the voices, it's okay, it's only temporary. With just one narrator, that can really kill a book. I mentioned that this is told through many different people in different countries and they have actors like Rob Reiner and John Turturro. Even Max Brooks himself plays the part of the interviewer.


(John Turturro from The Big Lebowski)

Very cool...until the point of distraction. There are so many different countries represented that the accents started to distract heavily from the story. I found myself pondering why the German guy had such a heavy accent on his "R's" and yet could perfectly pronounce "TH" every time. And this was just the one guy. One of the benefits of a single narrator is that even when they do an accent, it's easier to understand because English is their primary language.

The audio's great for the most part, outside of that little niggle about the accents, but one thing I absolutely HATE about it is...it's abridged!

Abridged

I would probably never forgive myself if I listened to this abridged audio version and never actually read the entire book if I actually thought that mattered. Maybe others are better sleuths than myself, but I can't find a reading of World War Z that's not abridged. At the same, after having read the book, the abridged version seems to do enough justice to the entirety of the novel, what with how it is organized, that it just cuts out a few of the interviews.

Normally this is heresy, but I can live with it for this one time only.

What I didn't like

I think the thing that just makes this an okay to good book for me is that while it's style and organization is unique and highly clever, it also takes away from my ability to care. Without just following one person or a group of people, there's no attachment to any specific person.

The Movie

(Brad Pitt will make everything better.)

After writing the above, I actually do think the movie will make it all better. It seems like it will be following one single person and that's what this reader needs. Movie's set for a June 2013 release. Here's the trailer too.

In the end (in the sense of my final feelings not any post-apocalyptic sense)

Let's just say, if we ever do get into a Zombie War, you better have a copy of World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide on you. Someone's already gone through the effort of thinking up EVERY situation that can occur, what's effective, what's not and put it down in words. No sense reinventing the wheel.

While an entertaining idea and clever execution, these were the exact things that made World War Z a book I could never love. It's worth a read if only to see how in-depth you have not thought about zombies.

3 out of 5 Stars (Recommended with Reservations)

The movie, an update
I just wanted to make a quick note about the movie. I'm happy to say I called it correctly. I enjoyed the movie much more than the book even though you can really only say the movie is a loose adaptation (if you can even say that). I thought it was much better to visit all those countries through the single character of the UN agent as opposed to interviews of random characters. I felt for him trying to protect his family, I rooted for him when he was in danger, and it had the same effect of exploring the reaction of different cultures (to a much smaller degree of course). And it actually scared me, which for a zombie book, was completely lacking in WWZ.

I have biblio-cooties.

There. I said it and I accept it. Because the majority of my friends really, really loved this book. And I fear they will reject me now that they know that it did little to nothing for me. I shall have to sit alone in the library, other readers keeping a wide berth for fear of contagion, but I cannot tell a lie and I stand by my pronouncement: Hi, my name is Amanda and I did not enjoy World War Z.

In the past, I have ripped into books I disliked with a gleeful, almost maniacal abandon, and so there are some who may suspect that I will do so here. But this is an entirely different case, for World War Z's fault is not that it's a bad book. It's well-written, it's got an intriguing conceit (the tale of the zombie apocalypse told in journalistic hindsight from the perspective of those who survived), and some imaginative scenarios (sure, we've all thought about zombies on land, but what about zombies underwater?).

In fact there's no fault at all here other than the fact that, as far as undead ghouls go, I'm Team Vampire. I've never really found anything that frightening about zombies, other than a certain "Eww" factor that compels me to think about how I need to stock up on hand sanitizer and wet wipes in a zombiefied world because they're leaving nasty bits and pieces everywhere. To me, there is nothing more frightening than intellect coupled with either undeniable evil or with moral apathy. Since zombies are basically husks driven by a biological imperative instead of conscious thought, they're not my monster of choice. The only zombie flicks I've enjoyed have been Shaun of the Dead or Zombieland. Humor + zombies = a win. Horror + zombies = not so much.

So I knew going in that this was likely a swing and a miss, but it had received such rave reviews that I couldn't resist. I thought the journalistic style might appeal to me, but few of the voices were clearly differentiated enough for me to connect with any one character. There were 3 or 4 stories that really engaged me, but not enough to enjoy the overall experience. What was really frightening, however, is that Brooks does an excellent job of showing how ill-equipped we are globally to deal with any type of rapidly-spreading contagion. He also captures the fear and panic that comes out of facing an unknown. Particularly in first world countries, we are so complacent with "knowing all the answers" and controlling everything that the mental toll of facing a problem we can not solve would be just as damaging as the physical threat. Brooks does an excellent job of realistically portraying this.

So, I'll say it again: not a bad book. Just not for me. Now I'll go sit in my corner and wait for someone else to catch biblio-cooties. It shouldn't be long. I just have to wait for someone to write a 1 star review of an Orson Scott Card or Janet Evanovich book and my transgressions will be forgotten.

Cross posted at This Insignificant Cinder

There are reasons to be wary of this book. The title is a little silly, and Max Brooks's Zombie Survival Guide was tongue in cheek. Hell, he's the son of legendary comedy director Mel Brooks. And zombies are creatures that gained popularity thanks to film, which is contrary to the nature of most good creatures. Vampires, ghosts, wizards, witches, dragons, orcs, goblins, angels, werewolves and even Frankenstein's undead abomination came from literature first, and entered film later. Film seldom contributes originality to prose. Fortunately Max Brooks pulled off a minor miracle in adapting the largely theatrical terror into the written word, by use of the literary apocalypse convention and oral stories. Our familiarity with the outlines of a zombie outbreak (or any plague outbreak) from so many films helps fill in the gaps between his various storytellers' accounts.

Brooks has a remarkable sense of voice, and places the various interviewees well, such that they sound all the more distinct in contrast to the preceeding and following speaker. We get a lot of interesting subjects, from the country doctor in China who treated the first "bite," to a hitman hired to protect a millionaire mogul, to a blind man who somehow managed to survive in the most infested parts of Japan - Hiroshima. Thus we also get a total sense of the rise and fall of the outbreak, with each arc illustrated by brilliant personal narratives of "true" stories from those periods that give us a sense of not just the plot, but how culture changed in this fictional earth. The narrative is unified by the interviewer who visits them and directs parts of their story, but only enough so that we can both enjoy the overarching plot and the survivors' stories.

Like the best science fiction the outlandish premise allows us to get a fresh view of real human issues. Brooks approaches such issues on multiple levels, from simple human interests like base selfishness and how we act in desperation, to political crises, such as early on in the book when the Israelis and Palestinians blame each other for the plague, and even claim it is a hoax perpetrated by their enemies. Many of the characters are inspired by people from real life, like Howard Dean, Karl Rove and Nelson Mandela - but rather than coming off as cheesy, they lend an air of authenticity to the tale. There is just enough real tension, both base and topical, to lend it the right aura for a great exercise in modern fantasy/sci fi - it's easily one of the best fantasy/sci fi books set in the modern world I've read in quite some time.

The quality of Brooks's book was totally unexpected. This was supposed to be a spin-off from an impulse-buy. But by the time you finish World War Z I think you'll hope along with me that this, his first work of fiction, won't be his last.

En 2013:
Vaya bodrio. No voy a perder el tiempo ni escribiendo mucho.

No es una novela, son narraciones cortas sobre una epidemia zombi que asola la Tierra y que, por ser sobre sucesos más o menos correlativos relacionados con la misma, se supone que te hace avanzar en la historia de fondo.

Le he abandonado al 20%.

¿Esto es uno de los libros más afamados sobre zombis?. Decepción absoluta.

I can see why this book remains one of the most instantly recognized zombie novels of all time (and continues to be a fan favorite and a darling among "the critics"). It's cool, it's action packed, it's epic and amongst a sub-genre that is in desperate need of something "fresh", World War Z delivers a gut punch to the solar plexus fueled by a tantalizingly original approach.

Most zombie tales (either literary or cinematic) are told using a very small canvas from the narrowest point of view of a handful of survivors. It's shockingly intimate, immediate, but limited in scope. When there is a zombie outbreak in the heartland of America or in the City of Angels, we never know how the rest of the world is faring. Is it only happening here? Is it happening everywhere?

Max Brooks takes a truly global approach to the zombie apocalypse. He assumes that if there is a zombie outbreak, it's going to spread fast and become a global pandemic. His cast of characters are not a terrified group holed up in the Mall of America -- they are citizens of the world -- Greenland, China, Israel, India, Canada, Germany...never has the zombie apocalypse had such an international complexion.

The other aspect that gives this novel its unique voice are the voices, of which there are many. The great zombie war is over and now the veterans of this war -- the ultimate survivors -- are left to describe how the war was won on all fronts over all parts of the globe. How were the zombies driven into submission? How were their numbers decimated so that humankind could avoid extinction? Brooks doesn't shy away from the minutiae of military tactics and strategy, foreign dossiers, mass exoduses, government corruption, cannibalism ... this is probably as realistic a portrait of the rise of zombies and their eventual defeat as you could ask for.

And it's awesome, so why not 5 stars? While I am humbled by the scope and sprawling vastness Brooks uses here, the nuts and bolts technical aspects of the novel continued to hold me at arm's length from the action. This is an oral history after all -- everything has already happened, so we get the action in the past tense as remembrances. We know how this ends so I felt there was a tension and urgency lacking in the overall experience. I missed the "in the moment happening right now" voice. While the details held me in awe, I didn't feel especially frightened or held in the grip of a terror unfolding -- this was terror that had already unfolded. It was more a clinical experience than an emotional one.

Having said that, the audiobook is WONDERFUL and added a dramatic effect that I think would be sorely lacking by just reading the text alone. It was fun to hear the familiar voices of Alan Alda, Henry Rollins, John Turturro and Rob and Carl Reiner. Mark Hamill definitely has the most memorable part, but he does not sound like Luke Skywalker (thank goodness!). He was great actually. I never would have guessed it was him.

Anyways, despite my inability to give this book five stars, it does come with a huge recommendation. What Brooks does with this is an awesome achievement, and in the zombie genre, it's a game changer. There really is nothing else out there quite like it!

I just can't get on this bandwagon. The pseudo-government reports the book is written in handicap it in many ways. First, there are no protagonists to grow with, no story arc, no climax, etc. You know what's going to happen from day one--there was a world crisis involving zombies and at least some people live to tell the tale. The sure knowledge of the outcome deflates any tension and book feels flacid. The pseudo-scientific jargon is a poor imitation (my sister, a nurse, tossed aside Brooks' other Zombie manfesto in disgust within the first few pages and this one fairs no better)and there are far too many emotional pauses and descriptive introductions for what amounts to an addendum to a government study of events. The thing that put me over the edge with this book is the inconsistency--one chapter has a boy with bloody knuckles sliding his hands about in zombie goo and remaining uninfected and in the next chapter there is an expression of gratitutde that no one exposed to detrius from a headshot has open wounds to be infected through. What editor let that get by? On top of that, racial, national stereotypes abound and are crude and unappealing. Brooks is obviously a big fan of Israel, as they are the heroes of the day, even going so far as to selflessly save Palestinian refugees (yeah, right)and remnants of South Africa's apartheid system are given a reprieve due to their pragmatism. Russians are wacky comrades, Chinamen are inscrutable and Americans are cowboys weakened by education and consumerism. Ugh.

I won't recommend this book to anyone, even a die hard zombie fan, lest World War Z ruin the genre for them forever.

***3 Stars***

I really wanted to like this book, but it ended up being a little too political for my taste and it had way too little horror or zombies in it. Maybe it's because I watched the movie first and read the book years later, but I had something very different in my mind.