“The Crisis” nearly wiped out humanity. Brooks has taken it upon himself to document the “first hand” experiences and testimonies of those lucky to survive 10 years after the zombie war.
This thread will contain spoilers. If you have not finished the book, proceed at your own risk
World War Z is the winner for February! The conversation will continue here. This thread will now be closed.
I loved this. I listened to the audiobook version which was unfortunately abridged, but I think the flavor really came through. Most of the performances were spot on in terms of tone and “believability”. Jurgen Prochnau was fantastic as the German Soldier.
As I have noted in the other thread about World War Z the comment from a review that sums up the book the best was “Smarter than it has any right to be.” I think there are a lot of similarities between BSG and WWZ in that.
The point is not the details - how jump drive works or what exactly the Redecker plan entailed, but using the situation to examine the human experience.
I can’t wait to get started on this one. I had somehow missed it’s existance up until now.
I have it loaded on to my blackberry so I can read anywhere anytime and not lose my place. Probably not as good as a Kindle but it is what i have.
See you for the discussion.
i loved the audiobook . my fave character is the guy in wheel chair blasting away zachs. and mark hamile character telling about the bad a** nun fending of z from sunday school;) and how he might have jr running around the country
Just read the book the other day.
I agree with the reviewers who say the book is “Smarter than it has any right to be.” The reactions from the military, the incompetence of the government, the world of the rich and famous, it all seems to ring true.
The part I really liked was the image of the old and blind Japanese garden worker mowing down Z by the hundreds, with nothing more than a sword. Could be cheesy, but if they shoot it right in the movie I hear they are planning to make, it could be great.
WAY different tone than I expected. At least in the first few chapters, it’s pretty straight-up. It could be talking about the Flu epidemic in the teens (excepting the re-animations, natch.)
Pike - I think that is part of the power of the idea. Zack is totally relentless more a force of nature than an enemy.
There is no boss Zombie, no Zombie HQ, no super Zombies just the inexorable horde. Scarier in many ways since it is so different from villains we are used to.
Loved the jargon the characters use. Of course they would call them Zack or G’s. Feels very real.
I just finished the book over this last weekend and I loved it. I generally love watching and reading about zombies but I think this book is my favorite and really creeped me out in a lot of places. I think what I really love about zombie stories is that modern human technology means craaaaap when it comes to fighting them. A lot of things we take for granted in a modern society, from our cars and our big plasma screen T.V.s to our governments ability to protect us.That stuff would mean absolutely nothing if anything like this happened. And yeah I know its just a zombie story, but replace ‘zombie’ with ‘virus’ or ‘natural disaster’ etc., and it becomes a lot more realistic.
I thought it was a nice touch how the book focuses on stories globally as opposed to just being U.S centric. I enjoyed seeing how different governments reacted to the crisis, some closed their borders, some tried to hide the infection, and some gave their populations placebos and lied that everything was going to be all right, at least until the the undead were crawling throught their windows.
A couple of stories have stuck with me. The story of the soldier fighting at the Battle of Yonkers and the futility of the weapons (designed to kill a living body by damaging organs) they used against the zombie hordes. The story of the girl and her family that headed north to supposed safety and ended up not only surviving zombies, but starvation (by canabalism) and other humans as society broke down.
My favorite account was of North Korea. Where did all the people go? Are they underground? Are they alive? Are there millions of zombies undergound just waiting?
I also wanted to share this picture. It is concept art for the Battle of Yonkers for the film thats being made. After reading the book I really can’t wait to see it.
I’ve both read the book and listened to the audiobook (which I highly recommend even though it is abridged; the level of talent and voice acting in it is incredible). It’s amazing how effective the book is; as has been said it works far better than it has any right to, given its subject.
Anyway, I also agree about how some scenes just stick with you. The one about the family fleeing to Canada was one but I liked the one where everyone is trying to flee from the beach in India or the scene where they talk about all the stalled cars on the highway with the zombies still belted into their seats since they can’t undo the seat belts (but who are still waiting to grab anyone who happens to walk by).
I also thought the sequence where he talks about the South African plan and meets with the guy who came up with it. Just the concept of “We can’t save everyone. We save a few, or none at all.” and “When we’ve saved the few, what do we do with the ones we couldn’t save? Use them as decoys.”
And I don’t see how they are going to do the book justice as a movie. It really should be a series; do each episode as one or two of his interviews.
I agree this is an amazing book, I too did the audiobook with its great voice performances . It has been almost a year since I listened to it but the two interviews that stick in my mind the celebrity bodyguard and the downed pilot. How the bodyguard ran across not a z onslaught but a hoard of frightened people just trying to find and safe place and how society’s elite broke down. And in contrast how the downed pilot was helped by a spotter on the radio to escape for z occupied Louisiana (I think, it has been a year) A spotter that was never there. Two examples of the best and worst of humanity
brilliant—one of the best books Ive read of any genre
Wow, it has been officially a year that I have been reading this book. Picked it up when I started this thread and would kind of pick at it now and then.
I am not a zombie genre person which partially explains why I moved this so slowly. However, I found it to be beautifully written, compelling and interesting. Every now and then I would realize how much Max Brooks must of had to research in order to make this believable. Not zombies mind you, but how a military submarine works, understand the literal Paris underground, be able to take on the voice of several cultures and world views…it is astounding.
What I found most impressive about this book was how thoughtful it was. He posited the question, “What if this happened…how would the world react? How would they combat it? How would they survive it? How would they combat it?”
This really is a must read.
Yeah, I’ve been doing the same thing. It’s a great book in that sense.
Read this over a year ago. I thought it was fantastic. We’re used to having the Zombie Apocalypse be presented from the point of view of a few threadbare survivors trying to make it to some safe point, losing members as they go along and sometimes having to make ‘the difficult’ choice.
It’s both refreshing and somewhat educational to see it from a more global perspective. How DOES a Zombie Apocalypse happen? What about the people who aren’t at or near ground zero?
One of the best part of the original Dawn of the Dead was the series of news clips and reports at the very beginning. This is an entire book of that stuff, plus the long term ramifications that follow.
As for the film, I’m going to commit blasphemy in saying that I don’t think this should have been treated like any old adaptation and handed off to a popular screenwriter. J. Michael Straczinsky is awesome and all that but World War Z isn’t just a zombie movie, a horror or a fiction flick. It’s a documentary and to really translate that feeling they should have hired an experienced documentary film maker.
Right there with you, but the studios want the big name. Most people couldn’t name a documentary film maker aside from Moore.
Personally, I’d rather have seen it as a miniseries, like a faux-PBS special.
I’m ambivalent on the series: I love the idea of a multi-part fake documentary series but I also worry that there would be a lack of material to draw from. When all’s said and done I’d rather see quality then quantity.
There is one huge name who’s been known to put out some incredible documentaries: James Cameron.
Just to bump this thread back into the present, rumor has it that another trailer from Pitt’s production company (Plan B Entertainment) is on the near horizon. I have to concur with all the earlier statements about keeping the adaptation as close to true documentary format, and avoid it being just another shaky-cam District-9 or Coverfield debacle. Maybe the parallel that AICN drew with Children of Men isn’t so bad, though the pacing of that film left me wishing for something different.
Not to mention the fact that who really has the best say in which of the multiple, multiple location-specific “witness accounts” get included? I guess that if Brooks says he’s pleased with the screenplay’s attempt to thread it all together, I’m sated.
I’m interested, nearly excited, but so, so skeptical…
How was District-9 or Cloverfield a debacle exactly…
Hmm…maybe I overstate. To take nothing away from the scripts or performances (I may kick at Cloverfield a bit, but actually liked D9), the hand-held camerawork got to be extreme at times – almost as if to add realism or “intensity”, the DoC would have the crew jostle the camera more than necessary. On a big screen, it was tough to watch after a while.
Then again, I’m overdrawn on my “opinion account” for all the $0.02 charges I keep throwing in, so if you dig the style, good on you. Maybe my vision is getting crappy in my old age. =)