Chances are if you've read the Zombie Survival Guide you've seen that the author (Max Brooks) has also written a novel about zombies. World War Z: an Oral History of the Zombie War follows the plight and struggle of nearly a hundred survivors of the Zombie War. Starting with a chinese doctor to the New Army american war veteran, and everyone in between, you'll cry and chear for these poor souls endurance.
World War Z takes one step up from your every day horror novel by making it shockingly realistic. Everything from the zombies, to the infection rate, to the crushing blow that landed fermly on America's face is thought out to perfect detail. This is because Max Brooks employs the help from several specialists while writting his books, to get the 'human factor' in his stories.
Since only two character appear through the book more than once, Max has had to strain himself by writting dozens of different characters and their points of view. And if you too wright, like i do, you'll know thats not easy. But Max pulls it off with flying colours.
You'll be sucked into this book, constantly wondering if america will ever be able to force the undead from their land. Or if the japanese kid will make it out alive of a apartment building infested with zombies.
Let me wrap up my thoughts and move on. If you love zombies, and want to see what would happen in reality if an massive outbreak did ocure than i thinkk you should lay off the strong cheese at bed time, but until then find a copy of this book and read it. You'll regret you didn't if and when the movie comes out.

I give it a solid 9/10 and a special spot for it on my shelf.

wow umm look honestly i would prefer to watch the movie at least then i get an exuse to call up my loser freind and go hang out like where acual people rather than spend the week at home reading the book like the isolated person i am

Gemini3333:
wow umm look honestly i would prefer to watch the movie at least then i get an exuse to call up my loser freind and go hang out like where acual people rather than spend the week at home reading the book like the isolated person i am

Be nice. Good review. Probably should be a little longer though.

I've read this book, and I've gotta say that this is one of the most engaging book full o' short stories I've read in quite some time. It has defiantly worked its way to my top favorite books of all time list. Even if you don't like zombies you should at least read the first ten pages or so next time you're at a bookstore, and if you aren't compelled to read more of it, then I'll be very surprised.
World War Z rocked.

Sorry, I'm not that enamored with this review. It's not very well written, has some really obvious spelling errors and some sentence fragments that shouldn't be there.

In addition, several characters are revisited, not just two, so there are some factual errors about the content of the book itself. It's also worth mentioning that this book is an offshoot of the Zombie Survival Guide that (I believe) he co-authored a few years back.

World War Z is a very good book, but it's more like a collection of short stories with a theme than a novel. The timeline is the only thing that really ties it together (the 'narrators' have their stories broken up into chronological order, so the reader sees the decimation as well as the tide turn in various places through time--keeping the suspense factor, but this doesn't change the style of those stories).

ANTI-SANTA:
Since only two character appear through the book more than once, Max has had to strain himself by writting dozens of different characters and their points of view. And if you too wright, like i do, you'll know thats not easy. But Max pulls it off with flying colours.

i disagree. Brooks' characters suffer from sounding too similar. it was somewhat detracting while reading the book, but the joy of zombie literature is in the logistic details and structural continuity which is what Max Brooks excels at anyways.

it is definitely one of my favorite books due to his logistic detail however his characters suffer from being too shallow and similar while many themes within the story could have been explored further (or not, i mean they're standard Romero themes, and revisiting them in depth would probably come off as cliche and obvious.)

Not a great review. It needs to be longer and more fleshed out, but I agree on the book. One of my favorite parts in particular(and I fear the movie is going to screw up badly) is the "Battle of Yonkers" where the US Military's informational control of the battlefield completely screws them over. Namely, when every soldier can see a satellite view of the battlefield and see the millions of zombies behind the front lines they can see, morale breaks down pretty damn quickly.

And of course, they can hear their comrades behind them screaming that the living dead have breached the lines behind them.

Thats guys, I'll take all you comments into cinsideration. This is after all my first ever published reviews, so please dont ram stakes into it that much.

P.S. I agree with the guy above, the Batlle of Yonkers with freaking awsome.

Argh. I want this book. I've yet to buy it but next pay day or when ever I can spare it, I'll be off to obtain a copy. The Survival Guide was great and from what I've heard it sounds just as good.

Gemini3333:
wow umm look honestly i would prefer to watch the movie at least then i get an exuse to call up my loser freind and go hang out like where acual people rather than spend the week at home reading the book like the isolated person i am

Hmm, I don't know what insult to flow with? Perhaps the fact that maybe you should read a book every so often to improve your own writing?
Books are great and comments like this hurt me to see the ignorence of some people.

Gemini3333:
wow umm look honestly i would prefer to watch the movie at least then i get an exuse to call up my loser freind and go hang out like where acual people rather than spend the week at home reading the book like the isolated person i am

This breaks my heart a little bit.

As for the OP, I think you might have underestimated just how much the peeps on this forum love zombies. I have a massive love for World War Z, but I think it deserves a longer, slightly more proofread review.

Like BallPtPenThief said, I think Brooks' talent lies in scope, rather than character. Most of his characters are effective, but pretty flat, fit only for the scenarios he flings them into and little else. He's got a great vision, though.

You know there's a movie in the offing? I'm hoping for a pretty stonking Yonkers.

Ya know after hearing so much about WWZ I never even bother to look up what it was about or ask someone, and now that I saw this review it refreshed my memory that it's on my "To Read" list and now that I know what it's about I've bumped it up even higher up on that list. I may get it soon too if I don't find a copy of "Odd Hours" - it's always "sold out". >_>

Gemini3333:
wow umm look honestly i would prefer to watch the movie at least then i get an exuse to call up my loser freind and go hang out like where acual people rather than spend the week at home reading the book like the isolated person i am

I struggle to believe that this is a serious post. If it is then this man is a "worst case scenario" and should seek help quickly - but people like that don't even tend to read posts longer than ANTI-SANTA's post so therefore I still don't believe that this post was serious, and therefore, I give you a "lol, you said this to make people mad didn't you?".

Yes, I love that book, I have the zombie guide, but cant afford WWZ. I read it all in the cafe in Barnes and Noble