#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 … 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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So much better than movie. Only starship troopers veered off more. Walkthru of experience of individuals during crisis mgmt
The zombie novel by which all others in the genre should be judged!
A superb piece of world building and episodic narrative. The one weakness is an explanation for how the zombies keep going.
I liked the movie better
i listened to this audio, and LOVED it. A great commentary on society. Forget about the Zombies. It is politics, greed, and different thoughts on how we treat each other.
Could not put it down. I think I was late to work, but with only 2hr sleep after finishing, I am not sure…
4 stars!
One of the best zombie-centric novels I’ve ever read.
I know there are lots of reviews of this on Bookbub, so I’ll just add my superlatives to the list. Immensely entertaining, scary, fascinating. I loved how the author imagines the various civilizations around the world would react to a zombie apocalypse–that’s the genius of this book. Highly recommend.
Get the audiobook – it’s MUCH better than the physical book.
The format is very clever. LOVED this book.
Thank you Max Brooks for scaring the ever loving crap out of me. No one is safe. There’s nowhere to hide (perhaps on the moon) from the uprising of zombies that slowly take over the world. Max did a great thing with showing the aftermath and post World War Z in a interview type style non-fiction documentary type read. I was hooked on every story shared, especially the soldiers right smack on the front lines of the battle. You could feel the desperation and horror, the feeling that all hope was lost.
Just so AWESOME! I loved listening to this book with the one actor’s voice for the interviewer and the multiple actors as his subjects telling their stories from their viewpoint of the zombie apocalypse they survived.
There were heroes (reluctant and otherwise), scoundrels of many styles, but mostly people just surviving the best they could. I sampled the soldier, airman, soccer mom, government, CEO, rich, poor…each with the perfectly cast voice for each character’s persona and nationality.
I am buying this to add to my collection so I can listen again since I enjoyed this as much for the story as I did trying to identify each actor.
Highly excellent.
I really liked this book and thought the characters were well done and realistic. Great read for anyone, not just zombie fans.
Great freaking book! The book’s structure turns the Zombie genre on its head. Loved it.
And the audiobook is a must listen.
So different from the movie, great perspective.