World War Z by Max Brooks
May. 11th, 2008 08:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
It began with rumours from China about another pandemic. Then the cases started to multiply and what had looked like the stirrings of a criminal underclass, even the beginnings of a revolution, soon revealed itself to be much, much worse. Faced with a future of mindless, man-eating horror, humanity was forced to accept the logic of world government and face events that tested our sanity and our sense of reality.
Based on extensive interviews with survivors and key players in the 10-year fight-back against the horde, World War Z brings the very finest traditions of American journalism to bear on what is surely the most incredible story in the history of civilisation.
Compiled by an unnamed narrator, furious at having the personal accounts he collated for a UN investigation into the causes and progress of the War excised from the final report, World War Z is essentially a compilation of stories from individuals who describe what happened to them before, during and after the war. It's a brilliant device and one that makes the telling of this story chillingly plausible, with Brooks using it to draw out the global nature of the zombie pandemic. He includes 'interviews' with an extraordinary range of people, from a Chinese village doctor who reported one of the first cases of the plague, to an industrialist who sells a fake cure to the desperate population, to an American soldier who tried to hold back the hordes, to people charged with reconstructing the devestated countries after the zombies have been driven to defeat. The style of narration has a peculiar documentary feel to it - sometimes, the survivors tell their stories in the form of a monologue, sometimes the narrator intersperses it with questions, but rather than being distracting, this helps to make the book even more effective.
The book's biggest strength is in the careful thought that Brooks has given as to just how a zombie infection would spread and the effect it would have on the population. He picks out elements such as people and organ trafficking in the Far East to show how the infection could cross continents and satirises the media, with their constant focus on cures and progress as a means of whipping up panic amongst the general population, together with the interests of businesses seeking to use the plague as an additional way of making money. He also shows how brutal regimes will use brutality to restore order and for me, the sections recounting the decimations used to quell mutiny in the Russian army are the most chillingly observed in the book.
Some readers may find some of the survival stories a little far fetched and I did find the story of the elderly, blind Japanese man slightly too much, but it's nevertheless told in an entertaining and exciting way. As a Brit, I also had a quibble about the section from an English survivor who I felt to be a little too stereotypically upper class to be believable and a section from an Australian survivor describes the English as 'limeys' rather than 'poms'. But these are picky points that certainly didn't detract from my enjoyment of the text.
The Verdict:
Very chilling, highly effective horror that taps into the global threat of pandemic disease whilst at the same time satirising modern media and business and offering a peculiar hope for the future. Very highly recommended.
It began with rumours from China about another pandemic. Then the cases started to multiply and what had looked like the stirrings of a criminal underclass, even the beginnings of a revolution, soon revealed itself to be much, much worse. Faced with a future of mindless, man-eating horror, humanity was forced to accept the logic of world government and face events that tested our sanity and our sense of reality.
Based on extensive interviews with survivors and key players in the 10-year fight-back against the horde, World War Z brings the very finest traditions of American journalism to bear on what is surely the most incredible story in the history of civilisation.
Compiled by an unnamed narrator, furious at having the personal accounts he collated for a UN investigation into the causes and progress of the War excised from the final report, World War Z is essentially a compilation of stories from individuals who describe what happened to them before, during and after the war. It's a brilliant device and one that makes the telling of this story chillingly plausible, with Brooks using it to draw out the global nature of the zombie pandemic. He includes 'interviews' with an extraordinary range of people, from a Chinese village doctor who reported one of the first cases of the plague, to an industrialist who sells a fake cure to the desperate population, to an American soldier who tried to hold back the hordes, to people charged with reconstructing the devestated countries after the zombies have been driven to defeat. The style of narration has a peculiar documentary feel to it - sometimes, the survivors tell their stories in the form of a monologue, sometimes the narrator intersperses it with questions, but rather than being distracting, this helps to make the book even more effective.
The book's biggest strength is in the careful thought that Brooks has given as to just how a zombie infection would spread and the effect it would have on the population. He picks out elements such as people and organ trafficking in the Far East to show how the infection could cross continents and satirises the media, with their constant focus on cures and progress as a means of whipping up panic amongst the general population, together with the interests of businesses seeking to use the plague as an additional way of making money. He also shows how brutal regimes will use brutality to restore order and for me, the sections recounting the decimations used to quell mutiny in the Russian army are the most chillingly observed in the book.
Some readers may find some of the survival stories a little far fetched and I did find the story of the elderly, blind Japanese man slightly too much, but it's nevertheless told in an entertaining and exciting way. As a Brit, I also had a quibble about the section from an English survivor who I felt to be a little too stereotypically upper class to be believable and a section from an Australian survivor describes the English as 'limeys' rather than 'poms'. But these are picky points that certainly didn't detract from my enjoyment of the text.
The Verdict:
Very chilling, highly effective horror that taps into the global threat of pandemic disease whilst at the same time satirising modern media and business and offering a peculiar hope for the future. Very highly recommended.
