I bought and read this recently on holiday and thought it was worthy of a review, hopefully without giving too much away.
World War Z: an oral history of the zombie war is the second zombie book by Max Brooks (Mel Brooks’ son). The first was The Zombie Survival Guide, which I’ve not read, but I believe is basically a lightweight spoof of other ‘survival guides’.
The scenario is there was a worldwide zombie outbreak, which pushed humankind to the brink of collapse, but after several years we overcame the walking undead. It’s set in the immediate future, i.e. there are references to current world leaders etc. It’s structured as a series of interviews with some key survivors, ranging from those who first witnessed it, to soldiers who fought in conflict against the zombies.
If you ignore the basic zombie plot, this seems to be as much about topics like environmental catastrophe and geopolitics. The chapters are all set in different locations worldwide, and for the most part are convincing in their attention to detail. There were only a couple of instances which didn’t ring true.
There’s lots of nice little surprises along the way too… mainly the way certain country’s fortunes change due to the zombie war, with a few slightly satirical moments to savour.
It has an episodic nature, which would lend itself well to a TV series or comic (although that’s already been done with The Walking Dead). It’s been optioned for a film and a script is currently being written. It could also work well as a game, think a cross between Call of Duty and Resident Evil.
In summary, this is a good read even if you’re not ‘into’ all things zombie.
