Thursday, May 10, 2012

World War Z

I've been a little zombie nerd ever since I started reading The Walking Dead comic.  Whenever I'm reading something in this genre I can't help but just see the world differently.  Take stock of the useless stuff people do and buy, how none of it would matter once the Zombie Apocalypse started.  I joined a gym, which may or may not have had anything to do with it :)  I'm not insane, I have no belief that there will be a zombie outbreak - but what an interesting subject.  You can't tell a zombie story without it really being a social commentary.  Zombie stories are always about the break down of society, and World War Z, is ultimately about - what will you do to survive?  Who will you become?  It's told through interviews with survivors and chronologically talks about just before the outbreak, through "The Great Panic", into the War with the Zombies, and then the aftermath.  I found the first two thirds to be pretty damn riveting, and then it died off really fast - the aftermath was a little less interesting to me.  The episodic nature of it starts to take it's toll and you just feel the need to get through it.
Apparently the feature film version that's coming out has very little to do with the actual book (no surprise since the book has no real protagonist outside of, I guess, the interviewer).
It's a book that's pretty good when you think about how much thought into the world Max Brooks has put into it, different countries, groups of people, etc... ideology.  It's a dark and somewhat uplifting book.  If you're a zombie-nerd you've probably already read it - but if you're new to the zombie world, give it a shot along with his Zombie Survival Guide.

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