Critical Mick

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World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
by Max Brooks
Three Rivers Press, 2007

Brains... Braaaaainnnnsssss!

Zombies! Gotta love those guys. Sci-Fi/Horror author Darryl Sloan and I couldn't figure out their enduring appeal during our March 2007 interview for The Writing Show. I have of course often reflected upon the topic since.

Unlike aliens, vampires or werewolves, the walking dead are a monster that is easy to visualize. Stop for a moment on any busy street, look at the masses of people milling blankly along. Everyone knows exactly what it's like to be surrounded by zombies.

The second source of appeal is that the whole notion is ridiculous. Corpses walking, moaning for brains? No one can harbor real fear of something so impossible. Unless you're living on one publication-obsessed planet very far away, zombies are a safe thrill.

Since the release of 2003's The Zombie Survival Guide, Max Brooks has been a media sensation. He has been featured by the New York Times and Washington Post, and even interviewed by Archaeology magazine (A publication of the Archaeological Institute of America) about whether zombie outbreaks can be discerned in the archaeological record and if zombies be responsible for the extinction of some hominid species. Brooks is reputed to take the notion someplace it had never been before.

Ever curious, I put World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War high on my Amazon Wish List for Christmas 2008. Santa obliged. I read it in three days straight.

Brooks writes with creativity, style and well-researched detail- all of which set him above the swarming, stinking masses of lousy post-Apocalyptic fiction which plague the earth. This is no Mad Max rip-off. The stories that the characters tell on how they chose to react sound completely convincing. For example, a former shady transplant surgeon in Brazil tells about a heart obtained with no questions asked from a Chinese source. The transplant patient died, but horribly reanimated and killed another doctor. A lucky gunshot dropped the zombie. With the assistance of the police the slain doctor's body was dumped in the slums. No questions asked that might interrupt the flow of wealthy Westerners willing to buy a transplant at any cost. That, and the asides about the black-market organ harvesting, rings convincingly true.

Brooks even makes the science behind the walking dead somewhat plausible: in a Washington Post forum, he stated "the toxic nature of the [Solanum] virus repels most bacteria (including those that aid in decomposition)." Yep, somewhat plausible. There are other elements of World War Z which give a good stretch to the reader's suspension of disbelief. The novel has several episodes about drowned victims who reach up from underwater to drag down swimmers, for instance. Don't dead bodies float?

Zombentino!!!

Critical Mick says: Max Books is a writer with brains. World War Z reinvents the zombie genre, and provides entertaining, interesting ideas even for those who are not horror fans. I heartily recommend listening to the ten free sample episodes which can be downloaded from iTunes to get a flavor of the novel's character, content and interview format. I also heartily look forward to the film adaptation, expected in 2010.

Zombentino!!!

Read Max Brooks' October 2006 interview with eatmybrains.com!

Read Jeffrey DeRego's World War Z fan ficton!

Yo! This review and all content on the DFA Guide site are copyright 2008 Mick Halpin. All links to other sites and documents are copyright to whatever source wrote something cool enough for Mick to give it a referral. Try to claim them as your own work and bad karma will catch up with you, baby. Believe it.

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This Page Was Last Updated On 22 December, 2008.