Review of World War Z

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks


My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Review of World War Z


The zombie apocalypse is over. The world has come back from the brink of destruction in this gripping account of the zombie war by author Max Brooks. Each chapter is an interview conducted by (Max Brooks), and is recounted in the voice of the interviewee, with rare interruptions by Mr. Brooks. I listened to the audio book on CD in my car. I believe that the CD’s are better than the book. Why? Because we get to hear the accents of the interviewees. The actors doing the voices are A-list, and do a remarkable job of conveying the emotion of the story. The interviews are all fantastic, especially the one about Paul Redeker, the ex-apartheid official who helped save South Africa. I listened to that one twice. I also really enjoyed the interview of the Iranian pilot. The characters interviewed run the gamut from grunts on the ground to high-up officials from various countries. Each story is great in its own way, and only a few times did I get out of the story, and thought:an actor is reading this. The audio book I bought was only $14.99 at Borders, but it was slightly abridged. I’d like to get the book and see what I missed.

The social commentary in this work is thought provoking, though you may not even realize what Brooks is hinting at while listening/reading the book. One clever touch is taking famous figures from today, though Brooks doesn’t name names, and skewering them for what he imagines they would do if the zombie war became real. He also points out how some countries would contribute to the catastrophe because of their nature—namely, China, Iran, India, Israel, South Africa, and the United States.

If you love this book, or are interested in it, you must read the free online stories called Tales from the Zombie War (search online and you’ll find it), which take us deeper into the zombie apocalypse.

World War Z was highly entertaining and totally worth the time to either read, or listen to it.

Paul Genesse
Author of The Dragon Hunters
www.paulgenesse.com

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