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World War Z
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World War Z (2006) (edit title/settings)

An Oral History of the Zombie War

by Max Brooks (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

After the undead war - World War Z - a man named Max Brooks travels around the world to record the stories of those who have fought against the zombie uprising.

Summary edit see section history

We survived the zombie apocalypse, but how many of us are still haunted by that terrible time? We have (temporarily?) defeated the living dead, but at what cost? Told in the haunting and riveting voices of the men and women who witnessed the horror firsthand, World War Z is the only record of... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

We survived the zombie apocalypse, but how many of us are still haunted by that terrible time? We have (temporarily?) defeated the living dead, but at what cost? Told in the haunting and riveting voices of the men and women who witnessed the horror firsthand, World War Z is the only record of the plague years.

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“The end was near.” —Voices from the Zombie War The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years. Ranging from the now infamous village of New Dachang in the United Federation of China, where the epidemiological trail began with the twelve-year-old Patient Zero, to the unnamed northern forests where untold numbers sought a terrible and temporary refuge in the cold, to the United States of Southern Africa, where the Redeker Plan provided hope for humanity at an unspeakable price, to the west-of-the-Rockies redoubt where the North American tide finally started to turn, this invaluable chronicle reflects the full scope and duration of the Zombie War. Most of all, the book captures with haunting immediacy the human dimension of this epochal event. Facing the often raw and vivid nature of these personal accounts requires a degree of courage on the part of the reader, but the effort is invaluable because, as Mr. Brooks says in his introduction, “By excluding the human factor, aren’t we risking the kind of personal detachment from history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it? And in the end, isn’t the human factor the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as ‘the living dead’?” Note: Some of the numerical and factual material contained in this edition was previously published under the auspices of the United Nations Postwar Commission. Eyewitness reports from the first truly global war “I found ‘Patient Zero’ behind the locked door of an abandoned apartment across town. . . . His wrists and feet were bound with plastic packing twine. Although he’d rubbed off the skin around his bonds, there was no blood. There was also no blood on his other wounds. . . . He was writhing like an animal; a gag muffled his growls. At first the villagers tried to hold me back. They warned me not to touch him, that he was ‘cursed.’ I shrugged them off and reached for my mask and gloves. The boy’s skin was . . . cold and gray . . . I could find neither his heartbeat nor his pulse.” —Dr. Kwang Jingshu, Greater Chongqing, United Federation of China “‘Shock and Awe’? Perfect name. . . . But what if the enemy can’t be shocked and awed? Not just won’t, but biologically can’t! That’s what happened that day outside New York City, that’s the failure that almost lost us the whole damn war. The fact that we couldn’t shock and awe Zack boomeranged right back in our faces and actually allowed Zack to shock and awe us! They’re not afraid! No matter what we do, no matter how many we kill, they will never, ever be afraid!” —Todd Wainio, former U.S. Army infantryman and veteran of the Battle of Yonkers “Two hundred million zombies. Who can even visualize that type of number, let alone combat it? . . . For the first time in history, we faced an enemy that was actively waging total war. They had no limits of endurance. They would never negotiate, never surrender. They would fight until the very end because, unlike us, every single one of them, every second of every day, was devoted to consuming all life on Earth.” —General Travis D’Ambrosia, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe

Characters/People edit see section history

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First Sentence edit see section history

It goes by many names: "The Crisis," "The Dark Years," "The Walking Plague," as well as newer and more "hip" titles such as "World War Z" or "Z War One."

Table of Contents edit see section history

1. Introduction
2. Warnings
(Greater Chongqing, The United Federation of China) (Lhasa, The People's Republic of Tibet) (Meteora, Greece) (The Amazon Rain Forest, Brazil) (Bridgetown Harbor, Barbados, West Indies Federation) (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Bethlehem, Palestine)
3. Blame
(Langley, Virginia, USA) (Vaalajarvi, Finland) (Vostok Station: Antarctica) (Amarillo, Texas, USA) (Troy, Montana, USA)
4. The Great Panic
(Parnell Air National Guard Base: Memphis Tennessee, USA) (Alang, India) (Topeka, Kansas, USA) (Khuzir, Olkhon Island, Lake Baikal, The Holy Russian Empire) (Bridgetown, Barbados, West Indies Federation) (Ice City, Greenland) (Denver, Colorado, USA)
5. Turning the Tide
(Robben Island, Cape Town Province, United States of Southern Africa) (Armagh, Ireland) (Yevchenko Veterans' Sanatorium, Odessa, Ukraine) (Sand Lakes Provincial Wilderness Park, Manitoba, Canada) (Udaipur Lake Palace, Lake Pichola, Rajasthan, India)
6. Home Front USA
(Taos, New Mexico) (Burlington, Vermont) (Wenatchee, Washington) (Malibu, California) (Parnell Air National Guard Base, Tennessee)
7. Around the World, and Above
(Province of Bohemia, The European Union) (Ulithi Atoll, Federated States of Micronesia) (The Demilitarized Zone: South Korea) (Kyoto, Japan) (Kyoto, Japan) (Cienfuegos, Cuba) (Patriot's Memorial, The Forbidden City, Beijing, China) (Sydney, Australia) (Ancud, Isla Grande de Chiloe, Chile)
8. Total War
(Aboard the Mauro Altieri, Three Thousand Feet Above Vaalajarvi, Finland) (Denver, Colorado, USA) (Ainsworth, Nebraska, USA) (Siberia, The Holy Russian Empire) (Aboard USS Holo Kai, Off the Coast of the Hawaiian Islands) (Quebec, Canada) (Denver, Colorado)
9. Good-Byes
(Burlington, Vermont) (Khuzhir, Olkhon Island, Lake Baikal, The Holy Russian Empire) (Bridgetown, Barbados, West Indies Federation) (Sand Lakes Provincial Wilderness Park, Manitoba Canada) (Troy, Montana, USA) (Chongqing, China) (Wenatchee, Washington, USA) (Taos, New Mexico, USA) (Kyoto, Japan) (Armagh, Ireland) (Tel Aviv, Israel) (Aboard USS Tracy Bowden) (Denver, Colorado, USA)

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

  • War: Many think this book is about zombies, but the zombies are of secondary importance at best, serving simply as a vehicle for the exploration of the theme of war. Brooks uses zombies as a vehicle for tackling the theme of war, all war. By casting the enemy as zombies (of all ages, creeds and colors), he frees the exploration of the theme of war from all historical, cultural and political interference and allows the reader to dissect the theme in isolation. Curiously, by subverting the expectation of gory details and over-the-top bloodlust one would expect from the "zombie" genre by dealing almost exclusively with the human experiences of the war, Brooks imparts on the zombie enemy far more realism (they seem a more palpable threat thanks to this very understatement) than is usually encountered in zombie-related literature.

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 54 of 100 in National Public Radio's Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy. (authoritative list)

Preceded by Cryptonomicon, and followed by The Last Unicorn.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Max Brooks (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Crown
Country: USA
Publication Date: 2006
ISBN: 0307346609
Page Count: 352

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PN6231.W28 B76 2006
  • Dewey: 813.6

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Adults

Gory scenes, political themes, language, a few intense scenes and horror.

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

  • NPR: An audio clip of an interview with Max Brooks about World War Z.

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • The Zombie Survival Guide
  • Day by Day Armageddon
  • The Reapers Are the Angels
  • White Flag of the Dead
  • Monster Island
  • Warday
  • Lucifer's Hammer
  • Skeletons
  • Kings of the Dead
  • Valley of the Dead
  • Ex-Heroes
  • The Living Dead
  • The Living Dead 2
  • Dying to Live

Books That Influenced This Book edit see section history

   
  • The Good War: An Oral History of World War II

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