WORLD WAR Z

This is an intriguing way to write another book about zombies. The book consists entirely of interviews of three to seven pages with the survivors of the Zombie War. Max Brooks is both the author of this book and the interviewer. After giving the United Nations Postwar Commission the basic facts of the ten year war, Brooks decides to write a book about individual survivors of many countries. Since Brooks tells you upfront that humanity won the war, there are no "spoilers" required.

The first case of zombie infection was in China, involving a boy bitten by someone unknown. China basically stonewalls the problem, resulting in the virus spreading worldwide via black market "organ donor" traffic and bitten people leaving China. Soon the whole world is fighting zombies that can only be killed by destroying their brains! Cape Town, South Africa, is the first country that uses the "Paul Redeker" plan, which puts a certain amount of their population in safe zones and leaves the rest as bait. Israel, under a quarantine program, closes their borders. Pakistan and Iran have a nuclear war over fleeing refugees from Pakistan. The U.S.A., under the assumption they have a vaccine, have little concern of the black cloud approaching. Too late, they find out the vaccine is for rabies - not very effective for zombie bites.

The Great Panic starts when, in the battle of Yonkers, the zombies overwhelm the military. It seems conventional "shock and awe" strategy against people already dead doesn't work. Using air strikes, tank attacks, hi-tech rockets only works if you manage to destroy each individual zombie brain. If not, they will drag their damaged body forward in a continued effort to eat you! The U.S.A. retreats to the Rocky Mountains, Japan evacuates to South Korea, the North Korean people disappear completely and are presumed underground.

In the Honolulu Conference, the President of the United States, decides the only way to defeat the zombies is by deploying the old Revolutionary War two-line attack. Using a military rifle line running north to south, moving west to east they slowly eliminate the zombies, with single head shots, one by one. But this war is far from over- what about the rest of the world? Zombies walking under the ocean? And, zombies thawing out in the spring? After reading all the interviews, you will have all the answers.

This is another entry into the recent literary explosion of zombie and vampire books. Although this novel is unique, I find myself tiring of this genre. I only recommend this book to the hardiest of ghoul readers. The only book in this field that I give a five star rating to is The Passage, a 766 page beauty written by Justin Cronin in 2010.

RATING: 3.5 stars out of 5

Comment: Max Brooks is the son of actors Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft. Now that's what I call a talented family! Paramount Pictures has recently acquired the movie rights to this novel.