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World War Z
Author	Max Brooks
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Horror, post-apocalyptic fiction
Publisher	Crown
Publication date	September 12, 2006
Media type	Print, e-book, audiobook
Pages	352 pp
ISBN	ISBN 0307346609

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (abbreviated WWZ) is a 2006 novel by Max Brooks. Though a follow-up to his humorously deadpan previous book, The Zombie Survival Guide, World War Z is more serious in tone, and strives to be both factually and psychologically convincing. It has been praised by critics and the audiobook version, complete with an all-star cast, won the 2007 Audie Award. A film based upon the book is currently in development, and is expected to be released in 2010.

Brooks plays the role of an agent of the United Nations Postwar Commission who published the novel in this fictional future after the United Nations left out much of his work from the official report. From the point of view of the interviewed survivors, Brooks chronicles a fictional zombie apocalypse, specifically the titular "World War Z", as a series of after-the-fact oral history interviews with prominent survivors. From their point of view Brooks tells the story of how an unprepared world is almost destroyed by zombies.

Inspired by the The Good War and George Romero, Brooks uses World War Z to provide commentary on a wide range of topics including government ineptitude, survivalism, and uncertainty in our times.

Plot introduction

Rather than a grand overview or a single perspective, World War Z is instead a collection of individual accounts in the form of interviews between the author and the characters. Taking place in the 2010s, the book charts a war against zombies from remote oddities, to a global pandemic to mass panic, and then to an armed struggle to reclaim the planet from the undead. In addition, the personal accounts describe the changing religious, geo-political, and environmental aftermath of the Zombie war.

Brooks explains that World War Z follows the "laws" set up in The Zombie Survival Guide, and that the guide exists in the world he set up as a precursor to the war.¹

Plot summary

Battle of Yonkers art that won an official World War Z contest, and is printed in the paperback edition of the book.

The zombie pandemic begins in China, although its true origins are unknown. The Chinese government attempts to contain the infection and concocts a crisis involving Taiwan in order to mask the true purpose of the increased military activity. The infection spreads across the world, where several outbreaks in major cities finally bring the plague to the attention of the world.

As the infection spreads only a few countries, Israel among them, take steps to initiate nationwide quarantine programs. The United States, sapped of political will by several "brushfire wars" and lulled into a false sense of security by an ineffective vaccine called "Phalanx", sends Special Forces units to combat local outbreaks, but otherwise does little to prepare for the pandemic. Eventually the epidemic begins to overwhelm the human race, leading to a period known as the "Great Panic." The United States Army sends a task force to Yonkers, New York in a high-profile military campaign intended to restore American morale, but due to the reliance on Cold War-era tactics and modern weapons, the force is routed. Artillery, shrapnel and incendiary-based weaponry designed to inflict mortal wounds on living bodies proved useless against the living dead. Other countries suffer similarly disastrous defeats against their own infections.

More countries begin to fall victim to the zombie plague. A brief nuclear exchange occurs between Iran and Pakistan over the destruction of several key Pakistani bridges in an attempt to halt the advance of the undead. The Three Gorges Dam collapses due to seismic activity and inadequate construction methods resulting in a civil war that ends with a democratic China. Japan is forced to evacuate its remaining population to South Korea, Kamchatka, and other areas. Meanwhile, millions of refugees attempt to live in the oceans in massive armadas of ships.

The turning point of the war comes in South Africa, where the government adopts a plan to establish small "safe zones", ideally to be protected by natural barriers such as mountain ranges or river valleys, where the infection could be eradicated. Small groups of refugees are to be kept alive outside the safe zones for the purpose of distracting the hordes of undead and allowing those within the safe zones time to regroup. Various governments worldwide quickly adopt this “Redeker Plan”, and the nations of the world begin a determined effort to wipe out the undead plague.

The United States, after relocating the capital to Hawaii and establishing the area west of the Rocky Mountains as its safe zone, restructures its economy for complete wartime production. In the East, several quarantine zones attempt to maintain their barricades with minimal resupply drops and limited help. The military reforms its tactics and adopts new weapons to better cope with massive battles against the zombies, focusing on precise headshots instead of high rates of fire. Other nations also adopt different tactics to wipe out the undead.

Ten years after the "official" end of the worldwide zombie war, millions of undead are still active and the geopolitical landscape of the Earth has been completely altered. In colder areas of the globe, outbreaks occur every spring as frozen zombies thaw and find their way to human populations. Large swarms still roam the ocean floor and occasionally emerge onto dry land. Several regions, most notably Iceland, are still completely overrun. Cuba has become the world's most thriving economy, and is the international banking capital of the world. Russia has undergone a religious revolution and is now an aggressively expansionist theocracy. An independent Tibet is the world's most populous country. Major effects of the war are a drastic reduction in the human population of the Earth and the devastation of many natural environments, as much by desperate humans as by marauding zombies. The United Nations also fields a large military constantly engaged in eliminating the remaining undead.

Themes

Reviewers have noted that Brooks has used World War Z as a platform to criticize government ineptitude, corporate corruption and general human short-sightedness.²³ In one interview in the book a Palestinian youth in Kuwait refuses to believe that the dead are rising but instead it is a trick by Israel. Meanwhile, many American characters in the novel blame the United States' inability to counter the zombie threat because American confidence in the U.S. Government was low due to the conflicts in the Middle East.⁴ Brooks also shows his particular dislike with government bureaucracy. One character in the novel tries to justify lying about the zombie outbreak to avoid widespread panic while at the same time failing to come up with any particular solution for fear of arising public ire.⁵⁶ At the same time, early warnings are missed, crucial reports go unheeded, profiteers make millions selling placebos, the army equips itself with tools perfect for the last war they fought, and populations ignore the extent of threat.

Another theme is survivalism and disaster preparedness. Several interviews throughout the novel, especially those set in the United States, focus on fictional policy changes to train the surviving Americans to rebuild the country and fight the zombies.⁴ Throughout the novel, Brooks uses his characters to point out both the physical and mental requirements to survive a disaster.⁶ In an interview Brooks himself described the large amount of research he had to do to discover the best way to fight a worldwide zombie outbreak. He also pointed out that Americans like the zombie genre because they are a nation of individualists who believe that they can survive anything with the right tools and talent.⁷ One reviewer remarks that this novel is influenced by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.⁸

When asked in an interview about how he would compare Islamic terrorists with zombies, Brooks said:

The lack of rational thought has always scared me when it came to zombies, the idea that there is no middle ground, no room for negotiation. That has always terrified me. Of course that applies to terrorists, but it can also apply to a hurricane, or flu pandemic, or the potential earthquake that I grew up with living in L.A. Any kind of mindless extremism scares me, and we're living in some pretty extreme times.⁷

This theme of uncertainty in our times, according to Brooks, resonates in the entire zombie genre. He feels that zombies allow people to deal with their own anxiety about the end of the world.⁹

Literary significance and reception

Reviews for the novel have been generally positive. The Daily Cardinal, while pointing out that the novel does follow a similar plot to most zombie films, declared the book felt "real" and declared it the "definitive undead novel" that has reinvented the genre.⁵ In Steven H Silver's review he calls Brooks' decision to focus on the entire world instead of just the United States to be the greatest strength of the novel. He also remarks on Brooks' ability to create a coherent world that makes the reader appreciate the work that would need to be done to combat a worldwide zombie outbreak. His only complaint was the final chapter of the book, "Good-Byes", when many characters seen throughout the novel get a chance to say a final closing statement. Silver felt that it was not always apparent who the characters were and it could be confusing for readers.¹⁰

Entertainment Weekly called the novel a great zombie story for its use of metaphors that created an "addictively readable oral history."⁶ The Eagle described the book as being "unlike any other zombie tale" and "sufficiently terrifying for most readers, and not always in a blood-and-guts way, either."⁸ The A.V. Club's review pointed out that the format of the novel makes it difficult for it to develop momentum, but still felt that the novel's individual episodes are gripping.² The Time Out Chicago review declared using an oral history to write a zombie book something that "might constitute brilliance."¹¹ Ron Currie Jr. described World War Z as one of his favorite apocalyptic novels and praised Brooks for being able to illustrate "the tacit agreement between writer and reader that is essential to the success of stories about the end of the world. Both Brooks and the reader agree to pretend that this is not fiction, that in fact the horrific tales of a war between humans and zombies are based in reality."³ Patrick Daily of the Chicago Reader said the novel transcended the silliness of The Zombie Survival Guide by touching on deeper, more somber aspects of the human condition and addressed how precious our humanity can be to us when it's under attack.¹² Drew Taylor of the Fairfield County Weekly credits World War Z with making zombies more popular in mainstream society.¹³

A reviewer on RPGnet gave the novel 5 out of 5 critical hits.¹⁴ On About.com the novel received 4.5 out of 5 stars.¹⁵ The hardcover version of World War Z reached as high as number ten on New York Times Best Seller list and spent three weeks on the list. ¹⁶

Brooks (right) and George Romero

References to other works

Brooks claimed inspiration from The Good War by Studs Terkel. Brooks stated: "It's an oral history of World War II. I read when I was a teenager and it's sat with me ever since. When I sat down to write World War Z, I wanted it to be in the vein of an oral history."¹

Brooks also claimed inspiration from George Romero, the famous zombie film director. Brooks, however, made a critical remark about John Russo's The Return of the Living Dead movies: "They cheapen zombies, make them silly and campy. They've done for the living dead what the old "Batman" TV show did for The Dark Knight."¹

The gun called "meg" in the novel is a reference to Megatron.¹

Audiobook

An abridged audiobook was published in 2007 by Random House, directed by John McElroy, produced by Dan Zitt, with sound editing by Charles De Montebello. The book is read by author Max Brooks, but includes many other actors taking on the roles of the many individual characters who are interviewed in the novel:¹⁷

A reviewer of the audiobook version of World War Z called the story "gripping" and called the experience "reminiscent of Orson Welles’s famous War of the Worlds performance." In terms of the voice acting there was some negative reviews directed at Max Brooks for being too "cheery" and comments that Steve Park's Chinese accent sounded fake.⁴ An article in Slate about the mistakes producers make on publishing audiobooks used World War Z as an example of full-cast dramatizations that are great listens; it also described the novel as a "smarter-than-it-has-any-right-to-be zombie novel."¹⁸ The audiobook was also awarded with the 2007 Audie Award for best Multi-Voiced Performance.¹⁹

Film adaptation

A film adaptation is in development, following a bidding war between Brad Pitt and Leonardo Di Caprio's production companies, with the rights being obtained by Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment and the screenplay being written by Babylon 5 and Rising Stars creator J. Michael Straczynski.²⁰ When asked if he would have anything to do with the movie, Brooks stated that he had "zero control", but he admitted he would love to see Brad Pitt have a role in the movie¹ and thought Straczynski was a great choice to write the script.²¹²² Marc Forster signed on to direct on November 13, 2008. The director described the film as reminiscent of 1970s conspiracy thrillers like All the President's Men.²³

References

External links

• World War Z official website
• World War Z at the Internet Movie Database
• World War Z on Zombiepedia, the Zombie Wiki
• The Zombies of World War Z - Max Brooks and Neal Conan conduct an interview set in the World War Z world on National Public Radio.
• World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War publication history at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Wikipedia content modification information:

• This page was last modified on 18 November 2008, at 01:06.

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