world war z by max brooks.i have been waiting to sink my teeth into this puppy for quite a long time, & i mean besides my usual desire to bite puppies. i had decided to wait for this to come out in paperback, reasoning that i'd just read the monster... series (...island, ...nation, ...planet) & didn't want to blitz my psyche with the hordes of the undead (there are other hordes to consider). so, wracked with torment, i waited. & i knew it was going to be good, right? i mean, how great is the zombie survival guide? oh, sure there have been less-than-sterling knock-offs, & yes, there is a concern that zombies are the new pirates, but it certainly isn't bad enough that us long time fans of eating brains, shambling, &c can't still glory in it a little. anyhow, world war z, first of, coins the term world war z. as in, the all-out fight against the living dead. i give kudos right there. the frame of the book is that it is an oral history; interviews with the survivors. it worked well as a story-telling device, & what? what do you want from me? i liked it. i knew i was going to like it. everybody who reads it will like it. he even slots in some samurai-jedi-kami shit without breaking stride. i thought some of the speculative stuff with the robots was a bit much (unless the sequel is world war r.u.r.!?) but i understand why he did it. some of his considerations are really great; zombies out of the surf, canine teams, pharmaceutical chicanery, &c. i do wonder about some of the deep sea stuff; dude, the ocean is really fucking big, & once those zs wander over the continental shelf, it is game over for them. but shit! french guys fighting zombies in the catacombs? that does suck! over-all, i really liked the global scale of the book; it focused on america, but not to the neglect of, hell, every single continent.
