Max Brooks (son of Mel) became the 21st Century’s guru to all things zombie with his 2003 macabre and oddly practical manual, The Zombie Survival Guide. Haven’t read it? You, sir or ma’am, are not ready for the impending apocalypse. The follow-up to Brooks’ guide was the too-excellent 2006 World War Z— a book as riveting as its film adaptation was not.
Inspired by Studs Terkel’s The Good War, World War Z is a linear collection of tales told to the author by survivors of the zombie pandemic. In some ways, it works as a prequel to the survival guide– sort of a “why you need this” narrative. But it’s ridiculously good, a page-turner and midnight oil burner.
How compelling is his view of survival at the end of the world? Max Brooks regularly teaches at West Point’s Modern War Institute. If you wasted your time and money on that pitiful movie that shares its name, then at least get some of your soul back by reading World War Z.
Easton Press released a special edition of World War Z a few years ago. I can’t afford it, but I want it. Bound in leather with acid-free paper, it might just make it all the way to the bitter, biting end.