Anyone else read this? One of the best books i have ever read.
So it is as good as everyone says it is? I read the Survival guide and enjoyed it but am really getting tired of this zombie trend for the most part, but maybe I’ll make an exception and read this one.
I have read it, and while I really enjoyed the format being sort of anecdotes and WWII style correspondences after the war is over, some of the stories started to sound the same to me. Still it is a unique take on a subject that has been explored excessively in recent years, and coming from Mel Brook’s son to boot. Overall I liked it.
From what I understand Brad Pitt’s production company has optioned this with a screenplay by J. Michael Straczynski. The scope at least should be an epic, if not the acting.
i read the book what, like 3-4 years ago when it came out. i loved it then. i’ve still got it sitting over at my dad’s place somehwere…
it was a damn fine read, a real nice oral history. i heard about the movie a while ago too… i dont know how i feel about that. it NEEDS to be done in a ‘boring documentary’ way… if it is full of zombie scenes and stuff it will really ruin the power fo the book. the book is powerful because it is reflective.
the audiobook version had an AMAZING cast. any of you guys ever pick it up?
im going to admit, i torrented it. but i did buy the book. haha.
So it is as good as everyone says it is? I read the Survival guide and enjoyed it but am really getting tired of this zombie trend for the most part, but maybe I’ll make an exception and read this one.
+1
I remember reading the survival book when it came out around the time of the zombie craze. I am very fond of the concept of zombie movies moreso than the actual films themselves but I do dig Romero’s first three zombie flicks, Dawn of the Dead is easily one of my favourites. I thought the recent zombie films that I saw for the most part were boring. But hell I’d take a zombie craze over a vampire phase anyday.
I haven’t read World War Z but I looked up some info on it and it seems quite interesting. My interest was tweaked as it seems to be written very much in the vein of an historical piece, taking Studs Terkel the Good War as a guide. The oral history approach has been for a afew years and is still very much the zeitgeist amongst historians and history writers. The objective, institutional approach is very much out of favour, which kind of pisses me off but I understand why it has gone like that.
I like how Brooks has tried to restructure the geopolitical scene (the thing about North Korea made me laugh). I’d have to read it to see whether I think it’s realistic all the changes he uses.
As regards the film adaptation it sounds promising, only I have a problem with Forster and Pitt; the former is not great at handling big projects (he made a mess of the last Bond film) and the latter cannot help but be Brad Pitt no matter what role he plays. They have another writer on board now too (who’s CV aint that impressive) and the original script was described as brilliant, so I hope they haven’t fucked up what could have been a great piece.
Anyway I think I’ll have to pick this up as I could go for some zombie history right about now. Thanks for the thread.
Didn’t like it much.
The voices all start to sound the same after awhile. Also, I have a hard time believing the world could be overrun by zombies using the bite-only transmission method from this book. I suspect that would only occur in a Romero situation where anybody who dies comes back as a zombie.
Also, I’m sick of the recent zombie craze too, but to be fair World War Z came out in the early days so it doesn’t feel like a cynical cash-in.
Speaking of Zombies, the excellent graphic novel “The Walking Dead” has been made into a series. Catch the trailer here:
Didn’t like it much.
The voices all start to sound the same after awhile. Also, I have a hard time believing the world could be overrun by zombies using the bite-only transmission method from this book. I suspect that would only occur in a Romero situation where anybody who dies comes back as a zombie.
Also, I’m sick of the recent zombie craze too, but to be fair World War Z came out in the early days so it doesn’t feel like a cynical cash-in.
ugh. i know exactly what you mean. what the fuck is with this hipster zombie/vampire fad?
Speaking of Zombies, the excellent graphic novel “The Walking Dead” has been made into a series. Catch the trailer here:
You’re forever welcome,
Captain_URL
the thing i have always been interested in is when real world responses are shown to a zombie type outbreak (28 days later or REC/Quarantine for example) The original dawn of the dead gets points from me for showing the little apartment they had set up and lived in for months, coping and surviving the zombocolypse.
this book is pretty much all i could have wanted. They talk about how all our fancy high tech weapons are virtually useless against undead. Mines, for example, are meant to injure/maim, but that just makes zombies harder to see in tall grass. Or how Israel quarantines itself, noth korea “disaappears”, Japan is evacuated, the Russians start using decimation against their own troops, etc. Dude goes into great detail on the strategy People/Governments use against them. There’s a story from a guy who made a ton of cash from making a cure for “African Rabies” and lives in the arctic circle now. It’s pretty badass. I used to think Dead Set was my favorite Zombie/infected work, now i think this book is.
the movie would be pretty damn great. I agree with them keeping the documentary style, but when survivors are telling their stories, the gore could be awesome. I’d love to see them show the battle of Hope, where for 17 or so hours they fired and killed incoming zombies non stop. Eventually there was a 25 foot high wall about 100 feet deep of corpses, so all they had to do was headshot them as they clambered up their fallen zombrads. Oh, and i wanna see the Mega Swarms from space!!!