08.30 World War Z by Max Brooks

World War Z (2006) by Max Brooks

I actually managed to read WWZ in the year it was given to me by a friend last Christmas. In the late 90s I used to read this website that was called, I think, Alpha Dog. The format of the site was posts in the first person by this guy who was holed up somewhere in England overrun by zombies. This was in the era before blogs and so the daily update thing was pretty novel. It was cool to follow along as he slipped out to gather food or fought off various attacks. Sometimes he'd disappear for weeks at a time and then come back with a post about how he'd tried to make a trip to some other town or something. This book, World War Z, was similarly exciting to read.

The structure of the "novel" is that it is being written years after a zombie outbreak swept across the world. The "author" was one of the writers of the official UN report that came out after the outbreak was under control however much of his anecdotal work was removed. This book gathers together interviews he did with survivors all across the globe. Not only are the people he interviews survivors but they often have played a critical part in the situation.

The book is an extremely easy read not only for it's content but the style is conversational and simply written. Nevertheless it is a fun fantasy.