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World War Z

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World War Z
The cover of World War Z
First edition cover
AuthorMax Brooks
LanguageEnglish
GenreHorror, post-apocalyptic novel
PublisherCrown
Publication date
September 12, 2006
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (Hardback/Paperback), Ebook, Audiobook
Pages352 pp
ISBNISBN 0307346609 Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (abbreviated WWZ) is a novel by Max Brooks which chronicles a fictional zombie apocalypse, specifically the titular "Zombie World War", as a series of after-the-fact oral history interviews with prominent survivors.

Though a follow-up to his humorously deadpan previous book, The Zombie Survival Guide, WWZ is more serious in tone, and strives to be both factually and psychologically convincing. The book was released on September 12, 2006. A film based upon the book is currently in development.

Background

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]

The zombies portrayed in the book are caused by a form of highly communicable pathogen, without any known cure or vaccine, transmitted through body fluids, most commonly through the bite by infected victims. Other animals, even microorganisms, will avoid the pathogen at all costs, as wild animals have been known to run in fear from zombies and bites will remain free of bacterial infection even after several days. Symptoms begin with an initial high fever and weakness, lasting between a few hours and several days, depending on the location of the bite and the constitution of the victim. Once the pathogen has sufficiently spread, the victim enters a comatose phase. Some bodily functions necessary for human survival cease and the rest operate at a modified capacity. When the coma ends, the victim emerges as a zombie.

Zombies are depicted as not needing sleep, air, or any other resource, only wandering ceaselessly in search of flesh (even along the ocean floor). The diet of meat has no nutritional benefit for the zombie; it merely collects inside the zombie until it ruptures the gastrointestinal tract. In colder regions, the zombies can freeze during the winter, only to thaw during the spring and continue their incessant search for victims. However, they can last years before decomposing, even longer if the climate will naturally preserve them. The author describes regions still being cleared twelve years after the declared end of the "Zombie War."

When a zombie discovers a victim, it will emit a distinctive moan and give pursuit, with the moan attracting other nearby zombies to its source (with one zombie's "discovery" often leading to a chain reaction of hundreds of pursuing zombies). A zombie will continue to moan and stalk the victim until devouring its prey, losing track of it, or being destroyed.

Plot summary

Taking place in the 2010's, the book charts a war against zombies from a global pandemic to mass panic, and then to an armed struggle to reclaim the planet from the undead. Rather than a grand overview or a single perspective, World War Z is instead a collection of individual accounts, each slowly revealing an aspect of the larger plot and simultaneously presenting a very personal tale at the same time. These different accounts are in the form of interviews between the author and the characters.

The pandemic begins in China, although its true origins are unknown. The Chinese government attempts to contain the infection by force, eventually concocting a crisis involving Taiwan in order to mask the true purpose of the increased military activity. The infection spreads to Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, where several outbreaks in major cities finally bring the plague to the attention of the world. Infected human organs on the worldwide black market also cause prominent outbreaks in several First World cities.

As the infection spreads across the world, only a few countries take steps to initiate nationwide quarantine programs. Israel is one of these few countries, having specifically trained its intelligence services never to dismiss a threat, no matter how unbelievable. 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" marketed by an opportunistic pharmaceutical tycoon, sends Special Forces units around the world to combat local outbreaks, but otherwise does little to prepare for the possibility of a pandemic. Eventually the epidemic begins to overwhelm the human race, leading to a period known as the "Great Panic." The U.S. Army sends a task force to Yonkers, New York in a high-profile military campaign intended to restore American morale, but due to the commanding officer's reliance on Cold War-era tactics and equipment and the unforeseen ability of the new Land Warrior system to spread panic in the ranks, the force is routed and the military command dissolves into a retreat to the West coast. Other countries are also hinted as having launched similarly ineffective military efforts against their own infections.

Many countries begin to fall victim to the zombie plague. During the confusion following mass breakouts of infection in India, Iran destroys several key bridges leading from Pakistan in order to halt the advance of the undead. Pakistan retaliates, and a brief nuclear exchange results between the two countries. The Three Gorges Dam in China collapses due to seismic activity and inadequate construction methods. This results in the country breaking down into a civil war which ultimately ends with the surrender of government Loyalist forces to rebels after the Loyalist leadership is destroyed in a nuclear missile strike. Japan is forced to be evacuated after specialists declare there is no possible way they can muster enough force in time to defeat the undead. The remaining population is evacuated to South Korea, Kamchatka, and other areas. Meanwhile, millions of refugees are forced to live in the oceans in a massive armadas of ships.

The turning point of the war comes in South Africa, where the government adopts a plan drafted by an ex-apartheid government official, named Paul Redeker. The plan calls for the government to establish a relatively small "safe zone" within which the infection should be eradicated, ideally to be protected by natural barriers such as mountain ranges or river valleys. Small groups of refugees are to be kept alive outside the safe zone for the purpose of distracting the hordes of undead and allowing those within the safe zone time to regroup. This aspect of the plan, while critical to its effectiveness, is widely regarded as cynical and heartless, causing a great deal of antipathy toward its creator. Nonetheless, the "Redeker Plan" is quickly adopted by various governments worldwide.

Within the confines of the "Redeker Plan" in its various forms, the nations of the world begin a determined effort to wipe out the undead plague. The United States, after establishing the area west of the Rocky Mountains as its safe zone, and restructuring its economy for complete wartime production, reforms its military tactics to better cope with massive battles against hordes of zombies. Combat aircraft and armored vehicles are almost completely abandoned, and the infantry forces are equipped with new rifles that sacrifice rate and ease of fire for reliability and accuracy. 19th-century tactical concepts such as the infantry square are also revived for anti-zombie combat. The armies of other nations undergo similar changes to varying degrees, although some nations adopt highly unorthodox strategies to eliminate their infestations.

At the time the book is supposed to have been written, ten years after the "official" end of the worldwide zombie war, the undead are still quite active. 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, and due to the inordinate expense of combing the oceans killing zombies, several governments have initiated tagging and monitoring programs for undersea swarms. Several regions, most notably Iceland, are still completely overrun.

"Z War One" or "World War Z" has completely altered the geopolitical landscape of the Earth. In an ironic twist on current affairs, Cuba has become the world's most thriving economy, and fills a role similar to the current role of Switzerland as an international banking capital. Russia has undergone a religious revolution and is now an aggressively expansionist theocracy once again ruled by a Tsar, having conquered several of the former Soviet republics even before fully eradicating its own zombie infestation. China has undergone a civil war, resulting in a less authoritarian government, and its power on the world stage has been severely reduced; Tibet is now an independent country and also the world's most populous country. The entire population of North Korea simply vanished, and nobody is yet willing mount an expedition to find out why, due to automated heavy weapon emplacements and fear of releasing a second major infestation. 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. International unity is much stronger than before the war, and the United Nations fields a large military constantly engaged in eliminating the remaining undead.

Major Themes

Reviewers have noted that Brooks has used World War Z as a platform to criticise government ineptitude, corporate corruption and general human short-sightedness.[2][3] 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.[5][6] 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. One reviewer remarks that this novel is influenced by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.[7] Another example of Brooks distaste for bureaucracies was apparent when he was asked in an interview if there were any zombies in the United States Department of State, he replied by saying:

No, but that doesn't make all of them human either.[8]

Brooks is also interested in communities constitute themselves through idealism as well as law. 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]

Brooks also picks up on the need for disaster preparedness, a theme picked up again from The Zombie Survival Guide. 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.[8]

When asked in the same interview about how he would compare Islamic terrorists with zombies, Brooks had this to say:

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.[8]

This theme of uncertainty in our times, according to Brooks, resonates in the entire zombie genre. He feels that zombies allows 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, it 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."[7] 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 apocalytpic 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]

A reviewer on RPGnet gave the novel 5 out of 5 critical hits.[12] On About.com the novel received 4 1/2 out of 5 stars.[13]

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 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

File:World War Z audiobook.jpg
Cover of the audiobook version of World War Z with the cast list.

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:

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 on Slate about the mistakes producers make on publishing audiobooks, used World War Z as an example of full-cast dramatizations that are great listens and also described the novel as a "smarter-than-it-has-any-right-to-be zombie novel."[15] The audiobook was also awarded with the 2007 Audie Award for best Multi-Voiced Performance.[16]

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.[17] 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 movie[1] and he thought Straczynski was a great choice to write the script.[18][19] Portions of the script were leaked onto the internet on September 5, 2008.[20]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "EAT MY BRAINS! Exclusive Interview: Max Brooks on World War Z - Feature Article". Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  2. ^ a b Keith Phipps (10/25/2006). "World War Z: An Oral History Of The Zombie War". Book Review. The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2008-09-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ a b Ron Currie (09/05/2008). "The End of the World as We Know it". Untitled Books. Retrieved 2008-09-21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ a b c Siobhan Carroll (10/31/2006). "World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks". Book Review. Strange Horizons. Retrieved 2008-09-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ a b Les Chappell (02/04/2007). "Brooks redefines the zombie genre in WWZ". Book Review. The Daily Cardinal. Retrieved 2008-09-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ a b c Gilbert Cruz (09/15/2006). "Book Review World War Z". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2008-09-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ a b Alden Utter (10/02/06). "Brooks puts brains in print for zombie fanatics". Book Review. The Eagle. Retrieved 2008-09-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ a b c "Zombie Wars". Online Interview. Washington Post. 10/06/2006. Retrieved 2008-09-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ Charlotte Cripps (11/01/2006). "Preview: Max Brooks' Festival Of The (Living) Dead! Barbican, London". The Independent. Retrieved 2008-09-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ Steven H Silver (2006). "World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War Review". Book Review. SF Site. Retrieved 2008-09-19.
  11. ^ Pete Coco (10/11-17/2008). "Review World War Z". Time Out Chicago. Retrieved 2008-09-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ "REVIEW OF WORLD WAR Z: AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE ZOMBIE WAR". RGPnet. Retrieved 2008-09-19.
  13. ^ Brian Houle. "World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks". Book Review. About.com. Retrieved 2008-09-19.
  14. ^ front cover of five-disk CD packaging, ISBN 978-0-7393-6640-0
  15. ^ Nate DiMeo (09/18/2008). "Read Me a Story, Brad Pitt". Slate. Retrieved 2008-09-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ Audio Publishers Association (2007). "Audie Award press release" (.pdf). Audio Publishers Association. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  17. ^ Nicole LaPorte, Michael Fleming (2006). "Par, Plan B raise 'Zombie'". Variety. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  18. ^ Chris Ullrich (06/29/08). "WWC Interview: 'World War Z' Writer Max Brooks". Interview. Comic Mix. Retrieved 2008-09-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ^ "Max Brooks Talks WORLD WAR Z Flick". FilmBuff Newsreel. 06/01/2008. Retrieved 2008-09-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ "Post apocalyptic script review: WORLD WAR Z". Quiet Earth. 09/05/2008. Retrieved 2008-09-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

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