don't mean to derail here, but concerning 'WWZ', i'm not inspired to seek this one out simply for these reasons:
NOW AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK (WAS THIS *REALLY* EVER IN HARDCOVER FORMAT?)
FINALLY, THE WORLD WILL COME TO KNOW THE TRUE STORY OF HOW DANGEROUSLY CLOSE THE HUMAN RACE CAME TO ITS DEMISE (I ACTUALLY LIKE THIS TAGLINE)
WORLD WAR Z
An Oral History of the Zombie War
By Max Brooks
The end was near (YOU CAN'T FIND A MORE GENERIC SENTENCE, BUT, OKAY, I'LL PLAY ALONG). Zombies were taking over. They were infiltrating ever (SEE, THIS IS WHERE THE AUTHOR REALLY STARTS TO LOSE ME. WHEN YOU CAN'T PROOFREAD THE ONE SHOT YOU'VE GOT AT MAKING ME INTERESTED, IT COMES OFF AS SELF-PUBLISHED AND, WORSE, POORLY EDITED) corner the world. No neutral ground existed, no nation was secure, and we were in serious danger of becoming extinct - overrun by hordes of the living dead (AGAIN, THIS IS ABOUT AS GENERIC AS IT GETS, IMO, AND VERY TYPICAL OF A NEW WRITER'S ATTEMPT AT SOUNDING COOL. I'VE SEEN IT DOZENS OF TIMES AND EACH TIME I GROW LESS IMPRESSED. OKAY, I LIED, I WAS NEVER IMPRESSED WITH THIS KIND OF GRABBER TO BEGIN WITH).
WORLD WAR Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (I LIKE THE TITLE, THOUGH)(Crown Publishers, September 12, 2006), is a recounting of these apocalyptic and horrifying years (ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF POOR EDITING. I MEAN, REALLY, ISN'T 'HORRIFYING' RATHER REDUNDANT HERE? SAYING 'APOCALYPTIC' AND 'HORRIFYING' IS LIKE SAYING 'FROZEN' AND 'ICECUBE,' EH?) that will make sure we never forget how close we came to total annihilation. Told from the perspective of numerous survivors from all over the world, from Denver to South Africa, Sydney to Yonkers, Malibu to India (THESE LOCATIONS ARE COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY ONCE IT'S SAID 'ALL OVER THE WORLD'), WORLD WAR Z captures the sacrifices and, toward the end, the ingenuity of our race to defend and save our cities, towns, and villages from a plague that seemed virtually impossible to stop.
Brooks tells a moving story of courage and survival and gives us insight into the key military strategies that helped us take our world back. To this day, controversy and conversation still revolves around some key issues that WORLD WAR Z addresses such as:
- How the Walking Plague was initially covered up by corrupt governments
- Why the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services downplayed the Great Panic
- A zealous American President's mistake in putting his party's needs in an election year ahead of the safety of his people
While WORLD WAR Z does remind us of our past mistakes and the vulnerability of the human race, it also serves as a reminder that the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as the "living dead" is the human factor. WORLD WAR Z also warns us not to let our guard down, to be ever vigilant, and to learn from the mistakes made in the past (YEAH, AND HERE'S ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF BAD EDITING. THE FIRST SENTENCE ALREADY MENTIONS OUR PAST MISTAKES, AND HERE IT'S SAID AGAIN). Indeed, as Brooks records from a survivor in Burlington, VT: "The numbers [of zombies] are declining, thank heavens, but it doesn't mean people should let down their guard. We're still at war, and until every trace is sponged and purged and if need be, blasted from the surface of the earth, everybody's still gotta pitch in and do their job. Be nice if that was the lesson people took from all this misery. We're all in this together, so pitch in and do your job (IF THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF THE KIND OF UNBALANCED DIALOGUE, I'LL PASS)."
WORLD WAR Z is Max Brooks's life work. Logging countless hours of travel to capture and preserve first-hand experiences from the Dark Years, Brooks records in great detail the one aspect that has been neglected in all previous retellings of this war: the extraordinary job we did in coming together to thwart our extinction and reign triumphant (PRETTY UNLIKELY THAT MANKIND'S HEROISM WOULD GO UNMENTIONED ON CNN, LOL).
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Since the end of official hostilities, numerous attempts have been made to document the Zombie War. WORLD WAR Z is the definitive account of the technological, military, social, economic, and political details as told through survivors' stories of how civilization went from the brink of extinction to a universal victory (NOT QUITE SURE WHAT A 'UNIVERSAL VICTORY' IS) against the living dead (THE LOGIC FAILS. THIS PARAGRAPH IS SAYING, 'HERE'S THE DEFINITIVE ACCOUNT OF COMPLICATED MATTERS AS TOLD THROUGH AVERAGE PEOPLES' ANECDOTES').
thanks for pointing this out, but based on this there's no way i'd ever spend good money on this book. it strikes me as amateurish on several levels. guys, you don't have many chances to get a reader interested, so my advice is if you're trying to drum up sales this way, you best well damn better make sure it's not 'ever' when you mean 'every.'
sorry again for the interjection, it had to be said.
resume regular programming.
ETA: there's actually an audio version with alan alda, carl reiner and max brooks himself (max is mel brook's son). it doesn't take madam zoso to figure out what kind of bias this book's got, lol.
there'll probably be a movie.
