World War Z

By Josh M.

For quite some time zombies have been considered a tired concept, I’ve never agreed with this sentiment, nor has Max Brooks the author of World War Z and many other zombie stories. So, What sets this apart from the admittedly overflooded market of zombie stories? Well, it isn’t the zombies themselves, they’ve stuck to the formula for the most part, shambling corpses that can only be taken out by destroying the brain. Alright, so the zombies are what they’ve always been, does that mean it follows every other zombie story cliche? No, quite the opposite in fact.

Many zombie stories have followed a basic formula, to follow one person or group of people just trying to survive in the wasteland, the main draw of this kind of story (Ex. The Walking Dead, The Last of Us, etc.) is to watch as normal workaday people have to test their morality, wits and sanity in order to survive. It’s not that there isn’t a lot of that in this story, that deteriorating of the human spirit, but it’s focused on specific occasions across the globe, each chapter being an interview of a survivor of the story.

Now having that many characters may seem confusing or annoying, but it actually lends itself quite well to the absolute strongest point in this entire story: The world building. The stories go all over the world, and even at one point, off of it, all of which adding some insight into the world the story takes place in. Most of the stories have a general main concept, that no one, not the people, not the country’s leaders, no one was ready for this. It’s why China, the most populated country in the world risked total depopulation, why a U.S. military force was defeated while armed with the highest tech their government had at their disposal, and why Iceland remains a zombie ridden wasteland while the rest of the world has been retaken.

This book is a must read, not just for fans of zombie stories like myself but for anyone who appreciate interesting storylines and phenomenal world building.