World War Z - A Zombie Book

[Cpt Kirks 2pay]

All this talk of this Book of the month thing and what with me going to that Zombie Weekend last week, I've got my interest in this book now, particularly the audiobook. But so far, from all this hyper talk about the awesomeness of this book in this thread, can someone actually answer me the most important question here - 'IS THIS BOOK SCAAARRYYYY?!?!?!?'

Can someone enlighten me to how terrifying and genuinely frightening this book actually is?

[Adam Balm]

But so far, from all this hyper talk about the awesomeness of this book in this thread, can someone actually answer me the most important question here - 'IS THIS BOOK SCAAARRYYYY?!?!?!?'

What's scary is that Kirk is actually posting in the book forum...

[Maui]

Can someone enlighten me to how terrifying and genuinely frightening this book actually is?

Well I'll be able to tell you in, oh say, 6 hours of Audio CDs.

Fievel can tell you, I think he's done with the audiobook.

[Fievel]

Yeah, I listened to the audiobook almost a year ago.

I wouldn't say it's scary as in.. BOO!!

But it's more scary like Romero's films are scary in regards to how humans respond to such a horrible crisis. If I were to use a single word to describe the book, I wouldn't use "scary"....I'd use: cool-as-fuck. I hyphenated it so that it's one word. Parts of it are exactly what I'd want to see in a zombie movie (large-scale battles/heavily populated areas/etc.). Other parts are things that I would have never even thought possible in a zombie movie, and I was extremely entertained in reading (listening to) it.

The audiobook, as mentioned several times in this thread, is an extraordinary audiobook because of the people reading it. Included are: John Turturro, Jurgen Prochnow, Henry Rollins, Mark Hamill, Alan Alda and Carl and Rob Reiner. They all do a phenomenal job. I've listened to many, many audiobooks and this is the best cast I've ever heard.

[Maui]

The audiobook, as mentioned several times in this thread, is an extraordinary audiobook because of the people reading it. Included are: John Turturro, Jurgen Prochnow, Henry Rollins, Mark Hamill, Alan Alda and Carl and Rob Reiner. They all do a phenomenal job. I've listened to many, many audiobooks and this is the best cast I've ever heard.

Awesome!!!

[Cpt Kirks 2pay]

Yeah, I listened to the audiobook almost a year ago.

I wouldn't say it's scary as in.. BOO!!

But it's more scary like Romero's films are scary in regards to how humans respond to such a horrible crisis. If I were to use a single word to describe the book, I wouldn't use "scary"....I'd use: cool-as-fuck. I hyphenated it so that it's one word. Parts of it are exactly what I'd want to see in a zombie movie (large-scale battles/heavily populated areas/etc.). Other parts are things that I would have never even thought possible in a zombie movie, and I was extremely entertained in reading (listening to) it.

The audiobook, as mentioned several times in this thread, is an extraordinary audiobook because of the people reading it. Included are: John Turturro, Jurgen Prochnow, Henry Rollins, Mark Hamill, Alan Alda and Carl and Rob Reiner. They all do a phenomenal job. I've listened to many, many audiobooks and this is the best cast I've ever heard.

Thanks Fiev!! I wonder if this story really is disturbing or generally scary enough for my expectations then. Nevertheless I'm intruiged.

[DennisMM]

Not having heard the audiobook, I have to agree with everything else Fievel said. It's unnerving and disturbing. It made me think of what Patricia Tallman says at the end of Savini's NOTLD remake - "They're us. We're them and they're us."

[The Todd]

Starting World War Z today!

[minstrel]

I'll look for a copy this weekend. If I Amazon it, it won't show up until next week and I'll be behind schedule from the git go, and the zombies might get me!

[TonyWilson]

Really slight spoilers.

I'm about 200 pages in, just got finished the Japanese net geek/otaku interview about him escaping his apartment building. This book is very very good and it really goes for the social and political commentary angle that any great Zombie story should aspire to.
There is some striking, chilling imagery in the book, the aforementioned Indian beached boats segment is a particular highlight as is a really grim tale about a Russian army garrison's decimation at the hands of their commanding officers, not Zombies. There's also some great black humour and tonnes of badass Zombie annihilation by gun, cannon, missile, laser, sword, power tool - you name it.

[tapehead]

This book club thread had some great discussion on it.

[TonyWilson]

This book club thread had some great discussion on it.

aha, thanks mate. I didn't know that was there.

[Seppuku]

This book club thread had some great discussion on it.

I'd merge them, but Ribbons has been doing a crazy amount of work for this forum behind the scenes. Splitting posts from What Are You Reading into their own threads, even though some of them might never be bumped. So I'd imagine he's got some kinda masterplan already.

By the way, I started listening to the Audiobook and got distracted and put it aside. I guess maybe I should give it another shot, but I don't think I could get into the whole military fetishist style of some of the segments. I understand that that angle deserves to be told as much as any other, but I'm more of a fan of the personal stories (which this has more than a few of). I also fucking hated the whole "reporter interviewing people" way this story was told.

There's a lot of little empathetic moments sprinkled throughout, but most of the book is written in pretty much the same voice. Even though on the Audiobook you're hearing actual different voices...

[Ribbons]

Nah, this thread is pretty legit. But check out the book club thread, there's some good discussion in there (although not all of them cared for the book)

[tapehead]

I don't mind, that book club thread was a good one, and worth a read once you're done with Max Brooks' novel, TW - lots of spoilers though.

[TonyWilson]

I don't mind, that book club thread was a good one, and worth a read once you're done with Max Brooks' novel, TW - lots of spoilers though.

Yeh I've had to stop reading the thread and just glanced through a few parts of it until I'm finished with the book. I'm really interested in yours and KCBC's reactions to the politics that's in the book because I think there is a pretty good argument that it's more subversive than you two think, though there's still some really weak stereotyping going on as well. But I'm staying out of it until tomorrow when I've read the last 100 pages.

[DennisMM]

It's amazing what one can get away with when using a concept that's in the public domain. I was reading Diamond's Previews, a catalog for items coming to your local comics shop, and I encountered this in the Books section:

Zombies: A Record of the Year of Infection
(W) Don Roff, (A) Chris Lane

The year is 2011, and what starts as a pervasive and inexplicable illness ends up as a zombie infestation that devastates the world's population. Taking the form of a biologist's illustrated journal found in the aftermath of the attack, this pulse-pounding, suspenseful tale of a zombie apocalypse follows the narrator as he flees from city to countryside and heads north to Canada, where - he hopes - the undead will be slowed by the colder climate. Encountering scattered humans and scores of the infected along the way, he fills his notebook with graphic drawings of the zombies and careful observations of their behavior, along with terrifying tales of survival.

Having written World War Z and the earlier Zombie Survival Manual (which was illustrated), I'd think Max Brooks would stand a good chance against these guys, were he interested in a suit.

[Fievel]

It's amazing what one can get away with when using a concept that's in the public domain. I was reading Diamond's Previews, a catalog for items coming to your local comics shop, and I encountered this in the Books section:

Zombies: A Record of the Year of Infection
(W) Don Roff, (A) Chris Lane

The year is 2011, and what starts as a pervasive and inexplicable illness ends up as a zombie infestation that devastates the world's population. Taking the form of a biologist's illustrated journal found in the aftermath of the attack, this pulse-pounding, suspenseful tale of a zombie apocalypse follows the narrator as he flees from city to countryside and heads north to Canada, where - he hopes - the undead will be slowed by the colder climate. Encountering scattered humans and scores of the infected along the way, he fills his notebook with graphic drawings of the zombies and careful observations of their behavior, along with terrifying tales of survival.

Having written World War Z and the earlier Zombie Survival Manual (which was illustrated), I'd think Max Brooks would stand a good chance against these guys, were he interested in a suit.

Wow!
That's really bad.

I hope Brooks does take notice.

[justcheckin]

I read this last spring. I thought the way that it was written as a journalistic style piece was pretty interesting.

[DennisMM]

That definitely was a strength for me, though many found it a weakness. There was good discussion of that aspect in the book of the month thread at the time, if you're interested in going back to check it out.

[justcheckin]

That definitely was a strength for me, though many found it a weakness. There was good discussion of that aspect in the book of the month thread at the time, if you're interested in going back to check it out.

cool, thanks!

[MadCapsule]

Has anyone here read The Recorded Attacks yet? I'm guessing it's just the recorded attacks listed at the back of the original Survival Guide set to illustration, but the art work sure looks pretty. I'm not familiar with Ibraim Roberson's work.

[Fievel]

World War Z: The Complete Edition (Movie Tie-In Edition): An Oral History of the Zombie War

I read that they were recording more voices for an Unabridged version of the audiobook..... yet this is still listed as Abridged..??? I'm guessing typo, since it says "The Complete Edition."

That price isn't bad, either.

New narrators include Academy Award®-winning director, Martin Scorsese, Spiderman star Alfred Molina, The Walking Dead creator Frank Darabont, rapper Common, Firefly star Nathan Fillion, Shaun of the Dead’s Simon Pegg, and members of the casts of Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Heroes and more! Max Brooks will be reprising his role as The Interviewer.

Featuring five more hours of previously unrecorded content, this full-cast recording is read by F. Murray Abraham, Alan Alda, René Auberjonois, Becky Ann Baker, Dennis Boutsikaris, Bruce Boxleitner, Max Brooks, Mel Brooks, Nicki Clyne, Common, Denise Crosby, Frank Darabont, Dean Edwards, Mark Hamill, Nathan Fillion, Maz Jobrani, Frank Kamai, Michelle Kholos, John McElroy, Ade M’Cormack, Alfred Molina, Parminder Nagra, Ajay Naidu, Masi Oka, Steve Park, Kal Penn, Simon Pegg, Jürgen Prochnow, Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner, Henry Rollins, Jeri Ryan, Jay O. Sanders, Martin Scorsese, Paul Sorvino, David Ogden Stiers, Brian Tee, John Turturro, Eamonn Walker, Ric Young, Waleed Zuaiter.

[so sorry]

World War Z: The Complete Edition (Movie Tie-In Edition): An Oral History of the Zombie War

I read that they were recording more voices for an Unabridged version of the audiobook..... yet this is still listed as Abridged..??? I'm guessing typo, since it says "The Complete Edition."

That price isn't bad, either.

New narrators include Academy Award®-winning director, Martin Scorsese, Spiderman star Alfred Molina, The Walking Dead creator Frank Darabont, rapper Common, Firefly star Nathan Fillion, Shaun of the Dead’s Simon Pegg, and members of the casts of Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Heroes and more! Max Brooks will be reprising his role as The Interviewer.

Featuring five more hours of previously unrecorded content, this full-cast recording is read by F. Murray Abraham, Alan Alda, René Auberjonois, Becky Ann Baker, Dennis Boutsikaris, Bruce Boxleitner, Max Brooks, Mel Brooks, Nicki Clyne, Common, Denise Crosby, Frank Darabont, Dean Edwards, Mark Hamill, Nathan Fillion, Maz Jobrani, Frank Kamai, Michelle Kholos, John McElroy, Ade M’Cormack, Alfred Molina, Parminder Nagra, Ajay Naidu, Masi Oka, Steve Park, Kal Penn, Simon Pegg, Jürgen Prochnow, Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner, Henry Rollins, Jeri Ryan, Jay O. Sanders, Martin Scorsese, Paul Sorvino, David Ogden Stiers, Brian Tee, John Turturro, Eamonn Walker, Ric Young, Waleed Zuaiter.

Somewhere in LA, James Earl Jones is kicking his agent's ass for not getting him involved in this gang-bang.

[Lord Voldemoo]

World War Z: The Complete Edition (Movie Tie-In Edition): An Oral History of the Zombie War

I read that they were recording more voices for an Unabridged version of the audiobook..... yet this is still listed as Abridged..??? I'm guessing typo, since it says "The Complete Edition."

That price isn't bad, either.

New narrators include Academy Award®-winning director, Martin Scorsese, Spiderman star Alfred Molina, The Walking Dead creator Frank Darabont, rapper Common, Firefly star Nathan Fillion, Shaun of the Dead’s Simon Pegg, and members of the casts of Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Heroes and more! Max Brooks will be reprising his role as The Interviewer.

Featuring five more hours of previously unrecorded content, this full-cast recording is read by F. Murray Abraham, Alan Alda, René Auberjonois, Becky Ann Baker, Dennis Boutsikaris, Bruce Boxleitner, Max Brooks, Mel Brooks, Nicki Clyne, Common, Denise Crosby, Frank Darabont, Dean Edwards, Mark Hamill, Nathan Fillion, Maz Jobrani, Frank Kamai, Michelle Kholos, John McElroy, Ade M’Cormack, Alfred Molina, Parminder Nagra, Ajay Naidu, Masi Oka, Steve Park, Kal Penn, Simon Pegg, Jürgen Prochnow, Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner, Henry Rollins, Jeri Ryan, Jay O. Sanders, Martin Scorsese, Paul Sorvino, David Ogden Stiers, Brian Tee, John Turturro, Eamonn Walker, Ric Young, Waleed Zuaiter.

Somewhere in LA, James Earl Jones is kicking his agent's ass for not getting him involved in this gang-bang.

Came out today! I'm planning on buying it. I've been kinda wanting to re-listen to the abridged version anyway so I might as well go all out and check out the complete version.

The abridged version I think may be my favorite audiobook of all time. Looking forward to this.