Kiran's Reviews > World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

I really enjoyed this book, immensely.

Before I start, I should say that I "read" this book through the Abridged Audiobook and The Lost Files, which I think considerably contributed to my experience. Rather than simply sitting down and reading a book that felt very much like a novel in my hands, I listened to the stories told by talented actors in a way that made the story feel more like a mockumentary, which, in my opinion, emphasized the strengths of this book.

Those strengths include imagination, internationalism, scope, and thought of this story. I'm just amazed at the complex thought that Max Brooks but into the hypothetical scenario of a worldwide outbreak of zombie plague. Zombies underwater? Zombies freezing in the winter? Environmental devastation? Individual nations' responses and outcomes with the plague? Military failures and strengths?

The power of this story is the world-building, and because Max Brooks cannot go into full detail about every tiny thing that he mentions, it feels in some ways more real to have all these historical events that are well known throughout the global population and don't need to be described in depth, and it stays with you as you think about how Iceland fell or what happened in North Korea.

The characters aren't fully developed, but that's because of the mockumentary style of the book, and to do otherwise would be to detract from the world building which is central the the story's strength. That said, I am a major Star Trek fan, so listening to The Lost Files, many of which acted by Star Trek actors such as Denise Crosby, Jeri Ryan, and Simon Pegg, was extra fun for me, and I found myself rooting for their characters. (You go, Mary Jo Miller!)

So yeah, come into this book looking for world-building and a documentary feel, and you should enjoy it. If you come in looking for a single story, you might be disappointed.