Ms. Smartarse's Reviews > World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

I found the audiobook on youtube, and was so glad it was just 6 hours long... only to realize that it was an abridged version. I did eventually find the "sequel" but not sure how soon I'll actually get to it.

In general I am not a big fan of zombie movies, or zombie-themed apocalypse. I honestly don't get the fascination people seem to have with planning for such an event. Not that it's a bad thing to plan ahead, but I don't see anyone planning ahead that zealously for a cockroach invasion. As far as I'm concerned the likelihood of that is much higher.

Anyway, unlike the movie (which I didn't dislike), the audiobook's impact was much larger. In the movie we basically see special agent Brad Pitt Gerry Lane travel around the world fleeing/fighting the (un)dead. Sure, we do have tales from "regular" people, but at the end of the day we're still rooting for the hero.

The audiobook lacks any kind of hero, who gets to travel the world fighting evil by moonlight. Instead, we get to hear the story of those left behind, and their survival tactics.

The South Africans, who sacrificed a large part of the population in order to "distract" the zombies, a fleeing family who left a bitten woman behind because she was doomed anyway, starving in a Canadian shelter even though the zombie threat was mostly over... and also a woman from the military who "fell" into a zombie infested zone and fought her way to safety by listening to a voice on the radio (a voice that might not have existed).

Add to all this, I listened to it while in bed, half asleep. Having relatively thin flat walls caused me to constantly flinch at every little noise.

I give it 4 stars because there was no real ending in there... or maybe I missed it. Not sure when I'll pick up the "Lost Files", but for now I feel sufficiently creeped out.