World War Z: An Oral History Of The Zombie War Max Brooks
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Ten years after Victory in China Day, the world is still heavily damaged, but slowly on the road to recovery. Tens of millions of zombies remain active, mainly on the ocean floor, mountains above the snow line, and in arctic areas; the United Nations fields a large force to eliminate them. Iceland remains completely zombified, as its cold weather and lack of military made it the most vulnerable country to the undead. Following a religious revolution sparked by rampant suicide within the Russian military during the war, Russia has become an expansionist theonomy intent on annexing the former Soviet republics, and has adopted a repopulation program under which the nation's few remaining fertile women are used as state broodmares. North Korea remains quarantined as its entire population mysteriously vanished at the beginning of the pandemic, presumed to have fled into vast underground fallout shelters while remaining ignorant to the end of the zombie threat; fears that the population are now zombified have so far prevented Korean reunification. Cuba has become a capitalist democracy possessing the world's largest GDP. Tibet has become independent from China and hosts Lhasa as the world's most populous city, and China has democratized following a second civil war sparked by the collapse of the Three Gorges Dam. Several new, unnamed countries have emerged due to wartime governments expelling convicts into infested zones, with many of these criminals surviving and going on to establish their own independent "fiefdoms." The overall quality of human life has diminished, including shorter life expectancies, limited access to running water and electricity, and the resurgence of diseases like the Spanish flu. Many animals, notably whales, have gone extinct due to overhunting, pollution, or being killed by the undead. Fossil fuels are scarce, with petroleum from the Middle East becoming practically nonexistent after Saudi Arabia destroyed its oil reserves for unknown reasons during the war; sailboats have returned as the most common seafaring vessels. Nevertheless, the majority of those who have survived have hope for the future, knowing that humanity faced the brink of extinction and won.
Brooks discussed the cultural influences on the novel. He claimed inspiration from "The Good War": An Oral History of World War Two (1984) by Studs Terkel, stating: "[Terkel's book is] an oral history of World War II. I read it when I was a teenager and it's sat with me ever since. When I sat down to write World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, I wanted it to be in the vein of an oral history."[1] Brooks also cited renowned zombie film director George A. Romero as an influence and criticized the Return of the Living Dead films: "They cheapen zombies, make them silly and campy. They've done for the living dead what the old Batman TV show did for the Dark Knight."[1] Brooks acknowledged making several references to popular culture in the novel, including one to alien robot franchise Transformers, but declined to identify the others so that readers could discover them independently.[1]
Brooks considers the theme of uncertainty central to the zombie genre. He believes that zombies allow people to deal with their own anxiety about the end of the world.[10] Brooks has expressed a deep fear of zombies:
Reviews for the novel have been generally positive. Gilbert Cruz of Entertainment Weekly gave the novel an "A" rating, commenting that the novel shared with great zombie stories the use of a central metaphor, describing it as "an addictively readable oral history."[9] Steven H. Silver identified Brooks' international focus as the novel's greatest strength and commented favorably on Brooks' ability to create an appreciation for the work needed to combat a global zombie outbreak. Silver's only complaint was with "Good-Byes", the final chapter, in which characters get a chance to give a final closing statement; Silver felt that it was not always apparent who the sundry, undifferentiated characters were.[14] The Eagle described the book as being "unlike any other zombie tale" as it is "sufficiently terrifying for most readers, and not always in a blood-and-guts way, either."[8] Keith Phipps of The A.V. Club stated that the format of the novel makes it difficult for it to develop momentum, but found the novel's individual episodes gripping.[4] Patrick Daily of the Chicago Reader said the novel transcends the "silliness" of The Zombie Survival Guide by "touching on deeper, more somber aspects of the human condition."[15] In his review for Time Out Chicago, Pete Coco declared that "[b]ending horror to the form of alternative history would have been novel in and of itself. Doing so in the mode of Studs Terkel might constitute brilliance."[16]
Ron Currie Jr. named World War Z one of his favorite apocalyptic novels and praised Brooks for illustrating "the tacit agreement between writer and reader that is essential to the success of stories about the end of the world ... [both] agree to pretend that this is not fiction, that in fact the horrific tales of a war between humans and zombies are based in reality."[5] Drew Taylor of the Fairfield County Weekly credited World War Z with making zombies more popular in mainstream society.[17]
World War Z is a novel by Max Brooks which chronicles the fictional "World War Z" or "Zombie World War". It is a follow-up to his previous book, The Zombie Survival Guide. The book was released on September 12, 2006.Through a series of oral interviews, Brooks, as an agent of the United Nations Postwar Commission, describes the history of 'World War Z'. Although the origin of the zombie pandemic is unknown, the story begins in China after an unknown creature bites a young boy (who becomes the official Patient Zero). The Chinese government attempts to contain the infection and concocts a crisis involving Taiwan to mask their activities. The infection is spread to other countries by the black market organ trade and by refugees. Many countries close their borders without their inhabitants knowing it, until an outbreak in South Africa finally brings the plague to public attention.As the infection spreads, only Israel initiates a nationwide quarantine and closes its borders. Pakistan and Iran destroy each other in a nuclear war after Iran attempts to stem the flow of refugees from Pakistan by blowing up a central bridge, effectively stemming over half of refugee traffic. The United States of America does little to prepare; although special forces teams are used to contain initial outbreaks, a widespread effort never starts as the nation is sapped of political will by several "brushfire wars", and an ineffective and fraudulently marketed placebo vaccine has created a false sense of security. When the world recognizes the true scope of the problem, a period known as the "Great Panic" begins. The United States Army sends a task force to Yonkers, New York, in a high-profile military campaign intended to restore American confidence in their army. However, the military relies upon Cold War tactics, weapons intended to disable vehicles, and the wounding or demoralization of human opponents: these have no effect on an undead force that uses wave attacks, has to be shot in the head to be stopped, and has no fear of death. As a result the soldiers are routed on live television. Other countries suffer similarly disastrous defeats, and human civilization teeters on the brink of collapse.
In South Africa, the government adopts a plan drafted by ex-apartheid government official Paul Redeker, which calls for the establishment of small "safe zones", areas surrounded by natural boundaries and cleared of zombies. Large groups of refugees are to be kept alive outside the safe zones to distract the hordes of undead, allowing those within the safe zones time to regroup. Various governments worldwide adopt their own versions of the "Redeker Plan" or evacuate to safer foreign territory. Since zombies are known to freeze solid in the cold, many civilians in North America flee to the wilds of northern Canada; approximately 11 million people die, many from starvation and exposure and some resort to cannibalism to survive. A member of the ISS crew in orbit around Earth describes 'mega swarms' of millions of zombies in the Americas and in Asia.
Brooks uses the term "pre-war" to refer to the time before the first infection of the Class Four outbreak, which is the main focus of the novel. The pre-war world largely reflects the modern real world. Some events that Brooks refers to in the pre-war take place in the near future. While there is no mention in World War Z of any encounters with zombies before the initial outbreak, in The Zombie Survival Guide the author does include a number of references to minor and moderate-sized outbreaks that occur during this time period. Brooks has not stated if these two timelines are identical, but The Zombie Survival Guide is a real book in the World War Z timeline, as it is referred to indirectly. The flap copy on the hardcover edition's dust jacket is written from an in-universe perspective and mentions The Zombie Survival Guide directly.
Because of the level of denial that the USA was in over the nature of the zombie threat through the first winter, the American public was more or less just as unprepared (despite having more time and intel than most nations, and one of the world's most powerful military). No large-scale warning was made, and due to the media-as-big-business culture in the United States at the time, many news outlets had treated warnings of the zombie plague as simply another disease outbreak like Ebola or SARS outbreaks of previous years. After the initial "buzz" wore off (due to Phalanx, causing most to believe it was under control), the media simply stopped reporting about it and moved on to the next big celebrity news, etc. As a result, the first that many typical middle-class suburban Americans knew of the undead threat was when zombies came crashing through their living room windows. Soon, the number of zombies was increasing exponentially. In May, a female reporter finally broke the news that the zombie epidemic was real, and that Phalanx was just a placebo and not a real vaccine against the zombie plague. Genuine mass panic and widespread anarchy set in, with "wannabe Rambos" shooting anything that moved, and doing as much, if not more, damage as the actual zombies. 2b1af7f3a8