THE TWISTED HOME OF HORROR WRITER WILLIAM MALMBORG
Copyright © 2009 by William Malmborg - All Right Reserved.
“Have you read World War Z by Max Brooks?” the kid behind the counter asked me. I was standing at the Borders checkout counter purchasing a few zombie books. One was titled Monster Island the other Plague of the Dead. Neither book looked all that great to me, but I
Horror Book Reviews - Zombies - World War Z by Max Brooks
sections of books stores and always have had a fascination with end of the world fiction, though my tastes run more along the lines of The Stand by Stephen King or Swan Song by Robert McCammon. Also, many years ago my brother and I had the idea to create a zombie website after we noticed a rise in zombie movies hitting the theaters and thought it would get a good following on the Internet, maybe such a following that we could make money off the ads or eventually sell the stories to a book publisher. Our idea never materialized, and this time it could be said it was for a lack of trying. Meanwhile hundreds of other people have started zombie websites, their stories giving rise to the sudden demand for zombie fiction, which, now, is why one will see a dozen different zombie books hitting the bookshelves every month.
I hadn’t read World War Z and told the kid that. He shook his head and said, “Well that one is the best by far.” and proceeded to check out my items, both of which were looking less appealing now, though I do have to say that Plague of the Dead wasn’t all that bad. Also, it appears as if Monster Island may have been one of the first of these zombie websites, one which helped launch this phenomenon, one whose story was scooped up by a publisher given all the fans it had online.
World War Z was a fantastic read. It starts out with the war having already been won, but with the threat of a new one starting up still very much alive because it only takes one zombie bite to start a pandemic and there are still many zombies out there, some floating around in the ocean waiting for the tides to bring them ashore, some frozen up in Canada waiting for a thaw, and others in places like the sewers or the swamps. For the most part the world has been cleared, however, and civilization is starting to rebuild, which is where the book comes into play. It is a report of the war, one taken from hundreds of interviews conducted by a nameless man (I have looked through several times and can’t find his name anywhere and assume this was done deliberately) who has traveled the world. It starts out with the reports taken from China where the outbreak started, but was covered up, and chronicles the rise of the zombie infestation. It then interviews survivors of some of the battles where all hell broke loose because the military was in no way prepared to fight even though they thought they had technology on their side. Once the military is pretty much overrun by the zombies the ‘end of the world’ and ‘survivalist’ landscapes appear, which is what fans of this new genera really love. The book goes all around the world interviewing people who survived, some who used old castles in Europe, others who went into the mountains, some who were on boats and submarines (which weren’t really all that safe given that zombies were floating in the ocean and could pop up almost anywhere). One of my favorite scenes in the book took place on an island where a really rich celebrity had been preparing for something like this and had built a fortress that could have survived for decades against the zombie, only was overrun by people wanting to get in. No one would have known about this place, but the man had decked out his fortress with cameras linked to the Internet hoping to show the world what he did and even allowed a news crew in to watch his survival.
The only problem I had with this book, which soon faded away once I got used to the read, was the interview process and how it jumped from person to person. After the first couple of chapters, however, I got into the flow of the interviews and realized what a great idea it was to use this style in a book like this for how else could one tell the entire story of the world fighting a zombie war? Most of the time these books just take one or two characters and focus on them and only their story is told, but this one wasn’t limited by that, which may be why it is so popular?
I hadn’t read World War Z and told the kid that. He shook his head and said, “Well that one is the best by far.” and proceeded to check out my items, both of which were looking less appealing now, though I do have to say that Plague of the Dead wasn’t all that bad. Also, it appears as if Monster Island may have been one of the first of these zombie websites, one which helped launch this phenomenon, one whose story was scooped up by a publisher given all the fans it had online.
World War Z was a fantastic read. It starts out with the war having already been won, but with the threat of a new one starting up still very much alive because it only takes one zombie bite to start a pandemic and there are still many zombies out there, some floating around in the ocean waiting for the tides to bring them ashore, some frozen up in Canada waiting for a thaw, and others in places like the sewers or the swamps. For the most part the world has been cleared, however, and civilization is starting to rebuild, which is where the book comes into play. It is a report of the war, one taken from hundreds of interviews conducted by a nameless man (I have looked through several times and can’t find his name anywhere and assume this was done deliberately) who has traveled the world. It starts out with the reports taken from China where the outbreak started, but was covered up, and chronicles the rise of the zombie infestation. It then interviews survivors of some of the battles where all hell broke loose because the military was in no way prepared to fight even though they thought they had technology on their side. Once the military is pretty much overrun by the zombies the ‘end of the world’ and ‘survivalist’ landscapes appear, which is what fans of this new genera really love. The book goes all around the world interviewing people who survived, some who used old castles in Europe, others who went into the mountains, some who were on boats and submarines (which weren’t really all that safe given that zombies were floating in the ocean and could pop up almost anywhere). One of my favorite scenes in the book took place on an island where a really rich celebrity had been preparing for something like this and had built a fortress that could have survived for decades against the zombie, only was overrun by people wanting to get in. No one would have known about this place, but the man had decked out his fortress with cameras linked to the Internet hoping to show the world what he did and even allowed a news crew in to watch his survival.
The only problem I had with this book, which soon faded away once I got used to the read, was the interview process and how it jumped from person to person. After the first couple of chapters, however, I got into the flow of the interviews and realized what a great idea it was to use this style in a book like this for how else could one tell the entire story of the world fighting a zombie war? Most of the time these books just take one or two characters and focus on them and only their story is told, but this one wasn’t limited by that, which may be why it is so popular?
was buying them because I have been intrigued by this zombie phenomenon that seems to be sweeping the horror sections of bookstores and always have
