****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I was expecting something lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek, a global melee of headshots and brain-eating--in the vein of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, a zombie take on General Sir John Hackett's 80s classic The Third World War--yet was very pleasantly surprised to find instead this deep, well thought out fictional oral history, a collection of interviews and short memoirs of survivors of the global zombie war (this is a future history, a la Kunetka and Strieber's still surprisingly comparable War Day). It holds together very well, and is very interesting and thought-provoking.First off, there is no attempt whatsoever to explain the scientific basis for zombies, which is just as well. We know only that they came out of mainland China, strongly implying an avian influenza-type mutation, or at worse military medical-chemical experimentation gone really wrong. Coming up with some kind of zombie science, of course, would be a self-defeating exercise, inventing necessarily ridiculous and bogus medical/scientific descriptions, which in the end would subtract from the true power of these (fictional) oral histories. This book is not about the origins and rise of the global zombie threat, it's about how mankind reacted. It really doesn't matter why/how the zombies emerged; they did, and the far more interesting story is how mankind couldn't imagine it, ignored it, initially failed to address it, and eventually rose to the challenge.This book takes on most of the big-picture issues of what a global zombie war would involve and affect. It talks strategic decision-making, unpleasant sacrifices, economic effects, military strategy, operations and tactics, as well as communications and the role of propaganda, politics and international relations, with some unanticipated nuclear exchange thrown in for fun. But the one issue I was really hoping Brooks would take on, that he would have some of his narrators latch onto and wrestle with, was religion. Disappointingly, religion didn't get a thorough treatment. Brooks touches on it here and there, but never fully confronts and tackles it. World War Z sure as hell ain't The Rapture, but it's a resurrection, and not the good kind. So what does this do the Big Three belief systems, and how do they fare? What new beliefs come about, and how do they evolve and then grow/fade?I really enjoyed Brooks' deep exploration on the true nature of the zombie enemy, and how to beat him. He's not bright, fast, or thinking rationally, but he never ever stops, with no pain, remorse, ethics, morals or fear, so our humano-centric military doctrine goes right out the window. The zombie is a "...self-contained, automated unit...;" there is no reasoning with him, and no single or collective will to fight to target and cripple. The only option is eradication, and it has to be done with proper training and equipment. Brooks spends lots of time on this, and it is very engaging reading.And because they're already dead, water is no problem for zombies. They can't swim, so they sink, or more correctly, sort of wander around the bottom, and if the water gets shallow, they can come on up and grab you. I never thought of that before, but Brooks sure does explore it, in a number of fascinating ways. But the narrative went a bit off the rails here. We saw on land that animals would not go zombie (zombie raccoons, bears, coyotes, deer would have made it really interesting), so it was unclear--and not addressed--if sharks or other sea predators would have a carnivorous go at zombies, and if you would then end up with Great White zombies (isn't that a Danish thrash-metal band?). Wouldn't that be awesome, a horde of zombie sharks? I see a wide-open opportunity for the zombie fiction oceanographer...and an enterprising B-movie producer...Lots of people and organizations get a grilling, and some folks get good press. The underfunding of the FDA is decried. Vapid celebrities like a certain unnamed "...little rich, spoiled, tired-looking whore," and her idiot-ilk get what they deserve, from zombies and an enraged human populace. Military greats MacArthur, Halsey and LeMay are called "...insipid, egocentric clowns..." Political decisions are implicitly criticized, such as any number of US "brushfire wars." A certain Vermont "whacko" (Howard Dean, mayhaps?) gets a lot of time, most of it positive. Colin Powell (apparently) comes through as The Man, President of the United States, and REM's Michael Stipe apparently makes it through.Brooks is good on his terms and equipment, getting the use of "ChiCom," "maskirovka" and many others right, as well as just about perfect descriptions of almost every modern weapon system and their employment. His geography is spot-on.Great to see a name-check of the 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. I played rugby with and against these guys in Germany in the 80s. We even get a mention of the Tri-Nations tournament and a notional trouncing of the All Blacks by the Springboks, and later another All Black mention. Good on ya, Mr. Brooks.And in the end, what did it all mean? For those who survived, it was a forced return to the vitality and reward of life, having to be aware and alert, having had to defend globally against a common enemy for survival, and a forced return to a simpler, significantly more empty planet. It wasn't about starting over, but still a fundamental re-set. In the end, it was a cleansing, with the weak and ignorant culled without mercy, an undead Malthusian solution.Bottom line: this book is surprisingly inventive, creative, and fun, and the value-added is that it's really well thought out, an almost scholarly meditation on what it really would be like if the dead were to rise. This book does not read like some idiotic first-person shooter video game; instead it's a thoughtful exploration of what it would really be like if the zombies came.
