I hadn’t really given it much thought, until I started reading World War Z, but when you watch your standard Zombie movie, you usually only see the perspective of the main characters in the plot. Sure, there may be a TV in the background which mentions that the whole world is being overrun, but that’s the most you get. If your lucky, maybe the Zombies get the newscaster while you watch.

Max Brooks really put a whole lot of thought into the global repercussions of a Zombie Apocalypse, including how various countries would try to contain the epidemic, as well as the ecological ramifications of the plague.

In the world of the book, a UN representative was sent to various locations around the world, after the epidemic has been contained, and he took accounts of what people experienced. After completing his work, the UN was glad to publish the facts and statistics of what happened, but didn’t want to publish the "human element" of the report. That is how this book came about (in the books fictional world).

The books is arranged into a series of interviews, organized chronologically. This was a really new take on your typical Zombie thriller, and I not only enjoyed reading the book, but I liked how the interviews gave adequate breaking points in the book.

Like any Zombie story, it isn’t something you would want to read to your children. I found some things in the book to be pretty disturbing, but totally believable. The only negative I can think of is that since there are no real main characters that you follow through the book, there wasn’t much of an attachment to any character, and there wasn’t a urgent need to see what happens next.

Overall a really good read, even if just for the interesting story telling style. I say 4 out of 5 stars.

Posted in Zombies, fiction, Books 3 Comments »

I happen to be a huge fan of both the Post Apocalyptic genre, as well as the Zombie genre. When I saw the preview for I am Legend, I was immediately intrigued. The thing I didn’t get from the movie preview was that the rest of the world had been turned into vampires, I thought that something had just wiped out everyone, and he was the only one left. Once I heard that there were Vampires, well that made it even more appealing.

I was amazed that the book was written back in the 50’s, and that the current movie is actually the third adaptation of the story. Art and I were talking about the story, and he’s seen the other two movies. Anyway, I decided to pick up the book.

If a movie has been made for a story, I usually like to watch the movie before I read the book. This way I can enjoy both, if I don’t, then I’m generally disappointed by the movie. This rule doesn’t apply to Stephen King stories. In my experience, it’s better to see his movies, and skip the book altogether. Of course, your mileage may vary, but I’ve been burned by Stephen King too many times.

Anyway, back to "I am Legend". In the story, a plague has killed just about everyone, and those who haven’t been killed are turned into vampires. Without giving too much away, the dead become re-animated, and are some type of vampire / zombie hybrid. They aren’t terribly intelligent, want to eat human flesh, and can’t come out in the sun light. What happened to those who survive are something that I’ll let you read about on your own.

The main character seems to be the lone survivor of the plague, and the story revolves around his day to day struggles, trying to survive. He has to keep himself protected, while still maintaining the necessities of life. His biggest challenges seem to be the taunting of the vampires, dealing with the loss of his family, and the realization that he’s the only human left.

Richard Matheson, the author, tries to explain the scientific reason for the classic vampire attributes, the fear of sunlight, aversion to the cross and garlic, etc.

We get to see some of what life was like before the plague, and the events leading up to that point are alluded to. I don’t want to give it away, but they do seem interesting, and I would have liked to read more about that "world".

The main story is about 170 pages, and then the rest of the book is short stories. Some of them are interesting, and some of them aren’t very good.

All in all, this was a great story, and I’m really glad I read it. It helped to get me back into reading for enjoyment.

Posted in Zombies, Vampires, fiction, Books 9 Comments »