It was pretty obvious judging by the context of “The Zombie Survival Guide” that author Max Brooks’ smash novel “World War Z,” a sequel to “The Zombie Survival Guide,” would come to the hands of readers eventually. “The Zombie Survival Guide” basically establishes within its texts that it’s meant as a tool for the individual living in a world with the potential to be infested by the walking dead with plenty of experiences dealing with outbreaks and invasions of the walking dead before. So of course it was only a matter of time before author Brooks dropped the formalities and let us get a large exploration in to the world that inspired “The Zombie Survival Guide.”
While “The Zombie Survival Guide” is pretty much a very creative and informative book and manual about surviving in a world where the walking dead are as every bit a threat as Cancer and AIDS, deep down it possesses a core narrative injected within its pages that is subtle and haunting. For ninety percent of the novel, author Max Brooks provides every scenario for a major zombie apocalypse and what to do to ensure the survival of a person or a group of persons. And then for the final ten percent of the book, the author in question provides readers with a massive account of zombie encounters and horrific incidents involving the walking dead that date back to the Egyptian times right down to 2001.
I’m one of the few horror buffs across the board who have yet to read the 2003 cult book “The Zombie Survival Guide.” So back in 2006 when author Max Brooks released his highly publicized and promoted sequel entitled “World War Z,” I jumped at the chance and actually shelled out the dough to read his latest tome rather than borrow it from a friend or from a library as I typically did in the past. As a rule I don’t usually read zombie fiction because most of the time it’s usually just material that attempts to drastically re-invent the zombie sub-genre by reducing them to nothing but monsters, or more so turning them in to gimmicky creatures easily forgotten. Sue me but I grew up on Romero’s zombie films and admittedly I’ve been spoiled by his films.