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I'm not usually a big horror fan (though I believe I've read all of Lovecraft's fiction, and a reasonable amount of Poe), but after hearing a number of recommendations I finally read World War Z by Max Brooks. The short review is that I quite enjoyed it: yes, it's got gore and terror and creeping doom, but I thought it did a really good job of presenting a well-developed alternative world, and despite the horror it still winds up feeling very positive in tone.
World War Z is written as a series of interviews of survivors of a worldwide zombie outbreak that began more or less the real-life present day. Each of the interviews is fairly short and they reflect a very broad range of experiences. Doctors and others recount their early confusion and disbelief. Politicians and businessmen explain their actions and their hard choices as news of the outbreak spread. Soldiers and civilians revisit battles small and large. And ordinary people tell tales of survival and brotherhood and hope as nations and neighborhoods managed to stem the tide of the undead and finally began the long task of reclaiming the world for the living.
For me to really enjoy a book set in an alternative world, two big requirements are that the world must be internally consistent and that it must feel like it extends beyond the book it lives in. World War Z does an excellent job on both counts. As far as consistency is concerned, the fictional premises of the infection and the zombies always work in the same way, and its consequences are either entirely in line with real-life science and experience or the characters show the same confusion that we would. The global and domestic political responses as the outbreak was recognized are all too plausible as well.
As for the "size" of the invented world, once nice technique is that the interviewees regularly make reference to bits of shared knowledge that the book's ostensible post-war readers would recognize but that we real-world readers have to puzzle out as we go. Many of them are eventually explained in later interviews, but some never get fleshed out: you're left with the impression that there are more stories that could have been told. The story doesn't end with everything wrapped up nice and neat, either, and it is clear that history is moving on (and there are some dark shadows of where it might be going that have nothing to do with zombies). And some big questions are left entirely unanswered: that's a bit maddening, but it's usually a sign that I've enjoyed a book when I'm still wishing I knew this or that detail of its history days after I've finished it.
I have to say, too, that I did like the small but meaningful role that the Claremont Colleges played in the story. I'm sure that there were some Mudders involved in fortifying and defending the Scripps wall!
World War Z is written as a series of interviews of survivors of a worldwide zombie outbreak that began more or less the real-life present day. Each of the interviews is fairly short and they reflect a very broad range of experiences. Doctors and others recount their early confusion and disbelief. Politicians and businessmen explain their actions and their hard choices as news of the outbreak spread. Soldiers and civilians revisit battles small and large. And ordinary people tell tales of survival and brotherhood and hope as nations and neighborhoods managed to stem the tide of the undead and finally began the long task of reclaiming the world for the living.
For me to really enjoy a book set in an alternative world, two big requirements are that the world must be internally consistent and that it must feel like it extends beyond the book it lives in. World War Z does an excellent job on both counts. As far as consistency is concerned, the fictional premises of the infection and the zombies always work in the same way, and its consequences are either entirely in line with real-life science and experience or the characters show the same confusion that we would. The global and domestic political responses as the outbreak was recognized are all too plausible as well.
As for the "size" of the invented world, once nice technique is that the interviewees regularly make reference to bits of shared knowledge that the book's ostensible post-war readers would recognize but that we real-world readers have to puzzle out as we go. Many of them are eventually explained in later interviews, but some never get fleshed out: you're left with the impression that there are more stories that could have been told. The story doesn't end with everything wrapped up nice and neat, either, and it is clear that history is moving on (and there are some dark shadows of where it might be going that have nothing to do with zombies). And some big questions are left entirely unanswered: that's a bit maddening, but it's usually a sign that I've enjoyed a book when I'm still wishing I knew this or that detail of its history days after I've finished it.
I have to say, too, that I did like the small but meaningful role that the Claremont Colleges played in the story. I'm sure that there were some Mudders involved in fortifying and defending the Scripps wall!
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