GregHowley.com

World War Z is the tale of a worldwide zombie war as told through a series of interviews with people from all over the globe. This lends a sense of realism to the otherwise outlandish notion of a worldwide zombie outbreak, and makes for some incredible storytelling.

The book is essentially a collection of short stories, linked together by a common theme. the interviews often refer to the same events, and link together very well, becoming a cohesive story.

There are stories of the false vaccines developed early on, the catastrophic battle in Yonkers that sparked "The Great Panic", and about the Japanese otaku as he deals with the crisis, fighting siafu, as they call the zombies.

Brooks hits many angles with the zombies that to my knowledge have never been explored before. How zombies are immune to chemical weapons. How they dig for burrowing animals, creating fields of "zombie holes". And how they can traverse bodies of water by walking underwater. There is one scene where thousands of refugees are trying to swim to dozens of ships offshore, being pursued by the living dead, and many are pulled under by zombies standing on the ocean floor reaching up and grabbing their ankles.

Amidst all the chaos, many of the accounts in the book discuss situations which didn't directly involve zombies. Third-world nuclear exchanges, a stolen Chinese submarine, and how Australians trapped aboard the international space station during the crisis helped by keeping our vital observation and communication satellites in orbit.

This book has become one of my favorites, and I will definately keep it to re-read it at some point.