World War Z News - Possible SPOILERS

[KoshN]

Originally Posted by Ubik

My point exactly!

What's so great about the book? From some of the reviews of the book that I've seen online, it's just a bunch of interviews with no connecting story. There is only the one text novel, right, plus the survival guide and the graphic novel of past attacks? I have all three of those in my Amazon cart, but am having second thoughts about getting them. What makes this different from the traditional slow living dead stuff, the virus and the backstory of this being around since caveman times?

[Jan]

I've only read the book. It was smart and political and more about how the situation got as bad as it did than it was about the zombies themselves. I only picked it up due to JMS' involvement but I found that I liked it (enjoyed just seems the wrong word) a lot.

Jan

[JoeD80]

Originally Posted by KoshN

What's so great about the book? From some of the reviews of the book that I've seen online, it's just a bunch of interviews with no connecting story.

It's more like many interviews paint a bigger picture of what happened.

Originally Posted by KoshN

There is only the one text novel, right

World War Z was also done as an audio book.

Originally Posted by KoshN

plus the survival guide and the graphic novel of past attacks?

Don't know anything about the graphic novel. The survival guide is kind of fun but it's not a story or anything.

Originally Posted by KoshN

What makes this different from the traditional slow living dead stuff, the virus and the backstory of this being around since caveman times?

It's a bigger story that takes a look at how the whole world deals with it, rather than just following one group against the zombies as more traditional takes on it seem to do, as Jan said.

[Garibaldi's Hair]

Originally Posted by KoshN

What's so great about the book? From some of the reviews of the book that I've seen online, it's just a bunch of interviews with no connecting story.

That would be to sell it seriously short. The interviews themselves don't always interconect with each other, but each one paints a new colour onto the overall canvas, so that by the end you have a picture of the larger story.

In some ways it reminded me of B5's approach of having individual episodes standing by themselves but also forming part of a larger whole. And the fact that the interviewees also have the benefit of hindsight gives it a depth you don't get from just following a group of humans as they try to survive against the zombie attack.

Suffice to say, I normally don't bother with zombie stuff but World War Z (which I picked up for £0.50 at a charity craft fair my daughter was playing her trombone for) is one of my favourite read of the last few years.