Brooks, the author of the determinedly straight-faced parody The Zombie Survival Guide (2003), returns in all seriousness to the zombie theme for his second outing, a future history in the style of Theodore Judson's Fitzpatrick's War. Brooks tells the story of the world's desperate battle against the zombie threat with a series of first-person accounts "as told to the author" by various characters around the world. A Chinese doctor encounters one of the earliest zombie cases at a time when the Chinese government is ruthlessly suppressing any information about the outbreak that will soon spread across the globe. The tale then follows the outbreak via testimony of smugglers, intelligence officials, military personnel and many others who struggle to defeat the zombie menace. Despite its implausible premise and choppy delivery, the novel is surprisingly hard to put down. The subtle, and not so subtle, jabs at various contemporary politicians and policies are an added bonus.
Probably the most topical and literate scare since Orson Weller's War of the Worlds radio broadcast
Dallas Morning News
Prossesses more creativity and zip than entire crates of other new fiction titles. Think Mad Max meets The Hot Zone...It's Apocalypse Now, pandemic-style. Creepy but fascinating.
USA TODAY
A horror fan's version of Studs Terkel's The Good War...Like George Romero's Dead trilogy, World War Z is another milestone in the zombie mythology.
Booklist