Needs its own new thread. Id say this is a spolier ok thread but since its not a narrative you can't really spoil it. So anything goes. (At the time of writing I myself am only halfway through and I'm not worried about revelations.)

HOLY ****. Id always heard praise for this book but it just didn't interest me. Its just blowing my mind more and more. It seems there isn't an aspect of our culture he isn't going to touch on - celebrities, politics, the military, "cause" movements.

It really seems like the author has us pegged. I particularly enjoyed the role reversal between upper and lower class in a world where white collar skills are completely useless.

Anyway, we cluttered up the walking dead thread enough so have at it.

(If you haven't yet buy this book immediately. On your smart phone its only six bucks.)

My favorite part was the story of the bodyguard for the celebrity. It was pretty fun trying to figure out who everyone was supposed to be in real life.

The only part of the book I didn't like was it was too short. I mean that it just left me craving more. Those little stories and anecdotes were great and leave you feeling that there are so many more that people would have to tell.

Actually went out and and bought this last night. Stayed up til 1 AM reading and now feel like a zombie myself. Great book so far.

I liked the story of the downed pilot. The descriptions of the highways full of cars and bodies was vivid and a little unnerving.

The book itself was one of those reads that moves quicker than it seems (if that makes sense). I picked it up and was done with it before I knew it.

The only people I could identify in the celebrity compound were bill maher and ann coulter.

Great book. Really, really enjoyed it.

Paris Hilton and John Stewart were at the NYC compound too. The bodyguard escaped with Paris's dog.

How could I forget about paris?

Great Book

Max Brooks (Mel Brook's son) did a video AMA on reddit the other day. It was good.

http://www.reddit.com/r/blog/related/duxob/max_brooks_author_of_zombie_survival_guide_and/

been a while since I read the book, so I may have a few details incorrect, but I found the asian guy in his apartment story very intruiging

I've been up late the last three nights reading it as well. Great book.

I'm just now at the pilot part. The highways are just eerie especially if you project forward - someone has to clear all that.

Just ordered the book based on all these glowing reviews.

This has to be some kind of record for the most posts for any book/movie/show/anything that is completely complimentary in Texags EB history.

The author seriously needs to give us some kind of props in his next book.

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Paris Hilton and John Stewart were at the NYC compound too. The bodyguard escaped with Paris's dog.

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yea John Stewart was doing blow off a strippers t's


if i remember correctly larry the cable guy was there too maybe? in any case i love that the zombies weren't the things the needed to be most worried about.

I don't believe it was supposed to be John Stewart. To me he was obviously referring to Bill Maher. Maher....coke....strippers. How much more obvious can he get?

I loved the entire book, but the mental image that stayed with me for awhile was the thought of those staying on their boats having to watch for zombies climbing up from the depths on the anchor chains. The thought that the waters near shores were littered with the dead walking slowly along the ocean floor. Wow.

And another thing- At the Battle of Yonkers the guy was complaining that the tanks didn't have enough rounds. Fair enough. But why didn't any of the tank drivers drive over the zombies? I mean, just line up about ten tanks and run them the f over!

He mentioned the tanks being in some sort of pits. Don't know the military well enough to know what he was referring to.

Regardless though the logistics wouldn't work. You could take out a few hundred and then what? Eventually the tank is going to be surrounded with enough bodies to be ovverrun.

Part of the problem in that battle - kill 500,000 of them and you've still accomplished nothing wheras a living enemy would surrender.

I thought he was referring to the tanks being dug-in (or fortified with earth works).

That seemed stupid to me, but then realized that the whole point of the scene was to emphasize that ALL of our military strategies were inappropriate to the threat of the zombie hoard.

Zombies in San Antonio??? Written by a SAPD homicide detective.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_tc_2_0?rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3AJoe+McKinney&keywords=Joe+McKinney&ie=UTF8&qid=1288904745&sr=1-2-ent&field-contributor_id=B001JRZ64I

I thought it was excellent as well.

It's been over a year and a half since I've read it. Guess I need to read it again because some of what's being discussed doesn't sound too familiar.

**SPOILER**
The downed pilot chapter was the only one that I just despised. It was a FANTASTIC chapter until the very end. When you find out that her 'rescuer' was nothing but a figment of her imagination/memory, the cheese just started dripping off the book.

I did love the aspect of the undersea zombies (had never considered that) or the fact that Z's would get frozen in the north and then thaw out in the spring to continue heading south. Also the trained dogs were a very good part of the book.

I dont know. I mean someone smarter than me can figure out how many zombies it would take to stop a tank. Wiki says that an Abram has a top speed of 30 mph off road and 45 mph on road. I'd think a tank moving at 20 mph could take down a lot of Z's.

Seems to me that you drive until your overwhelmed, stop, button up so they cant smell you, then wait for them all to walk away.

And in any case I understand that it still wouldn't have won, but it would have been a decent delaying tactic once everyone started running. Just like the helicopter that was using his blades to cut them up.

This book is so freaking good.

I like the dogs
The inventor of the anti zombie drug
The Asian nerd computer hacker that has to scale down the Japan apartment. Then goes Samurai on some Z's
I love how they cover all the strange physiological effects of WWZ. What humans will become when they are fast with total chaos. The suicides, losing the will to live, people pretending to be zombies when they're not infected, etc...
I'm trying to get more folks to read this book but a fictional Apocalypse with zombies is a tough sell.

[This message has been edited by Btron04 (edited 11/4/2010 5:20p).]

The reason rules is it gives the reader the whole thing; the beginning, middle, and end of the zombie plague.

Most of the zombie works of fiction just happen in the beginning or the middle.

Loved this book. Still will pull it out from time to time and read a small section. I loved all the social and political ramifications the book goes into and potentially how different countries would respond. Also liked the interviews of aspects I never wouldve thought of.

A few of my favorites...

Israel/Palestine storylines

Castles

Astronauts - crazy thinking about what the world would look like from above

Radio men - grueling chapter thinking about the suicides and literally hearing the world fall apart around you.

The entire concept of attempting to live at sea but especially the story of the lost submarine.

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The entire concept of attempting to live at sea but especially the story of the lost submarine.

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oh man.... i had forgotten about what happens to all the whales

The hikikomori's story was one of the most interesting. The isolation and lack of knowledge about what was happening in the outside world sounded like something that would happen to them. The stories about the camps in Canada were tearjerkers. Especially about finding children's sleeping bags. I need to read it again, don't know why I haven't. I had preordered it from Amazon, and the day it came in, I read it without stopping, from when I got home around 6pm, until I finished at midnight.

Any, and I emphasize ANY, competent military would destroy any zombie hoard in under an hour.

Oh no a tank was overrun, what are we going to do? Really? An M1A2 Abrams tank weighs over 67 tons, do you really think any number of bodies could stop something like that at all? Those tanks could literally move until they ran out of gas.

I've heard so much about this book, but I can't stand it when authors purposely make the military retarded to make it seem dramatic.

Now if these zombies happened to be Dawn of the Dead (new movie version) that were ultra fast, then the military would probably have issues. Slow moving zombies would be no problem for any competently run modern military unless they follow the George Romero route where they are backed by some supernatural force and all dead humans become zombies (in this case you are pretty much ****ed).

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but I can't stand it when authors purposely make the military retarded to make it seem dramatic.

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Vander, with all due respect, you don't know what your talking about. As you have said, you haven't read the book.

The military, US, Russian, Indian, Chinese, Israeli, and others, are central protagonists in the book. They struggle. They struggle to learn, to change tactics, to live. They make big mistakes, are at times the villain (especially the Russians and Chinese). But in the end, the military is the hero; there are no negotiated settlements with zombies.

The Battle of Yonkers wasn't lost because of incompetent soldiers. It was lost because of bad tactics, the wrong type of ammo (and not enough of it), and overwhelming numbers. It was set up as a "shock and awe" battle. Problem is zombies aren't shocked nor are they awed. Soldiers however are, even if they are sitting in a 67 ton tank.

Get the book. Read it. It isn't anti-military at all.

(as an aside, I can't believe I just wrote all that defending a freaking fictional book)

You're also failing to take into account a soldiers mindset when facing something like that. You shoot somebody center mass like you are trained and nothing happens. The fact that the enemy are millions of rotting dead that want to eat you would be a bit troubling for a common soldier to come to grips with in the first place. Who knows how many soldiers would break under that situation even with technological superiority.

8 million relentless zombies >>> Thousands of soldiers

Paris was the most unnerving for me. And what happened to all the f'ing North Koreans?

They also all had video uplinks watching each other get eaten. Don't see how someone is passing judgement on that section without having read it.

As for tanks just rolling over them were talking about a swarm approaching ten MILLION. They kill in the tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands. At some point the thing just aren't going to be able to move.

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Paris was the most unnerving for me.

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you couldnt pay me to do that