World War Z

I just finished reading World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brookes. It's the sequel to his 2003 Zombie Survival Guide and is basically a bunch of recollections by survivors of the war between the entire world and the millions of zombies that almost take over in the near future.

I thought it was an interesting way of writing a story; you see it at different points in time, in different countries and from the perspective of very different people. These perspectives ranged from a doctor in no-where China before the official outbreak of the plague examining "patient zero" to a US soldier on the front line trying to destroy a zombie mob thousands strong that was slowly advancing.

The logistics of what an actual zombie outbreak would be like were very well thought out in this book and many of them had never occurred to me before. They might not be too dangerous on their own, but in numbers they can do some serious damage. Even if one sees you, it'll moan attracting any other ones within earshot. Then those will hear it, start moaning and make for you too. Before you know it, you have a mob after you.

One of the recollections was from a general-type army guy who was discussing possible tactics for fighting an army of zombies. Normal armies can be defeated strategically by cutting off necessary resources; you disrupt their supply chain (food, ammo, raw materials for weapons, manpower) and eventually they won't be able to continue. Zombies don't need any supplies: no food necessary, they don't use weapons so no ammo or guns needed. The manpower issue was also unique because every time they would take one of our soldiers, our numbers would go down but the soldier would join their side increasing their numbers.

If you're interested in zombies (who isn't?), this is a must-read.