Max Brooks: World War Z

solarz

Brigadier
Well, I just finished the book, and the ending was rather disappointing. The Battle of Hop was interesting, but that's the only part of the later chapters that stood out. It basically went from regrouping to mopping the continent up. Once the military changed tactics, it was a completely one-sided slaughter, or at least it felt that way.

Brooks' poor research and plays to stereotypes show up again. He suggests that the French were willing to sacrifice 15000 lives unnecessarily because they were tired of surrendering. He also suggests that Americans were more successful survivors because of their "individualist nature". Geeze...
 

Maggern

Junior Member
Well, I just finished the book, and the ending was rather disappointing. The Battle of Hop was interesting, but that's the only part of the later chapters that stood out. It basically went from regrouping to mopping the continent up. Once the military changed tactics, it was a completely one-sided slaughter, or at least it felt that way.

Brooks' poor research and plays to stereotypes show up again. He suggests that the French were willing to sacrifice 15000 lives unnecessarily because they were tired of surrendering. He also suggests that Americans were more successful survivors because of their "individualist nature". Geeze...

A mop-up does sound like the logical outcome (aside from total extermination of the human race), as the zombies don't evolve or change tactics, they can't adapt.

Well, you have your feelings from the book and I have mine. Max said himself that he spent years to do enough research to write the book, and frankly I think he stretches so many countries, systems and parts of life that no one man could write completely realistic on every area. He's just a writer after all. Optimally he would have lived in the countries he mentioned and learned their ways through study over the course of several years, as well as being a professional general, a medical scientist, a biologist, an economist and historian, but of course this is impossible for one man (unless he had plenty of time and was filthy rich).

About the stereotypes, remember the book is meant to be satirical.
 

bladerunner

Banned Idiot
America would have a decided advantage with their gun culture. I wonder how many guys there are out there with their lmini armoury as seen seen in the film "Tremors"
 

Blitzo

Lieutenant General
Staff member
Super Moderator
Registered Member
America would have a decided advantage with their gun culture. I wonder how many guys there are out there with their lmini armoury as seen seen in the film "Tremors"

Lol that's true, haven't considered that.
 

Maggern

Junior Member
Lol that's true, haven't considered that.

The gun culture in the US is overrated. Many people in a whole plethora of countries have guns, it's just that Americans like to point it out more, and use it against their fellow man more (at least these statistics are more prominent in the media). It's not like guns are unusual.

PS: Before I get a lot of flak for this, I'm thinking purely in civilian cases.
 

kyanges

Junior Member
Haha, if it's a proliferation of guns that gives an advantage, then wouldn't some places in Africa and the Middle East be equally, if not better off than the US?
 

bladerunner

Banned Idiot
The gun culture in the US is overrated. Many people in a whole plethora of countries have guns, it's just that Americans like to point it out more, and use it against their fellow man more (at least these statistics are more prominent in the media). It's not like guns are unusual.

PS: Before I get a lot of flak for this, I'm thinking purely in civilian cases.

Dont you have restrictions on what class of gun you can own. Im a bit out of touch but over here machine guns/pistols are strictly forbidden. The best one could own in my day was a semi automatic rifle but mind you way back in the old days because of the work classification I gave myself and because I lived on a rural holding I had no problem legally acquiring gelignite for removing tree stumps.

Getting back to the film culture and make believe look at the stuff Bruce willis acquired in the film "Red" I have no doubt you actually could do that in real life in the USof A but noway over here.
 

AssassinsMace

Lieutenant General
Heard of this but never knew anything about it except it was about zombies. If the author was trying to play on events of the real world he is going by stereotypes. China had the black plague but you don't hear how it devastated China like you do with Europe. You know why? Because the government figured out how to handle it so it wasn't as severe as when it hit Europe. I just read an article from the associated press about the emergency response to the Tuscon Arizona assassination attempt and shooting spree during the Congresswoman Giffords' event. Apparently their was an officer in the fire department who was a part of a unit that specially delt with large emergencies and he refused to go take the call simply because he didn't agree with Gifford's politics. His superiors told him that wasn't his option. Not sure if he eventually went or he decided to call sick and didn't go but by time his unit was eventually dispatched and reached the scene, the last shooting victim had already reached the hospital. If a zombie apocalypse did happen, it won't be as black and white as depicted by the author. Politics always plays into everything. Look what happened with swine flu. And let's not forget the religious angle.
 
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