Special treat today, boys and girls. The Kindle edition of
THE EIGHTH DAY is now live (so if you were waiting for that to get an e-book
copy, go download one now), and here’s a backstage peak at how the cover was
made:
Also today is a review of a book I’ve been meaning to post
for the last 6 months or so, and it’s been out for a long time, so I’m pretty
late to the party.
Max Brook’s oral history of the zombie apocalypse is a new
American classic. It’s the book equivalent of The Dark Knight, taking a
ridiculous concept and making a genuine piece of art out of it. Much as I do
love reading off my Kindle or a good old fashioned paperback, for this one I’m
going have to recommend the movie-edition audiobook. The book is so well
written, and the voice acting so superb, by the end you feel like you have just
had something recounted that actually
happened, which is crazy considering how different the world is at the end
of Brook’s book from ours. The book is read by a full cast with some big names:
Martin Scorsese, Mark Hamill, Nathan Fillon, Alan Alda, the list goes on, and
the talent shows through. Structured very differently than a traditional novel,
we hear the story of the Zombie war from those who lived it at every level,
from civilian survivors to Army grunts to world leaders, and at every phase,
from Patient Zero to the initial panic to the US Army’s eventual long march to
retake the country. I also really like how there’s no magic “thing” that leads
to a climax, no magic cure to be found, just a long, bloody, determined
military campaign and the retooling of what’s left of America to support the
war effort, in a manner very reminiscent of WWII.
In world building it’s the details that matter, and Brooks
nails it here. From the nicknames the soldiers come up with for the swarms of
undead, like “Zach” or “G’s”, to the tales of war-profiteering, political
incompetence, and celebrity privilege run amok, World War Z creates an
immersive atmosphere more believable than even the ripped-from-the-headlines
(or more eerily, predicting the headlines in some cases) Clancy-esque thrillers
I generally favor. So if you haven’t
done so, go check it out!
P.S. Haven’t seen the movie yet but I hear the only thing
the book and the movie have in common is the title, so no movie cliff notes for
you!
-Mike, Out.
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