The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead

The fact that this book is sold in the humor section of most bookstores is probably the funniest aspect of this book. Granted, it's a book about surviving a zombie onslaught, and lets you know every way to become prepared, depending on whether you're going to sit it out, flee, or even go out

Show More

hunting for the undead. Taken seriously, it's more a guide for survival, and could be applied to surviving an overthrowing of a current government. It would help if the overthrowers were also the shambling hordes of the undead. Taken as it was probably meant to be read, there lies the humor. One is to not seriously believe that zombies have infiltrated our society throughout the ages, and that it is only a matter of time before they rise up and spread their plague like manifest destiny. Taken that way, yes, it's a funny book. But it's still enjoyable any way you take it. Filled with practical advice akin to a "wost case scenario" book, especially advice you probably should never have to apply, this is more a book on survival tactics than any other book, but would probably be laughed right out of the survival section of your bookstore, as it's subject matter deals with something as absurd as zombies. Sure to please any reader dying to survive the zombie holocaust, or those who are simply fans of undead literature.

Show Less

It is what it says it is, and that's the problem. Reading survival guides is repetitive drudgery that one does so one doesn't die. That Brooks wrote the book about a made-up plague and put in some funny pop-culture references does not save the book from its own format. I liked the last section

Show More

about the historical outbreaks, and look forward to someday reading the graphic novel that it inspired. Skip ahead and just read World War Z. Brooks's second book about the undead contains all of the same ideas but is an oral history rather than a survival guide.

Show Less

Being beset by undead hordes is a nightmare that many have had over the years. Fortunately, Max Brooks has us covered. This book shows the amount of detail that went into thinking up how World War Z, the novel Brooks wrote after this, would work, and how the zombies would work in this world.

The

Show More

book is structured as a how-to guide to learn more about zombies and counter-zombie strategies, as well as strategy about how to survive. Much of this would probably be useful in other situations where civilization might collpase, but it really is tailored to dealing with the undead.

This is categorized as humor, and it can be amusing to consider the tone, but it's best viewed as a lead-in to World War Z, I think. In particular, the reports of zombie sightings through the ages, into the modern day, is pretty interesting to read. It's drier than World War Z, but it fits well enough.

Anyway, I enjoyed it, but it's still reading a survival guide. It's only interesting if you really care about the topic. But who doesn't care about survival?

Show Less

You’re standing on the top of your local water tower, while below you is a moaning and clawing horde of the walking dead. Your pump action shotgun has proved mostly useless and you’re almost out of shells anyway. What could you do to summon help? Is there any way out of your self-made trap?

Show More

What could you have done to prepare better for this onslaught of undead? These are all great questions that many people think they will never have to ask themselves, but in the world of Max Brooks those questions get asked each and every day and he takes them very seriously. (Kind of…)

The Zombie Survival Guide is a completely serious approach to the methods and training needed to withstand a zombie attack. The first section details which weapons are good to use (tried and true machetes will always outdo flashy firepower, like an Uzi), which terrains are best to travel in (cities are great for location protection, but easy to get trapped in, while the frozen tundra is technically your best bet), and what kind of equipment you should pack if you’re going on the run (surprisingly, this list is eerily similar to any well-prepared hunter). Once you have the basics down for offense, defense and escape tactics, the guide proceeds to detail the long and largely secretive history of zombie attacks all over the world. From the pre-historic regions of Central Africa to an attack on the Virgin Islands only six years ago, you’ll read case after case of cover-up, deceit and blatant denial of any existence of the zombie phenomenon. Unfortunately for those trying to keep it hidden, zombies have a long standing tradition of sitting and waiting for the right moment to strike.

Max Brooks is the son of comedy legend Mel Brooks and screen icon Anne Bancroft, so life in the entertainment world was in his blood. He also picked up from his father the truth that making people laugh is very serious business and shouldn’t be taken lightly if you plan on doing it well. He also honed his craft in the writer’s room of Saturday Night Live for three seasons and wrote for over forty episodes. I have no idea where he found the time, but in those crazy days of skit comedy and hair-pulling deadlines, he wrote this survival guide against the undead, which went on to become a New York Times Bestseller. The completely serious tone he maintains throughout the novel is critical to the underlying humor of it. He knows that true humor comes from when the person delivering the punch line doesn’t know it’s a punch line. There is an odd sensation while you move through the chapters where slowly you almost forget it’s a joke. I wasn’t getting any urges to stock up on kerosene or long-range rifle scopes, but there is a lot of truth tucked in between those pages. The survival techniques spelled out in the book could easily help any hiker or traveler stuck in the woods without food or one being chased by a bear. Those kernels of down-to-earth facts help strengthen the tone and keep the reader hooked in. In the historical sections, Brooks also brilliantly laid them out in chronological order, which allowed him to refer to past instances as the reason or cause of future outbreaks (as in cases were the zombies from one attack were not properly disposed of, only to come back years later to strike once more).

He went on from the success of this book to pen his sequel, World War Z, which again is a seriously toned historical fiction detailing oral accounts from people who survived the worldwide outbreak of the zombie race. I actually read that one first, mainly because it was given to me as a gift, but the order of the two books matters very little in terms of enjoyment. World War Z is now being adapted into a movie for Paramount Pictures and Brad Pitt’s company, Plan B Entertainment. Brooks turned down the offer to write the script since he felt he wouldn’t get the best out of it, so the screenwriting duties fell to J. Michael Straczynski, who is currently enjoying great acclaim for his possibly Oscar nominated script, Changeling (not necessarily from me, but I’m only one voice among the many). No real word on what Brooks is working on now, but you can be sure it will be serious…seriously funny.

If you’ve ever read any of those other survival guide books, take a crack at this and see how easy it is to get sucked in. Also, this is a true goldmine for any fan of the undead.

Show Less

This is an interesting book. While it is labeled "humor," I didn't think it was particularly funny. Still, it tis entertaining.

About the only real complaint I have is its lack of consistency it the time it takes for a person to go from bitten to zombie. In the beginning of the Book, Brooks lists

Show More

the time as about 23 hours (with a person spending about 3 hours "dead" before reviving). Many of the "historical accounts" feature one bitten person stumbling home in the morning and then dying. Somehow this escalates into a small hoard of zombies by nightfall. Not quite sure how there can be 23+ hours between mourning and night, but whatever.

Show Less

I take zombies very seriously. Thus I was quite thrilled to see that this book had been tagged often as "non-fiction". A non-fiction book on how to prepare for zombies is just what the world needs! I was quite excited.
My hopes were dashed, however, on the top of page 2, which reads: "Their origin

Show More

stems from a virus known as Solanum, a Latin word used by Jan Vanderhaven, who first "discovered" the disease". So, the zombies in this book are specifically the zombies from Max Brook's universe. I don't have a problem with that, but the truth is that we don't know how the zombie outbreak is going to come (when it does). Thus, some of the information in this book might not apply to our own zombie survival scenario. But it's still good information.
I really appreciated the weapons section, as I don't have much knowledge about them. There were only a couple paragraphs about each weapon, which is exactly the amount of information I want.
The "On the Defense", "On the Run", "On the Attack", and "Living in an Undead World" sections were pretty repetitive. This is useful in case of an attack, when you can focus only on the section you need, but I was just bored.
BUT the best coolest awesomest part of the book was the "Recorded Attacks" section. It gives case reports (from 1 paragraph to 2 pages in length) of dozens of recorded zombie attacks, ranging from 60,000 B.C. in central Africa to 1587 A.D. in North Carolina to 2002 A.D. in the Virgin Islands. This was without a doubt my favorite section.
I enjoyed this book a lot. It was both informative and entertaining. However, I will not be tagging it as non-fiction.

Show Less

The joke wears thin pretty quick. The idea of a zombie apocalypse may be laughable, but if such a thing could be possible, this book would appear as nothing more than a practical survival guide. Because it's just about as funny as a practical survival guide.

Come on, let’s be honest for a moment. You know at least once you’ve been walking around the city or town you live in on a lazy summer afternoon and let your mind wander. You take note of the Federal Armory’s location, the sturdy defensible buildings, locations of bridges and water barriers.

Show More

Maybe as you’ve done home improvements you’ve put some thought into defensive measures Just In Case the zombie uprising occurs.

No? Just me and a select few? Well, then this book isn’t for you.

If you have put some -serious- thought into anti zombie tactics, and maybe fantasized about taking up professional zombie hunting as a career choice than this book shall be your bible. Many have picked this up as a comic gag gift, but really the comedy comes from Brook’s deadpan seriousness of the subject manner. At some point you may find yourself kind of wrapped up in it, imagining what it would be like if it really was nonfiction. I imagine the fictional writer of the book and what he would be like to sit down to tea with. Serious, kind of heartless and relentless in a way, but you could never be bored talking to this guy.

He glosses over the topics that would be covered in your usual survivalist enthusiast manual and focuses his laser-like beam of scholarly might on zombie characteristics and flaws and how to survive when the shambling dead are coming at you. In some ways, I think of this book and it’s fictional counterpart World War Z in role-playing game terms. WWZ is set in the same universe and lays out how a “Level 4 Infection Event” as the book terms it would play out like a campaign guide, and The Zombie Survival Guide is like the sourcebook where Brooks lays out the facts of how the zombies behave, their physiology, abilities, and weaknesses. I read this book before World War Z and yes, the zombies behave exactly as described in this book.

I really liked the historical anecdotes that make up nearly the last half of the book; it was a nice touch and shows that he really put a lot of research into this work of “humor”. Let me not forget the simple line-drawn illustrations in the book. They are clearly a parody of airline safety manuals with expressionless Ken Doll-like men doing bizarre things taken out of context. Even when fishing for underwater zombies with a spear gun and machete they are hilariously cool and calm like Hindu cows.

It certainly is his labor of love and if you’re a zombie movie fan like I am you’ll enjoy the read… and perhaps put together that Earthquake Preparedness Kit you’ve been putting off for years.

Show Less

This was fun to read but the author makes the strange move of declaring all zombie movies "just fiction" and making up his own zombie mythology from scratch. He has some neat ideas, but the reason people are reading the book is that they liked Night of the Living Dead, 28 Days Later, etc. So a book

Show More

that attempted to synthesize all that zombie lore in a fun manner would have been a lot more enjoyable than an incredibly detailed, totally humorless, grim and realistic examination of the author's own conception of zombies that nobody else really cares much about.

Show Less

“the zombie survival guide” is really and truly a survival guide that tackles the question of how to survive if zombies were to unleash themselves upon the world. it is deadly serious, thoroughly researched and very carefully thought out. in fact, “thought out” has connotations of something

Show More

that is invented, a fancy - so that isn’t perhaps the right turn of phrase. planned, is better. yes, planned. max brooks has a plan - and its in this book.

brooks covers everything imaginable - the only things that he doesn’t cover are those which one could find in other sources, like first aid etc. every eventuality, every consideration, every variable with regards to zombies has been considered. he covers weapons, terrain, combat techniques, battle strategies, transport, preparation guidelines and defending your stronghold. with each section he looks into the variables and the pros and cons of each option.

i was seriously impressed by his planning as i was reading the book and then there was one point that i got to when i realised “whoa, he really has thought of everything”. it was in the chapter when he discusses how to maintain a stronghold and one of his points was “entertainment”. he describes how every group must find out about the skills (whatever they be) of the group members and encourage them to learn songs or write skits or whatever, and perform them, the reason being that it is of vital importance for relaxation and morale. brooks really has thought of everything.

the end of the book contains a chronology of suspected outbreaks of zombie attacks, to provide a quasi-record. it also provides guidance on what to do (and what not to do) in a zombie attack.

i tell you, if one follows everything in this book then one has a serious chance at survival.

but, as good as this book is, as a read it left me a bit cold. to be frank, i found it a bit boring.

thats an odd thing to say, isn’t it, considering how good it is and how much i love zombies - it doesn’t seem to make sense. but the fact of the matter is the book is simply too dry. too factual. “yes, of course it is” you say, “its a survival guide”. but, i guess, even though i knew it was a survival guide in my heart i still expected to be entertained.

brooks goes to tiresome lengths to cover everything and there is a stage, when one is halfway through the book, when one pretty much knows what he’s going to say in most sentences. thats because the logic has already been established by then - the basic advantages and disadvantages of every strategy. the rest one can pretty much work out for oneself.

also, the book repeats itself. once the reader understands the advantage of a certain terrain then there really is no need for any further mention of it - but brooks devotes an entire chapter on how to use terrains when one is on the run or on the offence. granted, there are some differences as to how one uses it in defence, but something which could have been tacked on in the “defence” chapter or been a few pages in length, becomes several pages. and especially when one reads about bloody tundra or the dangers to safety in city streets for the third time, one’s patience wears very thin indeed.

but then, i think if this is a failing, it is a failing because brooks is too thorough, too careful. he considers that one has read what has gone before, but for the most part he has written the book so that every section can be a self-contained piece of guidance. and so if there is a problem, it is perhaps not with the way brooks wrote the book, but with the way i read it. in retrospect, this is definitely a dip in and dip out kind of book. a coffee table book. a book for that moment when you think to yourself “i wonder which hideouts would be safest?”.

although, as i sit here and write this, i think why couldn’t there have been a little humour, a bit of horror, a bit of fun? is that so wrong? but i guess thats part of the book’s whole angle - that it takes its premise so seriously. if it is humorous, then it was so dry that it totally passed me by (although, i must say, i couldn’t help but find the illustrations funny. however, every time i did laugh i found myself feeling like a little boy, laughing at pictures in the bible or something).

the other thing to say is that while this is almost exclusively advertised as the “perfect companion to ‘world war z’ ” i must tell you that this is not true. yes, it might be interesting to pick up the survival guide and look and gauge how effective a weapon a character has chosen is, or read about a hideout that a group has chosen, but when i read it i didn’t pick the guide up once. for one thing “world war z” is totally self-contained. the advantages and disadvantages behind the characters choices are given or inferred, because the book is a retrospective telling and the narrators all have the benefit of hindsight. the other thing is that the book is written for you, the individual, and how to survive by yourself or within a group, but a lot of the book looks at official organisations and how they dealt with the crisis.

so, while it is an interesting companion piece, it is by no means essential. at the very least i can tell you that you definitely don’t have to “read it before you read ‘world war z’ ” as i told myself i had to. the best way to enjoy it is to grab whenever curiosity takes you. for that, this book is perfect. if you’re like me and have spent any length of time seriously contemplating how to make a castle habitable, then this book is for you. if you have a question, theory, or if you’re just curious as to how to kill zombies underwater (you hadn’t thought of that one had you?! (well, i hadn’t)), then theres a good chance brooks has the answer!

Show Less

This is the first non-fiction book that I'm going to do a review, and good thing this did not come off as boring and all horror. It's a very fun read actually!

As a nurse, I know what to do in virtually any kind of disaster - but could I manage zombie attacks? Definitely not. That's where this book

Show More

comes in: this fully-illustrated, comprehensively comprehensive manual will not just teach you what to do in zombie survival, but will also totally freak you out! With detailed instructions and accounts of reported attacks, you may be laughing a bit while reading, but will certainly be thinking about what you read long after you're done with this book. Should you believe in zombies? This book tells you, yes you should.

Humorous but not cheap, this book will surely give you some laughs, all the while teaching you about terrain, weapons, and transportation. Actually, information found here is not only confined to zombie survival, but to survival in general. It also teaches old-fashioned cooperation, coordination, and camaraderie as the only way to thrive amidst any kind of chaos - undead or otherwise.

Parodying survival guides, this handy book is the best boredom-beater, and accounts of reported attacks make for really good campfire horror stories, guaranteed to get a huge reaction ranging from loud laughs to chilly silence. This also packs a lot of common sense in its description of the undead, and every aspect of survival.

But this book is not without flaws - actually, there is only one I would like to complain about: This book tended to be repetitive, and sometimes contradicting. But considering that this is supposed to be a detailed guide, I am forgiving those flaws.

So should you believe in zombies? Actually, it sounds risky if you don't.

Show Less

Its not funny. Not in a laughing sense. What I hope is that it is a brilliant satire of the various useless Wilderness and urban survival guides (such as Wiseman's atrocious and useless SAS Urban Survival Guide) or that silly Worst Case Scenario book.

I don't know. Maybe I'm reading too much into

Show More

it. If it is supposed to be knee-slapping comedy, we can cut the stars down to 3.

Show Less

I wanted this book for years but could never find it anywhere. I finally found it 2008, and started reading it before I even got home. This book is incredible and even though it is humorous, it also has a lot of useful information.

This is a definite must read for everyone. Unless you want to be a

Show More

zombie.

Show Less

If you’re a fan of the supernatural, then this non-fictional book is right for you. The Zombie Survival Guide contains complete information of the living dead, recorded attacks throughout history, and making the right decision when on the run. The narrator reveals the truth of the living dead in

Show More

this interesting novel. This book explains useful and practical information, such as that the living dead contain a virus which can kill a human in no more than 24 hours. What I found interesting about this book is that it contains recorded zombie outbreaks all over the world for hundreds of years. This may seem unreal but after reading this book it makes you wonder. The one problem that confuses me in the middle of this novel is the choices that must be considered when reading the chapters “On the run” and “On the attack” it seems that no matter how skilled and prepared you are you can still screw everything up if you make a bad decision.All decisions in the process will have some kind of negative feedback no matter how large or small it is. Once you read this book you can’t put it down, I’ve already read this novel two times. I highly recommend this book to anyone who can handle it.

Show Less

rather informative i must say! HAHAHA

This book is just strange. I was hoping it would be funny, but the concept gets tedious very quickly and it is only intermittently amusing. Repetitious and mostly boring, I don't recommend this book.

This book is without doubt the best Zombie Survival Guide. Having digested its contents, I'm now very comfortable with what I need to be doing when an Outbreak occurs. I'll be drilling my team to ensure we're ready when the time comes.

I'd recommend this book to anyone with more than a passing

Show More

interest in the Zombie genre, it's a highly amusing take to use a survivalist format that does effectively outline the main elements of the Zombie mythos and apply them to a real world situation. I found myself chuckling along during my morning commute, and the level of detail that the author presents is memorable.

However, there are two flaws with the book that make it only 3 stars for me. Firstly, it's somewhat repetitive and after a while there just isn't much more to be said about how to escape a Zombie. Secondly, the real world examples section at the back is so poor that it soured the read for me. Anyone with even a cursory knowledge of human history will find it frustrating that the author did not bother to try and make the material seem realistic, and it should easily have been possible to create a set of Zombie outbreaks that could actually have occurred. I wish that I had not read that part of the book, it would probably have been 4 or 5 stars if it was not there.

Show Less

maybe a tad too long, but generally riveting, gory, and enjoyable. (caution: do not read while eating.) zombie uprising tie-ins with actual world history make it especially good/chilling. the documented cases of zombie attacks towards the end of the book was the most exciting section after the

Show More

fascinating/disgusting "zombie physiology". glad to know that the sequel is an oral history of the zombie war! that's totally next on my list.

Show Less

I was wandering through the book store looking for some of the books that have been recced on LJ lately. Rediscovered that book stores here in town generally suck. Will have to order most of the things I want to read from online stores.

But. While desperately checking the humour section, I found

Show More

this. As soon as I saw the title I knew I had to buy it.

Zombies are out there, you see. There have been many recorded outbreaks throughout history, but they've been suppressed. SUPPRESSED I TELL YOU. But now there is this handy-dandy guide to show you (yes YOU!) how to survive when zombies finally take over the world. Oooo-eeeee-ooooo.

I read the first little section two days ago. Very cute, describing "classes" of outbreaks and the physiology of the undead. Then I went to bed. Then I proceeded to have very scary nightmares of being chased by moaning grasping zombies. My subconscious sucks. Why do I do this to myself?

The book itself is really cute. I mean, if you're a zombie freak. I particularly liked that my personal 'place to escape the hoards of undead', an island, was pretty high up on the list of Good Ideas. Of course, then I always hear my mother's voice (my mom is cool about discussing things like "what would I do if zombies suddenly took over the world?")...

Me: So yeah, I just have to get to Toronto Island. Then I kill all the zombies on the island and I'm okay!
Mom: And what would you eat?
Me: I'm sure there's stores there and stuff. There'd be food. Non-perishable food.
Mom: And what about when the food ran out?
Me: I'd... plant. With seeds.
Mom: And where would you get the seeds?
Me: I'd... well... STOP BEING SO LOGICAL!

You know, even the blurb about the author is cute. "Max Brooks lives in New York City but is ready to move to a more remote and defensible location at a moment's notice."

Two thumbs up. ;)

(Reviewed January 2006)

Show Less

The title pretty much says it all. This book teaches you how to prepare, where to live, how to spot an iminent uprising, and other necessary things for surviving an outbreak. Also gives a nice history lesson on outbreaks throughout history.

Let's talk, for a second or two, about the coming Zombie Apocalypse. Let me break the bad news to ya, big guy. You're not going to survive it.
Everyone watches zombie flicks with the notion that they'll survive. They're going to be one of the shotgun-toting mall-rustling heroes when it dawns on

Show More

everybody that the Army ain't showing up.

Dream on.

I think that the greatest quality of this book is its ability to never slip out of its sober mask. At no point does Max Brooks entertain the notion that this is fiction. He treats his subject matter with the kind of practical seriousness one might expect from a military manual. This makes it very charming and, ironically, scary as Hell.

The guide is filled with accurate information on basic survival and preparation. It covers everything from which weapons are best suited to zombie defense, to what must be done to ensure survival in a home/school/government building/apartment. There're articles on vehicle choices, armor options, methods of defense and attack, crisis management in light of a zombie outbreak, and the "true" cause of zombies.
What really seals the deal, though, is the collection of incident reports at the back of the book. Fictional, of course, but if you didn't know better, you'd think he was dead serious.

Sober, laconic, and vastly entertaining, this one is worth buying new and reading several times. Purchase it, read it twice, then stick it in your hiking pack, 'cause you never know when zombies will shamble up to your door. You might have to make a break for it, and when you do you'll want this guide on-hand to provide you with all the necessities to stem the tide of the living dead.

Show Less

I bought this as a gift-I'm not a horror genre fan and the only zombie movie I ever saw was Shaun of the Dead. But this book just kept calling to me, and I'm glad it did. The author writes in a very seriuos tone about what causes zombieism, how it's spread, how to avoid contamination, how to kill a

Show More

zombie without becoming on yourself. The thing I love the most about this book is that you don't have to be a zombie-movie nerd to get a kick out of it. It's level-headed advice (know your enemy, know why he's your enemy, and know how to get rid of him before he gets rid of you).

Show Less

Although this book is a joke (I know, zombies are no laughing matter!), if the zombie apocalypse (Z Day) ever fell upon us, this book is the one you'd want in your emergency pack.

It is incredibly well written, intelligent, and useful (if zombies were actually a problem). This covers everything you

Show More

could need to know, from the types of zombies one can encounter, to shelter and survival, to various outbreaks.

My favorite part was the "real life" historical accounts of zombie attack and outbreak.

Show Less

Forget nuclear bombs. Forget terrorists. What the world should be really worrying about are zombies. And if you want to know how to survive the clutches of the living dead, this is the book for you. Never live in fear of zombies again!

For its sheer entertainment value alone, I love this book, which

Show More

is surprisingly detailed and completely serious about its subject. The first half is the survival guide, telling you about the origins of zombies, how to kill them, how to defend yourself from them, and how to survive in a zombie-infested world. There is a lot of advice on terrain, combat, and basic survival skills. So even if this book is tailored for zombie survival, you can use it for other threats as well. Very handy, that.

The second half of the book is a record of historical zombie attacks. This is where Brooks sags a little. Not that his accounts aren't interesting, but are they really necessary? There is a pattern of repetition in The Zombie Survival Guide, but otherwise, it's a fun read. I mean, with zombies, how can you go wrong?

Mmm. I've got a sudden hankering for brains.

Show Less