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The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks
02/08/2008 . Source: Tomas L. Martin 
pub: Duckworth. 254 page enlarged paperback. Price: £ 8.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-0-7156-3318-2). Buy The Zombie Survival Guide in the USA - or Buy The Zombie Survival Guide in the UK  check out website: www.ducknet.co.uk
Max Brooks wrote 'World War Z', a superb account of a world brought to its knees by a world-wide zombie plague. The book had a journalistic style, taking the form of scores of personal accounts and interviews from survivors all over the world. Beginning from the early outbreaks through to the large-scale fight-backs as the majority of the population fell to the zombie plague, the book really captured the best parts of this horror sub-genre.
'The Zombie Survival Guide' is a companion piece to that account. Most of the book is written as a series of 'how-to' articles on weapons, shelters, locations and tactics to use when fighting the living dead. Taking its cues from the myriad of survival films, the book keeps its tongue firmly in its cheek and portrays the seemingly absurd suggestions about killing zombies with deadly seriousness.
It is this approach that, like the original book, makes it work. Brooks could easily fall into a campy, satirical approach that wouldn't affect the reader nearly as much. By keeping utterly serious and making the zombie threat feel real, he both achieves a darker more subversive level of satire and scares the hell out of the reader thumbing through the guide's pages.
Brooks makes the decision between an automatic rifle (lethal against humans, but wasteful against walking dead who only drop after a blow to the head) and samurai swords (quick, effective and lightweight) or on where to stay, seem like the most important choices in the world.
This still feels like an add-on book, though. There's a tacked on 'history of zombie attacks' through the ages at the end but without the engaged interview style of 'World War Z' it fails to get the blood going. Whilst Brook's dedication to the zombie genre is admirable and comprehensive, this is a rather more stale offering than its partner book and should only be purchased by the undead completest.
Tom Martin
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