World War Z (Max Brooks)

World War Z. I wanted to love this story, I really did.
Zombie stories aren’t so much about the reanimated corpses as they are about politics and people. That is what makes them so good. Unfortunately you only have one of the two elements here.
A good political bent will make the relationships between the villain and the hero states vague- you can never be absolutely certain which countries they are talking about and can transcend the generations to fit the current political climate at the time of reading.
That is definitely not what you get here. What you get is a blow by blow of political relationships across the world, the enemies that are the enemies now. This means that, apart from feeling a lot like you are being hit over the head with a hefty high school text, it is soon quickly going to go out of date. In ten years it will be a period novel.
It also fails to pull you in with its characters. Sure, the idea that it is a political report is a good one, only it fails to give you a relationship with any of the characters. There is no one to care about, no actual storyline to follow. Every voice is the same, the whiney voice of the author. If this was in fact an investigation then the interview somehow managed to find people who all sounded exactly the same.
There is nothing new or original here. Even the human plight is so drearily drawn that it’s hard to really care or even picture it outside of the many zombie films or books that have come before.
And it moves terribly slowly. Slowly. So much for the human factor. Not that he has anything nice to say about people anyway. It is simple enough to skip entire chapters in order to speed up the reading without actually missing out on anything important.

And as a side note, because I can’t pull any actual evidence to support my argument, or can’t be bothered, I just wanted to say that I’m feeling some deep rooted racism coming from Brooks.
If I had to say one good thing about this book, other than the fact that the concept is interesting (even if poorly executed) I would say this- the Afrikaner plan, though abhorrent, was a clever touch. A truly horrible solution meant, I assume, to show you who you are by how you react to it.
My absolute favourite bit? The very last four words, dedication at the end- I love you, Mom.
I preferred Cell to this.

42 Down, 10 to Go

Monster Island (David Wellington)

I ordered a copy of Monster Island based on two factors: this review and the fact that I love zombie movies and fiction.
The thing about this novel is that it drew me in right away, the narrators wit prevalent from the get go and at one point it even made me tear up!
The story is mainly a first person narrative by Dekalb (a UN Weapons Inspector) and his search through Manhattan for the AIDS medication needed by the warlord who has his daughter at that very moment in Somalia. He is accompanied by a group of young Somali girls who are heavily armed to Manhattan to retrieve the only available stash of drugs that combat HIV where he encounters not only the usual hoard of zombie but also Gary, who found a way to become one of the living dead but keep his faculties intact.
The first person narration made it easier to understand, the character voicing all the things you are wondering, from why the dead don't just eat themselves to why they were walking down a dark tunnel in a city full of the undead, an element of hilarity in the tone that he uses. However I didn't feel much empathy (or sympathy) for Dekalb and his plight, he wasn't a very likeable character.
Gary, the smartest dead man, however, is one of the vilest characters that I have ever had the pleasure to read.
Its biggest failing, in my eyes, is that it wasn't one of those books that I just had to sit up until three in the morning to finish. This could have something to do with the fact that I know it is the first part of a trilogy and I can'’t get the second installmentnt until September (unless I read it online, which I don'’t want to do) Or it could be that parts of it seemed disturbingly reminiscent of Stephen King'’s latest, Cell. I am not sure which came first, Monster Island or Cell (I think it was Monster Island, published in blog format), nor do I expect them to be completely independent of each other because zombie ideas can only go so far, but much of it felt too similar to one another. If I did have to say which was the better of the two, Monster Island wins hands down.
I did feel a little cheated by the ending, but when you think about it, it makes. I can't wait to get my hands on Monster Nation.


23 Down, 29 To Go

Cell (Stephen King)

There is much I like about this novel, and much I dislike, but in the end it left me feeling satisfied. It could be the Cube-like vagueness or the Levin-esque ending. It could be the predictability mixed with a few surprises. It could be that this in a way a return to form since he went bonkers and thought that the world owed him something.
The one thing that really bothered me was that Mr. King has over the years written himself into a pigeonhole. When I say this I point you to Rose Madder, a story that began as a brilliant portrayal of spousal abuse but was cheapened by his diversion into the supernatural. In fact my favourite stories of his are those that he did as Richard Bachman. That isn't to say that all the 'supernatural' elements in Cell are unwarranted- I, for example, believe in telepathy as science. It was the levitating that I thought depreciated the value of his vision.
It has an amazing start that draws you in immediately, never letting you stop (a scene that I think would transcribe well to the screen) to think about what has happened, how it happened.
It begins with the Pulse, a 'virus carried by every cell phone' in the world, a virus that sends anyone listening to it into a blind rage with no focus. Clayton Riddell does not own a 'cell' phone, but his son does.
But Clay has hope. His son's phone is often left unattended and with a flat battery and all Clay wants to do is reach him or his estranged wife to make sure they are safe. So he sets out on a road trip on foot (a common theme in King's novels that resonates deeply in me) with Tom, who has no one to lose but his cat, and Alice, a teenage girl who has lost her entire family.
This novel will lose something over time, many of the references are so contemporary and US-centric that in the future people reading it will fail to completely understand some of the references (even some people living outside of the USA today who did not follow the New Orleans aftermath will have issues with some of it). And personally the middle eastern bashing infuriated me. To me terrorism has always been around and always will be, and it isn't a middle eastern phenomenon. However it could be said that he was taking the mickey out of US paranoia.
But it won't lose the terror that people have over modern technology or the emotions that many people don't want to admit to when faced with a challenging situation. His characters aren't always perfect and sometimes a little superficial. The story never lets up and is easy to read. It is definitely a worthwhile read. Who doesn't have a 'cell' phone?
7/10