World War Z

Ten years ago the world breathed a wary sigh of relief as the last major world power declared victory over the deadliest pandemic to hit modern humankind. The disease made the Spanish Flu look like an ear infection: it purged the earth of hundreds of millions of people. The virus, first detected in China, reanimated fetid corpses and turned them into barbaric automatons with an insatiable hunger for human flesh. Devoid of any semblance to the living, the undead devoured the population of countries and continents with emotionless and thoughtless voracity.

It was the global nature of the modern world itself, that supreme interconnectedness that facilitated the virus's exponential growth and dissemination. No one could have seen it coming; none could have prepared for a world war pitting each neighbor, each relative against the other. Who could have foreseen the dead rising and cannibalizing the earth? At first it was thought to be an undiscovered form of rabies. A miracle vaccine, appropriately named Phalanx, was supposed to save the world. Instead it was only a momentary placebo providing empty hope as countries sought to stop the mass panic that was consuming a terrifying number of souls. No one could have known how hard the fight would be: the early military stopgap measures merely reduced super technology and the war machine to shambles, forcing a sudden return to the crude weaponry of the middle ages and war strategies reminiscent of the American Revolution. No one could have forseen how crisis would transform celebrities, white collar workers and people of God into foot soldiers, leaders, and national heroes; how the explosion of refugees would force evacuations and mass immigrations to the isolated, and assumedly safe, corners of the world. No one could have foreseen this. No one.

Written in the style of fictional journalism, author Max Brooks places the reader in the context of a future uncertain and a history en-crimsoned, through detailed interviews of survivors, soldiers, and ordinary folks thrown into the midst of humanity's greatest travail.

Recalling the true-to-life accounts of WWII veterans or survivors of Auschwitz, the short stories detailing this fictional period in history are so compelling as to make the reader believe that this tragedy of humanity has actually occurred, thereby propelling the audience into a horrific, yet inexplicably credible scenario of a world overrun by the undead. Released in 2006, World War Z is set for adaptation into a big screen picture by Brad Pitt's production company, Plan B Entertainment. As yet, there has been no date set for the script or movie's release.

However, copies of the book, "World War Z", by Max Brooks, can be found at the Easy Chair Bookstore located in the University Mall on University City Boulevard.