Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #127805 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
"'So meticulous and well researched that it's more scary than funny. This book lays out everything you need to know to protect yourself from flesh-eating monsters' - Esquire 'A bloody-minded, straight laced manual for evading the grasp of the undead' - Time Out 'A tome you start reading for fun and then at page 50 you go out and buy a machete just to be on the safe side' - New York Post 'Ignorance is the undead's strongest ally, knowledge their deadliest enemy. Personal choice, the will to live, must be paramount when the dead begin to rise. The choice is up to you.' (from The Zombie Survival Guide)"

Customer Reviews

When there's no more room in hell...
Beautifully blurring the line between fiction and non-fiction, this book is an absolute must. I say this because I could barely bring myself to put it down for the entire time I was reading it.

Reinventing the zombie origins, Brooks ascribes the cause of the 'undead plague' to a virulent virus named Solanum, which attacks the brain and allows it to keep functioning even after the organs have shut down and the body begins to decompose. Feeling no pain, and having no awareness of the world around them except for the food on offer, Brooks' zombies are a modern evolution of the zombies on display in Romero's 1968 cult classic, Night of the Living Dead.

Brooks breaks down all the elements that you'll need to survive should a zombie outbreak occur near you. Covering how to stock your house in case of attack, defending it should it become your besieged fortress, going on the run if it all goes wrong, to going on the offensive to take out the undead, he's incredibly thorough about everything from weapons to transport, locations and worse-case scenarios. He even includes a section on how you can survive in the face of a full-scale Zombie Apocalypse. Ray Mears would be proud.

At the end of the book, Brooks points to apparent 'historical' occurrences of zombie outbreaks as a way of showing how the growing threat is being covered up or mishandled. It's testament to his skill as a writer that you can almost believe that they're completely true.

It's an unlikely premise but at least having read this book, you can feel confident that you'll know what to do if the dead ever begin to rise. After all, as the good books says - use your head, and cut off theirs.

After a while, I swore the dead walked the planet.
This is a book all of it's own. Nothing else comes close.
Why no one else before Max Brooks (son of Mel) thought of writing/compiling such a masterstroke book (including myself) is beyond my understanding given that this is such a well written and well defined set of 'do's & dont's'.

Suburbanised common sense juxtaposed with sheer and absolute abhorant terror.

The premise of the book suggests what would you do if the dead rose and proceeded to take over the world...starting with your town or city. What would you're first move be, would you stay in your house and hide in the bathroom?, what would you live on,- toothpaste?, how long would you expect to wait for help?, should you depend on yourself instead and take matters into your own hands?, what weapons to use?. Should you stay put or run to the hills?, and if so what transport is best, and so on, so forth.

Think you know... you would be surprised.

In the book Max covers every eventuality even going so far as to write the book as if the dead rising was a de-facto occurance. Max backs up this thrilling revelation by way of outlining numerous zombie risings throughout history right up the late 20th century - yikes!

Speaking as a long time zombie fan, this book rocks. It not only introduces a world overrun by the living dead but thrusts you into the middle of just such an infestation of horror and sheer unadulterated mayhem, albeit with the right clothing to wear & aware of the wrong places to be. This is a tour de force companion to every blood soaked zombie infested schlock movie you've ever been unfortunate enough to be attacked by on a dark winters night or when you least expected it on a warm summers afternoon.

Get this book. It might just save your poor pityful life!, and give you a tongue-n-cheek thrill while you're at it.

Brilliant!
Brilliant!
Brilliant!

Keth

(This is one of the few books I've ever awarded five stars. I gave it five stars not for it's command of English language or it's literary sweeping. Instead, it deserves every star for it's sheer A-z steadfastness. Like one of the living dead dragging it's self towards you, this book is solid, unremitting and unflinching.

....and totally dependible like a good machette.

This book can save your life!
George Romero knows it; Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright know it and now thanks to Max Brooks you too can know it: The dead are rising and only your forethought and preparedness can save you and your loved ones! Often found in the humour section, misplaced by booksellers, Brooks' invaluable survival guide takes you through the early indicators and the possible solutions to the full range of Zombie encounters; from a minor Class 1 outbreak to the potential nightmare of a Class 4 global domination. He offers sage advice on suitable defensive/offensive tactics, the pros and cons of a wide range of terrains and weaponry and perhaps most importantly, historical case studies which illustrates some of humanity's greatest triumphs but also the deadly folly of underestimating the risen dead. Brooks' clear to the point prose is both instructive and darkly entertaining. You will never look at your home security, local environment and shuffling neighbours in quite the same way again!