Some girl, who knew I ‘liked to read’ lent me the Da Vinci Code, nay INSISTED I read it since it was so good.
THAT my friends is bad writing. WWZ is not bad writing. People may not like the personal stories, may not like Brooks’ take on military action against zombies, may not like the political shots he takes- fine. Fair enough.
But it’s reasonably well done for genre fiction. For zombie fiction it’s just short of brilliant. He’s the Ken Burns of zombie chroniclers.
The only way I see a movie of this working is as a documentary, played completely straight. Every time one of the interviewees starts talking we fade into flashback, and see the story come to life. Hopefully Henry Rollins and Alan Alda get their roles from the audiobook, and if they could get Paris Hilton to play herself it would be beyond awesome.
I don’t want to get into a spat about good writing and bad writing, but I’d rather read Dan Brown that Max Brooks. Dan Brown is terrible stuff, but he knows how to structure and pace a novel. He even has a somewhat facile grasp of character that works at the level he’s writing for. Mr. Brooks doesn’t.
Not really - unless you take offense to the suggestion that you’re not particularly discriminating because you like the subject matter. Pogue Mahone similarly took offense at that comment, and then went on to cite a litany of zombie fiction that I suspect almost nobody here has ever heard of, so obviously he’s a big fan of the subject matter which ironically supported the point I was making – but I also recognize that his perspective on the relative merits of different genre books is probably well-informed and probably useful context to people thinking of trying some zombie fiction.
Hell, I like a lot of goofy nonsense that I know isn’t actually very good, like most Silver Age comics, computer game storylines and Godzilla movies. But I also wouldn’t defend that stuff as not being nonsensical, for the most part, or be surprised if someone criticized, for instance, the prevalent anti-Red content of the Silver Age comics, or the hamfisted anti-nuclear/environmental themes of Godzilla movies, or “feel denigrated” because someone mocked that stuff. You’re inferring something I didn’t intend to imply - I just despised WWZ.
Amen. Dan Brown is no Tolstoy, but he’s far better than Max Brooks (at least WWZ Brooks…I haven’t read any of Brooks’ other books, if he has written others). The format of WWZ does a decent job of covering his weaknesses in some places, which I suspect is why it’s written that way, but even in the better sections I wouldn’t call it much more than passable.
I really don’t find Desslock’s assertion that people who like WWZ are predisposed to liking the subject matter to the point of being blind to the subpar writing to be all that far-fetched. Even I enjoyed the first third or so of the book, simply because I think the initial infection/breakout is the most interesting part of any zombie apocalypse. But again, that’s an interest in the subject that let me push past the quality of the writing, something that wasn’t able to sustain through the entire book.
I was going to write exactly what Tom did.
While no literary giant - more like a midget somewhat shorter than the other midgets - Dan Brown is still better than Brooks. And I agree completely with Desslock. I friggin’ love zombies (the proper slow kind, not the new fancy fast ones Tom and others like) which is why I made it all the way through WWZ. Had it been about the catholic church and conspiracies, I’d have chucked it away at the first mention of blind ninja Japanese.
It’s a bad book about a great subject and - as I said many times before - it does bring some cool ideas and settings to the table… just not very well executed.
I hate genre lit and have no real fondness for the undead, but I liked World War Z and found it pretty compelling.
Maybe because that’s I got a free advance copy or something, or maybe he wasn’t writing this for a nerd audience. Then again, I paid for Zombie Survival Guide and hated it.
I wouldn’t say offended so much as surprised by the vehemence of your response, and the ease with which you paint those of us who find the book entertaining as supporters of, basically, mindless dreck.
I agree with you that we don’t approach this from the same angle, and that I do have a deeper than average interest in zombie literature (and movies, and video games, and board games … but I digress). It very likely does color my opinion of World War Z. It absolutely was my interest in the subject matter that drew me to this book, it wasn’t recommended to me by a friend or a book review. So if you came to this expecting the ultimate in zombie fiction, sure, I can see being let down.
Since I know quite a few of you are writers, it’s understandable that bad writing would be one of those things that are hard for you to get past. Apparently I can. Lucky me. But I’m done with this dead horse, lest it rise from its peaceful repose and bite me in the ass. Enough with critiquery, back to thinking and posting about the undead.
I really like good writers like Iain Banks and Neal Stephenson and Nick Harkaway, too, so I know what I’m talking about!
Oh wait, Tom hates those last too, too? Damn. Tom’s taste and my taste are not the same! Damn!
Also? Desslock’s taste is different than mine as well! He must be a jerk! I think I’ll insult him… nah.
This thread is ridiculous. Some people like stuff that other people think is utter shit. As has been said, see the Transformers 2 thread for more. How much longer do we really need to insult each other for having different taste?
Well I just finished it, it certainly isn’t without its weak spots and the first third is by far the strongest portion, but the writing did the job of telling the story and I didn’t feel like it was particularly bad at any point.
But that’s true for a lot of different kinds of stories too. I was watching Dances With Wolves the other day and it occurred to me that the best part of that movie, and almost all fish out of water movies, is the first part. The part where the stranger in a strange land makes contact and tries to fit in/make friends.
After that, those stories usually go downhill. It’s probably because after that point it becomes clear where the story is going.
With zombie movies, it’s either going “…and zombies take over” or “…and humans defeat the zombies”.
It reminds me of playing CIV4: I always reach a point where I can tell I’m going to win or I’m doomed. That’s when I stop playing and start a new game, because it seems kind of pointless to continue when that happens.
