Publication Date:September 1, 2008 Shipping:Eligible for Super Saver Shipping Availability:Usually ships in 24 hours
Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 5
1
It's OKOctober 6, 2008 2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book covers a variety of zombie related topics and has a lot of varied commentary. It mostly goes into how one specific scenario of an abortive zombie apocolypse might not go down. For the most part, it's kind of a bland, dull read.
The author apparently trains police sometimes in hand to hand skills, which makes him an expert on police and all martial arts, and brings in supporting casts to uphold his claims. Probably in an effort to counteract the usual movie idea of incompetent police, he contends that all police officers (all of them) are heavily armed, highly trained experts in weapons and hand to hand fighting skills who follow detailed procedured without error. He also oversteps his bounds of knowledge on the topics of martial arts without giving it a second thought. For example, he views the katana as God's own lightsaber, and dismisses European weaponry out of hand with just a couple of unqualified comments. He brings in many "expert" witnesses on asian fighting arts, but the only one he brings on western martial arts is some theatrical fencer, not even close to a martial artist!
For the most part, all the fun reading is in the sparse but regularly included caption commentary.
I'd say get this book if you're big time into police work and zombies, but for anyone else it's a dismissal.
Ehhh...October 2, 2008 2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Might be a good read if you're just getting into the zombie genre and are not too familiar with police procedures and forensics. I liked all the artwork provided from different artists, and it gives a great start to those who have yet to read any "zombie" books or watch monster movies. But I kind of felt like I was reading someone's research paper on zombie pop culture. If you've already amassed a library of the great "zombie" books and are already into horror movies you might get bored by page 26 like I did. My 13-year-old son got bored with the book and he's read Brooks, Wellington, Recht, Bourne, Kirkland, and McBride - not even getting to Keene and others yet. My husband got bored too and he's read less than my son has. I was really disappointed because I was really looking forward to reading this.
moderate at best...September 24, 2008 1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I dunno...
On the one hand, I've always wanted to read a book on "WHAT IF A ZOMBIE PLAGUE REALLY HIT" - but on the other, this book, while satisfying the desire reads as though the author is using the "zombe" thing as filler.
The author has done painstaking research into forensics, police proceedure and so on - almost to much - but the whole zombie question seems added in as an afterthought.
On top of that, the author, while claiming to be a Zom enthusiest, seems to go out of his way to bland down the zombies - not to mention shows a dangerous HICS (Head In Cement Syndrom) regarding how real people would act and react to real zombies.
It is a good read if you want to learn about crime scene proceedure, but only the most ardent zombie fans will get as much from it.
Nice companion piece to the Zombie Survival GuideSeptember 17, 2008 3 out of 3 found this review helpful
So you love zombies? NO, I mean you really LOVE zombies? You spend time in chat rooms debating over the best methods to survive a zombie outbreak or zombie apocalypse. You argue with non-believers about how likely a zombie plague actually is. You love the mechanics of the various zombie incarnations and how society and more specifically the police, the military, and the every day Joe would actually react? You have dug so deep that you actually can vividly imagine the whole process of the zombie invasion would take place, including the discovery of "Patient Zero", the initial victim, and the expansion of the plague or whatever process would take place that caused the initial infection and where it goes from there. This book is for you.
Jonathan Maberry has done exhaustive research, conducting interviews with over 200 experts in various fields who have as much of a fascination with zombies as he does. This book serves as a research tome for not only the zombie fan but those who might direct a zombie flick or write a zombie story. No stone was left unturned in the process of going through a theoretical zombie apocalypse...well, a lot of it argues the validity of the idea of an apocalypse actually occuring if we are talking about a plausible scientific explaination for zombies rather than a supernatural process. Slow vs. fast, spiritual vs. plague infected, it is discussed here and far beyond that. My favorite parts of this book had to be the smaller insertions, including the ongoing debate of fast vs. slow zombies as discussed by numerous authors, directors, and other experts in the field. There is also a great deal of zombie art in this book with the artists comments on what they were conceiving and thinking about when they created a particular piece.
I have always felt that in many zombie movies the police and military are treated with limited respect-they are made to be less than competent so a zombie apocalypse is that much more likely. This book presents a fair and balanced view of how the police, SWAT, and the military might actually respond. Good stuff for a real zombie zealot but the author still acknowledges the excitment that goes along with the fantasy that is zombies. Perhaps this book peels back too many layers of this onion in exposing what is realistic and possible but the author says more than once in the book, as a reminder to the reader, that we are talking about zombies here, the modern variation concocted by George Romero in Night of the Living Dead, not something we have ever really seen or that has ever actually really existed...as far as we know.
This is the book for the zombie fanatic. Perhaps a little too dense and complex for the casual zombie observer, someone who digs the occasional zombie flick or book. But if you really are fascinated with everything zombie in all its gory incarnations, if you can imagine hunkering down in a bunker cleaning your guns waiting for the undead to break down your reinforced doors, then this book is a great read.
THE GREATEST BOOK EVER WRITTEN ON ZOMBIES!!August 26, 2008 1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I just received this book today, and so far, IT'S AWESOME!! Jonathan Maberry (of whom I am a big fan and whose nonfiction works on Vampires, the Undead, and evil creatures in general are great for research and general reading) has really topped himself off. He combines down-to-earth facts with a seriousness about zombies unparalleled by other authors, and his sense of humor makes this book all the more enjoyable to read. I intend to use this in my research very soon. Jonathan, keep it up!
