The Zombie Survival Guide Book

[Alice Palecek]

TheZombie Survival Guide is the first book written by American author Max Brooks, published in 2003. It is a satirical survival manual about zombies, containing information about zombie physiology and behavior, defense strategies and tactics, and includes case studies of possible zombie outbreaks throughout history. Despite its fictional subject matter, the book also includes practical information on disaster preparedness, generally.[2]

The book is divided into seven sections and an appendix. The first section contains information on the nature of "Solanum", a virus that causes zombification, as well as the physical attributes of zombies and a classification system for the severity of hypothetical zombie outbreaks. The next five sections cover practical survival skills and advice for coping with a zombie outbreak, including combat, defense preparations, methods of transportation, and adapting to a world overrun with zombies. The final section lists recorded zombie attacks throughout history.

The appendix is an "outbreak journal" for the reader to record incidents of possible zombie activity or outbreaks, including dates, locations, distance, specifics, and actions taken in response. It contains an example entry describing a suspicious news report about a family that had been murdered and partially eaten, and the preparedness steps taken by the entry's author as a result.

In a 2013 interview with The New York Times, Brooks said he felt his literary agent had marketed the book as a parody, saying "How I think my agent pitched them was like, Mel Brooks' son, who has just won an Emmy for 'S.N.L.,' wrote this unbelievable parody, tongue in cheek, he never breaks character. He's totally making fun of a zombie plague." However, he considered the book to be in the self-help genre, rather than humor, saying "I can't think of anything less funny than dying in a zombie attack."[3]

Brooks' second book, World War Z, is a follow-up to The Zombie Survival Guide. Brooks has stated that the zombies in World War Z obey the same laws described in The Zombie Survival Guide, and suggested that they may exist in the same fictional universe.[4]

A promotional tie-in comic book, The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks, was released on October 6, 2008.[8][9] It was written by Brooks and illustrated by Brazilian artist Ibraim Roberson.[10]

BROOKS: It was a childhood phobia that evolved into an adult fascination. As I got older I realized that zombie stories were a powerful tool for examining real world issues. Because zombies are a macro-threat, (as opposed to say, a single werewolf/vampire micro threat), they can kill people by simply disrupting the slender threads that hold society together. In a zombie outbreak, how many people would die from starvation, dehydration, and unhygienic living conditions?

Until I blogged about zombies I had no idea there were so many groups working on projects involving zombies, from actors and singers to school teachers, it seemed like everyone had zombies on the brain. Why do you think zombies are so popular? Are they the new vampire or are they bigger?

Your book and upcoming movie, World War Z, follows a reporter during a zombie apocalypse. While you were writing the story you must have thought a lot about what you would do if zombies ever started roaming the streets again. If you were going to prepare for a scenario like the one in World War Z, what would you put in your emergency kit?

America lives in the comfort of plenty. When major events happens alot of people are unprepared. I have a survival kit that can cover a hurricane & zombie outbreak. Happy to see the CDC finally touching on this subject.

This is truly a wonderful way to get people to get prepared! I am obsessed with wanting to work for the CDC and help with issues. That is what I come to this site for in the first place. However, I am obsessed with zombies too! I get all I want from one website!

I am rather disappointed that they are so politically correct as to noticeably exclude firearms from their list of suggested survival items. Putting aside this silly (but entertaining) stuff about zombies, the lack of law and order in the immediate aftermath of several hurricanes and riots have demonstrated the wisdom of having the means at hand to defend yourself and your family from bad people until order can be reestablished.

The Zombie Survival GuideAuthorMax BrooksCover artistMax WernerCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishGenreHumor, Horror, InformativePublishedSeptember 16, 2003PublisherThree Rivers PressMedia typePrint (Paperback), EbookPages272ISBN1-4000-4962-8Followed byWorld War Z

The content of the book gives the reader advice on how to survive in a zombie apocalypse. Advice ranges from the weapons used to fight, the vehicles you operate for travel or escape, the shelters you find to rest in, and how to last as long as possible in a world ravaged by the undead.

The Zombie Survival Guide is followed by a sequel titled World War Z, a compilation of interviews from people from all across the world who have survived through the apocalyptic events of a global pandemic that decimated most of the Earth's population.

The walking dead, or zombies, are one of the largest, though quite unlikely, threats to humankind. Max Brooks highlights knowledge as mankind's greatest tool and ignorance as our quickest path to ruin. Other key points are that this book does NOT go over items such as survival skills or first aid as they are generously covered outside of this text. This book is designed and curated for the everyday citizen, you and I. The following are a set of guidelines, tips, and rules to assist you and your loved ones for when the dead start to walk amongst the living.

The first chapter contains all the truths and facts of the enemy. What is first explained is the origin of the zombie plague to a virus called Solanum and its symptoms, method of transmission, and treatments. After, it describes the zombies and its attributes. These include things such as their five senses, their decomposition rate, digestion, respiration, strength, speed, intelligence, memories, needs, and the severity of outbreaks in four distinct classes. The chapter also provides a section of insight for recognizing signs of a potential zombie outbreak.

This section of about 35 pages starts with an excerpt from a Serbian mercenary during the 1994 Zairian Civil War. The mercenary describes how various automatic weapons and eventually a flamethrower were used against a group of zombies to no avail, with light descriptions of the bullets tearing away flesh but not halting the zombies progress. A decent piece of foreshadowing for the change in techniques from man vs man combat to man vs zombie combat.

The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection From the Living Dead, published in 2003, is a fictional survival manual that deals with the potentiality of an undead attack. Its author, Max Brooks, lays out detailed plans for the average citizen to survive zombie uprisings of varying intensity.

The book is divided up into seven separate chapters, plus an appendix.The first chapter is entitled Myths and Realities and lays down the specific ground rules that are referenced repeatedly in the book. The most important of these describes Solanum, the virus that creates zombies, along with how it is spread, treatment of the infected, and why the zombie infection does not spread to non-human creatures.

The second chapter is entitled Weapons and Combat Techniques and discusses the weapons at the reader's disposal, and weighs them against the various threats that may be faced during confrontations with the undead.The third chapter entitled On the Defensive looks at options for individual to stay in a stationary location. It focuses on remaining stationary in an undead ambush. This is followed by a chapter entitled On the Run which explores dealing with attacks while traveling.

The final chapter looks at survival during a doomsday scenario, a Class-4 outbreak would see battle for humanity's survival shift in the zombies' favor, much like the zombie-infested world that can be observed in Land of the Dead. Advice for this section is adapted from previous sections; recommendations for surviving a siege is repeated, though altered for relevancy to the long-term entrenchment a Class-4 outbreak represents.

The guide concludes with a fictional list of documented zombie encounters throughout history, including a zombie Cossack, victim of an outbreak that happened 415 years prior, which was described in another entry. The oldest entry is 60,000 BC, in Katanda, Central Africa, although the author expresses doubt to its validity. Instead, he presents evidence from 3000 BC in Hieraconpolis, Egypt as the first verifiable instance of a zombie outbreak. The most recent entry is 2002 A.D., St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. The Appendix takes the form of a sample "Outbreak Journal," with the fictional author noting a covered-up zombie outbreak being seen on the local news. The following pages are blank entries, presumably for the reader to use as a basis for their own journal; their inclusion furthers the overall feel that the book is a survival guide to a real life-threatening possibility.

The guide attributes the zombie outbreaks described to the virus "Solanum" (not to be confused with the plant genus). The virus is said to be neither waterborne or airborne; the only way to become infected is through direct fluidic contact, in which context the virus is 100% communicable, with a 100% mortality rate.

While examining the menace that zombies represent in great detail, from the biological makeup of a zombie to anti-zombie tactics in different strategic situations, the book never alludes to considering its subject as anything less than a real, plausible threat to mankind.Throughout the book, unnamed "research" is cited as the backup for most arguments, though individual events (as listed in the Recorded Attacks chapter) are also cited where relevant. The reader is frequently warned that the advice is ignored at the reader's own peril, with the end result of "cold hands gripping your arm and dirty, worn teeth biting into your flesh," supposedly being a very real possibility. [1]

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