World War Z

Hoo-boy, I loves me some zombies. Max Brooks, author of the The Zombie Survival Guide, has a new book coming out in September, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War...

It began with rumours from China about another pandemic. The reports were fragmentary and confused. A world still reeling from bird flu and limited nuclear exchanges had had enough of apocalypse. Most people just wanted to rebuild their lives. Then the cases started to multiply and what had looked like the stirrings of a criminal underclass, even the beginnings of a revolution, soon revealed itself to be much, much worse. Faced with a future of mindless, man-eating horror, humanity was forced to accept the logic of world government and face events that tested our sanity and our sense of reality. Maybe, Brooks argues, the zombies brought us back to life. Based on extensive interviews with survivors and key players in the ten-year fight-back against the horde, World War Z brings the very finest traditions of American journalism to bear on what is surely the most incredible story in the history of civilisation.

According to SCI FI Wire, it's already been optioned by Hollywood:

Paramount Pictures acquired screen rights to Max Brooks' upcoming satirical novel World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, to be produced by Brad Pitt's Plan B, which outbid Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way for the rights; the book deals with the aftermath of a war against a legion of flesh-eating zombies and is due in the fall, Variety reported.

Meanwhile, according to the book's publisher:

Max Brooks is the author of 2003’s prescient Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection From the Living Dead. He has since received hundreds of awards and honorary degrees from around the world. Last year he received the joint Papal and UN citation, Pro Humanitate.

Seems only right, considering how much the man has contributed to the world's anti-zombie efforts.