World War Z: The Complete Edition

An Oral History of the Zombie War

By: Max Brooks

Narrated by: Max Brooks, Alan Alda, John Turturro, Rob Reiner, Mark Hamill, Alfred Molina, Simon Pegg, Henry Rollins, Martin Scorsese

Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

Audie Award Winner, Multi-Voiced Performance, 2014

World War Z: The Complete Edition (Movie Tie-in Edition): An Oral History of the Zombie War is a new version of Max Brooks' episodic zombie novel. The abridged versions of the original stories are now joined with new, unabridged recordings of the episodes that were not included in the original (abridged) version of the audiobook. These additional episodes feature a star-studded cast of narrators to coincide with the upcoming release of the film.

New narrators include Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese, Spiderman star Alfred Molina, The Walking Dead creator Frank Darabont, rapper Common, Firefly star Nathan Fillion, Shaun of the Dead's Simon Pegg, and members of the casts of Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Heroes and more! Max Brooks will be reprising his role as The Interviewer.

The original abridged edition, released in 2006, won an Audie Award for Best Multi-Voiced Performance. Original cast members include Alan Alda, Mark Hamill, Carl & Rob Reiner, and John Turturro.

In this new classic of apocalyptic fiction that feels all too real, the Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. The documentary-style oral history records the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time.

Featuring five more hours of previously unrecorded content, this full-cast recording is read by F. Murray Abraham, Alan Alda, René Auberjonois, Becky Ann Baker, Dennis Boutsikaris, Bruce Boxleitner, Max Brooks, Nicki Clyne, Common, Denise Crosby, Frank Darabont, Dean Edwards, Mark Hamill, Nathan Fillion, Maz Jobrani, Frank Kamai, Michelle Kholos, John McElroy, Ade M’Cormack, Alfred Molina, Parminder Nagra, Ajay Naidu, Masi Oka, Steve Park, Kal Penn, Simon Pegg, Jürgen Prochnow, Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner, Henry Rollins, Jeri Ryan, Jay O. Sanders, Martin Scorsese, Paul Sorvino, David Ogden Stiers, Brian Tee, John Turturro, Eamonn Walker, Ric Young, and Waleed Zuaiter.

©2006 Max Brooks (P)2012 Random House

Critic reviews

"What happens after the end of the world as we know it? Humanity rebuilds, and Kirby Impoinvil (Max Brooks) is there to help survivors make sense of what happened the day the zombies came. Helping author Brooks is a host of family friends, including Alan Alda, Nathan Fillion, Paul Sorvino, Rob Reiner, Carl Reiner, Simon Pegg, John Turturro, and many others. This audio production was released to coincide with the movie of the same name. That it’s a real drama is not surprising given the stellar cast. They don't just read the book, they act it out. And don’t think this is a teen thriller. The zombies serve as a backdrop to the larger story of how humankind reacts to such an unexpected and catastrophic invasion and the inevitable conclusion that millions must be sacrificed to save the rest. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2014. Audies Finalist." (AudioFile magazine)

Great book

I love the whole Zombie genre and have read quite a few books on the subject. I’ve read this book twice and decided to use my credit on the audio version. Good decision. I already established that I liked the book. The audio version adds just a little more to the story thanks to the narration. Every person “interviewed” is a different narrator and all were excellent. I highly recommend this audiobook.

really good!

a really cool piont of view story. no spoilers....but the story is told from a guy interviewing survivors of the zombie war . it's hearing the story from the p.o.v. of people from all walks of life. well worth a credit !!

NOT USUALLY A ZOMBIE FAN

If you could sum up World War Z: The Complete Edition (Movie Tie-in Edition) in three words, what would they be?

WAY ABOVE EXPECTATIONS

What did you like best about this story?

The human side of the stories

Any additional comments?

I am not a fan of Zombie books. I picked this book after all the movie trailers ( have not seen the movie yet) but really after listening to the sound clip. I thought it was so cool to have it performed not just read. I was not disappointed this book went way above my expectations. I have always thought zombies were lame. But this book was so great how it went about telling the story about the war, to the point were you could believe that it could happen. Super glad I took the chance on something that I normally would not listen too.

Two enthusiastic thumbs up!

Bad Analogy

After listening to "World War Z: The Complete Edition (Movie Tie-in Edition)", the film missed the boat entirely. The audiobook is so much better than the movie and I liked the movie when I first watched it. I've been talking to my friends about World War Z and we all came to an agreement there should be a miniseries, like Band of Brothers on HBO. Each episode would tell us the pandemic throughout the world, as the interviews goes on. In the meantime, this audiobook is almost perfect. It's a little eerie listening to the zombie pandemic because we are not sure what is going on with the outbreak of Ebola Sorry for the bad analogy.

Better than the movie

Watch the movie first because this book will make you hate the movie. Both are great but this book is so well done it’s in a league of its own.

Even better than the physical book

I love this book. The view of history can be applied to our actual world: especially these days. Every actor (and there are so many incredible actors) is excellent. For zombie lovers, this is the pinnacle. If you are not a zombie lover, but love a look at the world social politically speaking, this is still your book. I don't know what Max's resources had, but the insight amazes me every time.

I read everything Max writes. Have fun!!

I wish it was longer.

the length was left me wanting more. I would have loved for the movie to be made like this.

Loved it

Loved it. Well written. I really enjoyed the narration and characters. The timeline was great.

Performance

So many actors it was difficult to listen to some of them. They overacted, used fake accents and spoke so quietly on key parts that I almost gave up on the book. While listening to the book outside traffic noises would cancel out the most important words being spoken because the actor wanted to make a dramatic whisper. The story was very good.

Do not like zombies, like this book

I really like the short interview format of this book. Every time I watch or read something zombie related, it always focuses on the fate of a single person or a small group and that bores me very quickly. This never got too much or too gorey.