The Zombie Survival Guide

Complete Protection from the Living Dead

By: Max Brooks

Narrated by: Marc Cashman

From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, World War Z, The Zombie Survival Guide is your key to survival against the hordes of undead who may be stalking you right now.

Fully illustrated and exhaustively comprehensive, this book covers everything you need to know, including how to understand zombie physiology and behavior, the most effective defense tactics and weaponry, ways to outfit your home for a long siege, and how to survive and adapt in any territory or terrain.

Top 10 Lessons for Surviving a Zombie Attack

1. Organize before they rise!
2. They feel no fear, why should you?
3. Use your head: cut off theirs.
4. Blades don’t need reloading.
5. Ideal protection = tight clothes, short hair.
6. Get up the staircase, then destroy it.
7. Get out of the car, get onto the bike.
8. Keep moving, keep low, keep quiet, keep alert!
9. No place is safe, only safer.
10. The zombie may be gone, but the threat lives on.

Don’t be carefree and foolish with your most precious asset—life. This book is your key to survival against the hordes of undead who may be stalking you right now without your even knowing it. The Zombie Survival Guide offers complete protection through trusted, proven tips for safeguarding yourself and your loved ones against the living dead. It is a book that can save your life.©2003 Max Brooks; (P)2006 Random House, Inc.

Very entertaining...for when the DEAD walk again!

If you could sum up The Zombie Survival Guide in three words, what would they be?

It would be "are you serious?" I love a good zombie game, movie or story; but, I can't tell if this guy is serious.

Who was your favorite character and why?

This is not applicable, but I was imagining one while listening. I don't know if that counts.

Have you listened to any of Marc Cashman’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I haven't, this book is just stating information, so I don't know if I was able to experience his full potential. He was a very good reader.

If you could rename The Zombie Survival Guide, what would you call it?

"Zombie-Proofing for Dummies"

Refuge for People Tired of Teenage Vampires

There need to be many, many more books like this one. I am so happy that the Zombie genre has belatedly started gaining on the teen vampire genre. My wife watched Buffy, reads Twilight and enjoys True Blood. Vampires are complicated, emotional and there is all that sex and teenaged angst mixed in.

Zombies are simple; they like brains. They want to eat yours. There is no Edward, no Sookie no Angel, just brains. If you like apocalyptic fiction, this is a great use of an Audible Credit.

Definitely a less serious listen than World War Z

Overall, this is a great, fun, and entertaining experience.
This "handbook" exists in a world in which zombies exist among us, have for thousands of years, and although known to the public, denied by most governments.

"The Zombie Survival Guide" is presented and narrated as exactly that-a guidebook- with tips and pointers for dispatching zombies, securing shelter, and much more. It's heavy, horror style material, but presented in a way that's fun to listen to, and even made me laugh on a few occasions. I think the narrator's voice and reading style helped a lot with that.

My only real criticism comes from the same thing that makes the book so good-that it's presented as a guide, or handbook. There are a few places throughout the story where the narrator will say things like "see 'transportation', chapter 3, page 44" or something similar, when explaining a tactic or method that's been touched on before. While this is exactly how you'd use an actual survival guide, it makes the presentation a little bit clunky in some spots. It doesn't happen a lot, and isn't a deal breaker, but I don't think it would have hurt the story to just eliminate those references and let the story flow. Had I read the actual book before listening, I may not have noticed so much.

There are tons of positive things to list, in my opinion, but I would say my best description would be this- If you've enjoyed Brooks's work before, and want something that's not quite as heavy handed with social and political undertones as World War Z, this is a pretty fun ride. I'll definitely make it a point to pick up and actually read the book now that I've listened, and that's a positive all around.
8.5/10-- would definitely recommend, will eventually listen again.

Still holds up

This book is fantastic at playing it straight. It is 100% not a humor book. It is firmly a work of earnest sci-fi/horror. There's nothing scary about it per se, but it is written as though it exists in the horrific world implied by its instructions. It's supplemental reading not to a work he wrote, but to a genre Brooks clearly loves. Obviously later he would go on to write WWZ, but when this guide was published, it was nothing except Brooks applying his painstaking attention to detail and logistics to the creations of others.

The only complaint I have is that, unlike World War Z which works far better as audio, The Zombie Survival Guide works better as a physical book rather than audio.

clinical

You will either love it or hate it. There is sound advice that can be used in multiple situations not just zombies.