Started it this week, about half way through. Fun read given the current world news.

I really like the perspective, surprised because that is exactly why I didn't read it before.

I've read it multiple times. It gets better with each read.

quote:

Originally posted by Orguss:
I've read it multiple times. It gets better with each read.

Agreed.

If you're in to audiobooks, the full cast audio version is excellent too.

Very enjoyable book.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

quote:

Originally posted by Orguss:
I've read it multiple times. It gets better with each read.

Agreed.

If you're in to audiobooks, the full cast audio version is excellent too.

The audiobook is PHENOMENAL

quote:

Originally posted by rsbolo:

Agreed.

If you're in to audiobooks, the full cast audio version is excellent too.

The audiobook is PHENOMENAL[/QUOTE]

This is the way I absorbed it.

For the audio book, by "full cast" do you guys mean the cast of the movie? If so, does the audio book follow the movie version or the novel version?

Just read it again over the weekend. Great read anytime, but particularly now.

I just started the Andromeda Strain. After that, The Stand.

quote:

Originally posted by Orguss:
For the audio book, by "full cast" do you guys mean the cast of the movie? If so, does the audio book follow the movie version or the novel version?

The movie with Brad Pitt is nothing like the book. I thought the movie sucked.

quote:

Originally posted by CoolRich59:
Just read it again over the weekend. Great read anytime, but particularly now.

I just started the Andromeda Strain. After that, The Stand.

I dug Andromeda Strain, I think I have read all of Crichton's books, many twice.

Thanks, I'm going to check it out as the kindle version is on sale atm, $2.99

quote:

Originally posted by Orguss:
For the audio book, by "full cast" do you guys mean the cast of the movie?

No. A "full cast" audiobook is one where there is a distinct actor/actress for each character's voice, as opposed to a traditional audiobook where it's just a lone narrator reading the entire text of the book (like your Mom reading a bedtime story).

The World War Z audiobook is the book, not the mostly unrelated movie. Since each chapter in the book is basically a portion of a memoir of a character's experience during the zombie outbreak, it features a number of different big name actors each doing a chapter - Nathan Fillion, Jurgen Prochow, John Turturro, Alan Alda, Carl Reiner, Jeri Ryan, Mark Hamill, Alfred Molina, Simon Pegg, Henry Rollins, Martin Scorcese, F Murray Abraham, Rene Auberjonois, Denise Crosby, etc.

I read the book before seeing the movie. I was surprised and disappointed that it was so short, but I enjoyed it for as long as it lasted.

The audiobook Is really good. It will make a long drive fly by.

Thanks for the explanation, Rogue.

In the book, did they fly a four-engined turbo-propeller cargo plane off the deck of a aircraft carrier 200 miles east of NYC all the way to South Korea? Then fly non-stop from S.K. to Israel with the same plane on only the fill-up at the military base?

No. Other than that they're both set during a zombie apocalypse, and they share a title, the book and the movie have basically zero relation. (There are a few minor nods to the book, like the concept of a fortified Israeli wall, but they're few and far between.) It's not just a "bad adaptation", as happens with many books turned into movies... It is literally not an adaptation.

Oh, and the zombies in the book are traditional "Living Dead"-style shambling viral zombies, as God and George Romero intended, not the movie's superhuman hive mind swarming/sprinting/climbing bullshit.

The book is more like an anthology, with a large number of various characters relating their memories and snippets of their experiences throughout the zombie apocalypse and aftermath. Basically unconnected short stories/vignettes set in an common setting. There's no "main character", no specific overarching driving plot, etc. You get to examine the outbreak from a wide variety of angles and perspectives, at various times throughout the crisis.

It wouldn't have been possible to accurately adapt the book as written into a traditional plot-driven movie, which is one of the reasons why the film diverges so wildly from the book (besides the fact that it was just really poorly made). It would have to be done as an anthology miniseries, or perhaps a fake documentary TV show with interviews with "survivors" and "historical reenactments".

Thanks Rogue. Now I really want to see if my local library has the full cast audio book. I need to be in Memphis next month so this would make for great travel entertainment. Many thanks for the recommendation!

I too have read the book several times and recommended to others.
My first exposure to it was the edited audio book I picked up for a long drive. I felt cheated not to have read it before knowing some material had been left out. Since then I went out and bought the book and the full length audio book.