Satire and Sci-Fi: The Zombie Survival Guide, Max Brookes

Satire and Sci-Fi: The Zombie Survival Guide, Max Brookes

           

            In a shocking turn of events, a book written by the son of a renown comedy film director (and actor) makes for a  pretty funny read. The best part however is not the casual remarks about the undead, but the absolutely straight faced and utterly earnest tone provided by instruction held within the book. Never once has to look at the camera and wink in a “just go with it” way. You are reading this book to survive the Zombie Apocalypse and damnit, that’s what it’s going to teach you to do. It doesn’t matter how ridiculous the possibility of this actually happening is.

            The book really is a survival guide. It covers just about every major topic from which weapons to use for different tasks, to which vehicles to take in different conditions, to how to survive and fight in different environments. This book is a survival guide. It is well laid out and easy to navigate. Also you can get a small format, which can easily fit in your backpack with your baked beans and shotgun shells.

            Seeing as it has no story or characters (except for a series of short stories reporting various “outbreaks” throughout history) I’m at a loss for what else to discuss. Really the book is just a fun and goofy read.  It gives good advice and would actually (hilariously) be quite helpful should the undead ever actually rise. The main reason to read it however, is its earnest tone. In spite of how absurd the material is, the tone is always straightforward and honest. It’s amusing simply because it is so serious yet self aware.

            If you ever liked zombies, or apocalypses, or humor, I cannot recommend this book more strongly.