The Zombie Survival Guide

Hello, today I wanted to discuss The Zombie Survival Guide. The text is billed as a comprehensive guide to surviving a zombie apocalypse. I found this to be a very interesting read particularly because it was one of the few works that actually provided some kind of scientific support (however weak) for how an outbreak could be possible. The author provided substantial background on a "virus" that could produce victims resembling our Hollywood image of zombies. By providing some groundwork on how the mechanics of the virus worked, we were able to get far further into the details of how humanity would have to fight to survive such an epidemic. I also enjoyed the humor within this piece. I thought that the book did an excellent job of shifting our perspective on the new practicalities or impracticalities of the items we interact with on a daily basis in a zombie infested world. The reversal in preferred weaponry was also interesting. The advanced guns and electrically powered tools that are so effective in our world suddenly become almost useless when fighting the hordes. Instead, the emphasis on manual weapons and tools of the past seems to show how the entire world would slip back to the ways of older times in such an emergency. The morbid focus on items that could most easily crush skulls and pierce zombie brains somehow managed to be funny at the same time (possibly because of how we react to things that sound "ridiculous" in today's world).

One of the points I was less impressed on was the author's description of the digestive system within a zombie. By indicating that zombies did not absorb any calories or nutrients from their human victims, it was difficult to understand how they gained the energy to move their muscles and continue to operate for a number of years before they decomposed. Additionally, I found that I disagreed with its advice in certain situations. Specifically, I was surprised when I read the recommendation to move from the suburbs into the city. This seemed to go against the experiences of the characters in The Walking Dead, and also seemed to contradict the other advice in the book to avoid places with high concentrations of humans. Besides these points, The Zombie Survival Guide seemed to bring up some very valid and thought provoking ideas about how society would need to adapt to survive in an aggressive new world.