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Never underestimate the power of teamwork. Alone you are vulnerable, but together you can overcome any obstacle.

This book is like the bible for zombie nerds everywhere. It's largely written in the style of a military field manual, but also goes into the origins and mechanics of zombies in-universe, as well as speculating on historical events that may be attributed to zombies.

There is some debate about if the survival guide is a work of parody. Around the time of publication, Max Brooks had just won an emmy as a comedy writer for Saturday Night Live, and he also happens to be the son of legendary parody filmmaker Mel Brooks. However, Max doesn't consider the survival guide to be a work of humour - he considers it to be a self-help book and remarked "I can't think of anything less funny than dying in a zombie attack."

Then again, parody is often linked to satire and satirists make their living making funnies often out of very unfunny things. If the book is parody, it never breaks character. I believe it's up to the reader to decide for themselves.

Most of the book is naturally dedicated towards zombies - how to select a weapon to defend yourself, fortifications you can construct, places to avoid, etc. However there is also practical disaster preparedness advice in here too, such as what provisions to stockpile, how to store water in an emergency in your home, and what to put in your bugout bag.

The blending of fact and fiction is something of a mixed blessing. In a real emergency, all of the zombie stuff goes out the window and distracts from what you need to survive. However, the real stuff is still real stuff. In fact, the US Center for Disease Control has even published a zombie pandemic preparedness campaign. FEMA has run a similar campaign, noting that preparing for a zombie invasion will make someone just as prepared for a natural disaster such as hurricane but with considerably more sex appeal.

The Zombie Survival Guide is extremely opinionated on the mechanics of zombism and speaks authoritatively. The driving force behind the infection is the virus Solanum, which infects the brain of a living person and causes them to reanimate after the body dies. Infection is a blood-borne pathogen, and is always fatal, typically in a period of 2-72 hours. The resulting zombies are completely unintelligent, and seek to spread the disease by biting living humans with no ability to solve problems or preserve their own life.

When discussing zombies online, people would often argue about whether or not they were "real" zombies and point to the survival guide as an authority on the matter. This leads to some interesting conclusions about famous zombie franchises. The zombies in the 28 Days Later franchise aren't zombies because they aren't dead. The Romero zombie, popularized by George Romero of Dawn of the Dead fame, aren't "real" zombies because they possess some personality and use tools. The Walking Dead comes pretty close, but even the uninfected become zombies so therefore they are not "real" zombies.

If you'd like to read the survival guide, the author's website includes several links and platforms to purchase from. You can also read it free online

This was a pretty formative book in my entrance into reading and enjoying zombie/apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic fiction. I remember buying a physical copy from Atlantic Books in the local mall, and still have my original copy, along with World War Z. I'm still always on the hunt for good zom-poc fiction and am re-reading The Morningstar Strain series by ZA Recht (and others, following his death).

I think this was probably my first foray into zombie fiction myself. I had always been fascinated by horror but at the time I was still pretty squeamish about it and easily frightened. The survival guide presenting itself as fictional non-fiction removed a lot of the fear factor.

I wish I still had my copy. It came out while I was in school and my friends and I were in the habit of swapping books with each other. The survival guide made the rounds, and naturally it eventually got loaned out to a friend of a friend - and then I saw neither again.

I've never actually read any of The Morningstar Strain. If you're re-reading it, it must be good - I'll have to check it out

I have always gravitated to SFF and horror, so the zombie and post-apocalyptic fiction were a natural extension for me. I'll sadly have a number of books that made the rounds and were never returned.

The Morningstar Strain is definitely worth a read. It's not without its flaws, but I think it holds up. The series has a diverse set of characters, a strong plot, and a pretty realistic take on how humanity would react to this kind of global event. There are some internal inconsistencies between books and some suspension of disbelief required with "facts" presented about history (relative dates of the creation of certain government agencies are just flat out wrong). The most glaring inconsistency is a minor character who is introduced towards the end of the first books as being able to speak multiple languages, including flawless English, but in the second book is only able to speak Japanese and has to learn basic English.

However, despite its flaws, the story is fun, it's not overly graphic, and most characters have realistic reactions to the world collapsing around them.