Reviews

Closure, Limited and Other Zombie Stories by Max Brooks

spikeanderson1's review against another edition

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1.0

As good as WWZ was...this one is bad. Skip

caltho's review against another edition

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was alright dony know why i keep deciding to read short story collections

alice_digest's review against another edition

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2.0

If I had paid £5.99 for this book I'd have been extremely pissed off! It's only 120 pages (the print over covers about three quarters of the page).. and.. well it's not great. I loved LOVED World War Z but this does not live up to it, it's wreaks of cheap, lazy money making off the back of that. Even the writing isn't up to Brook's usual standard.

I can only assume the endorsements on the back are for World War Z, and whoever wrote the blurb that calls this a "terrifying new collection of short stories" has clearly not read it (or is a damn liar!).

To be honest it barely even warrants writing a review for.. but here we go..

Two of the stories are completely forgettable, one is average and the fourth (the one that makes the majority of the pages) was not bad which is why it gets two stars.

The first story: The titular 'Closure Limited' is set with World War Z, and while it was one of the better ones, and pretty creepy, I had the feeling that I'd read it before?! Either I have and forgot, or it was included in the copy of World War Z I have. Who knows.. my memory is bad.

'Steve and Fred' was just crap. It was boring and I found it impossible to focus on it. It's not worth your time.

'The Extinction Parade' earns the two stars. It's 54 of the pages, and it was an interesting idea telling the zombie story from the point of view of vampires. Don't get me wrong.. even this could have been a lot, LOT, better but I liked the idea, and some of it was cool.

The final story 'Great Wall: A story from the Zombie War' was ok but instantly forgettable. It's in the style of World War Z as a first person account of survival, but isolated on its own it's not of much interest.

Honestly.. don't pick up this book. If you've never read Max Brooks stay away.. get World War Z.. he's much much better than this pile of garbage. If you are a fan I'll still warn you to stay away, don't tarnish your memories of his work!

It only took me a few hours to read, and it was my 50th book of the year.. just a shame I went on on 2014 with this disappointing waste of time!

jhouses's review against another edition

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2.0

Para completistas de [b:World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War|8908|World War Z An Oral History of the Zombie War|Max Brooks|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1386328204s/8908.jpg|817] contiene dos nuevas entrevistas que tampoco aportan demasiado a la narrativa anterior y otras dos historias de zombies no necesariamente relacionadas y en otro estino distinto de la entrevista que tampoco son muy allá aunque la idea detras de una de ellas "The extiction parade" es interesante.

lintkaurea's review against another edition

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3.0

Cuatro relatos sueltos de zombis, ambientados en el mundo de Guerra Mundial Z. Todos tienen en común el estilo de Brooks, que demuestra una vez más ser un genio en el tema. Pero esta vez los relatos no le quedan tan redondos: son demasiado inconexos y no logran ubicar al lector. Pero todos son ideas brillantes.

undeadcleo's review against another edition

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3.0

Sadly the main story in this collection was the one I didn't really enjoy - still well written but nothing s interesting as what we find in World War Z

feathersmcgraw's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

1.5

I get what Brooks was going for with all four of these shorts, but this ain't it.

chrisbiss's review against another edition

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3.0

This collection of four stories from World War Z author Max Brooks is good fun, and a nice addition to his growing body of WWZ-related works.

The book opens and closes with stories told in the same style as World War Z - that is, interviews with survivors of the war. It's a style that works well for Brooks, and I love getting a glimpse into the minds of the different characters that he has populated his world with. Opening story 'Closure, Limitied' (the title story of the collection) is the best of these two, in my opinion; it's an interesting look at one of the ways people might seek to profit from the fall-out of WWZ, and it's just an intriguing idea in general. The final story, 'Great Wall' looks at how China dealt with the war; it's nice to see Brooks moving away from Western-centric writing, though the story still feels very American despite taking place in China.

The second story in the collection is titled 'Steve and Fred', and it's easily the weakest story in the book. I'd go so far as to say that the book would be stronger as a whole without this story being included. It's little more than two vignettes that don't seem to be linked in any way at all. The first is ridiculously gung-ho and over top (which is fine, and fun, but in this case pointless) and the second has the potential to be an interesting little character study but never develops and never pays off.

By far the strongest story in this book is the longer piece 'The Extinction Parade', in which Brooks has a go at writing a vampire story set in the world of WWZ. It makes for gripping reading, and I certainly had never considered that the zombie apocalypse would be a catastrophe for creatures other than humans.

All in all this is a good little collection that adds nicely to World War Z, though it is by no means required reading.

cakereads's review against another edition

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1.0

this book is a mess, and none of the short stories had any of the greatness of [b:World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War|8908|World War Z An Oral History of the Zombie War|Max Brooks|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386328204s/8908.jpg|817]. i have major issues with the formatting too - did anybody even vet through before they published?? it's hard to read when you can't even figure out who is speaking. ugh. i knew there was a reason i put off reading this book even though i love wwz so much.

what a disappointment. i don't want to have this book associated with wwz :(

kenreid's review against another edition

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1.0

Disappointing. Got this half price and it wasn't worth it.

Vampires removed the surprising realism Brooks successfully brings with this series. Such an odd ending to a great series.