One of the most interesting aspects of this novel was that Max Brooks made it so realistic. When I saw that the premise was a world wide war against zombies I thought that this book would be extremely unrealistic. However, Brooks uses the setting--the universal outbreak/war--to examine how different societies would react to this type of emergency. The prediction that Brooks presents for the way that China would initially react to the outbreak of the zombifying (okay, okay, I made up that word) virus. The accuracy of these predictions really astounds me.
There is an aspect of this realism that I find horrifying starts with the Redekker. Although the plan that Redekker proposes to save part of the human population is probably the best plan, it is rather inhumane. It is hard for me to believe that a government would be willing to sacrifice the a large part of their population in order save just a small part. Yet time and time again numerous countries adapted the plan that started in South Africa to work appropriately for each one. Later in the novel, some of the military interviewees reveal that some of the people who were left behind by their countries survived, and they are now rebellious and are no longer patriotic to their country. I think that their rebellions are justifiable, but I am a bit biased. It is hard for me to take sides with the government when they were so willing to just let those people die.
What makes this novel so realistic is our modern perspective. This novel, of course, has to take place in the future, and the plans and reactions that occur are also somewhat futuristic. However, because of the distance that is created between our current society and the the fantasy elements found in the novel it is easy to judge the decisions that government officials had to make. The fantasy has become a cautionary tale.
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