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This Is the Way the World Ends

An Oral History of the Zombie War

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This Is the Way the World Ends

By: Keith Taylor
Narrated by: Matthew Crow
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About this listen

***SOON TO BE A MAJOR TV SERIES***

For thousands of years the virus lay dormant, trapped beneath the Siberian permafrost. Then we decided to dig in the wrong place.

FEBRUARY, 2031: The global population stands at just 400 million, and the scattered survivors bear the scars of our decade-long struggle to defeat an enemy few once believed could exist. Some nations have emerged from the war stronger than ever. Others hang by a thread. Some no longer exist at all.

In the aftermath of the zombie pandemic Keith Taylor, noted pre-war author of post-apocalyptic fiction, traveled the world to interview survivors from every walk of life, culture and stratum of society, ranging from American political leaders to Scottish oil rig workers, from Mongolian miners to members of India's homeless underclass, each with their own tale of survival against an enemy that feels no remorse, fatigue, fear or mercy; only insatiable hunger.

These chilling eyewitness accounts chart the course of humanity's most brutal war. They lead us from the emergence of the virus in the Siberian wilderness to the visceral, horrifying Shibuya footage, through the panic and chaos of the evacuations to the disastrous consequences of the UN's sweeping refugee amendment. They end with us battered and broken, diminished but not defeated, in the fragile peace we now enjoy.

Together these interviews represent the most illuminating and complete commentary to date of humanity's loss.

From these candid accounts emerges an image of early 21st century civilization as it truly was: imperfect, divided and wholly unprepared for a disaster on such a scale. This Is the Way the World Ends: an Oral History of the Zombie War takes an unflinching, uncompromising look at the world we had and lost; a look at the pain we suffered due to our inability to accept a single, simple truth:

Zombies are real.

©2017 Keith Taylor (P)2022 Keith Taylor
Action & Adventure Horror Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Scary Fiction War Heartfelt Zombie Apocalyptic Fiction

What listeners say about This Is the Way the World Ends

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A great tribute to Max Brooke's World War Z

Written in a similar style, an oral history of events during the zombie apocalypse from people all over the world, fans of WWZ will enjoy this, basically new short stories. I found this hard to put down.

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love love love it!

I too wondered after the success of world war z why there wasn't other books in the same style available. this book was perfect, both the stories and narrator were spot on. sad to have finished it.

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  • Overall
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Brilliant!

This was an incredible homage to world war Z in fact I think almost better. Well written and hugely plausible. I loved the stories and am slightly gutted I finished it so quickly

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Does honour to WWZ

Captivating interviews, I found some of them better than Max Brooks and left me wanting more.

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Creative take on the genre, narration let it down

It helps to know this isn’t a single narrative story. Think of it as a collection of many short stories, some reference each other and some don’t. I liked the creativity and variety.

I’m not sure why it’s compared to WWZ, it’s not like that at all as it’s a post-event interview style book. There’s some action in the recollections but it’s in the past.

The performance didn’t work for me. Masculine voice better suited to a survival story rather than a reflection story and the accents were just all over the shop. This probably would’ve been great voice acted with a cast.

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not bad

i enjoyed this, it was a really interesting veiw on zombies! I think it's going to make a good TV show

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just listen to world war z

Poor narration, poorly written. Every character across the globe has a male American accent. The writers needless criticism of classic zombie books and movies is, simply put - cringe and hypocritical. Maybe 5% of the survivor stories are interesting. Do your wallet and your brain a favour and just read/listen to World War Z.

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