Ok, it’s been a decade for me I think.
Oh yeah, you can say that again!
There you go.
Ha! I’ve been here since the 90’s and participating in 12 year old threads will do that. I don’t read that genre much and apparently that one stood out.
Movie? They never made a movie of this book!!
Well, the movie bears as much resemblance to the book as the Starship Troopers movie did to its original book (i.e. a title). As well as one plot flaw that would have made the spread impossible to go undetected (get bitten, 30 seconds later you’re raving and trying to eat everyone; no way would someone have been able to get on an airplane like that). OK, the end credits, with Peter Capaldi as “W.H.O. Doctor” are almost worth it.
The book was inspired, I gather, by books of interviews with WWII veterans. The audiobook is one of the rare ones where it may be BETTER than the text version; Brooks got a lot of well-known people to voice the various vignettes, and it really puts you into the story. Initially, they only released an abridged version, but they finally did the whole book (which I have queued up in Audible; we’ve got some long driving trips ahead of us).
I know the OP said “no zombies” but aside from the fact that zombies inspired the whole thing. there are not a lot of Walking Dead-type encounters. It goes from an interview with a doctor who was there when the outbreak first started showing up, and the growing horror of the world going mad as they realize what’s happening, to the hideous mistakes made in attempting to control it, to attempts to escape, to a plan that ultimately leads to slow eradication but at a terrible cost.
I don’t tend to read horror much; The Stand being one of the few, so I don’t have much to add, but am reading through the thread to see if anything looks inspiring. But anything well-written, SF-wise, will have an element of horror to it, if not of the supernatural sort. People are pretty horrifying, if you think about it.
I’m just fooling around–but this thread is less than a year old (June 12 is June 12 2023, not June 2012).
Op checking back in:
I had to take a brake because of family issues and many post-apocalyptic horror novels are pretty damn depressing (looking at you , Dark Advent).
I also cheated somewhat and read “World War Z,” which was awesome.
Max Brooks is on record that the inspiration for World War Z was The Good War by Studs Terkel, so you’re right on the money there.