When the world descends into chaos and most of the human race is transformed into flesh-eating zombies, the task of cataloging the mayhem falls to Max Brooks.  World War Z is another take on the ever-so-popular story of worldwide undead outbreak. 

The genre was popularized by George Romero in Dawn of the Dead (1978), and continues most recently in the movie Zombieland (2009).  But instead of the satire of Dawn of the Dead or the comedy of Zombieland, World War Z is a dead-serious look at what might actually happen during a zombie plague and how governments and the populace would react. 

From the introduction to the very last page, WWZ treats itself as an historical document, or "oral history".  The book is broken up into sections that detail each phase of the crisis, from the initial warnings, to isolated outbreaks, to total global war against the zombie menace.  Each section contains short stories or interviews that vignette the various stages of the conflict. 

Some of the more memorable stories include a doctor's first encounter with the plague after performing an organ transplant in Rio de Janeiro, the account of Palestinian refugees entering Tel Aviv during the first days of Israel's voluntary self-quarantine, and the heroic final charge of General Raj-Singh to seal a mountain pass in the Himalayas against the undead hordes.  Also standing out are the disastrous battle for New York, the development of the Redeker Plan in South Africa, and the tale of a Chinese submarine that goes rogue to save crewmembers' families. 

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Accelerando is a challenging read and techno-geek cool on overload.  Even for a self-proclaimed geek like myself, I sometimes found it hard to keep up with all the technological and computer programming jargon.  In fact, for non-geeks and people that have never written a line of computer code, Accelerando might not make any sense at all.  But for the technology-conscious crowd, this book is about as good as it gets.

Imagine putting William Gibson, Contact, the Matrix and some Star Trek into a mixer.  The end result will be something much like Accelerando.  This isn't to say that the book rips off these movies or authors, but Stross certainly does use and build upon many of the concepts established by the likes of Gibson and Stephenson and Carl Sagan. 

We get healthy doses of virtual reality, computer hacking, space travel, the fate of religious traditions, a technological singularity and first contact with alien life.  Stross takes all these concepts and adds his own unique spin - economics.  In Accelerando, the future is ruled by hyper intelligent, self-aware corporations and pyramid schemes.  These fast-thinking corporations and constructs exists inside and outside of cyberspace.  And if you mess with them, you may quickly find yourself bankrupt and without a physical body. 

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