I started reading World War Z this morning, and so far it’s excellent but the central conceit – that it’s a factual account written in the aftermath of a zombie plague – just doesn’t hold up, because the introduction presents information so implausible that you can’t trust the credibility of the author.

I mean, sure, a worldwide zombie plague I’m onside with, that’s fine. Even the idea that the UN commissioned a post-plague oral history I can tolerate. Israel welcoming back the Palestinian diaspora in a moment of desperation, fine, I can handle that. A social democratic government taking power over the “Llamists” in Tibet, even that I can believe. But the US getting Universal Health Care?

That’s just crazy!

If you want to write a believable account of an apocalypse, you have to take the reader with you, Mr. Brooks…