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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 3410349" data-attributes="member: 177">So far, World War Z is extremely well-written.  There is probably some advantage to reading the Zombie Survival Guide (also by Max Brooks) first, but it is not entirely necessary.  The book is presented as collected oral history of the events of the war against the zombie plague, and should be interesting to anyone who enjoys oral histories, war fiction, or zombies.The Mammoth Book of King Arthur is not for the casual Arthurian buff.  I'm only about 200 pages into this massive 700+ page tome, and it isn't a quick or light read.  Mr. Ashley is not content with simply giving you an overview of his findings and conclusions - he walks you through just about every piece of data he's got, and tells you what he thinks it means.  If I should find a "fault" wiht the book, it is that there is perhaps too much detail and material to wade through to get to the parts that interest me most.  Not having a strong grasp on the detailed geography of the British Isles, or a deep knowledge of the personages of first-millennium Britain, the book often seems to me to degrade into a laundry list of people and place names that quickly loses context and meaning.  I bet that for people who have a more deep knowledge of the sources, that all is intensely interesting, but it loses me much as biblical "begats" or Tolkien's discussion of elven lineages in the Silmarillion.  That being said, there are a great many bits of information in the book that are wonderful for Arthurian-fans.  The reasons why it is difficult to connect the fictional people and battles with real-life personages and places becomes quite clear.  And having been through it, one can extract a great deal of information about the situation in Britain in the relevant period, which should lead gracefully into understanding of how historical figures blend into mythical heroes.I have somewhat higher hopes for the book as Mr. Ashley moves from the historical documents of the 4th through 6th centuries into more recent material (like Geoffrey of Momouth, Sir Thomas Mallory, and such), if only because I'm more familiar with those sources.</blockquote>

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