41 – Max Brooks and Harry Eats the Hendersons

Send us a text

It’s not often you speak to the author of a book that EVERYONE has heard of. This week I got the chance. 

Max Brooks. Max-freaking-Brooks, author of global bestseller World War Z is here. But rather than the undead, we’re talking hairy things in the woods, technological dependence and woke hipsters being eaten.

Max’s latest novel, Devolution, regales us with the lives (and deaths) of an eco-community living deep in the forests of the Pacific Northwest. Stranded by a disaster, they fall prey first to their own inadequacy and then to the very adequate hunger of roaming sasquatch, 

We’ve talked Bigfoot and cryptozoology a lot on this show in recent weeks. But this is the big bad daddy of them all. A satire, a found-footage document, an adventure story, but also a blood, guts and claw-filled horror novel. It’s much grimmer than you may expect.

As well as monsters, Max and I discuss hokey documentaries, primate research, driverless cars, the cursed legacy of Steve Jobs and skewering our own liberal echo chamber. But it all centres on how patently unprepared our society really is for crisis. 

Enjoy.

Devolution is published in paperback on June 10th by Del Rey. 

Other books and documentaries discussed in this episode include:

• Bigfoot: The Mysterious Monsters (1976) directed by Robert Guenette
• Night of the Crabs (1976), by Guy N. Smith
• World War Z (2006), by Max Brooks
• The Harlem Hellfighters (2014), by Max Brooks

My review of Devolution in the UK Guardian can be found HERE.

Support the show on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/TalkingScaredPod

Come talk books on Twitter @talkscaredpod, on Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com.

Thanks to Adrian Flounders for graphic design.

Support the show