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Chillmatic posted:Are there any good post-apocalyptic novels that don't involve: I was thinking the other day what would a more creative way be of having a post-apocalyptic story happen? Most do seem to be zombies, nukes, nature or aliens? I've never read The Road, but don't they never really say what it was? Has anyone ever thought of a really creative one? I can't think of anything. I love the genre, but I do wish their was more in terms of the world ending part.
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May 13, 2014 07:32
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Das_Bass posted:I was thinking the other day what would a more creative way be of having a post-apocalyptic story happen? Most do seem to be zombies, nukes, nature or aliens? I've never read The Road, but don't they never really say what it was? Has anyone ever thought of a really creative one? I can't think of anything. I love the genre, but I do wish their was more in terms of the world ending part. Not all of these are technically post-apocalyptic, as some are on a smaller scale, but off the top of my head these novels don't fall into the categories you mentioned: Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood The Flame Alphabet, by Ben Marcus The Dog Stars, by Peter Heller Sweet Tooth, by Jeff Lemire Cat's Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut elbow fucked around with this message at 13:20 on May 13, 2014 |
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May 13, 2014 08:01
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Das_Bass posted:I was thinking the other day what would a more creative way be of having a post-apocalyptic story happen? Most do seem to be zombies, nukes, nature or aliens? I've never read The Road, but don't they never really say what it was? Has anyone ever thought of a really creative one? I can't think of anything. I love the genre, but I do wish their was more in terms of the world ending part. I think you'll find most of the really inventive stuff in short stories. Like one (the name of which escapes me) where scientists ruin the world by developing a process that kills all the bacteria on the planet.
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May 13, 2014 12:53
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Speaking of short stories, has anyone here read the post-apocalyptic anthology by John Joseph Adams? I've read his anthology of dystopian stories and enjoyed it.
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May 13, 2014 13:21
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elbow posted:Speaking of short stories, has anyone here read the post-apocalyptic anthology by John Joseph Adams? I've read his anthology of dystopian stories and enjoyed it. I recommended it early on in the thread. It is excellent.
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May 13, 2014 16:18
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Das_Bass posted:I was thinking the other day what would a more creative way be of having a post-apocalyptic story happen? Most do seem to be zombies, nukes, nature or aliens? I've never read The Road, but don't they never really say what it was? Has anyone ever thought of a really creative one? I can't think of anything. I love the genre, but I do wish their was more in terms of the world ending part. It's been a long time since I've read the Road but I'm pretty sure that it was clear in the book that it was nuclear war that caused it. I thought Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake had a very creative cause of the apocalypse. Most of the book deals with how the apocalypse came about over however many years and the post apocalyptic parts are just the framing device of the story. Darin Bradley's Noise takes place almost entirely during the society collapsing parts of the apocalypse and also has an original and creative cause of it.
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May 13, 2014 18:03
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Ornamented Death posted:I recommended it early on in the thread. It is excellent. savinhill posted:It's been a long time since I've read the Road but I'm pretty sure that it was clear in the book that it was nuclear war that caused it.
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May 13, 2014 22:57
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Das_Bass posted:I was thinking the other day what would a more creative way be of having a post-apocalyptic story happen? Most do seem to be zombies, nukes, nature or aliens? I've never read The Road, but don't they never really say what it was? Has anyone ever thought of a really creative one? I can't think of anything. I love the genre, but I do wish their was more in terms of the world ending part. The Car Wars game books (kind of like CYOA books but with dice) had an interesting cause. A disease wipes out all grasses and cereals, which simultaneously causes mass starvation and desertification of most of the world as there is no grass to slow erosion. Legumes become the new staple food.
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May 14, 2014 01:52
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elbow posted:Cool, I might have to get that one as well, then. The sequel is coming out later this year or early next year as well. It was originally due out last year, but the kerfuffle with Night Shade threw a wrench in that. Adams has found a new publisher, though, so it's finally coming out.
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May 14, 2014 01:53
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ClearAirTurbulence posted:The Car Wars game books (kind of like CYOA books but with dice) had an interesting cause. A disease wipes out all grasses and cereals, which simultaneously causes mass starvation and desertification of most of the world as there is no grass to slow erosion. Legumes become the new staple food. Oh, ripped off from No Blade of Grass then.
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May 14, 2014 03:30
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Zola posted:Oh, ripped off from No Blade of Grass then. I'll have to read that. And I'm a little disappointed that one of the coolest things about those books was a rip-off.
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May 14, 2014 08:13
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I am struggling through "From the Fire" right now. It's about a super bitchy, schizophrenic, inept woman trying to survive a nuclear holocaust. Guess how many words it took for her to climb a 10-rung ladder out of the shelter at one point? 50 words? 100 words? Try six loving pages. Every person she had ever met in her entire life began talking to her, coaching her, cheering for her... And they have all been dead for a while. What a loving chore this book is.
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May 14, 2014 12:57
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Spermy Smurf posted:I am struggling through "From the Fire" right now. Reminds me of a creative writing class I took in High School. This girl would spent 5 pages on how a characters dressed and looked. She was the Tolkien of how people dressed.
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May 14, 2014 23:39
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I read and enjoyed ''Soft Apocalypse'' if you're interested in a slow, economic collapse. Pretty depressing!
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May 16, 2014 23:40
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elbow posted:Cool, I might have to get that one as well, then. I believe he stated in an interview that it was an asteroid.
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May 17, 2014 05:11
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muscles like this? posted:I believe he stated in an interview that it was an asteroid. I can't tell whether you're being serious or not (McCarthy is notoriously reluctant to give interviews) but I'll take it at face value; it doesn't really matter if he said afterwards that he wrote it with an asteroid-scenario in mind if it's purposefully left unclear in the book itself. I like that it's never explained, personally.
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May 17, 2014 11:03
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on the cause of the apocalypse in the Road, McCarthy in the Wall Street Journal:quote:WSJ: When you discussed making "The Road" into a movie with John, did he press you on what had caused the disaster in the story?
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May 17, 2014 18:54
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janklow posted:on the cause of the apocalypse in the Road, McCarthy in the Wall Street Journal: That's interesting because a Yellowstone eruption is one of the possible disasters I thought likely from the clues available. In the flashbacks the man is preparing for the disaster, and he has several books about New Zealand visible in one of the scenes. I considered an asteroid strike but that wouldn't really explain the frequent small quakes years after everything is covered in ash, and you would want to be on the other side of the world when that Yellowstone blows up.
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May 18, 2014 00:20
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ClearAirTurbulence posted:That's interesting because a Yellowstone eruption is one of the possible disasters I thought likely from the clues available. In the flashbacks the man is preparing for the disaster, and he has several books about New Zealand visible in one of the scenes. I considered an asteroid strike but that wouldn't really explain the frequent small quakes years after everything is covered in ash, and you would want to be on the other side of the world when that Yellowstone blows up.
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May 18, 2014 20:00
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janklow posted:i think the interesting conflict to me is that on the one hand, McCarthy is probably telling the truth when he has no opinion, because it doesn't really matter, i suppose... but on the other, we know how seriously he takes constructing his books, so it seems WEIRD that he really wouldn't have SOME opinion about what the cause was. I don't know... it seemed to me like he had this really vivid image of a cold, dead Earth that he couldn't get out of his head. That's pretty much what The Road seemed like to me, a story written around that one image and nothing more.
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May 18, 2014 20:09
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Das_Bass posted:I was thinking the other day what would a more creative way be of having a post-apocalyptic story happen? Most do seem to be zombies, nukes, nature or aliens? I've never read The Road, but don't they never really say what it was? Has anyone ever thought of a really creative one? I can't think of anything. I love the genre, but I do wish their was more in terms of the world ending part. I wish there were more stories about rebuilding. A lot of apocalypse stories overemphasize the destruction part and underestimate how well life is at regrowing, or they have to make some artificial reason why people can't just set up shop again. For a clear example, in TWD they literally have to make the zombies effectively immortal until they get hit in the head because if they actually had to eat/drink/sleep/whatever like normal people do you'd never see another zombie after about 2 years.
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May 18, 2014 21:01
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computer parts posted:I wish there were more stories about rebuilding. A lot of apocalypse stories overemphasize the destruction part and underestimate how well life is at regrowing, or they have to make some artificial reason why people can't just set up shop again. World War Z does this. The zombie apocalypse actually only lasts a few or so and is mainly over by the winter when all the zombies freeze or get stuck in snow piles. You're right in there not being enough reconstruction stories. Most seem to come soon after a disaster or way way after when things are 'normal' again.
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May 18, 2014 22:49
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The Dell is a cheap online zombie story that goes into rebuilding. Maybe not The Dell, forget the name. It's not badly written, and just remember that the main character has zero flaws and is effectively superman. Edit:WE GO ON is the name
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May 19, 2014 00:02
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Just finished The Road and would strongly recommend it for anyone who likes bleak, post-apocalyptic books. It probably sets the standard. Also just read Metro 2033 and Metro 2034. 2033 is pretty good, and 2034 is B+ at best, fairly mediocre. Would definitely recommend the Road to anyone who wants to start out in this genre, however. Also, if you don't mind all the posturing about religion, A Canticle for Liebowitz is really good, though it's been done over several times.
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May 22, 2014 18:43
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Also, just finished the Silo Saga, which is 5 novellas combined into the Wool Omnibus. They're really excellent, a sort of mystery meets Metro 2033. I found the first one a bit poorly written, but it definitely heats up after that and is well worth a look.
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Jun 6, 2014 18:36
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I was wondering if Equations of Life by Simon Morden would fall into the Post-Apocalypse category? I've heard some good things about it and it seems to have won an award (doesn't really mean anything, granted). If it does, worth reading?
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Jun 6, 2014 19:41
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iminay posted:I was wondering if Equations of Life by Simon Morden would fall into the Post-Apocalypse category? I've heard some good things about it and it seems to have won an award (doesn't really mean anything, granted). If it does, worth reading? Yes, the book and subsequent sequels definitely fall into the Post-Apocalypse category. This is one of my go-to recommendations, it's an awful lot of fun! If you want something really grimdark or Road-like, you will be disappointed, but if you like fast-paced airport novels, prepare for a treasure. If you have a Kindle, you can get the first three novels all together for $9.99, Amazon's beef with Hachette/Orbit notwithstanding.
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Jun 6, 2014 23:37
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My wife has a short story idea in her head but was asking me if it's been done before. I'm not so sure, so let me ask here: has anyone read a dystopian novel where the government/corporations creates a drug and releases it into the world as a means of social control? My first thought was that Brave New World touches on this a bit with the soma concept, but my wife is thinking more of a dramatic version of the conspiracy theory behind stuff like how the government created and dispersed crack, etc.
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Jun 7, 2014 17:32
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Argali posted:My wife has a short story idea in her head but was asking me if it's been done before. I'm not so sure, so let me ask here: has anyone read a dystopian novel where the government/corporations creates a drug and releases it into the world as a means of social control? My first thought was that Brave New World touches on this a bit with the soma concept, but my wife is thinking more of a dramatic version of the conspiracy theory behind stuff like how the government created and dispersed crack, etc. Well, there's the movie Equilibrium.
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Jun 7, 2014 21:54
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Zola posted:Yes, the book and subsequent sequels definitely fall into the Post-Apocalypse category. This is one of my go-to recommendations, it's an awful lot of fun! If you want something really grimdark or Road-like, you will be disappointed, but if you like fast-paced airport novels, prepare for a treasure. If you have a Kindle, you can get the first three novels all together for $9.99, Amazon's beef with Hachette/Orbit notwithstanding. That's a great deal, grabbed it immediately. Some days you just want something deep and dark, and the other days you want to rush through an airport novel.. no shame in admitting that.
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Jun 7, 2014 22:21
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Argali posted:My wife has a short story idea in her head but was asking me if it's been done before. I'm not so sure, so let me ask here: has anyone read a dystopian novel where the government/corporations creates a drug and releases it into the world as a means of social control? My first thought was that Brave New World touches on this a bit with the soma concept, but my wife is thinking more of a dramatic version of the conspiracy theory behind stuff like how the government created and dispersed crack, etc. I can't think of much off the top of my head, but even if there was it's an interesting enough idea that it's still worth writing and exploring. I'd definitely want to read it.
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Jun 7, 2014 23:18
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Argali posted:My wife has a short story idea in her head but was asking me if it's been done before. I'm not so sure, so let me ask here: has anyone read a dystopian novel where the government/corporations creates a drug and releases it into the world as a means of social control? I believe there was a Stephen King short story about a drug that virtually eliminated violent urges but eventually was found to have....unfortunate side effects. I think the discoverers of the substance released it into the atmosphere rather than the government, though.
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Jun 8, 2014 03:52
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JnnyThndrs posted:I believe there was a Stephen King short story about a drug that virtually eliminated violent urges but eventually was found to have....unfortunate side effects. I think the discoverers of the substance released it into the atmosphere rather than the government, though. That was the short story "The End of the Whole Mess" from Nightmares and Dreamscapes.
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Jun 8, 2014 05:37
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muscles like this? posted:That was the short story "The End of the Whole Mess" from Nightmares and Dreamscapes. Yeah, that was a weird but good one. Two brothers, one a child genius. They blast water from some kind of spring into a volcano, getting it into the atmosphere and having it rain down on earth - before realizing it turns everyone into child-like Alzheimer's patients.
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Jun 8, 2014 11:53
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ravenkult posted:I read and enjoyed ''Soft Apocalypse'' if you're interested in a slow, economic collapse. Pretty depressing! This looks interesting, thanks!
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Jun 8, 2014 12:09
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Argali posted:Yeah, that was a weird but good one. Two brothers, one a child genius. They blast water from some kind of spring into a volcano, getting it into the atmosphere and having it rain down on earth - before realizing it turns everyone into child-like Alzheimer's patients. What's kind of ironic about that story was that the genius had discovered that violent crime rates were much lower around this small town in Texas, and this was actually based on reality. The small town was near Waco, which got a reputation a few years later for some really violent stuff.
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Jun 8, 2014 18:06
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Argali posted:My wife has a short story idea in her head but was asking me if it's been done before. I'm not so sure, so let me ask here: has anyone read a dystopian novel where the government/corporations creates a drug and releases it into the world as a means of social control? My first thought was that Brave New World touches on this a bit with the soma concept, but my wife is thinking more of a dramatic version of the conspiracy theory behind stuff like how the government created and dispersed crack, etc. The Giver was pretty much like that. I read that when I was 14, so I forgot parts of it, but that made me think about it.
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Jun 21, 2014 04:26
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Das_Bass posted:The Giver was pretty much like that. I read that when I was 14, so I forgot parts of it, but that made me think about it. Huh. Looks like they've made a movie of it, coming out in August.
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Jun 21, 2014 17:26
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I think I tried this in the post the plot thread a few years back but didn't have any hits. Hopefully someone here knows what I'm talking about. It was a short-story or novella that opens with how biologists can cause mosquito breeding rates to plummet and eventually wipe out malaria. Then it goes on about how man's aggression at a women is greatly increasing. To the point where after a few years a man will just kill any woman he sees on sight. And at the end there's flying saucers more or less openly flying around earth looking around. The entire metaphor being that humanity was the mosquitos and another race seeded us with something to get the planet after a generation. Any clues?
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Jul 6, 2014 16:39
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Hughlander posted:I think I tried this in the post the plot thread a few years back but didn't have any hits. Hopefully someone here knows what I'm talking about. Sounds like The Screwfly Solution by James Tiptree Jr.
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Jul 7, 2014 00:03
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