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I did a quick search and skim through the posts and didn't see anyone post about S.M. Stirling with the Novels of the Change. I am pretty sure the first one is Dies the Fire. It has a really interesting concept for an Apocalypse. Don't want to give anything away so I will leave it at that.
"I don't need a guild charter to kill you Inky." Drexith Heartblade
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Jan 2, 2014 19:28
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I think no one has mentioned those because they are awful.
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Jan 3, 2014 00:15
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Really? I found the Entropy Apocalypse idea rather intriguing. Considering that quite a few sci fi genres have tooled about with the laws of physics ceasing/changing when in proximity to this or that or because of a certain reaction, see Stargate Atlantis for one such example, I thought it was neat for someone to make a whole series dedicated to what would happen on Earth if the laws of physics ceased to be as we believe them to be. Honestly, I only read I think the first 4 or 5 of them and while I thought the main bad guy and the whole English longbows conquer all bit was a bit campy, it does have some basis in fact. If guns are not viable then historians and people who actually know how things worked in medieval periods would have an advantage.
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Jan 3, 2014 00:21
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S.M. Stirling is worse than any apocalypse. It's been mentioned but I have to recommend The Postman by David Brin for anyone interested in this thread's subject matter. Oryx and Crake/Year of the Flood are superb, don't listen to anyone who disparages Atwood, she's one of the best writers alive today. There's also the related Dying Earth subgenre, which tends to take a more broad and existential view of things, but hits many of the same notes. Look at The City at the End of Time by Greg Bear, and I hear some good things about Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun series. This thread is appreciated by others beyond the OP by the way, I love this genre in any guise so it's great to get goon recommendations and see titles I've never come across before.
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Jan 5, 2014 06:46
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As a change from the standard The Road-esque bleakness, I really enjoyed Lost Everything by Bryan Francis Slattery.goodreads posted:In the not-distant-enough future, a man takes a boat trip up the Susquehanna River with his most trusted friend, intent on reuniting with his son. But the man is pursued by an army, and his own harrowing past; and the familiar American landscape has been savaged by war and climate change until it is nearly unrecognizable. The best description I have seen is 'Lost Everything is like Cormac McCarthy's The Road if written by Terrence Malick'. It's not as dark or depressing as most of the genre. The prose is quite dreamy, but it seems to be a bit divisive - either you really love the floaty descriptiveness and free association flying around, or you hate it. I loved it. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12139883-lost-everything
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Jan 5, 2014 21:30
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pharmer posted:I enjoyed Day by Day Armageddon by J.L. Bourne. It was a quick fun read about the early days of a zombie apocalypse. The sequel was pretty good as well. I haven't gotten around to the third book in the series, if anyone knows if that was any good please let me know. I started reading the third one and it seems to have completely dropped the journal format. So make of that what you will.
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Jan 6, 2014 00:27
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Mister Adequate posted:S.M. Stirling is worse than any apocalypse. I used to enjoy his stuff a long time ago but eventually got fed up with 1) various authorial tics and 2) the man's public behavior on Usenet.
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Jan 6, 2014 07:08
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I didn't see War Day by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka mentioned. It's somewhat of a more modern(mid 80s) and less localized take on Alas, Babylon. It's a pretty low key book, featuring the authors(as themselves, oh Strieber you card you) travelling across America to get a feel for how life is in different parts of the country after a limited-scale nuclear exchange. It's all told through first-hand accounts, interviews, and government documents. I always liked it a lot and thought it evoked a good picture of what life might be like the day after the day after for the common survivor. I've probably read it 6 times in the last 20 years since I was a middle schooler. The Moon Monster posted:La Jetée is in interesting, short post apocalyptic film with the benefit that most of the students probably won't have seen it. This would be a fabulous one for a class, since it is in fact pretty short and awesome. It also was the basis for 12 Monkeys, though that movie is uneven at best.
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Jan 7, 2014 02:07
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Radio! posted:I think no one has mentioned those because they are awful. Also they were mentioned but still are completely awful. I tried reading "Dies the Fire" and it was so terrible I think I made it a grand total of two chapters. I stopped when the Renn Faire crowd was standing around watching the airplane crash and one of the characters gave this mind numbingly stupid quasi-pagan prayer to the dying that ended with "So mote it be" and a description of them tracing a pentagram in the air.
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Jan 7, 2014 05:41
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Chillmatic posted:Are there any good post-apocalyptic novels that don't involve: A few years ago I read a YA novel about the moon being knocked into a closer orbit, and that screws up the tides for mass flooding & causes volcanic eruptions for mass famines. It was written as the diary of a high school girl going through the events somewhere in the midwest. Apparently there was a sequel about a boy living on the East Coast. It was fairly simplistic, definitely targeted at 10-16 year olds, but interesting enough. I read the disaster largely as a metaphor for peak oil & economic collapse. Can't remember the title, but it was written around 2005 or 2007, if that helps narrow it down.
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Jan 8, 2014 01:55
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I''m not sure if it counts, but I read The Sheep Look Up last year, and that was a hell of a book. Instead of nuclear bombs or world wars, it was just the detailing of a slow death through environmental neglect. What would, and quite possibly still might, happen if we just didn't give a poo poo and kept using pesticides and antibiotics without looking at the long-term effects. Written in 1972, it was terrifying how feasible it still was, we are seeing a lot of the things he predicted, the smogs in China, antibiotic and pesticide resistance, potential power-cuts, at least here in the UK anyway, and out of everything I've read recently in the genre, this is the book I want least to happen, and the one I can most honestly see coming. It is absolutely 100% worth a read, and there's free ebook versions around, although I'm not sure if they're  or not so I won't link them.
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Jan 9, 2014 10:17
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Drexith posted:I did a quick search and skim through the posts and didn't see anyone post about S.M. Stirling with the Novels of the Change. I am pretty sure the first one is Dies the Fire. It has a really interesting concept for an Apocalypse. Don't want to give anything away so I will leave it at that. I really love stories where after an apocalypse of some kind people want to restore civilization again, not just to survive, and despite all its failings his Change novels do scratch that itch. Of course I would prefer better written books, but in this particular subgenre there aren't many choices, so Stirling it is. Man, if anyone has any recommendations on this kind of "rebuilding" apocalypse books, please send them my way so I can stop having a Stirling book on my favorite list 
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Jan 10, 2014 12:44
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muscles like this? posted:Also they were mentioned but still are completely awful. I tried reading "Dies the Fire" and it was so terrible I think I made it a grand total of two chapters. I stopped when the Renn Faire crowd was standing around watching the airplane crash and one of the characters gave this mind numbingly stupid quasi-pagan prayer to the dying that ended with "So mote it be" and a description of them tracing a pentagram in the air. Oh man you missed the part where the Wiccan kids grow up to be super badass guerilla fighters who communicate only in Tolkien's Elvish so the SCA people can't understand them.
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Jan 10, 2014 23:09
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Unluckyimmortal posted:The Killing Star by Charles Pellegrino and George Zebrowski is actually my favorite post-apocalyptic novel, taking place in the intermediate future when humanity is suddenly attacked by vastly superior aliens. I checked the local Half Price Books for this, but I came up empty. I looked it up on Amazon, and "new editions" are going for $150+! What the heck! Nobody seems to have a used copy for less than $30. Is this just another case of some twisted supply/demand?
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Mar 2, 2014 06:21
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Noctis Horrendae posted:A Canticle for Lebowitz is great, from what I've heard. It deals with religion and rebirth after a major nuclear war devastated Earth, but this takes place thousands of years after that. It also touches upon the loss of technology. It also has a really weird tangent into (I think) Birth Control in the third story. e: No, it was euthanasia.
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Mar 2, 2014 16:45
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Chillmatic posted:Are there any good post-apocalyptic novels that don't involve: The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
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Mar 2, 2014 17:12
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computer parts posted:It also has a really weird tangent into (I think) Birth Control in the third story. That book is on my list after Alas, Babylon and The Earth Abides. I need to read Metro 2033 faster than I am so I can get to that. Brave New World seems more dystopia, but is that has good as some people tell me. Same for Fahrenheit 451. That's if you read them.
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Mar 3, 2014 04:05
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I found Canticle for Leibowitz a bit of a drag. Miller's writing style is a lot like Heinlein's - it has this weirdly comic sense of humour which seems out of place amongst supposedly serious subjects, and he gets a bit too didactic and preachy sometimes. It's also not a very creative or well-realised post-apocalyptic world; it pretty much just mirrors stages of human history (the Dark Ages, the Renaissance and the modern day) in order to teach a tired moral. War is bad!
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Mar 8, 2014 02:37
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freebooter posted:I found Canticle for Leibowitz a bit of a drag. Miller's writing style is a lot like Heinlein's - it has this weirdly comic sense of humour which seems out of place amongst supposedly serious subjects, and he gets a bit too didactic and preachy sometimes. It's also not a very creative or well-realised post-apocalyptic world; it pretty much just mirrors stages of human history (the Dark Ages, the Renaissance and the modern day) in order to teach a tired moral. War is bad! I'm not sure it's aged that well. It's a classic of the genre, but so much that has been built on its foundation is in many ways better. I enjoyed it but I agree with your points.
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Apr 13, 2014 16:24
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The post-Wall Street crash of the 1930s has a lot in common with the Post-Apocalypse. A book about the Great Depression is Waiting for Nothing by Kromer. I've never heard anyone talk about this book, but it reminds me a lot of what a post-apocalyptic society would look like. It's basically about a teacher who loses everything and lives on the street a hobo.
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Apr 14, 2014 00:11
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Since it's kind of become just the post-apoc reading thread, has anyone else picked up Metro 2034? I'm about a third through it and so far I'm liking it, but it's not nearly as oppressive to read as 2033. Something about it changing perspectives kills a lot of the atmosphere to me, and there's not much nearly as horrific as things got in the first book. Homer recounting what happened when the bombs started to fall came pretty close, though. I'm hoping it picks up more as it goes, but something about it just isn't clicking as much as Metro 2033 did. The translation is way better, though.
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Apr 14, 2014 15:54
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Speleothing posted:A few years ago I read a YA novel about the moon being knocked into a closer orbit, and that screws up the tides for mass flooding & causes volcanic eruptions for mass famines. It was written as the diary of a high school girl going through the events somewhere in the midwest. Apparently there was a sequel about a boy living on the East Coast. It was fairly simplistic, definitely targeted at 10-16 year olds, but interesting enough. That's Susan Beth Pfeffer's Life as We Knew It. It has three sequels: The Dead and the Gone, This World We Live In, and The Shade of the Moon. The first two are as worth your time as Life As We Knew It -- haven't read the last one, but have heard it doesn't hold up as well.
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Apr 14, 2014 16:44
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RBA Starblade posted:Since it's kind of become just the post-apoc reading thread, has anyone else picked up Metro 2034? I'm about a third through it and so far I'm liking it, but it's not nearly as oppressive to read as 2033. Something about it changing perspectives kills a lot of the atmosphere to me, and there's not much nearly as horrific as things got in the first book. Homer recounting what happened when the bombs started to fall came pretty close, though. I'm hoping it picks up more as it goes, but something about it just isn't clicking as much as Metro 2033 did. The translation is way better, though. I have about 2/3 of 2033 left and I'm loving it. I've read a few people not liking it as much. I have a bunch of books on my backlog, so 2034 might need to wait a few months. In 2033 I'm up to the part after Artyom kills the Neo-Nazi and going to be hung for it
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Apr 14, 2014 19:54
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Das_Bass posted:I have about 2/3 of 2033 left and I'm loving it. I've read a few people not liking it as much. I have a bunch of books on my backlog, so 2034 might need to wait a few months. In 2033 I'm up to the part after Artyom kills the Neo-Nazi and going to be hung for it That's one of my favorite parts of that book, especially the line about Artyom feeling only "gloomy satisfaction". As something to look for, compare how he sees markets before and after that event.
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Apr 14, 2014 19:57
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Mouro posted:I really love stories where after an apocalypse of some kind people want to restore civilization again, not just to survive, and despite all its failings his Change novels do scratch that itch. Of course I would prefer better written books, but in this particular subgenre there aren't many choices, so Stirling it is. They're a bit obscure, but you might enjoy Paul O. Williams' Pelbar Cycle books, a series about tribes coming together and rebuilding a civilization in the Midwest after a nuclear war. The first one is The Breaking of Northwall.
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Apr 14, 2014 20:42
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Mouro posted:I really love stories where after an apocalypse of some kind people want to restore civilization again, not just to survive, and despite all its failings his Change novels do scratch that itch. Of course I would prefer better written books, but in this particular subgenre there aren't many choices, so Stirling it is. Brave New World might be one. That might be more dystopia though.
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Apr 15, 2014 03:41
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crikster posted:The post-Wall Street crash of the 1930s has a lot in common with the Post-Apocalypse. A book about the Great Depression is Waiting for Nothing by Kromer. I've never heard anyone talk about this book, but it reminds me a lot of what a post-apocalyptic society would look like. It's basically about a teacher who loses everything and lives on the street a hobo. Dunno if this is mentioned previously, but are there any not - garbage novels based on this in the present or near future? Economic apocalypse, but not prepper masturbatory fantasy?
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May 9, 2014 00:30
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Ron Jeremy posted:Dunno if this is mentioned previously, but are there any not - garbage novels based on this in the present or near future? Economic apocalypse, but not prepper masturbatory fantasy? Can you elaborate more? What have you read that was not good?
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May 9, 2014 04:50
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Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower?
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May 9, 2014 07:29
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I finished Metro 2033 the other day and I really liked it. I don't know much about 2034 other than it taking place right after the events of 2033, but I'm not sure how you follow that last 2 chapters up. I'm also aware 2035 is coming out later this year in Russian. I can't really read Russian on a level that allows me a 500 page book, but in a few years when they translate it 'd love to read both of them if they're as good. I have Roadside Picnic and that's only 200 or so pages so I imagine I can read that before the week is even over. As far as Earth Abides and Alas, Babylon go, what might be the better one to read first?
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May 11, 2014 20:48
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Das_Bass posted:Can you elaborate more? What have you read that was not good? Sorry, I didn't mean to imply I've waded through a bunch of crap. The idea of the genre in my head sounds like it might be that way. I googled around, and titles recommended were surrounded to links to prepper blogs and handgun reviews. Are there any good books in that vein?
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May 11, 2014 22:00
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Ron Jeremy posted:Sorry, I didn't mean to imply I've waded through a bunch of crap. The idea of the genre in my head sounds like it might be that way. I googled around, and titles recommended were surrounded to links to prepper blogs and handgun reviews. I'd say most of what we listed are just fine.
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May 11, 2014 22:11
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Das_Bass posted:I finished Metro 2033 the other day and I really liked it. I don't know much about 2034 other than it taking place right after the events of 2033, but I'm not sure how you follow that last 2 chapters up. I'm also aware 2035 is coming out later this year in Russian. 2034 takes place a year later, and has been translated! Having just finished it though I don't think it's as good as 2033. I'll just copy paste what I said in the "what did you just finish reading?" thread. quote:I just finished Metro 2034. I really liked 2033 so when I found out it was finally translated I got it immediately, but besides the translation it's just not as good. The shifts in perspective between characters takes away from the oppressive atmosphere of the setting, and the main problem they're trying to solve feels like it should have given way to something more serious; the middle drags a lot, though the end picks up pretty rapidly when they finally get to Polis again. I don't really know why he wrote in Artyom as the guy who detonates Tula, he never interacts with any other protagonists except one short conversation over the phone, and it almost feels like Glukhovsky just put in him to give a tiny amount of closure about him, mentioning he's living a normal life now. There are a few pretty good scenes in it, like Homer recalling the day the world was destroyed, but most of it feels like it's just a rehash. It's going for a different tone than Metro 2033, instead of constant oppression and the existential horror of what humanity has become in only twenty years (and comparing it and using it as allegories to modern day Russia), it offers a little flicker of hope, but something about the book just wasn't as compelling as the first one to me. It's not to say I didn't like it, it just didn't hit the high mark. I didn't know 2035 was coming out so soon though! It's supposed to be based on Last Light, the video game that was itself partially based on 2034. So that's a little weird.
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May 11, 2014 22:55
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RBA Starblade posted:2034 takes place a year later, and has been translated! Having just finished it though I don't think it's as good as 2033. I'll just copy paste what I said in the "what did you just finish reading?" thread. I never finished that game. And yeah I looked it up. He said "The time has come to admit: Metro 2035 is in works and could be released in Russian later this year." He said it about two weeks ago. I've herd and read mixed things about 2034. I have a stack so even if I had it now, I'd have a few books I want to read before and if it really isn't that good I'd push it more back. He really character jumps this time? I really liked following Artyom. That lase two pages where he connects with the Dark ones before they're blown up, and that feeling of sorrow and hollowness. Not even telling us he felt sad, He removed his mask dries his tears and walks home.
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May 12, 2014 01:27
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It jumps between four or five characters for the most part, Artyom as well. He's not all that shook up by what happened a year later.
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May 12, 2014 02:37
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RBA Starblade posted:It jumps between four or five characters for the most part, Artyom as well. He's not all that shook up by what happened a year later. That's a bit of a let down. I loved how each station was described and the wonder they must have had, living near NYC my idea of the metro is dirty and smelly and you could not pay me to go no thoese tracks. You'd be better off in the streets. The only two spots I can think of that would be worth a drat is Penn/MSG and Grand Central. On that idea has anyone made a US type metro book, maybe in NY or DC? Most tribute books of Metro I find all take place in Petersburg or Moscow.
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May 12, 2014 06:31
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Ron Jeremy posted:Dunno if this is mentioned previously, but are there any not - garbage novels based on this in the present or near future? Economic apocalypse, but not prepper masturbatory fantasy? Random Acts of Senseless Violence by Jack Womack. It's presented as the diary of a twelve year old girl, and it's crushing. Ambient might be worth a look too, it's set in the same timeline but has a lot more sci-fi elements to it (mutants, AI's, that kind of thing). Womack is pretty clearly anti-libertarian and avoids prepped fantasy bullshit. The whole collapse is just sad.
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May 12, 2014 23:37
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Ron Jeremy posted:Dunno if this is mentioned previously, but are there any not - garbage novels based on this in the present or near future? Economic apocalypse, but not prepper masturbatory fantasy? Paolo Bacigalupi likes to write about near-future economic collapses and he definitely sides with "it would really, really suck." There's his short story Pump Six which is set in a world ~100 years in the future where everything is falling apart due to slow apathy. He also has a couple of books (The Wind-Up Girl, Shipbreaker and The Drowned Cities) set in a world after the energy market collapses when the oil runs out. They might be a little more overtly sci-fi than you want though.
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May 13, 2014 04:35
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I haven't read the book, but when I saw The Road I was particularly struck by the scene where the Man is hiding in the cannibal house and eavesdrop on the cannibals going about their lives. The cannibals seemed like the first characters in the movie to actually have some humanity left, they seemed far better adjusted than the Man and the Boy. They might have kept humans as livestock but they had relationships, routines, and a home.
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May 13, 2014 05:47
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Groke posted:I used to enjoy his stuff a long time ago but eventually got fed up with 1) various authorial tics and 2) the man's public behavior on Usenet. He gets some interesting ideas but then he writes the stupidest characters into his stories. I remember he had a villain who had a bunch of female bodyguards styled after Sailor Moon or some crap like that. I also think it's funny that someone's told him the proper way to kill an elephant with one shot and he's worked that into two separate novels with almost the exact same wording (something about aiming for the 5th wrinkle from the top on the trunk or something like that).
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May 13, 2014 05:53
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