End of the World

[matt819]

If I had the patience I'd write a lengthy post regarding the stream of end of the world books/series that have come out recently and perhaps compare them to the nuclear holocaust books from the early Cold War. But I don't have that sort of patience.

In any case, I'd be interested in thoughts on the various end of the world books that have appeared in recent years. In particular:

Foxworld: I don't know how many books there are in this series. I liked the first book, but the second isn't working for me, so I'm giving up, I think. The gist of the first book is that a wealthy film director uses his money to build a bunker in the Minnesota woods to survive a nuclear strike and peoples it with 100 individuals with very specific skills - computing, construction, military, psychology, etc. Nuclear war hits, the world doesn't come to an end, but things are not looking good a month after the beginning of the nuclear winter. The second book picks up 100 years later, which I found a little irritating.

One Second After: This is a standalone book with a forward (or afterward - can't recall which) by Newt Gingrich. That was enough to put me off the book, but I finally listened to it. In short EMP strike by an unknown shuts down all electronics in the US. This small community in the western North Carolina hills digs in. As a story it's okay (enough), but it's peppered throughout with lectures - really, they read like lectures - on military history and patriotic gobbledygook, a la, "My god, this can't be happening, we're Americans." And, of course, it's the US military that comes through one year to the day after the attack. It's fundamentally a very sad book, with lots of decent people dying, including the 12 year old girl and her dogs. (Funny-ish incident where the town leaders are discussing rationing of food, but when it comes to the prospect of killing dogs for food, that's the line they will not cross.) What bothers me the most about this is that while this town does pretty well under the circumstances (losing 80% of its population compared to greater losses, we find out at the end, elsewhere, there's this overriding faith that the USG will come to their aid. It is not overtly a right wing vs. liberal narrative, which I was relieved to find.

The Change series, by S.M. Stirling. The first book is Dies the Fire, which takes readers into the different survival tactics of groups in Oregon after The Change alters the laws of physics, doing away with electricity, guns and explosives an high gas pressure reactions. What I found striking between this and One Second After is that there's no expectation of the cavalry coming the rescue. I haven't ready the second or third books in the trilogy, though I will. They are massive volumes - I don't know where S.M. Stirling finds the time to be as prolific as he is - so it's probably going to be a while before I attack them.

In any case, I'd be interested to hear what others think of these sorts of books.

[Curmudgeoness]

1. I prefer The Stand by Stephen King for end of world books, but

I have not read these books, so who knows. I personally enjoy end of world as we know it sort of books, love to see how the author sees survival after catastophic disaster. If anyone has read the books listed, I would love to know if any of them are worthy.

[hamerfan]

2. About a year ago

I read The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It was a pretty good book, but the biggest thing I remember about it is there were very few apostrophe's in it.
Probably no help.

[SheilaT]

3. I often like these kinds of books.

I'm not crazy about reading series, myself. Did read Dies the Fire, which I liked a lot, but just couldn't get very far in the next one.

There's a whole huge subset of s-f which involve the End of the World As We Know It.

Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank is a classic of the genre and has never been out of print since it was published in 1959. The main character gets a heads-up from his brother who is high in the military that there's probably going to be a nuclear war real soon. There is. It's brief, and the part of central Florida our man is in isn't hit by bombs or radiation, and the rest of the book is the next year or so of surviving.

Earth Abides by George R. Steward is a very early one of this type. Mysterious Plague kills off some 99% of the world's population, and this is the story of a handful of survivors. It's dated -- it was written in the late 40's, but in a way that makes it much more compelling. We are so much more dependent on technology than we were sixty years ago, and you'll notice that reading this book.

World Made by Hand by James Howard Kunstler is about the future fifteen years or so from now when things gradually collapsed as we ran out of oil and money and who knows what. Exactly what happened isn't clear, but day-to-day survival is what occupies the narrator.

Into the Forest by Jean Hegland. Another one of the "things just went bad" kind of books. I liked it.

I just wanted to name some titles you might possibly not be familiar with. I did go to Amazon to nail down the information, and I kept on seeing a whole bunch more books I may need to read.