- Fear Death By Water
- The idea behind this blog is to share my opinions about Post-Apocalyptic Literature, Films and Ephemera as well as my random nattering on a regular basis.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
It's Only Temporary
I pushed the 'pause button' on The Hopkins Manuscript and took this book with me on my sub-job today. I started it when the kids had study hall, continued it on my lunch break and finished it when kids were having silent reading. All-in-all I spent about 2 1/2 hours on it. It's Only Temporary was even better than I remember it being. It follows Sean for his last eight hours as he travels to see his ex-girlfriend and reads like a rocket sled going down hill with no brakes. Unstoppable in other words. Just a fantastic ride where the outcome has been set out from the beginning. Closest I remember to something like this is 13 reasons why by Jay Asher. Highest Recommendation. Read it and right now!
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Of vanity novels and commercials made of win
I'm sure that I cannot be the only person to have unwittingly stumbled across a vanity novel. Just in case you have been lucky enough to not run across one of these jems yourself, I'll explain about them just a bit. If I understand it correctly these are books that are the goats of the literary world. No one wants to publish them. So what ends up happening is that the author will generally pay for the book to be published themselves and will hence forth be able to proclaim to their friends that they have a book published. (Is this so much different than blogging? Perhaps not.) Another way to think of them (I figure) is to compare them with Independent Films. Some of these go to Sundance and are great and others go directly to dvd.
Also like many of these type of books, a strait to dvd movie will fool you into thinking that it's a good movie. Then as you wade into it the realization starts to settle in. 'Oh my ... I have chosen poorly.' The same thing happens from time to time when I get into a new book. As a completest I power though the book. Now don't get me wrong I don't automatically hate a book when I make the discovery that it's been been independently published. These books run the whole gamut from really terrible and readable only because it's the literary version to Blood Sucking Freaks the best/worst horror movie of all time to absolutely fantastic and completely unforgettable (and not for the faint of heart). The following are either vanity books or are published by a tiny publisher with my verdict on how good or bad they are.
The New Madrid Run by Michael Reisig.
Finishing The New Madrid Run was the genesis of this post. Before I mentioned that self
published books range through the whole spectrum from bad to great. This book falls into the middle. Not good, not bad just so-so. I had avoided reading it for quite some time. The reasonings behind this avoidance are many. Firstly: I read a book called The Rift by Walter Jon Williams. The Rift was also about The New Madrid fault. But it was just a local sort of disaster and in no way apocalyptic. The New Madrid Run just looked too similar to me. Secondly, the word 'run' is in the title. That didn't make me literally run from it, it made me think of all those 'Endworld' books. In an earlier post I went on in detail my love of The Executioner books and let's not fool ourselves here: they are Harlequin Romance novels for dudes (Since David Robbins is a pen name for Don Pendlton I'm not surprised). But I outgrew those type of boilerplate books. So it took me a long time to find myself in the mood.
I'm glad I finally got to it though. It was a bit amateurish and the writing a bit ham-handed at times. But I went with it because I'm a game day player and by the time I was about half way through I was completely enjoying it. At times the plot was predictable and the dialogue was pretty stilted. I saw Travis eventually getting together with Christina. I didn't think it would happen so soon though or that they'd nearly make out over the cooling corpse of her boy friend. I also deducted points for Travis standing in front of a mirror and describing himself. That was damn strange. Also, as I read it Nissin started a new Chow Mein Noodle add campaign and the character of the Sensei was so stereotypical all I could see was the Noodle Master in my mind. Voice and all but with swords and not chopsticks. It almost replaced The Chicken Man commercial as my favorite one, but not quite.
I also had a hard time at the beginning of the book too because he so clearly meant it to read as nonfiction ... a cautionary tale. I got over it though. All in all the book made me think of Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse by Victor Gischler A cheesy good time. I recommend it.
Junk Day by Arthur Sellings.
In this book the cause of the end is never spelled out. It follows Bryan as he scavenges and runs into trouble with various bands of rapscallions. I read the book some time ago and I guess I only remember that it was hard to get into and totally unremarkable. I did like the descriptions of the highways being cleared of debris then walled off and fortified then finally taxed and patrolled by men in the employ of the local strong man. This book falls in the middle. I just remember it being slow and a bit tedious. Also I paid way too much for it. It most certainly wasn't worth $23 plus shipping. Worth reading? Yes. I think I may re-wade into it. Give it one more chance before I give up I guess. I paid for it after all.
I looked for it in my collection of read books and even under the bed. The last place I remember seeing it is at school. I took it to class to allow my students to see what may happen if they refuse to proofread their work. I must have left it there. The book was filled with errors. A couple on each page. In some cases I can overlook the occasional typo. I’ve made plenty myself. I even managed to overlook all the strange errors in '48 by James Herbert because it was a great book and, because to me, it looked as though he had an unfortunate experience with the 'correct all’ feature on microsoft word. Also ’48 has the same basic plot of The Afterblight Series. I should have been prepared for a whole bunch of errors when I noticed one on the back cover. WOW, is all I can say. Do not waste any time or money on this pile of shit.
It’s Only Temporary is one of those rare fantastic books. It is just beyond words. The deal is that a giant asteroid is going to strike the Earth just off the coast of New Zealand. It’s going to hit
so hard that it will kill everyone. There are some scientists who think that .00001 or .00002 of the human race will survive. The governments of the world knew about the asteroid for years but chose to keep the knowledge from everyone until there was only six weeks left. Some people keep working some people commit suicide. Everyone deals with the knowledge that the world will end in their own way.
The story reads as a journal of sorts told from Sean’s point of view. He chooses to spend the last six weeks of his life watching television, smoking pot, spanking the monkey almost constantly and also hanging out with his parents. On the final day though he decides to go looking for his girlfriend. So he says his final tearful goodbye to his mom and dad and sets out through a world that has no tomorrow, second thoughts, regrets or punishment.
Bit of trivia about the book. If you preordered it the book came autographed and with a bonus chapter called ‘Speaking of Butler’. I chose wisely and preordered. Well worth it. And the cover -- the asteroid/skull thing is righteous. Also I'm on the fence as to it's 'vanity novel' status.
Also like many of these type of books, a strait to dvd movie will fool you into thinking that it's a good movie. Then as you wade into it the realization starts to settle in. 'Oh my ... I have chosen poorly.' The same thing happens from time to time when I get into a new book. As a completest I power though the book. Now don't get me wrong I don't automatically hate a book when I make the discovery that it's been been independently published. These books run the whole gamut from really terrible and readable only because it's the literary version to Blood Sucking Freaks the best/worst horror movie of all time to absolutely fantastic and completely unforgettable (and not for the faint of heart). The following are either vanity books or are published by a tiny publisher with my verdict on how good or bad they are.
The New Madrid Run by Michael Reisig.
Finishing The New Madrid Run was the genesis of this post. Before I mentioned that self
published books range through the whole spectrum from bad to great. This book falls into the middle. Not good, not bad just so-so. I had avoided reading it for quite some time. The reasonings behind this avoidance are many. Firstly: I read a book called The Rift by Walter Jon Williams. The Rift was also about The New Madrid fault. But it was just a local sort of disaster and in no way apocalyptic. The New Madrid Run just looked too similar to me. Secondly, the word 'run' is in the title. That didn't make me literally run from it, it made me think of all those 'Endworld' books. In an earlier post I went on in detail my love of The Executioner books and let's not fool ourselves here: they are Harlequin Romance novels for dudes (Since David Robbins is a pen name for Don Pendlton I'm not surprised). But I outgrew those type of boilerplate books. So it took me a long time to find myself in the mood.I'm glad I finally got to it though. It was a bit amateurish and the writing a bit ham-handed at times. But I went with it because I'm a game day player and by the time I was about half way through I was completely enjoying it. At times the plot was predictable and the dialogue was pretty stilted. I saw Travis eventually getting together with Christina. I didn't think it would happen so soon though or that they'd nearly make out over the cooling corpse of her boy friend. I also deducted points for Travis standing in front of a mirror and describing himself. That was damn strange. Also, as I read it Nissin started a new Chow Mein Noodle add campaign and the character of the Sensei was so stereotypical all I could see was the Noodle Master in my mind. Voice and all but with swords and not chopsticks. It almost replaced The Chicken Man commercial as my favorite one, but not quite.
I also had a hard time at the beginning of the book too because he so clearly meant it to read as nonfiction ... a cautionary tale. I got over it though. All in all the book made me think of Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse by Victor Gischler A cheesy good time. I recommend it.
Junk Day by Arthur Sellings.
In this book the cause of the end is never spelled out. It follows Bryan as he scavenges and runs into trouble with various bands of rapscallions. I read the book some time ago and I guess I only remember that it was hard to get into and totally unremarkable. I did like the descriptions of the highways being cleared of debris then walled off and fortified then finally taxed and patrolled by men in the employ of the local strong man. This book falls in the middle. I just remember it being slow and a bit tedious. Also I paid way too much for it. It most certainly wasn't worth $23 plus shipping. Worth reading? Yes. I think I may re-wade into it. Give it one more chance before I give up I guess. I paid for it after all.
Alone by George Washington III
Once again I was fooled by The Last Man On Earth section at Scifan.com.
Alone by George Washington Paullin III comes in at the very bottom of the scale. The book is unreadable. I only finished it because I paid for the thing and wouldn't let it get the best of me. I had to power through it in a single sitting too. It was like when I had to run a mile in fifth grade. I knew if I stopped I wouldn't start again. Life is just too short and luckily enough so is this book. I recommend that anyone who wants to read this think again and perhaps read the phone directory instead.
Once again I was fooled by The Last Man On Earth section at Scifan.com.
Alone by George Washington Paullin III comes in at the very bottom of the scale. The book is unreadable. I only finished it because I paid for the thing and wouldn't let it get the best of me. I had to power through it in a single sitting too. It was like when I had to run a mile in fifth grade. I knew if I stopped I wouldn't start again. Life is just too short and luckily enough so is this book. I recommend that anyone who wants to read this think again and perhaps read the phone directory instead. I looked for it in my collection of read books and even under the bed. The last place I remember seeing it is at school. I took it to class to allow my students to see what may happen if they refuse to proofread their work. I must have left it there. The book was filled with errors. A couple on each page. In some cases I can overlook the occasional typo. I’ve made plenty myself. I even managed to overlook all the strange errors in '48 by James Herbert because it was a great book and, because to me, it looked as though he had an unfortunate experience with the 'correct all’ feature on microsoft word. Also ’48 has the same basic plot of The Afterblight Series. I should have been prepared for a whole bunch of errors when I noticed one on the back cover. WOW, is all I can say. Do not waste any time or money on this pile of shit.
It’s Only Temporary by Eric Shapira
It’s Only Temporary is one of those rare fantastic books. It is just beyond words. The deal is that a giant asteroid is going to strike the Earth just off the coast of New Zealand. It’s going to hit
so hard that it will kill everyone. There are some scientists who think that .00001 or .00002 of the human race will survive. The governments of the world knew about the asteroid for years but chose to keep the knowledge from everyone until there was only six weeks left. Some people keep working some people commit suicide. Everyone deals with the knowledge that the world will end in their own way. The story reads as a journal of sorts told from Sean’s point of view. He chooses to spend the last six weeks of his life watching television, smoking pot, spanking the monkey almost constantly and also hanging out with his parents. On the final day though he decides to go looking for his girlfriend. So he says his final tearful goodbye to his mom and dad and sets out through a world that has no tomorrow, second thoughts, regrets or punishment.
This is by far one of the best books I’ve read … ever. Just writing about it now makes me want to read it again. It’s very short so I may press the pause button on ‘The Hopkins Manuscript’ (I’m only 2/3 of the way through and the moon has just landed) and give It’s Only Temporary’ another go. I bet I finish it tonight.
Bit of trivia about the book. If you preordered it the book came autographed and with a bonus chapter called ‘Speaking of Butler’. I chose wisely and preordered. Well worth it. And the cover -- the asteroid/skull thing is righteous. Also I'm on the fence as to it's 'vanity novel' status.
Monday, October 19, 2009
LMFAO!
"It's just like Mad Max II, The Road Worrior. Not the one with Tina Turner, but the one before that one with the gyrocopter guy."
more later now it's time to drunkenly watch 'Drag me to Hell'. WooT.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
This just in from NASA
World Will Not End In 2012
Ok then ... I'll just put that on the 'No Shit' pile.
Thing reads like an Onion article. Sheeesh. How much are these guys paid again?
Ok then ... I'll just put that on the 'No Shit' pile.
Thing reads like an Onion article. Sheeesh. How much are these guys paid again?
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Similar? I think not.
I've heard it far too many times. The Stand and Swan Song are nearly the same. So... for my next three books I will read and compare not just The Stand and Swan Song I'm throwing Dark Advent by Brian Hodge into the mix as well. It's compared to The Stand far too often.
BTW I can think of only two similarities off hand.
Similarity the First: The Holland Tunnel is traveled through in both.
Similarity the Second: Randal Flagg and The Man with the Scarlet Eye are both evil and possibly demons, both vanish from the story in the same way and appear later in the story.
BTW I can think of only two similarities off hand.
Similarity the First: The Holland Tunnel is traveled through in both.
Similarity the Second: Randal Flagg and The Man with the Scarlet Eye are both evil and possibly demons, both vanish from the story in the same way and appear later in the story.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Fallen Angel
Found this flash cartoon years ago. Was only the teaser trailer for the longest time. Kept waiting and waiting for the real deal to come out. Well it came ... I don't know at least a year ago perhaps? Sorry for holding out on you if you haven't seen/heard of it. It is completely righteous.
Teaser:
Episode one is complete. Also the brains behind it changed quite a bit of the story over the years it took him/her to complete it. Still sweet though. Might be a bit before we see more if the artist is true to form. Enjoy ... 13 minutes of pure distilled awesome.
Episode 1:
Friday, October 9, 2009
Catching up ... the quick and dirty version
Two things first. (Three maybe?) School has started once again in more than one way. I am firmly ensconced in the last real class of my master's degree (All I have left is a practicum and the thesis). Also all the kiddies have trotted off to be edumacated. That means that some poor unfortunate soul has to step in when their regular teacher can't stand them any longer or is sick (right teachers become immune to everything!) So between the two my reading and typing time has been restricted (who am I kidding? I read just as much but don't do the typing.) Lastly I am a homebrewer ... don't know if I've mentioned that before. Believe me when I say it, me having the brewing setup I have is like giving a kid a candy making machine. I have been spending an enormous amount of time in this endeavor. The latest batch is an homage to Russian River's Pliney the Elder. My professor friend at school, Gavin Keulks, has accused me more than once of brewing the beer from Waterland that takes you through all the stages of inebriation. My homage to Pliney is in fact that brew. Unlike anything I've had before. I know I am a true beer snob -- to satisfy my craving I have to brew it myself. The upshot here is that between schools and brewing and drinking what I brew, I haven't read as much as I did over the long and glorious summer. So looking back at the peacefulness that was my summer I have a lot of books to speak about.
Now to the 'Catching up' part of our program.
Dark December by Alfred Coppel
Fantastic vintage novel. What made it especially good is that it is set in the same part of the world as me. This book is mainly about the journey. The bulk of this novel deals when a Major attempting to find his family in the aftermath of a prolonged nuclear war the United Stated eventually won. I had a problem with the Major walking through the bomb craters and commenting about how his boots crunched over the glass the earth had been turned into. Could that happen? Could you walk through that and live? I don't know. I do know that its a great book with a bittersweet ending. I'm glad that Mr Coppel chose to have a sort of a downer ending. Good for him.
Cataclysm by Don Pendleton
I avoided this book for awhile. I knew it was out there and had seen it listed with other PA books. I even saw at a book store and read the inside flap. I was still sorta leery because of the Christian themes. I tend to avoid these type of novels that all seem to be a variation of the whole 'Left Behind' series. And to that I say 'no thanks'. All of that was true until I went into the local Goodwill. I can't resist looking at the books there any more than I can resist looking in used book stores as I pass. It was there I found Year Zero for a measly $4.99. A pretty sweet deal. I was still not sure about it though so I tucked it away on the Bookshelves of Doom and promptly forgot about it. It sat there for I don't know how long really, awhile. I picked it up and started reading couple weeks ago. Once I got into it I couldn't stop reading.
The general premise is that a very nasty, super contagious, and uniformly fatal plague is unleashed. It spreads from the tiny island of Corfu in Greece and eventually spreads all across the globe and the last bastion for humanity turns out to be Los Alamos. It starts because Niko, the collector, liked to find artifacts and the best of these in his opinion were sealed vials. He broke them open a give the ol' sniffer sniff to the rarified air of millennia past. But inside of a very intricate puzzle lies four vials filled with a nasty virus. It is invisible and as it kills you it erases you; both you and your memories.
This turned out to be an absolutely fantastic book. Like every other book that is this good and has been left to languish on my shelf. I regret not getting to it much sooner and wonder what other books have been similarly avoided for no good reason. I figure I'll get to them all in good time. I am after all nearly out of books to find and must be content to wait for them to come to me.
The book this most reminded me of was The Dying by Leslie Horvitz. Mainly just the relentless onslaught of the virus and descriptions of deserted cities. I haven't read The Dying in a good long time but as I read it I kept thinking about how it reminded me of that book.
Thus ends the update. I guess it wasn't so quick. But it least I'm caught up and was able to separate two pieces of chafe from the wheat.
Now to the 'Catching up' part of our program.
Dark December by Alfred Coppel
Fantastic vintage novel. What made it especially good is that it is set in the same part of the world as me. This book is mainly about the journey. The bulk of this novel deals when a Major attempting to find his family in the aftermath of a prolonged nuclear war the United Stated eventually won. I had a problem with the Major walking through the bomb craters and commenting about how his boots crunched over the glass the earth had been turned into. Could that happen? Could you walk through that and live? I don't know. I do know that its a great book with a bittersweet ending. I'm glad that Mr Coppel chose to have a sort of a downer ending. Good for him.Cataclysm by Don Pendleton
When I was but a wee slip of a lad - just eight or nine years old, I wasn' t the best reader. In fact when I was a fifth grader I was having my reading lessons with 
the first graders. I hated that. I remember it being unbelievably stupid. Stories about living mustard and ketchup bottles and being surrounded by little kids. (yes I know a fifth grader is still a little kid but c'mon!?! Me with first graders?) It was over the summer of my fourth grade year when I discovered my dad's books (And no I don't mean his Playboys; I didn't find those till the next year). He had the whole run of the Executioner books by Don Pendleton starring Mack Bolan. So I just started in with the first one War Against the Mafia and continued reading until I either ran out of books or got bored. What ever it was I eventually stopped reading them. However, not before I had written a story for my fifth grade teacher about my hero called simply enough 'My Hero Mack Bolan'.
Quite a bit back I was looking through the sci-fi section of one of my local book stores 'Paperback Exchange'. In my possecion was more than a hundred dollars in store credit so I was willing
to take a risk with free books. That's when I saw Cataclysm written by who else? My old friend Don Pendelton. I wish I had read it sooner. It was unputdownable. The plot was the same as The Hab Theory but lacked all the strange forbidden archeology tidbits like the weird metal disks and books. Also The Hab Theory ended at the end. Like the last sentence is ' Then the lights went out all over the world. Forever.' or some such. Cataclysm deals with the same sort of deal too. The world has been destroyed before and is about to be destroyed again. But the keeps going and doesn't just stop with that. If you haven't read either The Hab Theory or Cataclysm it would be pretty righteous to read Hab and then read Cataclysm. Had I but known that's what I'd've done.
The Outer Limits: The Vanished by John Peel
Ummmm .... I know this is a kid's book and all and it's very short. Also it's an 'Outer Limits' book so I should have expected some wacky twist. But it was listed on Scifan.com in the 'Last Man' section so I was expecting something other than what I got. Short version ... this wasn't apocalyptic. Don't waste your time or money with it. Since I got it from paperbackswap.com I only lost the time I spent reading it. So good news/bad news: free book but it only took me about an hour to read.
What Niall Saw by Brian Cullen
This book is one of the bleakest (most bleak?) books I've read in a good long time. It's offered
as the journal of boy who is seven years and seven days old as the book starts. He gets right into the meat of the story as well. The whole family is under the stairs with their dog (a wolfhound my personal favorite dog breed) because the bombs have fallen. Over the course of the story there are more bomb detonations which Niall describes as 'shakes'. Little by little his situation worsens. They deal with hunger (them and the dog), cabin fever from being sequestered in the closet under the stairs for weeks on end, and roaming scavengers looking for food. About 3/4 of the way into the book they make their escape. The ending stayed with me a very long time. It ranks with When the Wind Blows, Level 7, and On the Beach in terms of downer endings. If you haven't read it yet find it and do so.
Why Do Birds by Damon Knight
This book is apocalyptic but ... I still recommend you avoid it. Avoid it if you're looking for a PA read that is. Sure the world ends. It is an 'end at the end' type book. That wasn't why I don't recommend it. I just hated that Mr. Knight wrote a bunch of I guess mysteries (for lack of a better phrase) that he never solved for the readers. Foreshadowings that were just left hanging. Big ones too. What was the ring? Who was visiting him at night? Where did he come from, the past or somewhere else? How did the aliens overcome the phase shift problem with suspended animation? What did the aliens do with all the people who were in suspended animation? The aliens defiantly swooped in and carted the majority of humans away but were they taken to another planet like in Knowing or did they meet an end like that of the humans from the classic Twilight Zone episode also written by Damon Knight? More questions raised than were answered. Yup ... this is an irritating book I recommend you avoid. Or perhaps I just missed it … who knows?
Why Do Birds was a book that I wished I hadn't finished. I have never stopped in mid-book and tossed it the trash but with this book if I could somehow go back in time and somehow spirit it away, that's what I'd do. The only other book I felt this way about is Blood of the Children by Alan Rodgers. When I think of horror I don't think Stephen King I think Alan Rodgers. Blood of the Children is the most vile book I've read (three times). But if you really feel you must read Why Do Birds, I'm posting it at http://www.paperbackswap.com/ and you can have it for free. Help yourself.
The Plague Trilogy by Jean Ure
These three books are: Plague 99, Come Lucky April, and Watchers at th
e Shrine. I loved the first one. As it starts out, Plague 99 has two friends, Fran and Harry (short for Harriet), going on a camping trip for a month. They are to have no contact with the outside world whatsoever. Harry is the outgoing one and forces Fran, who is very introverted, to go with them. At the last second Harry breaks her leg and Fran after a bit of convincing goes on without her. When Fran gets back she finds London empty, wild parties going on and that Harry has gone bat-shit-crazy. Also follows the adventures of a young man called Shahid. And of course Shahid eventually meets up with Harry and Fran just before Harry disappears.
Come Lucky April is not nearly as good as Plague 99 but it
does have the extra bonus of answering the questions left at the end of the first book. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of London in ruins. Ure does a pretty fantastic job with this. The only thing I don't understand is where did all the man-hating come from? Seriously. Also I never could figure out how they sustain any population under the societal structure. I mean what the hell?
The last book Watchers at the Shrine Follows April's son as he escapes the society a decade or so after the events of Come Lucky April. It
was good as well. But only because it ended the trilogy I guess. After the events of the second book I would have figured that she might lay off the whole 'men are terrible' bit just on the choice that April makes at the end of it. But no, she goes even further with how men left uncivilized are horrid creatures.
Final analysis. Plague 99 is definitely worth the price and time to read. Come Lucky April is a mixed bag at best but worth it if for no other reason than to wrap up the loose ends from the end of Plague 99. I can say with no doubt that Watchers at the Shrine can be skipped (unless you are like me and insist on completion).
The Postman by David Brin.
I can't praise this book enough. I would have read it much sooner but I am a
Johnny Come Lately to the glory that is The Postman. I have only thought of it as the Kevin Costner pile of crap. I had read that he had butchered the book but I thought it has to pretty close to the book right? And it wasn't too far of a stretch for the postman to be the hero who defeats the villain in a stunning display of strength. After all that is how A Meeting at Corvallis and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe ended. I really had no idea just how great it is. I'd say The Postman is easily in my top twenty. I was almost ashamed of myself for letting it sit on The Bookself of Doom for the three years I allowed it to. To be fair I have the copy the Kevin on the front and I'd seen the movie and part of Waterworld. If you are a fan of PA fiction and haven't read this yet it's almost as big a crime as not yet reading The Stand, seriously. Yes, it's that good.
Twilight World by Poul Anderson
This is a nuclear bomb destroys the world type book with a twist. The twist is that inexplicably the weird/crazy/super power type mutations happen in the first generation. No one apparently gets cancer - they all turn into mutants some with powers. About half way through the mutants who are powerful and also smart leave the planet and colonize Mars. They figure that if they stay on Earth the mutations will just get worse so they get while the gettins good. It's a good book if you can suspend your disbelief and the thin nature of the science. I don't expect much from my book other than they be fun to read and not laden with spelling and or grammatical errors.
Year Zero by Jeff Long
the first graders. I hated that. I remember it being unbelievably stupid. Stories about living mustard and ketchup bottles and being surrounded by little kids. (yes I know a fifth grader is still a little kid but c'mon!?! Me with first graders?) It was over the summer of my fourth grade year when I discovered my dad's books (And no I don't mean his Playboys; I didn't find those till the next year). He had the whole run of the Executioner books by Don Pendleton starring Mack Bolan. So I just started in with the first one War Against the Mafia and continued reading until I either ran out of books or got bored. What ever it was I eventually stopped reading them. However, not before I had written a story for my fifth grade teacher about my hero called simply enough 'My Hero Mack Bolan'.Quite a bit back I was looking through the sci-fi section of one of my local book stores 'Paperback Exchange'. In my possecion was more than a hundred dollars in store credit so I was willing
to take a risk with free books. That's when I saw Cataclysm written by who else? My old friend Don Pendelton. I wish I had read it sooner. It was unputdownable. The plot was the same as The Hab Theory but lacked all the strange forbidden archeology tidbits like the weird metal disks and books. Also The Hab Theory ended at the end. Like the last sentence is ' Then the lights went out all over the world. Forever.' or some such. Cataclysm deals with the same sort of deal too. The world has been destroyed before and is about to be destroyed again. But the keeps going and doesn't just stop with that. If you haven't read either The Hab Theory or Cataclysm it would be pretty righteous to read Hab and then read Cataclysm. Had I but known that's what I'd've done.The Outer Limits: The Vanished by John Peel
Ummmm .... I know this is a kid's book and all and it's very short. Also it's an 'Outer Limits' book so I should have expected some wacky twist. But it was listed on Scifan.com in the 'Last Man' section so I was expecting something other than what I got. Short version ... this wasn't apocalyptic. Don't waste your time or money with it. Since I got it from paperbackswap.com I only lost the time I spent reading it. So good news/bad news: free book but it only took me about an hour to read.What Niall Saw by Brian Cullen
This book is one of the bleakest (most bleak?) books I've read in a good long time. It's offered
as the journal of boy who is seven years and seven days old as the book starts. He gets right into the meat of the story as well. The whole family is under the stairs with their dog (a wolfhound my personal favorite dog breed) because the bombs have fallen. Over the course of the story there are more bomb detonations which Niall describes as 'shakes'. Little by little his situation worsens. They deal with hunger (them and the dog), cabin fever from being sequestered in the closet under the stairs for weeks on end, and roaming scavengers looking for food. About 3/4 of the way into the book they make their escape. The ending stayed with me a very long time. It ranks with When the Wind Blows, Level 7, and On the Beach in terms of downer endings. If you haven't read it yet find it and do so.Why Do Birds by Damon Knight
This book is apocalyptic but ... I still recommend you avoid it. Avoid it if you're looking for a PA read that is. Sure the world ends. It is an 'end at the end' type book. That wasn't why I don't recommend it. I just hated that Mr. Knight wrote a bunch of I guess mysteries (for lack of a better phrase) that he never solved for the readers. Foreshadowings that were just left hanging. Big ones too. What was the ring? Who was visiting him at night? Where did he come from, the past or somewhere else? How did the aliens overcome the phase shift problem with suspended animation? What did the aliens do with all the people who were in suspended animation? The aliens defiantly swooped in and carted the majority of humans away but were they taken to another planet like in Knowing or did they meet an end like that of the humans from the classic Twilight Zone episode also written by Damon Knight? More questions raised than were answered. Yup ... this is an irritating book I recommend you avoid. Or perhaps I just missed it … who knows?Why Do Birds was a book that I wished I hadn't finished. I have never stopped in mid-book and tossed it the trash but with this book if I could somehow go back in time and somehow spirit it away, that's what I'd do. The only other book I felt this way about is Blood of the Children by Alan Rodgers. When I think of horror I don't think Stephen King I think Alan Rodgers. Blood of the Children is the most vile book I've read (three times). But if you really feel you must read Why Do Birds, I'm posting it at http://www.paperbackswap.com/ and you can have it for free. Help yourself.
The Plague Trilogy by Jean Ure
These three books are: Plague 99, Come Lucky April, and Watchers at th
e Shrine. I loved the first one. As it starts out, Plague 99 has two friends, Fran and Harry (short for Harriet), going on a camping trip for a month. They are to have no contact with the outside world whatsoever. Harry is the outgoing one and forces Fran, who is very introverted, to go with them. At the last second Harry breaks her leg and Fran after a bit of convincing goes on without her. When Fran gets back she finds London empty, wild parties going on and that Harry has gone bat-shit-crazy. Also follows the adventures of a young man called Shahid. And of course Shahid eventually meets up with Harry and Fran just before Harry disappears.Come Lucky April is not nearly as good as Plague 99 but it
does have the extra bonus of answering the questions left at the end of the first book. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of London in ruins. Ure does a pretty fantastic job with this. The only thing I don't understand is where did all the man-hating come from? Seriously. Also I never could figure out how they sustain any population under the societal structure. I mean what the hell?The last book Watchers at the Shrine Follows April's son as he escapes the society a decade or so after the events of Come Lucky April. It
was good as well. But only because it ended the trilogy I guess. After the events of the second book I would have figured that she might lay off the whole 'men are terrible' bit just on the choice that April makes at the end of it. But no, she goes even further with how men left uncivilized are horrid creatures.Final analysis. Plague 99 is definitely worth the price and time to read. Come Lucky April is a mixed bag at best but worth it if for no other reason than to wrap up the loose ends from the end of Plague 99. I can say with no doubt that Watchers at the Shrine can be skipped (unless you are like me and insist on completion).
The Postman by David Brin.
I can't praise this book enough. I would have read it much sooner but I am a
Johnny Come Lately to the glory that is The Postman. I have only thought of it as the Kevin Costner pile of crap. I had read that he had butchered the book but I thought it has to pretty close to the book right? And it wasn't too far of a stretch for the postman to be the hero who defeats the villain in a stunning display of strength. After all that is how A Meeting at Corvallis and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe ended. I really had no idea just how great it is. I'd say The Postman is easily in my top twenty. I was almost ashamed of myself for letting it sit on The Bookself of Doom for the three years I allowed it to. To be fair I have the copy the Kevin on the front and I'd seen the movie and part of Waterworld. If you are a fan of PA fiction and haven't read this yet it's almost as big a crime as not yet reading The Stand, seriously. Yes, it's that good.Twilight World by Poul Anderson
This is a nuclear bomb destroys the world type book with a twist. The twist is that inexplicably the weird/crazy/super power type mutations happen in the first generation. No one apparently gets cancer - they all turn into mutants some with powers. About half way through the mutants who are powerful and also smart leave the planet and colonize Mars. They figure that if they stay on Earth the mutations will just get worse so they get while the gettins good. It's a good book if you can suspend your disbelief and the thin nature of the science. I don't expect much from my book other than they be fun to read and not laden with spelling and or grammatical errors.
Year Zero by Jeff Long
I avoided this book for awhile. I knew it was out there and had seen it listed with other PA books. I even saw at a book store and read the inside flap. I was still sorta leery because of the Christian themes. I tend to avoid these type of novels that all seem to be a variation of the whole 'Left Behind' series. And to that I say 'no thanks'. All of that was true until I went into the local Goodwill. I can't resist looking at the books there any more than I can resist looking in used book stores as I pass. It was there I found Year Zero for a measly $4.99. A pretty sweet deal. I was still not sure about it though so I tucked it away on the Bookshelves of Doom and promptly forgot about it. It sat there for I don't know how long really, awhile. I picked it up and started reading couple weeks ago. Once I got into it I couldn't stop reading.The general premise is that a very nasty, super contagious, and uniformly fatal plague is unleashed. It spreads from the tiny island of Corfu in Greece and eventually spreads all across the globe and the last bastion for humanity turns out to be Los Alamos. It starts because Niko, the collector, liked to find artifacts and the best of these in his opinion were sealed vials. He broke them open a give the ol' sniffer sniff to the rarified air of millennia past. But inside of a very intricate puzzle lies four vials filled with a nasty virus. It is invisible and as it kills you it erases you; both you and your memories.
This turned out to be an absolutely fantastic book. Like every other book that is this good and has been left to languish on my shelf. I regret not getting to it much sooner and wonder what other books have been similarly avoided for no good reason. I figure I'll get to them all in good time. I am after all nearly out of books to find and must be content to wait for them to come to me.
The book this most reminded me of was The Dying by Leslie Horvitz. Mainly just the relentless onslaught of the virus and descriptions of deserted cities. I haven't read The Dying in a good long time but as I read it I kept thinking about how it reminded me of that book.
Thus ends the update. I guess it wasn't so quick. But it least I'm caught up and was able to separate two pieces of chafe from the wheat.
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