Author Topic: Apocalypse: The Novels  (Read 4819 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline nacho

  • Hallowed are the Ori.
  • Walter The Farting Dog
  • You're a kitty!
  • *****
  • Posts: I am a geek!!
    • GS
Apocalypse: The Novels
« on: June 08, 2007, 09:33:01 PM »


Okay.  It started here --
http://www.greatsociety.org/forums/index.php?topic=1435.msg53217#msg53217

Went here --
http://www.greatsociety.org/forums/index.php?topic=2810.0

And, now, the books... Or a few of them.  I'm really trying to drink here, okay?  Get off my back.


The Postman (Bantam Classics)<img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=santafewriterspr&l=as2&o=1&a=0553278746" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

I've said it before....I'll say it again.  I love The Postman!  The novel, of course, is weird and crazy and dark and hopeless... If you want to watch the movie...do so before you read the novel. Otherwise you'll be out for blood.  If you've read the novel, avoid the movie.


I Am Legend<img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=santafewriterspr&l=as2&o=1&a=031286504X" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

Read this.  Now.

Lucifer's Hammer<img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=santafewriterspr&l=as2&o=1&a=0449208133" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

The big daddy of meteor apocalypse novels.  This shit is gripping... And has just about everything you could want.  Right down to a small island commune of criminals run by a highly principled Soviet cosmonaut.
 
Swan Song<img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=santafewriterspr&l=as2&o=1&a=0671741039" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

My favorite nuclear apocalypse novel.  The supernatural element is controlled, subtle, and well done, the destruction of the earth is wild, and the president ends up as a screaming lunatic on a West Virginia mountaintop.  I couldn't put this shit down.

Eternity Road<img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=santafewriterspr&l=as2&o=1&a=0061054275" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

The brilliantly flawed Eternity Road has so much wrong with it, you have to love it.  And, despite the problems, McDevitt is an excellent storyteller, and paints a lovely journeyman apocalypse that goes to all the neat places you'd want it to.

Alas, Babylon (Perennial Classics)<img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=santafewriterspr&l=as2&o=1&a=0060741872" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

You poor bastards.  Let's go ahead and say Jericho stole everything from this novel.

A Canticle for Leibowitz (Bantam Spectra Book)<img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=santafewriterspr&l=as2&o=1&a=0553379267" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

This should go on your priority read list.  Amazing... and...uh... AVOID THE SEQUEL.  There is no sequel.  I deny it.


The Stand: Expanded Edition: For the First Time Complete and Uncut (Signet)<img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=santafewriterspr&l=as2&o=1&a=0451169530" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

The apocalypse novel.  The uncut version does a better job than the original... It's eight million pages long and, strangely, you can read it in a weekend.  Absorbing.

A Clockwork Orange<img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=santafewriterspr&l=as2&o=1&a=0393312836" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />


That's right.  A little of the old ultra-violence.


Offline fajwat

  • Wee Bin Hoker
  • *
  • Posts: 9115
  • Cthulu saves souls for tasty midnight binges.
Re: Apocalypse: The Novels
« Reply #1 on: June 09, 2007, 01:38:52 PM »
Vic and Blood -- graphic novel format, followed by the original unadulterated prose -- by Harlan Ellison.    The prose is more novella length and style.

Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, Galapagos, and several others of his.

Octavia Butler's, um, well all three of her series -- _Parable of the Talents_, Xenogenesis, Clay's Ark being the first titles in each.  (Clay's Ark is actually a semi-standalone prequel.)

I'll have more.
"If it were up to me I would close Guantánamo not tomorrow but this afternoon... Essentially, we have shaken the belief that the world had in America's justice system... and it's causing us far more damage than any good we get from it."

-Colin Powell

Offline nacho

  • Hallowed are the Ori.
  • Walter The Farting Dog
  • You're a kitty!
  • *****
  • Posts: I am a geek!!
    • GS
Re: Apocalypse: The Novels
« Reply #2 on: June 17, 2009, 05:39:07 PM »
Right, then...I'm going to carry through on this threat:

http://www.greatsociety.org/?p=406

The first installment goes up in 15 hours -- Survivors and One Second After, as well as brief intro.  Then I'll quietly plug away at the Wikipedia and Quiet Earth list and mix it in with what I'm reading.

The best list is here:
http://www.quietearth.us/postapoc.htm

What books are they missing?  Let me know.

Offline Cassander

  • Cap'n 40 Watt
  • Old Timer
  • Wee Bin Hoker
  • ***
  • Posts: 6087
  • Simmer down now!
Re: Apocalypse: The Novels
« Reply #3 on: June 18, 2009, 12:56:07 AM »
here's my timeline:

Nacho: I MET A GIRL!

weeks pass.

Nacho: I NEED MORE APOCALYPSE.
You ain't a has been if you never was.

Offline nacho

  • Hallowed are the Ori.
  • Walter The Farting Dog
  • You're a kitty!
  • *****
  • Posts: I am a geek!!
    • GS
Re: Apocalypse: The Novels
« Reply #4 on: June 18, 2009, 07:17:53 AM »
Whatever stops the voices.

Offline nacho

  • Hallowed are the Ori.
  • Walter The Farting Dog
  • You're a kitty!
  • *****
  • Posts: I am a geek!!
    • GS
Re: Apocalypse: The Novels
« Reply #5 on: July 25, 2009, 08:30:47 AM »
PA anthologies are all the rage...

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2009/07/toc-the-new-dead-edited-by-christopher-golden/

Most notably -- new work from Max Brooks!

Offline nacho

  • Hallowed are the Ori.
  • Walter The Farting Dog
  • You're a kitty!
  • *****
  • Posts: I am a geek!!
    • GS

Offline nacho

  • Hallowed are the Ori.
  • Walter The Farting Dog
  • You're a kitty!
  • *****
  • Posts: I am a geek!!
    • GS
Re: Apocalypse: The Novels
« Reply #7 on: March 30, 2010, 05:11:11 PM »

Offline nacho

  • Hallowed are the Ori.
  • Walter The Farting Dog
  • You're a kitty!
  • *****
  • Posts: I am a geek!!
    • GS
Re: Apocalypse: The Novels
« Reply #8 on: May 25, 2010, 11:39:08 AM »

Offline monkey!

  • Monkey
  • You're a kitty!
  • *********
  • Posts: 17067
Re: Apocalypse: The Novels
« Reply #9 on: May 28, 2010, 12:03:20 PM »
Post it to me when you're finished, please!
There will come a day for every man when he will relish the prospect of eating his own shit. That day has yet to come for me.

Offline nacho

  • Hallowed are the Ori.
  • Walter The Farting Dog
  • You're a kitty!
  • *****
  • Posts: I am a geek!!
    • GS
Re: Apocalypse: The Novels
« Reply #10 on: May 28, 2010, 12:06:19 PM »
Okay!  I'll send it next week.

It's basically a poor man's World War Z, except with a virus and just focused on one troop of soldiers over about three days.

On the surface, it's pretty poorly written.  But, for some reason, it's really addictive.  One of those books where you keep thinking "This will be a great movie."  So don't look for high quality storytelling... Just a PA addiction fix.