The story opens in a post-apocalyptic Southern California, in a hellish world shattered by nuclear war decades before. Hurricane-force winds above five hundred feet prevent any sort of air travel from one state to the next, and sudden, violent, and unpredictable storms make day-to-day life a mini-hell. Hell Tanner, an imprisoned killer, is offered a full pardon in exchange for taking on a suicide mission—a drive through "Damnation Alley" across a ruined America from Los Angeles to Boston—as one of three vehicles attempting to deliver an urgently needed plague vaccine.
download here (PDF)
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Saturday, November 30, 2013
The Triffids - the Original
John Wyndham: The Day of the Triffids (1951)
The Day of the Triffids is a post-apocalyptic novel about a plague of blindness which befalls the entire world, allowing the rise of an aggressive species of plant.
As one of the great post-apocalyptic classics the novel has been made into one feature film three radio drama series, and two TV series in 1981 and 2009.
download here (PDF)
The Day of the Triffids is a post-apocalyptic novel about a plague of blindness which befalls the entire world, allowing the rise of an aggressive species of plant.
As one of the great post-apocalyptic classics the novel has been made into one feature film three radio drama series, and two TV series in 1981 and 2009.
download here (PDF)
Friday, November 22, 2013
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Walter M. Miller: A Canticle for Leibowitz (1960)
A Canticle for Leibowitz is a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by American writer Walter M. Miller, Jr., first published in 1960. Set in a Catholic monastery in the desert of the southwestern United States after a devastating nuclear war, the story spans thousands of years as civilization rebuilds itself. The monks of the fictional Albertian Order of Leibowitz take up the mission of preserving the surviving remnants of man's scientific knowledge until the day the outside world is again ready for it.
download here (PDF)
A Canticle for Leibowitz is a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by American writer Walter M. Miller, Jr., first published in 1960. Set in a Catholic monastery in the desert of the southwestern United States after a devastating nuclear war, the story spans thousands of years as civilization rebuilds itself. The monks of the fictional Albertian Order of Leibowitz take up the mission of preserving the surviving remnants of man's scientific knowledge until the day the outside world is again ready for it.
download here (PDF)
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Eternity Road
Jack McDevitt: Eternity Road (1998)
In a post-Apocalypse America where almost everyone was killed by a plague over 1700 years prior, little is known about the ancient "Roadmaker" civilization that is said to have built the devastated ruins of enormous cities, and the magnificent roads that still cover the landscape. In the valley of the Mississippi River, a number of towns have united again, trade and science have begun anew.
download here (PDF)
In a post-Apocalypse America where almost everyone was killed by a plague over 1700 years prior, little is known about the ancient "Roadmaker" civilization that is said to have built the devastated ruins of enormous cities, and the magnificent roads that still cover the landscape. In the valley of the Mississippi River, a number of towns have united again, trade and science have begun anew.
download here (PDF)
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Steampunk Zombies
Cherie Priest: Boneshaker (2009)
Boneshaker is a science fiction novel by Cherie Priest which combines the steampunk genre with zombies in an alternate history version of Seattle, Washington. It was nominated for the 2010 Hugo Award for Best Novel
download here (epub)
Boneshaker is a science fiction novel by Cherie Priest which combines the steampunk genre with zombies in an alternate history version of Seattle, Washington. It was nominated for the 2010 Hugo Award for Best Novel
download here (epub)
Saturday, November 2, 2013
The Road
Cormac McCarthy: The Road (2006)
Cormac McCarthy sets his new novel, The Road, in a post-apocalyptic blight of gray skies that drizzle ash, a world in which all matter of wildlife is extinct, starvation is not only prevalent but nearly all-encompassing, and marauding bands of cannibals roam the environment with pieces of human flesh stuck between their teeth. If this sounds oppressive and dispiriting, it is. McCarthy may have just set to paper the definitive vision of the world after nuclear war, and in this recent age of relentless saber-rattling by the global powers, it's not much of a leap to feel his vision could be not far off the mark nor, sadly, right around the corner. Stealing across this horrific (and that's the only word for it) landscape are an unnamed man and his emaciated son, a boy probably around the age of ten. It is the love the father feels for his son, a love as deep and acute as his grief, that could surprise readers of McCarthy's previous work.
download PDF here
Cormac McCarthy sets his new novel, The Road, in a post-apocalyptic blight of gray skies that drizzle ash, a world in which all matter of wildlife is extinct, starvation is not only prevalent but nearly all-encompassing, and marauding bands of cannibals roam the environment with pieces of human flesh stuck between their teeth. If this sounds oppressive and dispiriting, it is. McCarthy may have just set to paper the definitive vision of the world after nuclear war, and in this recent age of relentless saber-rattling by the global powers, it's not much of a leap to feel his vision could be not far off the mark nor, sadly, right around the corner. Stealing across this horrific (and that's the only word for it) landscape are an unnamed man and his emaciated son, a boy probably around the age of ten. It is the love the father feels for his son, a love as deep and acute as his grief, that could surprise readers of McCarthy's previous work.
download PDF here
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Lanier: The Unforsaken Hiero
Sterling E. Lanier: The Unforsaken Hiero (1973) - Hiero Part II
North America 5000 Years after the Death. Part two of Hiero's Journey scatters Hiero and his band of compatriots across the face of the continent. Hiero will face capture by the unclean, death by dehydration in the deserts of death, vicious attacks by murderous, mutated animals, and the most devastating terror of all... Hiero's loss of his unparalleled mental powers. He and his allies will be tested to the very limits of their abilities. They are bolstered only by a fierce determination to defeat the Unclean. It is that determination upon which their survival depends, and which must bring victory in their ultimate confrontation with the unclean if the remnants of civilization are to survive.
download PDF here
North America 5000 Years after the Death. Part two of Hiero's Journey scatters Hiero and his band of compatriots across the face of the continent. Hiero will face capture by the unclean, death by dehydration in the deserts of death, vicious attacks by murderous, mutated animals, and the most devastating terror of all... Hiero's loss of his unparalleled mental powers. He and his allies will be tested to the very limits of their abilities. They are bolstered only by a fierce determination to defeat the Unclean. It is that determination upon which their survival depends, and which must bring victory in their ultimate confrontation with the unclean if the remnants of civilization are to survive.
download PDF here
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Sterling E. Lanier: Hiero's Journey
One of the great
classics of post-apocalyptic science fiction. Hiero tis a telepathic
Priest Warrior. Together with his great riding moose and the young
bear who was his friend, he was on an extraordinary mission. For this
was five thousand years after the holocaust known as The Death. Now
the evil Brotherhood of the Unclean was waging all-out war against
the few remnants of normal humanity, determined to wipe out all
traces of its emerging civilization. Hiero's task was to bring back a
lost secret of the ancients that might save the humans. But his path
lay through the very heart of the territory ruled by the Unclean and
their hordes of mutated, intelligent, savage beast followers. And the
Unclean were waiting for him!
download
(PDF) here
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Brian W. Aldiss: Greybeard
Set decades after the
Earth's population has been sterilised as a result of nuclear bomb
tests conducted in Earth's orbit, the book shows an emptying world,
occupied by an ageing, childless population.
download (PDF) here
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Bacigalupi: Ship Breaker
A fast-paced
postapocalyptic adventure set on the American Gulf Coast. Nailer
works light crew; his dirty, dangerous job is to crawl deep into the
wrecks of the ancient oil tankers that line the beach, scavenging
copper wire and turning it over to his crew boss. After a brutal
hurricane passes over, Nailer and his friend Pima stumble upon the
wreck of a luxurious clipper ship. It's filled with valuable goods—a
"Lucky Strike" that could make them rich, if only they can
find a safe way to cash it in. Amid the wreckage, a girl barely
clings to life. If they help her, she tells them, she can show them a
world of privilege that they have never known. But can they trust
her? And if so, can they keep the girl safe from Nailer's
drug-addicted father?
download (epub) here
Friday, August 30, 2013
Brian W. Aldiss: Hothouse
Set in a far future
Earth, where the earth has stopped rotating, the Sun has increased
output, and plants are engaged in a constant frenzy of growth and
decay, like a tropical forest enhanced a thousandfold; a few small
groups of elvish humans still live on the edge of extinction, beneath
the giant banyan tree that covers the day side of the earth.
download (PDF) here
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Bacigalupi: The Windup Girl
In a future Thailand,
calories are the greatest commodity. Anderson is a calorie-man whose
true objective is to discover new food sources that his company can
exploit. His secretary, Hock Seng, is a refugee from China seeking to
ensure his future. Jaidee is an officer of the Environmental Ministry
known for upholding regulations rather than accepting bribes. His
partner, Kanya, is torn between respect for Jaidee and hatred for the
agency that destroyed her childhood home. Emiko is a windup, an
engineered and despised creation, discarded by her master and now
subject to brutality by her patron. The actions of these characters
set in motion events that could destroy the country. Bacigalupi has
created a compelling, if bleak, society in which corruption,
betrayal, and despair are commonplace, and more positive behavior and
emotions such as hope and love are regarded with great suspicion. The
complex plot and equally complex characters require a great deal of
commitment from readers. Even the most sympathetic people have darker
sides, and it is difficult to determine which character or faction
should triumph. This highly nuanced, violent, and grim novel is not
for every teen. However, mature readers with an interest in political
or environmental science fiction or those for whom dystopias are
particularly appealing will be intrigued. If they are able to immerse
themselves completely into the calorie-mad world of a future Bangkok,
they will not be disappointed.
download (epub) here
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)