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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.

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