July 22, 2004

• Earth Abides, by George R Stewart Falling Out of Cars, by Jeff Noon
• I'm not entirely sure if it exactly meets the criteria, but Richard Matheson's I Am Legend is one of the best of the type that I know. Also, Stephen King's The Stand is worth a look.
• peri-apocalyptic is Nevile Shute's 'On the Beach' (also a movie). No plucky survivors getting by, though - just then end of the world as we know it. post-post-apocalyptic is Walter M. Miller's 'Canticle for Lebowitz' (higher science fiction factor, but not by much, and with more optimism)
• Earth Abides is a big favorite- one of the few apocalyptic novels with a positive tone. Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker is pretty good too, but I love books that create their own language.
• I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. Read it before the Will Smith debacle comes out.
• Er. . .
• I love these kind of books as well. Two of my old favorites are War Day and Natures End by Whitely Streiber and Jim Kunetka (sp?).
• I enjoyed Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood.
• Arthur C. Clark's Childhood's End.
• Secoding Canticle for Liebowitz.
• Wittgenstein's Mistress, by David Markson A book that combines mental illness, a last-person-on-earth scenario, and art history in one go...
• Vernor Vinge "Across Realtime". I second "Childhood's End"
• If you read the (nonfiction) book The Ecology of Fear by Mike Davis, you'll find an entire chapter on Los Angeles-based disaster fiction in books and film. Worth a read.
• Ilyadeux beat me to Canticle for Lebowitz, but I will definitely recommend it a second time. Brin's "The Postman" is worth a look, despite the horrible movie that stole its name.
• I Am Legend deserves to be mentioned again and again. Seriously. I still love Stephen King's The Stand, although the vicodin and megalomania seem to have ruined the Gunslinger novels.
• oh! oh! and A Maze of Death by P. K. Dick, too.
• Amnesia Moon by Jonathan Lethem, one of my all-time favorite authors.
• "1984" by George Orwell. Also Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale". I'm not a big fan of Maggie but I like that one. This is a good thread. I'll be checking out the above suggestions.
• As far as movies go there is, of course, the Mad Max series. I can also recommend Tank Girl for something a little....odder.
• Tank Girl was a fantastic comic - great stories, gorgeous art, hot hero, but was a, a-hem, less good film, in my opinion. All these look great, I will be checking a lot of them out!! I love teh interweb! Thanks chimps (but keep em coming...)
• Although it is only half post-apocalypse (since the first half is about it), Lucifer's Hammer deserves a mention. Any 600 page book that makes you feel like you're reading a novella deserves praise.
• I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. Read it before the Will Smith debacle comes out. Vincent Price beat him to it.
• well, bradbury's fahrenheit 451 is one. sort of. asimov's nightfall is similar - both kind of lead up to an apocalypse more than discussing what happens afterwards though. read a novel a long time ago called "wolfshead" about a post-nuclear US, and a guy who ventured underground (after some insane-ass surgery) to rescue his wife, who'd been captured by the now morlock-like remnants of the US govt. weird story but i liked it... but as i said that was a long time ago, so i don't know how well it was actually written. the time machine, that's a good one.
• Yes! Others that appreciate Earth Abides. Beautiful book who's mood was made even better by reading it while on the night shift in a lab where I was almost always alone. Fantastic book. Also vote++ for I Am Legend and A Canticle for Lebowitz.
• So did Charleton Heston. I actually have Last Man on Earth on DVD. It's quite close to the novel in theme and tone. It's also one of Price's best performances. No comment on Omega Man. But I say watch it before the Will Smith debacle because of just how horrific it is going to be. Just look. It's enough to make a Matheson fan go postal.
• Brin's "The Postman" is worth a look, despite the horrible movie that stole its name. Nobody stole the name, Brin sold it.
• Hey, I'll second Ridley Walker. Good and short, the way novels should be.
• Oh, shawnj, I just thought that was an "I, Robot" crack. I didn't realize they were actually remaking it. Again. For the fourteenth fucking time. With Michael Bay directing. Why does he have a career?
• returning to agree with the Margaret Lawrence recommendations -- both Oryx & Crake and The Handmaid's Tale, which gave me nightmares when I read it when I was 12. Also to recommend When Sheep Look Up by John Brunner and Cat's Cradle by Vonnegut (both ecological apocalypse rather than military). And much of J.G. Ballard, who is an eerie little puppy when he puts his mind to it, not to mention a bit twisted at times.
• While they are theoretically "young adult" novels, I adore the Tripods trilogy by "john Christopher" (a pen name). Not exactly post-apocalyptic, but involves the earth having been taken over by... yes, tripods! I originally ran across it while it was serialized in one page comic form in Boy's Life magazine for something like a decade (what I wouldn't do to see those reprinted!). There is also a prequel book called, "When the Tripods Came" but it is much more traditional "young adult" and to read it first would probably ruin much of the mystery of trying to figure out what is going on (which is half the charm
• Yes! I love the John Christopher books! I had forgotten about those. . . (What is the author's real name??)
• I know Brin sold, "the postman". Costner still killed a great story. Could be worse, could be Gibsons own screenplay for Johnny Mnemonic... *shiver* Another semi-post apocalyptic book I really dug was Mortal Engines set about 10,000 years into the future after a devastating world war. European cities are now mobile... bizarre stuff. I found out a month after I read it that it was for the 9-12 age group. I still dig it.
• Could be worse, could be Gibsons own screenplay for Johnny Mnemonic... *shiver* Hey, Johnny Mnemonic was not as bad as people make it out to be. It wasn't Hamlet, but there wasn't much they could do with the original source (since the original source is just a short story). It still is the best representation of cyberpunk/Shadowrun on film, monofiliment whips and all.
• Speaking of Johnny Mnemonic (and I echo shawnj in that it wasn't nearly as bad as people make it out to be), has anyone here seen the filmed version of New Rose Hotel? Walken and Dafoe - two actors who seem like they would fit *perfectly* into a Gibson novella.
• My only qualm with Johnny Mnemonic is that it was so cheap looking. The sets looked like something ginned up for a really well-done high school performance of Bladerunner.
• Damnation Alley by Zelazny (also a movie) Testament (movie) The Drive-In by Joe Lansdale (a very different kind of apocalypse)
• George Saunders. Who else can you think of who's been compared to Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Chuck Palahniuk, Kurt Vonnegut and Samuel Beckett all on the same page? His stories are bleak, sad, and funny at the same time. I think you'd especially enjoy reading the novella "Bounty" which is part of the collection CivilWarLand In Bad Decline.
• Samuel Delany's Dhalgren. You never know what's happening outside of Bellona, but within there's definitely been some sort of apocalypse. I'll also join the Canticle pile-on.
• Casting a third vote for Riddley Walker. Takes some work to get into the language, but definitely worth it.
• A bit off topic, but does anyone remember an end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it book describing extreme storms and high winds? From what I can (vaguely) remember, the majority of the book was about how people dealt with the change in weather. Lots of description about how infrastructures would break down under this scenerio. Was a pretty thick book with red binding, sat on the third shelf down in the 7th row of the old library. (My memory is uselessly selective in detail.)
• My only qualm with Johnny Mnemonic is that it was so cheap looking. The sets looked like something ginned up for a really well-done high school performance of Bladerunner. Bingo. That and the lack of the lowtek trampoline arena. It's not that I didn't dig it. But it wasn't the short story. And as far as capturing the cyberpunk look/feel. Bladerunner did it before there even was a cyberpunk genre. Gibson said as much himself.
• Perhaps someone should summarize these book recommendation threads when they more or less come to an end. Dan Simmons - Ilium AA Atanasio - Radix
• I don't believe anyone has mentioned it yet, but Good News by Edward Abbey is another good post-apocalyptic novel. Sorta Monkeywrench Gang meets Mad Max.
• For films, Le Dernier Combat is excellent. For books, I enjoyed Pat Murphy's The City, Not Long After. It's a post-apocalyptic tale told with a strong sense of whimsy, and where else are you going to find that?
• Try "After Dachau" by Daniel Quinn. Actually, it is an uplifting book, not a downer.
• Robert C. O'Brien - Z for Zachariah if you happen to be a kid... I don't remember how good it was, since I read it over 10 years ago.
• RECAP (in the order they appeared i hope i didn't miss anything)-- Day of the Triffids TC Boyle - After the Plague George R Stewart - Earth Abides Jeff Noon - Falling Out of Cars Richard Matheson - I am Legend Stephen King - The Stand Nevile Shute - On the Beach Walter M. Miller - Canticle for Lebowitz Russell Hoban - Riddley Walker Planet of the Apes Whitley Streiber - War Day Jim Kunetka - Natures End Margaret Atwood - Oryx and Crake Arthur C. Clark - Childhood's End David Markson - Wittgenstein's Mistress Vernor Vinge - Across Realtime Mike Davis - The Ecology of Fear Brin - The Postman P.K. Dick - A Maze of Death Jonathan Lethem - Amnesia Moon George Orwell - 1984 Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale Lucifer's Hammer Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451 Wolfshead The Time Machine John Brunner - When Sheep Look Up J.G. Ballard John Christopher - Tripods Trilogy - When The Tripods Came Philip Reeve - Mortal Engines Zelazny - Damnation Alley Joe Lansdale - The Drive-In George Saunders Samuel Delany - Dhalgren Dan Simmons - Ilium A.A. Attanasio - Radix Edward Abbey - Good News Pat Murphy - The City, Not Long After Daniel Quinn - After Dachau Robert C. O'Brien - Z for Zachariah
• Late to the party, but *great* thread, excellent recommendations. One of my favorite apocolyptic- style short stories is 'Inconstant Moon' by Larry Niven. In re: to Triffids, I'm still slightly scared of sunflowers. ::shudder::
• Adding to the Triffids pile-on and suggesting more by John Wyndham. I've really been enjoying the BBC adaptations of his books: The Chrysalids, The Kraken Wakes, and The Midwich Cuckoos. The first two are definitely in the post-apocalyptic camp, and the Midwich Cuckoos could take place right before.
• Samuel Delany's Dhalgren. You never know what's happening outside of Bellona.... Fuck, you never even know what's happening in Bellona.
• Golly, only read about nine books on the list... I believe Zelazny has a few more short stories/novellas which are post-apocalyptic. But I can't recall any offhand. Harlen Ellison wrote a few short stories, such as A Boy and His Dog (read that last month, with equal degrees of fascination and repugnance), and I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (practically a cliche now). What about Harry Harrison's Make Room! Make Room! and if we're considering TV too, V: The Final Battle scared the jeepers out of me as a kid. Mackerel, do I detect a level of frustration there? /playful snipe
• How could I forget Greg Bear's Eon? Not completely post-apocalyptic. Kinda pre and post and all kinds of other things beyond that.
• Ancient Light and Golden Witchbreed by Mary Gentle. Unusual since the post-apocalyptic culture is not human. C. J. Cherryh's Hammerfell and Forge of Heaven/.
• You are all something special!!! Thanks guys and gals, I'm off to the bookshop. I love you all...
• Cormac McCarthy's The Road.