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Apocalypse Now! 2017 Reading Challenge
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Sable Aradia
Posted 2017-01-02 11:17 AM (#14881)
Subject: Apocalypse Now! 2017 Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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It's back!

Don't you ever just want to watch the world burn? Well, so do I! Let's have a nuclear campfire and read a bunch of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction together! Got your respirators on?

The Rules:

* Any genre of fiction is acceptable, so long as it focuses on the end of the world as we know it.

* Re-reads are okay, but you must have read the book more than five years ago or it must be a new edition.

* Dystopias only count if they follow the end of the world. (So Oryx and Crake counts, but The Handmaid's Tale does not because only the United States went to hell; the rest of the world is doing just fine.)

* Video game and RPG tie ins are absolutely acceptable as long as the Apocalypse is the focus (so Dark Sun novels are perfect, but Mechwarrior is not; Fallout, Wasteland and The Last of Us are perfect, but Mass Effect is not)

* This challenge was so popular last year, and people finished it so quickly, that this year I have decided to up the ante a little bit. The level requirements are increased, but hopefully not so that they're out of reach for the more casual reader.

See you in the wastelands; if we survive!
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Sable Aradia
Posted 2017-01-02 11:21 AM (#14882 - in reply to #14881)
Subject: Re: Apocalypse Now! 2017 Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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Weesam! Glad to see you back, especially since you said last year that apocalyptica wasn't your thing.

Badseedgirl, I am taking your Goodreads recommendation on Dies the Fire. I've actually read the first Emberverse trilogy before, but it's been long enough now that according the rules I can do a re-read. Which is awesome, because I haven't touched the second Emberverse trilogy at all, and I might need a bit of a detail refresher.

I'll probably get to The Passage and The Road later this year. I'm sampling that Moira Young YA series to see if I think it's any good. If I do, I;ll read the sequels. Might try Station Eleven too.

Not a lot of apocalyptica in my SF Masterworks list this year. I might have to work at this a bit.
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kabouter
Posted 2017-04-12 4:34 AM (#15576 - in reply to #14881)
Subject: Re: Apocalypse Now! 2017 Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: Belgium		Just finished reading 'Earth Abides' by George Stewart. A decent read, although I'm puzzled by the fact that the survivors of the Great Disaster still mostly eat canned food after 21 years. That must be a bore. Makes you wonder how many cans they found, must be a lot of raided warehouses. Also the Great Disaster itself was very clean, almost no dead bodies to be found, highways are clear of cars. Apparently nobody died on the road. But apart from it was a good read, not overly complicated. A quick read.
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Sable Aradia
Posted 2017-05-06 2:53 AM (#15683 - in reply to #15576)
Subject: Re: Apocalypse Now! 2017 Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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kabouter - 2017-04-12 2:34 AM

Just finished reading 'Earth Abides' by George Stewart. A decent read, although I'm puzzled by the fact that the survivors of the Great Disaster still mostly eat canned food after 21 years. That must be a bore. Makes you wonder how many cans they found, must be a lot of raided warehouses. Also the Great Disaster itself was very clean, almost no dead bodies to be found, highways are clear of cars. Apparently nobody died on the road. But apart from it was a good read, not overly complicated. A quick read.


I think Stewart's point was that inertia following the disaster (possibly in part due to the trauma) was what drove the people in it to the situation they were in. Hunting is *hard* and if you're doing it for subsistence, takes a lot of energy. Easier to open a can of Sherriff's Irish Stew or Chef Boy-ar-dee.

I did notice the lack of dead bodies, and I think Stephen King did too when he borrowed the trip across America almost whole-hock for The Stand. I even know where he got the idea for Larry Underwood in the New York tunnel. Did you see it too? Or have you read The Stand?
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