Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse

Mad Max RW · Post by **Mad Max RW** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 2:57 pm

I like post apocalyptic books. Probably more so than movies. The ratio of good to bad is close to even, whereas movies are like 1 good to 100 bad. So I'm gonna start this thread off with a summary of the latest book "Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse." It's a collection of the so called "best" apocalyptic stories. Authors range from Stephen King to Orson Scott Card, Gene Wolf to George R.R. Martin. I ordered it and should be arriving in a day or two, so we'll see. In the mean time check out the website here: http://www.johnjosephadams.com/wastelands/ or go to Barnes and Noble, Borders, or whatever. You might recognize the cover art

I'll post my impressions later this week. In the meantime I'll make quick reviews of all the books I read that fit the genre. There's a lot.

VasikkA · Post by **VasikkA** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 3:17 pm

A collection of the 'best' post-apoc stories, sounds like a decent book. The cover art is made by that NMA guy or whatever?

Also, I don't really think you can compare post-apoc books to movies. Yes, most post-apoc movies are pretty horrible, but therein lies their appeal. I'd recommend post apocalyptic movies only to someone who enjoys cheesy, low budget films. I know I do.

POOPERSCOOPER · Post by **POOPERSCOOPER** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 5:59 pm

I hear The Road by mccarthy is a pretty good post apoc book, I plan on getting it soon.

edhead · Post by **edhead** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 6:24 pm

The Road

Reading it right now. So far, so good.

Mad Max RW · Post by **Mad Max RW** » Tue Jan 08, 2008 6:41 pm

I read it a year ago, right before Oprah slapped her stickers on it. Very good read and one of the best in the genre. I actually blew through it in one sitting in my car while waiting to pick someone up.
The Road is easy to fall into once you get past how the author writes dialog. If you're extremely cynical you'll be shouting "OK! Everything is gray and dead and you're hungry all the fucking time! I GET IT!" Despite that, it's really quite interesting. Things are constantly happening and there's a good sense of movement. You don't know the official reason why everything is fucked up, but flashbacks hint at nuclear war or asteroid impacts. I think Cormac said it was an asteroid in a recent interview. Let yourself get into the story and the setting. Fallout seems so much more tame in comparison.

Cool things that come to mind when I think of The Road (Spoilers!)

Cannibalism. They find a fucking headless baby over a fire.
Bodies sunken into melted roads.
Anything can come in handy, so hold onto as much shit as you can.
Those homeless people you see pushing shopping carts are already a step ahead of us.

Mandalorian FaLLouT GoD · Wed Jan 09, 2008 1:16 am

Mad Max RW wrote:I read it a year ago, right before Oprah slapped her stickers on it. Very good read and one of the best in the genre. I actually blew through it in one sitting in my car while waiting to pick someone up.
The Road is easy to fall into once you get past how the author writes dialog. If you're extremely cynical you'll be shouting "OK! Everything is gray and dead and you're hungry all the fucking time! I GET IT!" Despite that, it's really quite interesting. Things are constantly happening and there's a good sense of movement. You don't know the official reason why everything is fucked up, but flashbacks hint at nuclear war or asteroid impacts. I think Cormac said it was an asteroid in a recent interview. Let yourself get into the story and the setting. Fallout seems so much more tame in comparison.

Cool things that come to mind when I think of The Road (Spoilers!)

Cannibalism. They find a fucking headless baby over a fire.
Bodies sunken into melted roads.
Anything can come in handy, so hold onto as much shit as you can.
Those homeless people you see pushing shopping carts are already a step ahead of us.

I've been looking at both books and I really wanted to read The Road until I heard Oprah praised it and then I instantly steered away because Oprah is a cunt.

Gimme some headway on Wasteland though, I was going to get the book regardless but I'd like to know what you think.

EDIT: if you want a post/apoc selection of the stuff I have found, just ask.

I've found some stuff that isn't quite the usual, if I could remember/find them.

Post by **Dogmeatlives** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 1:45 am

Read The Road for fuck's sake. We won't think youre a stay-at-home mom. You don't have to worry. It's excellent. Although there aren't many, its the best post-apoc book I've read.

I have tocheck out this book.. sounds excellente, but first my copy of Damnation Alley should be coming any day now. Me excited! And I got a copy of Armor. Good times.

You know something... I just thought about all the housewives who went out and read The Road and probably cried themselves to sleep. That book makes Fallout look like a Ziggy comic strip...

Mad Max RW · Post by **Mad Max RW** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 9:46 pm

Wastelands came in the mail a couple days ago, but I was halfway through City of the Dead by Brian Keene so I'm gonna talk about that first.

City of the Dead is the followup to The Rising. To fully understand the main characters it's best to read them both (as I did).

These scientists in a facility deep underground fucked up an experiment not unlike the beginning of Half Life. Now whenever animals and humans die demons occupy their bodies. They're smart, have been around since before mankind, and are pissed off because the "Creator" banished them to the "Void" for a really long time...until now. Oh, and they gain all the memories of the people/animals they take over. And the zombies are lead by a leader named Ob who switches to a fresh body several times. So you have zombies using guns, driving cars, zombie snakes, zombie lions, and the always fun flocks of zombie birds. Their goal is to wipe out all animal and human life so a second wave lead by "Ab" I think can kill off all the plants and insects. Then a third and final wave called the Teraphim burn every inch of the earth. After all that's said and done the cycle continues on another world. Sounds kinda lame right?
Except the author goes into so much detail, and there's such an incredible amount of gore and descriptions of death, it manages to pull you in. Men, women, children, the family dog are getting splattered on almost every page.
Anyway, the story. There's Jim Thurmond, who starts off hiding in a bunker in his backyard. Frankie, a black ex-heroine addict. Martin, a black preacher who saves Jim and sticks with him for the rest of the story. And a bunch of other characters who come and go, then die. Oh, and who can forget Ob, the head demon zombie with a heart of gold (not really).

It all starts off when Jim gets a cell phone call from his estranged son all the way in New Jersey. That's pretty much it. From there on he is trying to get there and bad things keep slowing him down. The first book deals with the National Guard lead by a crazy general, shit happens, and it ends on the worst cliffhanger ever. The second book starts off where the previous ends. It never lets up. The main characters are picked up by this guy Ramsey in New York City who owns a giant supposed indestructible skyscraper where hundreds of survivors are living somewhat normal lives. Meanwhile thousands of zombies are gathering outside and the big army lead by Ob is coming.

I'll leave it at that. Don't get attached to anybody in these books. It jumps the shark so many times it gets to a point where you don't care anymore and begin to dig what the author is trying to do.

Post by **Dogmeatlives** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 9:52 pm

I'll have to check those out Mad Max. They sound goody good.

Mandalorian FaLLouT GoD · Mon Jan 14, 2008 10:30 pm

Mad Max RW wrote:Wastelands came in the mail a couple days ago, but I was halfway through City of the Dead by Brian Keene so I'm gonna talk about that first.

City of the Dead is the followup to The Rising. To fully understand the main characters it's best to read them both (as I did).

These scientists in a facility deep underground fucked up an experiment not unlike the beginning of Half Life. Now whenever animals and humans die demons occupy their bodies. They're smart, have been around since before mankind, and are pissed off because the "Creator" banished them to the "Void" for a really long time...until now. Oh, and they gain all the memories of the people/animals they take over. And the zombies are lead by a leader named Ob who switches to a fresh body several times. So you have zombies using guns, driving cars, zombie snakes, zombie lions, and the always fun flocks of zombie birds. Their goal is to wipe out all animal and human life so a second wave lead by "Ab" I think can kill off all the plants and insects. Then a third and final wave called the Teraphim burn every inch of the earth. After all that's said and done the cycle continues on another world. Sounds kinda lame right?
Except the author goes into so much detail, and there's such an incredible amount of gore and descriptions of death, it manages to pull you in. Men, women, children, the family dog are getting splattered on almost every page.
Anyway, the story. There's Jim Thurmond, who starts off hiding in a bunker in his backyard. Frankie, a black ex-heroine addict. Martin, a black preacher who saves Jim and sticks with him for the rest of the story. And a bunch of other characters who come and go, then die. Oh, and who can forget Ob, the head demon zombie with a heart of gold (not really).

It all starts off when Jim gets a cell phone call from his estranged son all the way in New Jersey. That's pretty much it. From there on he is trying to get there and bad things keep slowing him down. The first book deals with the National Guard lead by a crazy general, shit happens, and it ends on the worst cliffhanger ever. The second book starts off where the previous ends. It never lets up. The main characters are picked up by this guy Ramsey in New York City who owns a giant supposed indestructible skyscraper where hundreds of survivors are living somewhat normal lives. Meanwhile thousands of zombies are gathering outside and the big army lead by Ob is coming.

I'll leave it at that. Don't get attached to anybody in these books. It jumps the shark so many times it gets to a point where you don't care anymore and begin to dig what the author is trying to do.

Over sensationalized and markedly impossible doomsday scenarios really do nothing for me but I would read it.

Mad Max RW · Post by **Mad Max RW** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 3:17 pm

I'm almost all the way through Wastelands with 3 stories to go. They're all radically different. You start off with Stephen King's "The End of the Whole Mess" where the end of the world is caused by everyone transformed into drooling idiots. I normally hate King, but in small doses I quite enjoyed it. The way the writing gradually falls apart into hundreds of typos and then gibberish is great.
There's another one called The People of Sand and Slag where all life on earth is dead or mutated beyond recognition. The earth is toxic, oceans filled with oil, no clean water anywhere. And the "humans" love it. We've changed ourselves so much through genetic engineering we survive by eating rocks and dirt. The story revolves around three mutants finding a normal dog running around a dump. Really clever shit.
A couple other weird stories, some straightforward post nuclear war ones, a short clip from an old draft of Eternity Road (another book I'll talk about later), a chick who rides a motorcycle through a nuked out and poisoned west coast, a colony of people with leprosy symptoms, and others.

Out of the 20 something stories only a handful were memorable. A few I wish continued into full blown novels, luckily one did.

A note about the book cover. It only comes in paperback, which sucks. Also, the back appears to be an upside version of the front with the sky extended. Maybe it was an accident or maybe, as the author of Wastelands states, it symbolizes the world being turned upside down from the events inside.

Dreadnought · Post by **Dreadnought** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 3:21 pm

entertainer · Post by **entertainer** » Tue Jan 15, 2008 4:16 pm

lol, thats so fallout3

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Thu Jan 17, 2008 9:41 pm

Mandalorian FaLLouT GoD · Thu Jan 17, 2008 11:43 pm

Mad Max RW wrote:a short clip from an old draft of Eternity Road (another book I'll talk about later)

Nah, come on.
Jack McDevitt is one of my favorite writers.
He writes archaeological science fiction mostly.

Eternity Road is a damn good book for anyone who wants great post-apoc.

Redeye · Post by **Redeye** » Fri Jan 18, 2008 9:23 pm

S4ur0n27 wrote:

Gray Fox?

Mad Max RW · Post by **Mad Max RW** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 3:05 am

Ok, I dunno what the deal is with the image spamming, but I'll ignore it anyway. Onto the next story.

I just finished P.K. Dick's Dr. Bloodmoney. This is definitely one of the top p.a. books and my new favorite out of all his work I read. Like his other stuff, it's hard to go into a lot of detail describing the story and characters. There's no good or bad guys, just people in the gray who lean in one direction or the other.

You start off in an alternate history San Francisco. There's a bunch of strange characters, a psychiatrist/doctor, a chick who likes to cheat, a black guy who wants to move up in the world, a scientist responsible for a previous nuclear accident in space which covered part of the earth with radiation, an armless and legless telekinetic mutant, a disc jockey stranded in a satellite orbiting earth forever, and some others that don't really stand out until later on.
Everything gets nuked to hell for some reason by the Chinese and Soviets. Several years go by and the main characters are settled into new lives around Northern California. All new animal species evolved from mutations. Some got a million year jump start such as dogs and rats. The guy in the satellite plays music and reads books for the survivors around the world who have some way to receive him. The chick has a daughter with a telekinetic brother living insider her. And that mutant dude Hoppy Harrington fixes stuff for the town, all the while working on an evil project.

There's a lot of far out stuff in Dr. Bloodmoney, but hold on and you might like it. Unlike other stories by Dick, this one has a beginning, middle, and end. You'll find origins to much of Fallout in there, unless it's a bunch of strange coincidences.

Stainless · Post by **Stainless** » Sat Jan 19, 2008 1:56 pm

I'm surprised you never read Dr Bloodmoney previously, with the name being purpose satire on Dr Strangelove. It was also the first PKD story I ever read. Shame it set me up for a big fall with alot of his other stuff that was just shit.

Mandalorian FaLLouT GoD · Mon Jan 21, 2008 1:28 am

Stainless wrote:I'm surprised you never read Dr Bloodmoney previously, with the name being purpose satire on Dr Strangelove. It was also the first PKD story I ever read. Shame it set me up for a big fall with alot of his other stuff that was just shit.

I read Dr. Bloodmoney on my trip to Winnipeg.
Good book but there are much better written by PKD.
Hell, I liked Bloodmoney a lot less than Flow my Tears.