Last month I started and finished Cormac McCarthy's
The Road, a novel about a man and his son trying to survive amongst complete and utter death and destruction, all the while avoiding other ravaging groups of survivors. I wasn't expecting to like it much, but the burnt-out landscape and utter hopelessness of their situation somehow drew me in and I spent much too much of my idyllic beach holiday reading - indoors.
It seems that every once in a while an author creates an utterly fictional world that's so bleak yet holds train wreck-type fascination because of the author's skill, and they become - to my mind - legends.
The other obvious candidate here is George Orwell's
Nineteen Eighty-Four. I also discovered, to my delight, that
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson is leagues better than the Hollywood movie.
Wikipedia says
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy should be filed under the Invasion theme of post-apocalyptic novels, but it's too funny to be bleak, in my opinon. Same goes for Kurt Vonnegut's
Cat's Cradle or
Galapagos.
(As for post-apocalyptic novels that just didn't do it for me,
The Book of Dave comes in at #1.)
Am I mistaken in thinking that these sorts of books only happens once in a while, or are there many geniuses of seriously depressing post-apocalyptic fiction that I have yet to discover? There are quite a few in Guardian's
literary apocalypses quiz, but I'm not entirely convinced. Suggestions in the comments, please.
Jake Byrne
Date: Thu Jul 23, 2009 12:18 PM GMT
Karel Capek's dystopian masterpiece "War with the Newts" deserves a mention. A satire on greed and capitalism gone wrong, it is as relevant today as ever. He also wrote R.U.R another dark technological dystopia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_with_the_Newts
For post-apocalytical A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M Miller is a must read.
Spex
Date: Tue Jul 14, 2009 11:02 AM GMT
I've recently (and rather late, I imagine) come to really appreciate the mirror sci-fi writers hold up to society by showing how silly or dangerous our attitudes and norms are by placing them in futuristic/imaginary worlds. Thanks for those suggestions! I agree, there are many on offer but only a few truly become great.
I actually listened to the audiobook of The War of the Worlds (or was it the radio play, I forget) many years ago and really enjoyed it.
Thanks for the compliment!
R Bolano
Date: Thu Jul 09, 2009 04:43 PM GMT
Recently Jim Crace's THE PESTHOUSE is a notable pick; adroit (but soulless) it doesn't hold up as well as THE ROAD. Little wonder a lot of these books are turned into films as they straddle widescreen cinema and make for the dressed-up-geekless side of sci-fi (Sarah Hall's CARHULLAN ARMY got birds into it all). Also Triffids, The Death of Grass, War of the Worlds, Greybeard, Children of Men, Brave New World - they come in waves but the exciting ones grip the imagination and offer so much more than a dystopia - they are complex rules on how we live and ought to behave in tough times.
Good blog, specs.
R Bolano
