{"id":408,"date":"2009-06-18T07:22:09","date_gmt":"2009-06-18T12:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greatsociety.org\/?p=408"},"modified":"2018-10-30T22:47:51","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T02:47:51","slug":"survivors-one-second-after","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/?p=408","title":{"rendered":"Survivors & One Second After"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apocalypse Literature: A definitive, updated guide.\u00a0 More of a challenge than I thought when I was toying with the idea a few days ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n


\nI think the best way to begin is to start with the two post-apocalypse novels I\u2019ve just finished (Terry Nation\u2019s Survivors<\/em><\/a> and William R. Forstchen’s One Second After<\/em><\/a>).\u00a0 The latter inspired me to wade into this idea because, like The Road<\/em><\/a> and The Pesthouse<\/em><\/a>, I wasn\u2019t aware that it existed until I accidentally stumbled across it.<\/p>\n

For post-apocalypse cinema and TV, we have the reliable and informative Quiet Earth<\/a> blog, but there\u2019s nothing for literature (though the Quiet Earth site does maintain the best list, it lacks the same focus as their TV and film coverage).\u00a0 The current lists and resources out there are years out of date, or, like the lengthy Wikipedia list<\/a>, generally unapproachable.\u00a0 So, instead of simply listing books from the genre, I\u2019ll throw together a description, and try to keep an eye out for news and updates.\u00a0 The biggest problem with stuff like that Wikipedia list is that not all apocalypse novels are born equal.\u00a0 While what\u2019s \u201cgood\u201d and \u201cbad\u201d is, of course, subjective, it\u2019ll still be handy, I think, to know which post-apocalypse novels are children’s books (like The Girl Who Owned a City<\/em><\/a>), which are patriotic soapbox garbage (like the Out of the Ashes<\/em><\/a> series), and which are religious drivel (hello Left Behind<\/em><\/a>!).\u00a0 I won\u2019t say that they\u2019re bad, necessarily, as I have a terrible weak spot and endless tolerance for the flaws of post apocalypse novels, but I do prefer the pure escapism of the genre.\u00a0 No messages, no soapboxing, just pure action-thriller.<\/p>\n

So as I work through the lists, and my own reading, I\u2019d be grateful for any suggestions from the folks reading this.\u00a0 And, yes, you can suggest the religious\/patriotic\/children\u2019s nonsense, as well.\u00a0 I want to eventually develop a truly comprehensive list that is both informative and maintained through the years.\u00a0 Plus, as I said, I\u2019m a sucker for the genre.<\/p>\n

Now then \u2013 on to my recent reads.<\/p>\n

Survivors<\/em><\/a>
\nTerry Nation<\/p>\n

Creator of the Daleks Terry Nation launched a mid-70\u2019s series about a plague that wipes out nearly the entire human race.\u00a0 The survivors \u2013 led by wealthy suburbanite Abby, London prissy-pants Jenny, asshole Greg, and shifty Welsh criminal Tom Price \u2013 must face all the typical problems, from scavenging food and fuel to battling rogue groups of inexplicably violent shitheads.<\/p>\n

The book has plenty of grandstanding Luddite-style talk.\u00a0 The famous speech from the first episode of the series which forms Abby into the leader of our heroes is somewhat haphazardly reflected in the novelization \u2013 the need to go back to the \u201cold ways\u201d when the stuff of society runs out.\u00a0 This is a great scene in the pilot episode, but weirdly contrived in the novel.<\/p>\n

Nation left the series after the first rocky season, which featured a string of episodes about posh Brits with cut-glass accents dealing quite sensibly with brutality.\u00a0 Tom Price, in the original series, was relegated to a comic role, and quickly written out.\u00a0 After Nation left, the remainder of the series became a horror show.\u00a0 Season two is like Little Apocalypse on the Prairie, and season three makes about as much sense as something out of Monty Python\u2019s Confuse-a-Cat service.<\/p>\n

Redone in 2008, the modern series lacks just about everything that makes a show watchable.\u00a0 Gone are the cut-glass accents and the hokeyness of the original show\u2026 Gone also is the desperation, the death, and grim British countryside of doom.\u00a0 Though Tom Price is restored to a title role.<\/p>\n

Nation adapted the book from the major episodes that he wrote for series one.\u00a0 Consequently, it\u2019s almost a bit too self-referential.\u00a0 There\u2019s that Ellison-esque hint that Nation was pissed off at how the first series was imagined and took long detours in the book that pretty much fucked what little hope there was in the series.\u00a0 But that\u2019s something that Terry Nation is known for.\u00a0 Even without him as the showrunner, Survivors <\/em>was one of those shows where a major character could die pointlessly at any moment.\u00a0 Not even ranking a special episode or a finale.\u00a0 Nation would repeat that strategy with Blake\u2019s 7<\/em>, where we lose Blake early on.\u00a0 (Abby, our leader in Survivors<\/em>, only gets one season.)\u00a0 The novel kind of makes you glad he didn\u2019t last with the show, because sitting around watching that kind of death and despair just wouldn\u2019t be much fun for three seasons.\u00a0 At least when major characters are casually killed off in Blake\u2019s 7<\/em>, there\u2019s that fantastic British sci-fi show divide between the show and the audience.\u00a0 Survivors<\/em>, on the other hand, is about us \u2013 you and me \u2013 doing poorly.<\/p>\n

However, Nation lacks the ability to ease you into these deaths in the prose version of the show.\u00a0 When you hit the last page of the book, you want to take it outside and shoot it.\u00a0 While the storytelling transcends time (that is, you aren\u2019t sitting there going, wow, this was written in 1976), Nation doesn\u2019t really put the story together effectively.\u00a0 You get into Abby, you feel sorry for Jenny, you never quite understand Greg, and, just as you\u2019re about to start growing into the story, he wildly rushes you through five years of dreary homesteading, then they all decide to move to Italy, and then you hit the climax, and then you burn the book and scream at it.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a long out of print sequel by John Eyers which, supposedly, dwells on the darker aspects following the conclusion of Nation\u2019s novel, and is a bit more human.<\/p>\n

In the end, Survivors <\/em>is a fast and enjoyable read if you\u2019re familiar with the original series.\u00a0 But season one of the show does a better job with the story than Nation\u2019s stilted prose.<\/p>\n

One Second After<\/em><\/a>
\nWilliam R. Forstchen<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only thanks to random book review blogs that I noticed this book, and I\u2019m glad I got it in me.\u00a0 One Second After<\/em> falls into a weird category\u2026 It has many marks against it, but it\u2019s also exciting and addictive.\u00a0 The marks against it should have killed the book \u2013 it features a ranting, \u201ckeep watching the skies\u201d introduction from Newt Gingrich (friend of the author), the author himself is a fuddy duddy conservative religious sort, and it\u2019s got tear-jerking patriotism that made me want to remove my teeth before the sugar-rot got to my brain.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, while the author confesses that his biggest influence was Alas, Babylon<\/em><\/a>, it was almost a ripoff of Lucifer’s Hammer<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 The same sort of hero\u2019s journey and noble homegrown militia confrontation against a weirdo cult for the climax.\u00a0 Worse yet, Forstchen doesn\u2019t out and out copy that Lucifer’s Hammer<\/em> climactic battle, he wildly skips from the start of the battle to the bitter end.\u00a0 A skip in the narrative so jarring it almost ruins the novel.<\/p>\n

Almost\u2026<\/p>\n

The apocalypse in this case comes from an EMP blast.\u00a0 An unknown enemy hits the US (and elsewhere \u2013 but who cares about foreigners?) with three high altitude nukes.\u00a0 The EMP blast takes out everything.\u00a0 As it dawns on folks that the power\u2019s not coming back on, everything devolves into terror and savagery.\u00a0 Forstchen does not pull any punches on that front.\u00a0 The gruesome decline and fall of humanity is charted over the course of the book as our hero\u2019s small town starts out with a population of 10-15,000 and ends the story with around 900 survivors.\u00a0 Tremendous care is given to the motivations and inner workings of the policy-makers in the town \u2013 ineffectual mayor, golden-hearted sheriff, do-gooder councilman, and campus police chief, along with our hero.\u00a0 The small North Carolina college town is, clearly, where the Alas, Babylon<\/em> parallels lie.\u00a0 Will noble rural America stand tall against the evils of the larger cities, the apocalypse, and man\u2019s inhumanity to man?\u00a0 And, uh, the Chinese?<\/p>\n

Despite all the negatives, Forstchen really has a knack for characterization and storytelling.\u00a0 Our hero, a retired air force bigwig now a college professor, is a wonderful character.\u00a0 Just what a post-apocalypse story needs.\u00a0 And the fate of his family is expertly woven into the narrative (and chokes you up when the inevitable finally happens).\u00a0 As much as I hate the patriotic nonsense, Forstchen\u2019s writing has you tearing up along with our heroes as they salute the American flag and fight for everything this country should hold dear.<\/p>\n

Best of all, the book has a gripping afterward from Navy EMP expert Captain Bill Sanders, who details his study of the threat and, sans the Gingrich mania, drives home this very possible, and very easily achieved, potential apocalypse.\u00a0 You laugh at the hideous intro from Gingrich, but the afterward does leave you watching the skies.<\/p>\n

(Note to Forstchen, in response to his introduction: EMP apocalypse stories do exist.\u00a0 It\u2019s hinted as one of the many disasters to have befallen the US in The Postman<\/em> and, of course, we got two seasons of Jessica Alba\u2019s ass in Dark Angel<\/em>, set in a dystopian post-EMP blast future.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apocalypse Literature: A definitive, updated guide.\u00a0 More of a challenge than I thought when I was toying with the idea a few days ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[59,154,402,120,60],"class_list":["post-408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bangs-whimpers","tag-apocalypse","tag-book-reviews","tag-books","tag-pa","tag-post-apocalypse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=408"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":878,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408\/revisions\/878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greatsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}