Happy Good Friday.

And in honor of the fact that I only have a half day of work today (courtesy of theoatmeal.com):

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

Maybe worse than the end of the world is the slow and gradual development of a repressive state. In fiction, these states are known as Dystopias. I mean, at least with an apocalyptic event, life usually becomes even more nasty, brutish, and short. Dystopias, however, are more sinister in their methods, painting a shiny veneer on to the nastiness. I'm currently reading Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories by JJ Adams (ed) and it's put me in a dystopian state of mind.

Dystopias are enormously popular in fiction. Dystopias are particularly popular during times of upheaval or unhappiness, particularly when people view the government as getting out of control and becoming more oppressive, or when they see government becoming more “religious.” Dystopian fiction paints a picture of what could be if all the wrong things happen at all the right times. The most important part of creating successful dystopian fiction is to root it in some reality. After all, if there’s no truth to the story, it will not create the appropriate response in the reader.

Perhaps the most well-known dystopia of the 20^th century (in English, that is) is Fahrenheit 451, or perhaps Brave New World. Or 1984. It’s hard to pin down the definitive work of dystopian fiction, since dystopias can take any shape or form. But here's a list of my favorites, irrespective of their literary qualities, and in no particular order:

My Ten Favorite Dystopian Books

1)      Fahrenheit 451—Ray Bradbury

2)      V for Vendetta—Alan Moore

3)      Oryx and Crake—Margaret Atwood

4)      The Handmaid’s Tale—Margaret Atwood

5)      The Hunger Games—Suzanne Collins

6)      Never Let Me Go—Kazuo Ishiguro

7)      Parable of the Sower—Octavia Butler

8)      Uglies—Scott Westerfeld

9)      Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories—John Joseph Adams, ed

10)   The Giver—Lois Lowry

Honorable Mentions:

1)      The City of Ember—Jeanne Duprau

2)      The Big Empty—JB Stephens

3)      The Other Side of the Island—Allegra Goodman

4)      The Maze Runner—Jim Dashner

And because it's not just books:

My Favorite Dystopian Movies or TV Shows:

1)      Children of Men

2)      Gattaca

3)      Equilibrium (based off Fahrenheit 451)

4)      Minority Report

5)      Johnny Mnemonic (for sentimental reasons!)

6)      V for Vendetta

7)      The Island

8)      Death Race

9)      Firefly

with a bang

So of all the ways the world could end, one of the most catastrophic would involve Yellowstone Park and a certain hungry bear. I mean super-volcano. To add to the list of all things you wish you didn’t know the Yellowstone Caldera measures 34 miles by 45 miles, and experiences between 1000 and 2000 little earthquakes a year. While the last full-scale eruption was 640,000 years ago, the explosion of the caldera would put more than 240 cubic miles of hot rock and dust into the atmosphere, which would turn into a concrete-type mixture the first time it rained. It would block the sun, and the toxic nature of the debris would kill anyone within a few states of Yellowstone. Since most of the food production in the US takes place in the states surrounding Yellowstone, food shortages would begin almost immediately. There would be no hope for those closest to the blast, but those a little farther out would attempt escape but be unable to get very far before the cloud catches them. Some would manage to make it to the East coast, but lack of food, crowded conditions, civil unrest, violence and the ash cloud would result in a significant loss in population.

All of this brings us to Land of Ash (Ed. David Dalglish), an e-book anthology of loosely related stories connected to the explosion of the Yellowstone Caldera. I’m pretty sure that this was self-published, and it only cost .99 on Kindle. I know what the authors were trying to accomplish—a list of stories composed around a common event, a la The Martian Chronicles—but this falls far short of the mark.

I mean, the idea is excellent, but the execution is sloppy and disjointed. Some of the stories are quite good, but others read less as stories and more as vignettes. They don’t have a plot, and they don’t advance the book’s arc at all. It seems to me that some of the stories are connected, while others are just tangentially related. For example, the first story in the book is about a few people waiting for their inevitable deaths. Then there’s another, similar story. One really stupid story about a guy who lives off the grid in a cave (really? Really.) Then there’s a story about a guy who does everything he can to keep his little daughter safe in their home, only to realize that they must leave before the house caves in. This character and his daughter later show up in another story. So there’s some connection between the characters but not enough to make a fully-fleshed series of short stories. It seems like they thought about doing it at the last minute, but didn’t have time to go back and rewrite everything.

Another problem with the book is that there aren’t nearly enough stories to illustrate an event, and some of the stories are so short that, again, they’re more like vignettes. The book needs to double in size, at least, to adequately flesh out the back story, which is a problem in itself. We never get much exposition to explain the events that precede the story—I would have enjoyed a story that takes us through the initial event so that we can see it. We get no idea of chronological progression of the stories, so we can’t tell when the stories take place along the timeline, although we’re led to believe the stories at the end take place later than the stories at the beginning (due to the sudden connection that develops at the end). At some point France comes to our aid or something (really? France?), but we only find out with a passing reference. That’s the problem—when stories are told centered around one event, we’re meant to read the stories and learn about the event through the stories. We should be able to piece the story together, like in World War Z. I would also liked to see some variation in the types of people in the stories. They are all sort of “good, normal” suburbanites. There are thousands of stories that could be told, maybe tens of thousands. Why pick these people and these stories? What motivates these choices? I don’t know, and that’s a narrative problem.

But, that’s not to say the whole thing is crap. It’s got potential, and if Dalglish had just written his own book and joined his own stories, it may have been better. His writing was stronger than the others. I enjoyed the concept as well—it’s not your typical apocalyptic scenario. With a little work, it could shine. Is it worth the .99 cent download? Yeah, I would say so. Is it worth $5.99 for the paper book? Well, I’m cheap, so I’d say no. But if you’ve got cash burning holes in your pocket and you’re concerned with having a complete collection of all apocalyptic literature, well I guess you’re gonna buy it. Otherwise, just download it to your kindle app.

Review: Carrie Ryan's Forest of Hands and Teeth

It's been a few days, but that's what happens when you go out of town. I've picked up a few new PA books lately, but I need to ruminate on them a little more before I can effectively evaluate them. For now, I want to focus on one of my favorite Post-Zombie-Apocalypse books.

Most zombie stories focus on the events of the apocalypse itself (usually these days attributable to some sort of plague) or the events immediately after it (ie The Walking Dead). Very few actually deal with a world where zombies are taken for granted (or granite, if you like), as is the case with Carrie Ryan's The Forest of Hands and Teeth. Set seven generations after a zombie plague hit the earth, the narrator lives in a tiny enclave of humanity within a forest of the dead (as well as a literal forest). Everyone in the village believes that their small community is the last bastion of humanity on earth--that they are literally all that is left of the world. The undead are a part of their lives, albeit a dangerous part.

This novel focuses on Mary, who longs to see the ocean--something she's only heard of and which others in her village no longer believe in. As their world has shrunken to include only what is inside the fences that protect their village, many people have come to believe that their never was another world--that the world has always been like it is, with the dead pressing against the fences longing for a taste of their flesh. Mary's life is bound, not only by the physical fence of the village, but by the archaic traditions, laid down by a religious group called the Sisterhood, and that people unquestioningly follow. When Mary's life takes an unseen detour, she discovers secrets long buried and paths both hidden and forgotten.

As a stand-alone novel, this book is wonderful. Mary pushes the envelope, refuses to accept the life that has been pre-written for her; she both literally and figuratively forges a new path, while losing and gaining a lot along the way. Whereas a lot of young adult fiction (and make no mistake, this is young adult fiction) has a main character who is too perfect, whose defects really aren't flaws at all (SEE Mary Sue), the main character in this book is flawed, and she does things that as readers we find a bit morally questionable. And in the end, she is incredibly selfish, but we like her for it; we appreciate it for its honesty. Of course, there are places where she is obnoxious as any teenager is obnoxious, but as an adult I'm not sure if it would be read as irritating by other teens.

There are so many elements in this book--the Sisterhood, the community, the fast ones, Gabrielle, relationships both romantic, friendly, and familial--but the the author manages to pull them together quite well without leaving anything out. There is, of course, a bit of ridiculousness somewhere around the middle of the book; when the characters find themselves stuck in a pair of adjacent houses, the energy to the story leaks like the air out of a tire--it completely fizzles. The forward motion that had been building in the book just dies and becomes stagnant. Eventually it builds again, but I can't help but think the book would have been better if that series of scenes had been shorter or arranged differently.

All in all, this is a good book for the PA fan who wants to zombify his or her life without all the typical zombie tropes. They provide a very real menace, but a very different menace from your typical zombie novel. This book is also the first in a series of companion novels that are loosely tied together; the second book is The Dead-Tossed Waves. Which I'll review another day. The third in the series is The Dark and Hollow Places, which arrives in hardback on March 22!

looks a bit like Summer Glau, no?  BTW, the movie rights have been optioned, but as of yet, nothing serious in the works.

might as well be the last whale on earth

This is so sad and disturbing. Imagine being stuck on a planet where you could see people around you, but it's like you don't exist. No one can hear you calling out. Poor Alice. Or Dan. Or whatever.

The Story of the Lonely Whale

It reminds me of that episode of Twilight Zone.

halloween plans, anyone?

Since there are now two small children in my life, we don't get to do a lot of "scary" Halloween stuff. Plus, I'm not the biggest fan of people jumping out at me, and I don't want to be chased around by a guy with a chainsaw. There's an interesting place in birmingham (Sloss Furnace), but with no family around to babysit and $20 per person plus gas and babysitter? That's about a $100 night, which just sucks the fun right out of it.

But this year. THIS year I'm hoping to go here:

According to their website:

"A group is lead through the apocalypse by Sergeant McKinsey. Known as Mack he is a post military zombie fighter dedicated to try to help the human race survive the zombie invasion.  Mack will lead our group through this wasteland of destruction and gore keeping the zombies at bay with his M16 plus the help from friends they find along the way.  Will they make it through the chaos and constant zombie attacks from all sides?  If they move quickly and stick close to Mack they stand a chance, but most likely not everyone will get out alive. With plenty of gunfire, car crashes, gore, and of course many zombie attacks inside and out, this is what the end of the world would look like."

90,000 sqaure feet!

Awesome.

Review: The Girl Who Owned a City

Probably the first post-apocalyptic novel that I ever read was in 7th grade English--Mrs. Crowley or Crawley, something like that. I detested the teacher--she made us diagram sentences, but we'd never been taught the parts of speech (how I got to the 7th grade without learning the parts of speech is another problem). But one thing was good about that 7th grade English class--the required reading was O.T. Nelson's The Girl Who Owned a City.

The short story: A deadly virus kills everyone on earth over the age of 12, leaving the children behind to fend for themselves. Gangs form, battle lines are drawn, etcetera. One girl named Lisa forms a group of her own, and in order to defend themselves against other gangs, she decides to build a fortress to protect them from everyone else.

The story itself is one of several sub-sub-genres of the Pandemic subgenre: the adults-are-all-dead plague. Typically, stories with this particular plot tend to be Young Adult fiction, just as this book is, because isn't it a great fantasy of all kids that there are no more adults in the world to tell them what to do? And since adults write books, isn't it the job of adult writers to show children how terrible it would be and destroy the collective fantasies of children everywhere?

I LOVED this book as a kid; as an adult I find it dated and a little flat. The dialogue isn't that great and the characterization is, well, about what you would expect from someone who really only wrote one book (and it was written to generate capital to pay his workers at his house painting company, wtf). On top of all of that, Nelson isn't shy about pushing Objectivism onto kids. In fact, that was the whole point he wrote the book--to help explain Ayn Rand's Objectivism to the youngsters. I'm not really sure that was the message I came away with all those years ago. I got more of a "thank-God-my-parents-aren't-dead" vibe.

However, for kids between 10-14, this book would be an awesome beginning to the genre.

I would give it 4 out of 5 stars for nostalgia's sake, but probably only 2.5 out of 5 without it. The short moral to the book? Kids are psychopaths without adults around to control them. Be happy you aren't living in a world where they run the show. Remember Lord of the Flies?