Tag: Post-Apocalyptic

Review: Sky Full of Elephants

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Title: Sky Full of Elephants
Author: Cebo Campbell
Pages: 304
Release: September 10, 2024

A bold, high-concept premise brought into sharp focus by Cebo Campbell’s lively and vibrant prose.

A twist on a familiar formula (see The Leftovers or The Last of Us) – here, all white people walk into the sea and never return. What follows is the quest of an estranged father and daughter seeking common ground as they trek across a fundamentally altered version of America.

I really enjoyed Campbell’s writing style. It is lively and flows smoothly from page to page, making it a true pleasure to read. It effortlessly conveys the complexities of the new world and the complicated feelings of the characters that inhabit it.

An eyebrow-raising plot development in the latter half of the book recontextualizes the way the story is understood. And while certain plot beats push the boundaries of plausibility, they are grounded in the magical realism that permeates the narrative.

★★★★

My thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Reviewer note: Anecdotally, I noticed a batch of 1-star ratings (not reviews) popping up on Goodreads for this title – presumably a blind backlash to the plot description. Please don’t make assumptions about what the book is actually about. At no point do any characters rejoice in the absence of white people. It’s not a wish-fulfillment parable about how to make the world a better place. It’s a fascinating “what-if” scenario that shines a necessary light on the unvarnished realities of the country and who controls the levers of power and influence in our society. There’s no trivialization of the subject matter and the book offers many intriguing examinations of race and racial identity. Give this book a chance, and if you can’t, don’t blindly bomb the ratings.

Review: Exordia

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Title: Exordia (January 23, 2024)
Author: Seth Dickinson
Pages: 544

The opening act of Exordia is extraordinary. It’s witty, engaging, and sets up a super intriguing first contact alien scenario. What follows that cracking start is a dense, technobabble bonanza that prioritizes impenetrable science abstractions over story and character. 

It’s frustrating because I’m fairly certain Seth Dickinson is brilliant. But he’s so brilliant that most of what he was writing about went well over my head. Or maybe I’ve just outed myself as an unlearned, poorly-read student of science fiction literature – but that’s for me to grapple with. 

I wish I had put this down and chalked it up as one of the many books that are “just not for me,” but the promise of that opening section left me hopeful that the story would eventually sink its teeth back into me. I lost the plot and never got it back as Dickinson dove deeper and deeper down a cosmological rabbit hole that I just could not follow (literally, figuratively, metaphysically). 

There will be a bloc of readers who love Exordia, and I wish I could count myself among their numbers. But consider me among the lesser mortals who could not connect with the frequency at which Dickinson is operating here.

★★

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Review: After World

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Title: After World: A Novel (December 5, 2023)
Author: Debbie Urbanski
Pages: 368

  1. What is the best way then for humanity to survive a failing Earth?
  2. What is the best way for a failing Earth to survive?
  3. What if the answers to questions 1 and 2 are radically different?

After World imagines a future that is solely concerned with question 2. In order to save Earth, a deadly pathogen is released that sterilizes the human race – thereby swiftly and efficiently eradicating humans from the planet. Its telling is bleak, grim, and unforgiving – and yet, it makes for incredibly compelling reading.

Author Debbie Urbanski has considered every element of the future down to the most granular detail. Those looking for a fun, post-apocalyptic romp will be letdown, as this story self-consciously subverts the post-apocalyptic trappings that fans of the genre are familiar with and focuses on the cold realities that such an end of days scenario would create.

The AI-human romance angle is a bit oversold in the book’s synopsis and is a bit undercooked in the way it’s implemented in the text, but this book is so rich in its worldbuilding and the way it weaves in its unique metanarrative that it hardly matters. With the proliferation of artificial intelligence and the way it is reshaping our (warming) world – this book is a perfect complement to our modern technological time.

★★★★½

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Lark Ascending

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I’d open my eyes and look out at the aching blue of the ocean–a color I had never seen in nature and that most likely only exists in the middle of the Atlantic, a gray blue like a storm cloud full of unspent lightning and unfallen rain.

Title: Lark Ascending (2022)
Author: Silas House
Pages: 288

I wasn’t just seasick; I was undone in sorrow.

Lark Ascending opens with our protagonist’s harrowing journey across the Atlantic Ocean as he flees fire-ravaged America. It’s a brutal voyage, rendered with mesmerizing imagery and soaked with angst. 

This is post-apocalyptic fiction, but House’s no-frills, plainly-told story is a refreshing change of pace from similar novels that might get bogged down with worldbuilding about the fall of our civilization. It’s visceral, heart-rending, but filled with hope and promise about the resiliency of a boy growing up under unspeakable conditions. 

★★★★

Review: How High We Go in the Dark

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Title: How High We Go in the Dark (January 18, 2022)
Author: Sequoia Nagamatsu
Pages: 304

A euthanasia theme park, a talking pig named Snortorious P.I.G., and a funerary hotel. There is no shortage of dark humor to be found among the increasingly macabre story beats of How High We Go in the Dark. Even so, some sections are just incredibly devastating to read and that’s a credit to Nagamatsu’s excellent writing. 

Not every vignette worked for me, but the ones that did were awfully affecting. My investment in each small story waned as we moved farther away from the “present day,” but the ever-evolving interconnectedness of the narratives was intriguing to track throughout.

If you’re looking for an escape from our current pandemic-ridden world, this is not the right book for you. If you can put that aside, there’s some really effective storytelling at work here. 

★★★¾

My thanks to NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Review: A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World

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ABoyAndHisDogTitle: A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World (April 23, 2019)
Author: C.A. Fletcher
Pages: 336

A fertility epidemic (slowly) wiped out 99.9999% of the world’s population. The remaining survivors are scattered around the globe. Griz lives on a small, Scottish island with several family members and two dogs. When one of the dogs is stolen by a mysterious visitor, Griz sets off across the sea and barren landscape to bring the dog back home.

C.A. Fletcher paints a vivid picture of an abandoned, post-apocalyptic world, but this is a tough book to rate. I did not find Griz’s story to be compelling…at all…until the final 10% of the book. It was a quick read and that excellent last section made the uninteresting journey somewhat worthwhile. I did appreciate that Fletcher’s choice of narration style is part of the story and even pays off in the final pages.

If you like this book, there are a few genre-similar books that I also enjoyed: The Wolf Road (review), The Fireman (review), The Dog Stars, and Station Eleven.

★★★ out of 5

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Mage Against the Machine

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mage-against-the-machine-9781534403048_hr.jpgTitle: Mage Against the Machine (October 9, 2018)
Author: Shaun Barger
Pages: 512

In 2120, humans can no longer reproduce, artificially intelligent overlords have a stranglehold on humanity, and small communities of mages are hidden throughout the world. Nikolai, a newly minted mage Edge Guard, protects the border between his world and ours, while Jem, a cybernetically enhanced human, smuggles contraband away from the watchful eyes of Earth’s AI overseers.

What’s so alluring about this book is that its characters are basically living in two different genres. Nikolai is attempting to come-of-age in a Harry Potter-ish mage community, while Jem is just trying to survive and overthrow evil AIs in a Terminator/Fallout/Children of Men-ish post-apocalyptic world. Jumping between their perspectives kept me engaged and kept things fresh throughout this lengthy tome while I waited for their storylines to converge. It did seem that Nikolai’s story was more fleshed out than Jemma’s, but I enjoyed them both for what they were.

And although I winced at a few overexplain-y info dumps, bristled at some cringe-y romance, and was slightly disappointed by a concluding act that somehow feels both rushed and overlong, I found Mage Against the Machine to be a fun genre-mashup that was an utterly enjoyable ride.

★★★¾  out of 5

My thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

 

Review: Bannerless

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Vaughn_BANNERLESS_final.jpgTitle: Bannerless (2017)
Author: Carrie Vaughn
Pages: 274
Series: The Bannerless Saga #1 (Series Tracker)

Many years after The Fall, small enclaves have built rudimentary societies that are mostly stripped of modern technologies. Small committees control the population and flow of resources by awarding banners to households that are given permission to procreate.

Author Carrie Vaughn has built an intriguing dystopian/post-apocalyptic world that leans away from the doom and gloom that one would expect in such a novel. Even with an unsolved murder as a central plot point, there is minimal violence and conflict. The plot is fairly low key, the writing is solid, but the mystery and eventual resolution are somewhat unsatisfying. I’m not sure if I’ll pick up the next book in the series, but I did have a decent time with this one.

★★★ out of 5

 

Review: Sea of Rust

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32617610Title: Sea of Rust (2017)
Author: C. Robert Cargill
Pages: 416

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Brittle, a lone Caregiver robot, scavenges for functioning parts in the desolate Sea of Rust. Along her journey she encounters factions of robots that have differing visions of how the post-human world should be. It’s marketed as something akin to The Martian, but it feels much more like a quirkier story out of The Terminator universe.

This was an interesting take on the post-apocalyptic genre and I enjoyed it quite a bit. The story jumps between pre- and post-robot uprising and I found myself more invested in the chapters that described the history of the world before the apocalypse versus the present day narrative. Every aspect of this “what-if” world is well thought out and nicely conveyed to the reader.

For a story about metal automatons and artificial intelligence, Sea of Rust employs a surprising amount of emotional heft. Brittle’s tale is one of angst, loss, and survival. I couldn’t help drawing parallels to The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis, a favorite of mine that dives even deeper into the psyche of robotkind and explores what it really means to have free will. Sea of Rust is not at that level, but it is a serviceable and enjoyable ride nonetheless.

★★★¼ out of 5