I know we have a bunch of fellow post-apocalyptic ¶ fiction fans here, so I thought I would let you know that I recently read a good new book in the genre - Rise Again by Ben Tripp. It wasn’t the best I’ve ever read, but it was good enough to make me want to recommend it to you all.
And hey! Sequel in the works! Oh, I guess I should say a bit about the book - the story is about the Zombie Apocalypse (one of my favourite apocalypses) and revolves around the adventures of one of the survivors, a sheriff in a California mountain town who is has gone through three tours of duty in the Middle East.
Thanks, ever so much, for increasing my reading list
Just finished “Feed,” by Mira Grant, a zombie book that interestingly does NOT involve a post-apocalyptic world, but a world that has adapted to the zombie presence. I recommend it if you haven’t read it yet.
I haven’t read anything about how she’s going to address the sequels. I think the best way for her to do it is introduce some new characters, maybe peripheral ones from Feed, rather than try to focus on the main characters.
While Georgia’s character was really great, and it was painful to have her die, I wouldn’t say that’s the only really good one. Because she was the main character, Grant spent a lot more time developing her in depth than she did the others. Given the same focus and work, I think some of the other characters could work out well. I don’t know if Shaun has enough depth, though.
I don’t know if it was in every copy, but the version of Feed I got had a short section in the back with the first chapter from the sequel and an interview with Grant in how she plans to go in the sequels…
[spoiler]You hit it. Shaun’s the new main character and a lot of the beta bloggers who showed up for one page will move into main character slots.
Also, Shaun’s hallucinations of Georgia that he started having during the end of Feed will continue.[/spoiler]
I do have that section, but didn’t read it. I’ll go do so now
The Shaun/Georgia relationship and its end was actually my favorite part, because I have a male friend who I refer to as my brother from another mother, and we have a REALLY close relationship. Other people tend to see us as unhealthily close, although luckily our SOs are understanding. The relationship between Shaun and Georgia reminds me a lot of how my “brother” and I interact, so having it end the way it did actually was painful for me.
Another excellent recent PA book is Plague Year by Jeff Carlson. It’s about a runaway nanotech disaster - a nice break from zombies and nuclear wars. There’s two sequels, Plague War and Plague Zone but I haven’t read them yet.
Is that the one where they can’t go below like, 10,000 feet altitude or something?
For zombie books, I don’t think anything beats Day by Day Armageddon, and while I liked the sequel I fear it may go a bit into weirdo land.
Non-Zombie, I loved Earth Abides, and I’m not sure if Lucifers Hammer fits, but it’s DAMN good too.
I liked Day By Day Armageddon and the sequel, but I didn’t think they were all that well written. Of course, I read about them on the Zombie Squad boards, where there are posted some amazingly well-written short stories and serial stories, so maybe I was expecting something different. They’re good, but I didn’t think they were awesome.
You might also like War Day by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka, a travelogue about the aftermath of a limited nuclear war between the US and USSR; The Last Ship by William Brinkley, about the sole surviving U.S. Navy warship after a fullscale WWIII and the new society its crew struggles to create; and, of course, the classic On the Beach by Nevil Shute, about the slow dwindling of humanity as postwar radiation covers the globe.
All very different; all very good.
I, too, found A Canticle for Leibowitz dull and plodding.
Well, thanks to this thread I just put in a 60 dollar amazon order including Plague Year and sequel by Jeff Carlson, and Day By Day Armageddon and the sequel.
