Top Five Saturday: Apocalyptic Books

I loved this book!

The end of human civilisation, the rise of vampires sounds so cliched and yet Cronin breathed new life (pun intended) into it, primarily through the character of Amy Harper Bellafonte, a satisfyingly fey innocent child, and her relationship with Brad Wolgast the FBI agent tasked with acquiring her.

“It happened fast. Thirty-two minutes for one world to die, another to be born.”

Unfortunately, I found the sequels significantly less satisfying….

Why have I not reviewed this? Dang!

Again, I loved the story of the awakening of power – the power to generate and channel and discharge electricity through the hands of women. Initially, in small numbers and then almost all women acquired the power, liberating themselves and empowering themselves beyond the patriachal world that had bound them.

But would they use that empowerment any more wisely or justly?

“It doesn’t matter that she shouldn’t, that she never would. What matters is that she could, if she wanted. The power to hurt is a kind of wealth.”

This was a fun and intriguing read – and I do think Ali Shaw is underrated as a writer!

Nature rebels against humanity and burst forests from the Earth overnight destroying humanity’s hold on the planet. As survivors band together and seek safety, there is something else and something other in the newly awakened forest…

Echoes of Shakespeare and A Midsummer Night’s Dream and a transformative journey – and Shaw is great on transformation! – some apocalypses are good for us!

“Adrien knew it was not a strong man whom the whisperers had been searching for. Strong men only drove the world to ruin.”

A man.

His son.

A road.

A gun.

McCarthy doesn’t need much more to creates one of the bleakest of bleak novels set in a post-apocalyptic world which is dying and in which not a shred (or perhaps the smallest sliver) of hope is given. And yet there is a raw terribly poetry in McCarthy’s writing.

Utterly gripping.

“What’s the bravest thing you ever did?
He spat in the road a bloody phlegm. Getting up this morning, he said.”

Clever, fun, moving, horrific, so very meta!

Brooks’ Oral History of the Zombie War far surpasses the movie (mediocre would be overselling the movie, which takes vast liberties with every aspect of Brooks’ novel) and purports to collect dozens of tales of human idiocy, terror, nobility, courage and venality together.

“The monsters that rose from the dead, they are nothing compared to the ones we carry in our hearts”

They say that the Thorn of Camorr can beat anyone in a fight. They say he steals from the rich and gives to the poor. They say he’s part man, part myth, and mostly street-corner rumor. And they are wrong on every count.

Only averagely tall, slender, and god-awful with a sword, Locke Lamora is the fabled Thorn, and the greatest weapons at his disposal are his wit and cunning. He steals from the rich – they’re the only ones worth stealing from – but the poor can go steal for themselves. What Locke cons, wheedles and tricks into his possession is strictly for him and his band of fellow con-artists and thieves: the Gentleman Bastards.