Post apocalyptic fiction again

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

A while back I had a huge thread, with lots of people kindly recommending dystopian or post-apocalyptic fiction.

Last night I read 'Children Of The Dust' - a 1980s children's book about life after a nuclear war. Unfortunately, I was v disappointed by it because I felt that the writer was so busy labouring her anti-nuclear point that she forgot about making the book interesting and her characters multi-dimensional. I thought this was a real shame because I liked the different generations structure and the way the different key characters linked but it was very clunky with lots of pseudo-religious/Pagan stuff getting in the way of the story.

Have now started 'Riddley Walker' and thus far am finding it pretty hard work. It's not so much the language but all the 'tellings' and the 'Eusa' stuff that I'm just not terribly taken by yet. I can see that it's clever but it's not making me want to devour it in one sitting.

Any opinions? Just don't give any spoilers on Riddley Walker yet please! :)

Thank you, I really must try and make more of an effort! If I had the time I think I would be either reading or on here all day

My amazon wish list just keeps on getting longer!

I liked Children of the Dust, but its rather dated. Have you read the similar Brother in the Land? Also Plague 99/Come Lucky April by Jean Ure.

My favourite of the YA books in this genre was Empty World by John Christopher, I'd kill to read it again but I can't track it down, think its out of print.

It's a bit of a curveball, but you might enjoy Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde. It is set in a post-apocalyptic world and has some really quite dark ideas, but it is a comic novel. I really want to read the next one in the series, but Ffff hasn't written it yet.

I've read 'Brother In The Land' and the Jean U ones but thanks anyway.

Haven't read that Jasper F one but his Thursday Next books really annoy me, although I've read a few of them through desperation's sake. I might see if the library have got it anyway and give it a go. Thank you.

WELL - I have finished Riddley Walker. Please would anybody like to talk to me about it? I thought it was clever and I liked him as a narrator but I'm not sure I actually understood it tbh! I liked the Saint Eustace stuff and how Goodparley used it to try and link into his own ideas and I get the whole bomb thing but other than that I think I must have missed something.

Was just about to recommend Empty World :) Siamo DP bought me a copy from ebay or Amazon (think Amazon) for £5 for my birthday. I had bought a copy for 20p in my high school book rummage but I lent it out and it never came back

This thread has thrown up a few I haven't read yet - thanks for starting it Remus :)

I was going to suggest Brother in the Land - haven't read it since I was little but remember how creepy it was.

Are you in London? The sci-fi exhibition on at the British Library has a whole section on dystopian/apocalyptic fiction. I made loads of notes about things I wanted to read in the notebook which contains my life, and then LOST the notebook

I may have to go back again just to make more notes...

Also, do you have a kindle? Because I could send you the Hunger Games trilogy, if so...

how about A Canticle for Leibowitz? can't remember the author atm but it's excellent...

Thanks Treacle, that's really kind of you - no Kindle though.

I'm not in London but that sounds really interesting - do you know when it's on until? Any excuse for a day in London!

Sorry about your notebook but it does mean that you can go and buy a lovely new one, I guess (stationery junkie here).

I think I posted on the first thread and definitely recommend Riddley Walker (but then I loved it from start to finish).

For something a bit different I'd recommend The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist - I picked this up at random and liked it a lot. It reminded me of Never Let Me Go, which, if you haven't read already, you should put down whatever you're reading now and go get it . (Have to confess that Never Let Me Go has stayed with me a lot more than The Unit - it's beautiful and haunting).

Cat - that's in my Amazon basket at the mo, waiting until I can actually afford to do an order - the summer holidays seem to have eaten up all my money!

Ghost - I'm sorry but I really, really hated Never let Me Go.

Do please talk to me about Riddley Walker though...

can I be cheeky and ask if you can send me the Hunger games books? If I can work out how to do that with my kindle that is!

"The Death of Grass" by John Christopher
"Survivors" by Terry Nation
The Survivalist series of books by Jerry Ahern

All easy read and interesting!

NO WAY . really? What didn't you like? I'd still give The Unit a go though; different tone and style.

What i loved about Riddley was mostly to do with the genius of the language - the collapse of metaphor and reference. I know what you mean about the puppet shows though. To be fair I wrote on it for my thesis so was involved in some pretty heavy analysis and have only read it once since then ( several years ago now). For most of the book I just felt transported into that world, which you can't beat! How are you getting on with it now?

Siamo, if you PM me your email address I can just send the files to you and you can download them onto your Kindle from your computer.

Remus the exhibition's on until the 25th Sept and is free! Def worth a look if only to get lots of new reading ideas

Yy to Death of grass - try to get the latest edition with an intro by Rob Macfarlane - interesting stuff and may contain further recs iirc.

I'd agree with SmallClanger and really recommend Jasper Fforde's Shades of Grey.

I also found the Thursday Next books annoying, but Shades of Grey is in a different class, IMO. You do have to give it a little while to get going, though.

I thought Riddley Walker was pretty heavy going, too, I have to say - worth reading, but hard work.

Also didn't like Oryx and Crake at all, despite the fact that I love most of Atwood's early books (Handmaid's Tale, Edible Woman et al).

Thanks everybody.

Never Let Me Go - I think he's a very boring writer and I actually didn't care about any of the characters. In the end, I wanted them all to hurry up and die and had no sympathy at all for the fact that they were going to. That makes me sound really horrible but I promise that I'm quite nice really. :)

Riddley Walker - I finished it this morning. I think the language is really good but I'm just not sure I understand what points he was trying to make, other than that splitting the atom probably wasn't a terribly good idea and it's probably not going to be good if more people learn how to do it. I just didn't think that he managed to build a world in the way that the best post-apocalyptic fiction does and I think he felt that he'd worked so hard to build and sustain the language that everything else was a bit superficial in comparison. But I may well be v thick and have totally missed the point somewhere.

Will deffo try and get to London for the exhibition; it sounds really interesting.

Will add the Death Of Grass and the Jasper F one to my library list. Thanks.

Alas, Babylon
The Postman
World War Z (zombies but excellent)
Mara and Dann (and the sequel) Doris Lessing
Memoirs of a Survivor Lessing
Cell stephen king
Earth Abides -Stewart
Lucifer's Hammer
Warday
The Gate to Women's Country
The SHore of Women
Mother of Storms
Flood Stephen Baxter
Plague War -Carlson

Are post-apoc I have read this year. I particularly enjoyed The Gate to Women's Country, World War Z, Mara and Dann and Earth Abides - I found the others lacking in certain ways, but I was only disappointed by Flood. Lucifer's Hammer is just schlock but it has a certain appeal!

I read Then thanks to this book was a good book but heartbreaking.

Thanks to this thread.

Thanks. :)

NOW please will somebody come and talk to me about Riddley Walker!

Mara and Dann by Doris Lessing.

about the effects of drought caused by the planet entering an ice age.