Book Quote of the Day

“The jagged, saw-edge teeth of the Lunar craters stood up sharply against the light of the sun but what Olga had screamed at was the globe of the Earth, swimming there huge and green in the light from that sun embedded in the black curtain of space.

But now its greenness was tarnished. Ugly fiery streaks coursed around the globe. Dense clouds drifted around the disc, giving the whole sphere a ghastly glowing penumbra. The red cracks grew as they watched and so fiery were they that even the thick masses of cloud did not obscure their fierceness.”

- When The Earth Died, by Karl Mannheim

Book Quote of the Day

“What he’s really saying is: Please be a human being. With a life so full of rules and regiments, it’s so easy to forget that’s what they are. She knows—she sees—how often compassion takes a back seat to expediency.” 
― Unwind, Neal Shusterman

Book review: H10N1

I have just finished reading “H10N1″ by M.R. Cornelius.

H10N1 – M.R. Cornelius (via Amazon)

It is a disaster novel about a pandemic which devastates most of the world but is set in the USA.

The blurb reads:

“A deadly influenza virus rages out of control. There is no easy-fix vaccine. No eleventh-hour containment. Only death.
With no workforce, power plants are unmanned so there’s no means of communication; police and fire departments have collapsed so no one is safe; looters are scavenging everything from big-screen TVs to canned peas.
When Dr. Taeya Sanchez finds herself unceremoniously dismissed from an emergency medical facility in New York, she decides to steal the hospital’s armored van for a midnight escape. 
Unfortunately, Rick DeAngelo, a driver for the hospital, has already stocked the van for his own getaway.
Thrown into an unfriendly alliance, these two must pick their way across the dangerous wasteland of America in search of a safe haven. And as the miles roll by, they discover that the living should be feared much more than the festering corpses out there.”

What is interesting is that it starts out as a pandemic with the horrible sickness, the dying, and the rotting corpses everywhere, but then it turns into a story about the aftermath when the virus has killed the unlucky ones and the lucky ones try to stay alive and keep their precious cargo of food and fuel away from others.

Sanchez and Rick steal a specially adapted van to get away from the sickness and the terrible political madness of New York and go off in search of safer places. despite their arguments and initial dislike of each other, they manage to evade the many dying and desperate souls and the decaying bodies everywhere, and find a safe haven with Rick’s friends on their commune where they are self-sufficient and cut off from the rest of the world in order to protect themselves. Soon, Rick and Sanchez’s presence draws enemies who ruin their safe haven, so the four of them go in search of the Biosphere which Sanchez’s friend Mai has started living. They find this amazing place which provides safety, food and companionship.

However, there are several unpleasant characters, with one particularly nasty one called Michael who is creepy and lazy. The four try to make the Biosphere more productive and work hard to get everyone to chip in as they all have to live there. Here, Rick and Sanchez’s relationship turns into romance, which seemed inevitable once they stopped thinking about going their seperate ways as first planned. Their separate losses bring them together and they find happiness in the midst of all the turmoil around them.

Unfortunately, things soon take a turn for the worse, and, after a devastating showdown, they end up back on the dangerous roads trying to find somewhere else. There is hope at the end of the novel when an old acquaintance turns out to be their saviour and a new kind of life begins after so many months of devastation.

I liked this book because it was terrifyingly realistic and could actually happen! It makes you think about what you would do to save yourself and your loved ones. There is a lot of death, sickness and loss in this book, and the beginning is horrific as it starts with someone being coaxed into swallowing a suicide pill to escape the horror unfolding around them.  The violence is inevitable and it shows just how desperate, greedy and unreasonable people can get under pressure.

I give this book an 8/10 because it is gripping, horrifying and fascinating! I definitely recommend it if you’re into the sci-fi, apocalytpic, dystopian theme books!

Note: I read this on my Kindle (only available as an Ebook)

 

 

 

The General Disaster Hour

I will be doing a special hour on my blog every now and then, where i write down my thoughts on dystopian/apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic/Science-Fiction/general disaster type films and books and the topic in general!

Today’s Topic

Types of apocalyptic themes:

• Impact event (AKA meteorite hitting Earth)
• Nuclear warfare
• Pandemic
• Extraterrestrial attack (AKA alien invasion)
• Cybernetic revolt (AKA robots/computers try to take over the world)
• Technological singularity (AKA superhuman intelligence created through technology)
• Dysgenics (AKA the watering down of human intelligence though future generations)
• Divine Judgement (AKA return of Christ, etc)
• Climate change
• Resource depletion

…and many more!

My thought for the day:

After finishing reading “H10N1″ by M.R. Cornelius this week, which comes under the Pandemic theme, i came to the following conclusion:

You are either A) the person who pulls their weight trying to keep the world going & keeps it peaceful, or B) the person who runs around shooting anyone who gets in their way & stealing off everyone else.

Which one are you?!

Feel free to comment if you have anything to share!

Book Review: Z for Zachariah

I have just finished re-reading “Z for Zachariah” by Robert C. O’Brien. I read this book back in school when i was about 14 and was fascinated by it! I recently found a copy in Waterstones quite by accident, so i thought i would re-read it, to see how differently i read it compared to the first time.

Z For Zachariah – Robert C. O’Brien (via Amazon)

The blurb reads:

“Ann Burden, the lone survivor of a nuclear holocaust, is threatened by the arrival in her valley of an unknown intruder. She hides, he watches and they both wait. Might he be a friend and ally, this scientist in a radiation-proof suit, or have the horrors he has witnessed turned him into something more sinister? The answer unfolds in a battle of wills which ends in a chilling struggle for survival, between a girl and the last man on earth.”

The book opens with Ann explaining how she was left alone in her valley after her family went to look for survivors outside and never came back. She writes in her journal each day about what she does to keep herself alive, as she plans for the future alone. That is until Mr Loomis arrives. She looks after him when he gets radiation sickness, and for a while it looks like they might be able to coexist in the valley, and Ann imagines a future where they manage to survive in the valley and maybe even have a family one day.

However, once Mr Loomis starts getting better, he starts playing mind games with her, and she grows increasingly uneasy, especially as he doesn’t talk about himself or his life before he entered the valley. This only proves that he has something to hide, and Ann gets an idea of what has happened through his delirious mutterings when he is ill. He grows increasingly threatening towards her and she starts to avoid him as much as possible but he cuts off her supplies, causing her to take action.

Ann is maybe a little bit naïve as she is only 15 (16 when the book ends), but she is also fairly self-sufficient and sensible with good instincts. She has had to deal with the loss of her family and everyone she knew all by herself in the valley where she lived with them, which can’t have been easy surrounded by memories. She knows how she can survive in her valley by planning out how to grow and harvest food and so on, but she seems to have become a little bit complacent in believing that no-one would come and has let her guard down a bit. But at least she knows how to use a gun!

Mr Loomis is a mysterious stranger who is ill for the first part of the book, so we don’t really get to know much about him until he gets better. The name should be enough to suggest that he is clearly more of an older and more superior character: we don’t know his first name, which makes him seem distant and less friendly. The stronger he gets after the illness, the more disturbing his behaviour is towards Ann. It is only in this re-reading of the book that i realise how much of a sexual predator he could be. He is clearly aware that she may be the only female left on earth, and that she is completely at his mercy. This turns the story into a more chilling plot. Ann becomes gradually aware of his attentions and is disgusted. She leaves him stranded in the valley when she steals his suit, because she would rather face the unknown than stay in the valley with a creep like him. Good on her!

I give this book 8/10 because it is a fascinating but chilling post-apocalyptic and dystopian story, and the characters are really interesting, with their relationship changing throughout the book. There is a lot of tension throughout the book, and it explores human emotion and the vulnerability of both characters really well. I highly recommend this book to everyone, even though it is teenage fiction!

Book quote of the day

“I want to do something, right here, right now, to shame them, to make them accountable, to show the Capitol that whatever they do or force us to do there is a part of every tribute they can’t own.  That Rue was more than a piece in their Games. And so am I.”

- Katniss Everdeen, “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins

Book Review: The Handmaid’s Tale

I have just finished re-reading “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood, a feminist dystopia novel. When i first read it, it was for my undergraduate dissertation, which explored dystopia and utopia novels.

The cover of my copy of The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood (via Amazon)

It is a fascinating but chilling tale of the extreme measures the government will take to ensure the continuation of the human race in a time of limited resources due to war and pollution, which in turn has caused high levels of infertility within the human race. The tale takes place in what used to be the USA and is now called the Republic of Gilead. The president and the rest of the government were destroyed and then women became forced to be under the will of men in order to control reproduction.

Women are now divided into categories: Wives, Marthas, Ecnowives, Handmaids, Aunts, Unwomen.

A Handmaid is a kind of virginal prostitute, assigned to a childless couple of high status and forced to have sex with the husband in order to conceive and give birth to a child which the couple then takes as their own. The narrator is a Handmaid and is assigned to a couple, known as Serena Joy and the Commander.

It is a very dangerous world to live in, not just for women, but for the men as well, although the women get the worst deal i feel. The whole belief system for justifying the way the country is run comes from some Biblical references:

“Give me children, or else I die. Am I in God’s stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb? Behold my maid Bilhah. She shall bear fruit upon my knees, that I may also have children by her.”

The Handmaids are told that they have been saved from corruption and sin, from the times when women were objectified and shameless in their behaviour and attire. Unfortunately, this new regime stops them from being able to do anything without repercussions. The worst thing is that they are no longer allowed to love, and sex is purely for procreational reasons. Marriages are arranged for most women, and they are all forced to wear a uniform to show their status.

This book isn’t always clear to read, as the narrator jumps around through time, with some parts describing the present, and some looking back at memories. Then there are bits where she is describing something she is looking at, and it triggers a memory from the past and suddenly she is describing that, so it isn’t always possible know who or what she is talking about.

However, i do like this book because it is just one of many futures that humanity could face if certain things carry on. It very strongly affects women as a feminist story, and is quite horrifying to imagine such a thing occurring. The problem is that it very well could happen, it is quite realistic!

I give the book 9/10 because it is original, chilling and fascinating to read! It makes you think how would you cope if in the same situation. I really recommend this book to anyone who is into Sci-Fi, Dystopia, Feminism, etc.

Book quote of the day

“Maybe none of this is about control. Maybe it isn’t really about who can own whom, who can do what to whom and get away with it, even as far as death. Maybe it isn’t about who can sit can who has to kneel or stand or lie down, legs spread open. Maybe it’s about who can do what to whom and be forgiven for it. Never tell me it amounts to the same thing.”

- “The Handmaid’s Tale”, Margaret Atwood