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newnumber6Finished: Alas Babylon, by Pat Frank
Started: Darker Than You Think, by Jack Williamson
very minor spoilery stuff behind the cut tag
Alas Babylon was, again, a reread, a novel focusing on survivors of a nuclear assault, written in the late 50s. It's still quite enjoyable, even re-reading. The 'peer into a different era' thing is still strong. For example, the main character once ran for political office and lost in part because he was for desegregation, and there's reference by another minor character to the land values of his area being lower because of the black family that he (or his parents, anyway) let move in nearby... and yet, once the disaster hits, they're key to the survival of the little community. Likewise, the women are generally 'mother/housewife' types, but they're still given their own moments where they're the hero for some reason.
Still, one of the reasons it's one of my favorites of these kinds of books ties into a theme I see in other stuff, like the 'city out of time' genre, or other post-apocalypses, right down to shows like Sliders or Farscape. I seem to be very fond of groups of people bonding and forming makeshift communities out of being stuck together in a shared situation. They may be able to get up and leave, but it's not easy or wise, so they have to get along, work together, and in ways, grow to become a family even where some of them might have been strangers before.
I suppose it's because of my own difficulties of bonding with people in normal situations that causes this attraction. Part of me really wants to be in a situation like that, so I can form a connection to other people.
The sheer survival aspect is another element. There's a line about one character remarking about how strange it is that it required a holocaust to make her own life worthwhile, which seems to speak to me. Not that I actually want a holocaust... I sort of want the struggle for survival against difficult odds without the messy part of other people having to die. Maybe as an ideal compromise, falling into a paralell dimension of nuclear holocaust.
Anyway, enough about that...
Darker Than You Think is described as a blend of Witchcraft and 20th century physics, providing an astounding hypothesis to explain mysterious events of the past!
So, really, it's an attempt to place witchcraft in a pseudo-scientific framework, not unlike what many of us do in Superhero MU*ing. Of what I've read so far, the 'explanation' although I wouldn't really buy it for the real world, makes an interesting story, and at the point I'm on, I'm not sure which side I'm leaning towards being right.
(Oh, the plot is about a mysterious artefact brought back from the desert, dating to prehistoric times, and a reporter, friends of the people who found the artefact, gets involved as some of them start dying mysteriously)
Fun enough so far.
Started: Darker Than You Think, by Jack Williamson
very minor spoilery stuff behind the cut tag
Alas Babylon was, again, a reread, a novel focusing on survivors of a nuclear assault, written in the late 50s. It's still quite enjoyable, even re-reading. The 'peer into a different era' thing is still strong. For example, the main character once ran for political office and lost in part because he was for desegregation, and there's reference by another minor character to the land values of his area being lower because of the black family that he (or his parents, anyway) let move in nearby... and yet, once the disaster hits, they're key to the survival of the little community. Likewise, the women are generally 'mother/housewife' types, but they're still given their own moments where they're the hero for some reason.
Still, one of the reasons it's one of my favorites of these kinds of books ties into a theme I see in other stuff, like the 'city out of time' genre, or other post-apocalypses, right down to shows like Sliders or Farscape. I seem to be very fond of groups of people bonding and forming makeshift communities out of being stuck together in a shared situation. They may be able to get up and leave, but it's not easy or wise, so they have to get along, work together, and in ways, grow to become a family even where some of them might have been strangers before.
I suppose it's because of my own difficulties of bonding with people in normal situations that causes this attraction. Part of me really wants to be in a situation like that, so I can form a connection to other people.
The sheer survival aspect is another element. There's a line about one character remarking about how strange it is that it required a holocaust to make her own life worthwhile, which seems to speak to me. Not that I actually want a holocaust... I sort of want the struggle for survival against difficult odds without the messy part of other people having to die. Maybe as an ideal compromise, falling into a paralell dimension of nuclear holocaust.
Anyway, enough about that...
Darker Than You Think is described as a blend of Witchcraft and 20th century physics, providing an astounding hypothesis to explain mysterious events of the past!
So, really, it's an attempt to place witchcraft in a pseudo-scientific framework, not unlike what many of us do in Superhero MU*ing. Of what I've read so far, the 'explanation' although I wouldn't really buy it for the real world, makes an interesting story, and at the point I'm on, I'm not sure which side I'm leaning towards being right.
(Oh, the plot is about a mysterious artefact brought back from the desert, dating to prehistoric times, and a reporter, friends of the people who found the artefact, gets involved as some of them start dying mysteriously)
Fun enough so far.
