It has been quite awhile since I’ve done a book review of a work of fiction but I felt Slow Apocalypse by John Varley was worth sharing.
I’m a big fan of Apocalyptic fiction but I’ll admit the genre is rife with “I love myAR-15” novels. While I’ll admit to enjoying them as time killers the roll of wanna-be operators can get a little tedious. So it is nice to see what a more polished and professional author, like John Varley, can do with the genre.
The premise behind Slow Apocalypse is a tailored virus is used to infect the oil fields of the Middle East. Dave Marshall is an LA screen writer, who through a little twist of fate, receives advance warning of the impending SHTF. The story follows Dave as he tries to quickly prepare his family and friends for a radical change of life, in a transformed Los Angeles.
I really enjoyed this book. Like, I said earlier it isn’t a misanthropist’s wet dream. The violence that does occur makes sense and moves the story along instead of being in there to sate someone’s desire to write an ode to their AK. The characters are believable and develop nicely during the story. Another plus is the book doesn’t dwell on politics. Some apocalyptic fiction can end up as a political sermon instead of a story.
I can recommend this book. It isn’t going to go down as a great novel but I consider worth a read if you enjoy apocalyptic fiction.
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that sounds like an interesting read!
You are so right about the political grandstanding in these types of books. I’ll take a look at this one though. “I’ll Wind” has a similar premise with a different story of course. While fun, this genre is getting a bit tired. Plus it’s hard to find stuff that doesn’t read like a high school book report. I’m currently reading the Breakers series by Edward Robertson and it’s pretty good so far…. not bad at all for $.99 in fact!
I’m going to go old school and re-read “Lucifer’s Hammer”, after that I’ll check out the series by Robertson. Thanks for the input.