The Science Fiction Novel - Dystopic Futures Part 2
As I checked through my Goodreads' bookshelves to see what author would be next on my list for my Science Fiction review. It turns out that next is not really a Sci-Fi author but he wrote a book that presents a future that results in the end of the world. I thought then that what I'd do today is look at 5 books that present dystopic futures; 3 as a result of nuclear war and the other 2 that aren't quite clear necessarily at what actually caused the particular future. Since I had previously had a similar topic, see this link, I've made this my Part Deux look at Dystopic Futures. So let's get going.
Nevil Shute was not a Science Fiction writer. He specialized in telling stories about ordinary people who find themselves in heroic situations and how they handle these situations. On the Beach was a unique story for him and was written at a time when the world feared a nuclear world war. I hope this story and other similar ones (check out also Fail Safe by Eugene Burdick for a different feel to this topic) helped dissuade governments from carrying out such a potentially fatal war.
Whitley Streiber is an American author best known for horror novels; The Wolfen and The Hunger come to mind. He also has written books about Alien abduction, Communion. James Kunetka is an American author known for his Sci-Fi novels, especially two her wrote with Streiber, Warday and Nature's End.
Warday was a fascinating story that I've read twice. It features Streiber and Kunetka as two reporters who decide to travel across the US five years after a limited nuclear strike to determine how the country has survived and evolved since this event.
The novel takes the form of a first-person narrative and also features government documents and interviews with survivors. It's a fascinating, very matter-of-fact story as we follow the two as they travel through states devastated by the war and trying to ascertain if and how people continue to live under horrendous conditions. It presents an excellent look at the possibility of the results of a nuclear war and once again, offers a scary but thoughtful look at what might happen.
David Brin wrote one of my favorite Sci-Fi series, the Uplift series, and I will discuss that in a later entry. The Postman was initially published in two books, Postman and Goliath in the early 1980's and then as a complete book in 1985. It's another book that I've read two or three times. I've also seen the movie starring Kevin Costner a couple of times, even though I don't really think it holds a candle to the book.
The story focuses on one man, Gordon Krantz, a wanderer in a dystopian US of A (in this book it's not clear what actually causes this destruction of the US, at least as far as I remember anyway). Gordon goes from town to town living off of his wits to survive. He presents himself as an actor and puts on shows of Shakespearean plays for these communities who are short of entertainment, as basically they just want to survive. On one day as he travels between communities somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, Krantz finds an abandoned US Mail truck. It contains a uniform and a bag of letters. Krantz takes both and this small fact will change his life and that of the diverse communities of the West.
On his next stop he presents himself as a mailman and finds people who letters had been written to (or at least their ancestors) before the 'event' which has caused the current situation. Things snowball as he becomes a regular mailman, carrying mail between communities and also setting up post offices. He does this reluctantly as he really just wants to keep moving around. But his efforts begin to unite communities and also to unite them against a local militia that abuses the communities. There is so much more to this story but it presents a vision of hope in the after days of a major disaster.
McCarthy has written books like Blood Meridian, All the Pretty Horses and No Country for Good Men, all of which I've not yet read. The Road is a dark, scary novel of the voyage of a man and his son through a destroyed, ash filled, dark America. It is their attempts at survival, trying to avoid bands of killers. It presents their fatigue, their love for each other, their strength. It's a depressing, often quite scary story but I found that ultimately it also offered a hope for the future, a hope for the goodness of mankind. There was also a movie based on the book and I feel it presented the feeling of the book very well. Not necessarily for the faint of heart. The synopsis for the book is below
"A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other.
The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, "each the other's world entire," are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation."
So there you go, a look at five presentations of a dystopic view of the future. All excellent stories in their own ways, all worth trying. Good luck and have a great week.
No comments:
Post a Comment