End of the world books
I’ve ended up reading two ‘end of the world’ science fiction books back-to-back recently, for reasons of quirky library reservations. The first is Death of Grass by John Christopher, and the other is The Children of Men by P. D. James. I read Death of Grass first, after it was mentioned in a documentary as one of John Wyndham’s inspirations. I have to say that it scared the willies out of me. It’s not that there’s anything particularly horrific about it, but the steady and relentless descent of normal, well-adjusted, civilised people into cold-blooded, calculating killers really disturbed me.
The story is horribly plausible: a potent and highly contagious virus which originates in China destroys all members of the Graminaceae, so all of the major crops (rice, wheat, barley, oats) and pasture grasses for cattle, sheep and goats are totally wiped out. This, not surprisingly, precipitates a world-wide famine, and social order starts to break down as people panic.
The story follows a couple of families who decide to leave London to try to reach John’s brother David in Yorkshire, who has a farm located in an isolated and easily-defended valley. Their departure is precipitated by a rumour that the Government is planning to drop atomic bombs on some of the major cities to reduce the population of Britain quickly, making any remaining food reserves go further, and giving at least some of the population a chance of life. It’s never made clear in the book whether this rumour is accurate or not, but it hardly matters. People believe it to be true and scramble to leave the cities.
In their journey north, the families gradually gather more people into the group, either because they feel responsible for them, or more often because the incomers can provide resources, guns or protection in numbers against other gangs. Killing others for what they can get gradually becomes normal, as do many other things which would seem morally repellent at any other time. Family becomes more important than any other consideration.
It’s a great story, but gave me really disturbing nightmares. Now, I’m just getting in to The Children of Men, which I greatly enjoyed as a film. As people have said, the book is quite different from the film in many ways, but just as tense. In some ways, it’s a counterpart to Death of Grass, with different but parallel stresses on society. Rather than pulling closer together into families and bands to try to protect dwindling food supplies, families are ageing and splintering apart as no more children are being born. There are fewer people of working age supporting an ageing population, but more resources and space to go around as the population declines. Where Death of Grass forsees people becoming sharper, and more feral, in The Children of Men, for the most part people seem to be losing hope and quietly giving up.
I think it might be time for a light-hearted, funny book after this one!
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If you want to read something more cheerful, may I recommend "Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction" by Sue Townsend if you have not already read it. It is a brilliant comic tour de force, which is at the same time sly, cynical, and soft hearted. It is also one of the very few books that has made me laugh out loud.
by ThoughtBadger @ 12/06/2007 10:58 pm • Permalink •
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Have you, perchance, taken a look at Cormac McCarthy's The Road? It's done quite well in America and is a masterful work in terms of diction, tone, and typography ( in hardcover, of course ).
by Steven G. Harms @ 12/06/2007 11:38 pm • Permalink •
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This was a good read.
And you can read the title two ways, too!
by Mr.D. @ 13/06/2007 11:56 am • Permalink •
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ThoughtBadger: Sounds good. I really enjoyed the earlier Adrian Mole books back in the 80s.
Steven G. Harms: No, I haven't seen that. I'll put it on the list.
Mr. D.: Sounds intriguing! I'll put that on the library list too.
by bsag @ 13/06/2007 6:20 pm • Permalink •
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Being in possession of a glass that's half full, I don't read End of the World books, but my all time favourite Almost End of the World book is The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle. Published long before most of you childer were even twinkles in your mothers' eyes!
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/B/BlackCloud.html
by Jonathan Briggs @ 14/06/2007 6:49 pm • Permalink •
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Hmm, left a comment here with links to three books - has it gone in your spam, BSAG?
by Lyle @ 18/06/2007 9:33 am • Permalink •
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Lyle: No, sorry - I just checked Akismet, and there's nothing in the list. Weird. I assume you didn't get any kind of error when you posted the comment?
by bsag @ 18/06/2007 10:07 am • Permalink •
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Nope, nothing - all looked like it went through fine.
Anyway, to rewriteit (without links to Amazon) I'd recommend:
Bruce Sterling's "Heavy Weather" John Barnes' "Mother of Storms" and David Brin's "Earth".
They're all a bit similar - particularly Heavy Weather and Mother of Storms, but all different enough to make for decent reading material. I read all three (not at the same time, obv. ) about once a year.
Also, for something completely different, I'd always recommend Seth Morgan's "Homeboy", which I love.
by Lyle @ 18/06/2007 3:18 pm • Permalink •
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I want to watch movie " The Children of Men". Is it that good as book?
by Kim @ 22/06/2007 1:25 pm • Permalink •
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I want to watch movie " The Children of Men". Is it that good as book? And why I always have problems with sending comments here?!
by Kim @ 22/06/2007 1:28 pm • Permalink •
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