April SFFFKit: Apocalyptic & Dystopian Literature

This month we are going to be reading Apocalyptic and/or Dystopian stories and I thought the first thing I should do is make a quick trip to Wikipedia to be sure of the definitions of these sub-genres.

Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of science fiction, science fantasy or horror fiction in which the Earth’s technological civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; natural, such as an impact event; man-made, such as nuclear warfare; medical such as a plague or virus, whether natural or man-man; or imaginative, such as a zombie apocalypse or alien invasion.

Some examples of Apocalyptic literature are:

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
Lucifer’s Hammer by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven
The Postman by David Brin
The Stand by Stephen King
World War Z by Max Brooks
Station Eleven by Emily St. John

Dystopian Literature is a genre of fictional writing used to explore social and political structures in ‘a dark, nightmare world.’ The term dystopia is defined as a society characterized by poverty, squalor or oppression and the theme is mostly used in science fiction and speculative fiction genres.

Some examples of Dystopian literature are:

1984 by George Orwell
We by Yevgeny Zamytin
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins
The Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth

Have fun with your Apocalyptic and/or Dystopian reading this month, let us know here what you are going to be reading and please don’t forget to add your reads to the Wiki which can be found Here.

I am planning on reading The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood and the final volume in a apocalyptic trilogy entitled And After by Sarah Lyons Fleming.

Not my favorite genre but there are a few series that I like.

I'll be reading The Sunrise Lands by S.M Stirling, 7th in his Nantucket event series, which takes place after 'The Change' whereupon an unknown and undefined 'event' renders technological devices unusable.

I may add another book that fits but not sure...

Thanks for putting up the thread!

I started listening to Brave New World but ran out of time. I will pick it up again for next month's theme.

I'm planning to read The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi.

I'm hoping to fit in both The Farm and Maddaddam, I suppose starting with the second. I'm not all that excited about it, as I am for the first, but I don't really want to leave Atwood's trilogy unfinished, and the book Has been waiting...

I think I Am Legend by Richard Matheson is going to be my choice for this one.

Seems like the perfect time to finally read Station Eleven!

>5 VioletBramble: Thanks for the suggestion! I have The Windup Girl on my shelf.

>1 DeltaQueen50: I think you did a really great job in your introduction of succinctly describing these two genres.

>10 sturlington: Thanks, Shannon. I haven't always been clear myself on the difference so looking up this information was very helpful.

I'm thinking of re-reading The Gunslinger, which has dystopian elements.

>12 LisaMorr: Apocalyptic elements, too.

>13 sturlington: That's true - it's been so long since I read it that I kind of forget about that. I'm really looking forward to reading the whole series through and finishing it!

Version Control would work for dystopian. I just finished it this month and I really liked it.

I think Android at Arms may fit this challenge, I'll give it a try!

I finished All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders. This is a blend of science fiction and fantasy and is set in a dystopian USA with a hint of pending apocalypse.

I am going to try and fit in The Girl With All the Gifts for this challenge

Although some of my most memorable reads come from this category (A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller, Jr., Emergence by David Palmer, The Postman by David Brin), I don't know that I have any in my tbr pile. I shall have to conduct a search.

I'm currently rereading The Handmaid's Tale, in anticipation of the new TV adaptation.

I have completed my first read for this topic with The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker. This one is based on the premise that we have damaged the environment so much that the earth starts to slow down on it's axis. I found it quite frightening and believable, especially with some of the political brouhaha regarding environmental issues that are going on today.

I finished Imago which is the final part of the Xenogenesis trilogy from Octavia E. Butler. Very much a Post-Apocalyptic setting and concludes an excellent series. I've also made a brief start on Red Rising by Pierce Brown.

I read Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Great fun, a book every person who loves the 80s should read. Coming out as movie by Spielberg in 2018. Totally fun read.

>23 Kristelh: Spielberg is the perfect person to direct that movie.

COMPLETED I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

My review:

Robert Neville is the last man left alive in a world that has been taken over by vampires.

There were some heart-stoppingly exciting scenes and the search for an explanation for the vampirism was interesting, but I did find the psychological explanation for some of the characteristics of vampires unconvincing.

After I finished the book, I watched the film, which was very atmospheric, but I think the book had a much better ending.

Starting A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.

>25 Robertgreaves:, read I am Legend, and agree with you, I did not watch the movie.

A Canticle for Leibovitz is very good, will be interested in your comments.

I have completed The Prey by Tom Isbell, a book that many dismiss as a rip-off on Hunger Games and The Maze Runner. They are pretty much right but I still enjoyed the book and will plan on reading the rest of the trilogy.

COMPLETED A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr..

My review:

Wonderful story of monks preserving civilisation again after an atomic holocaust. A rich reflection on faith and history. With its discussions of euthanasia, evolution, and generally religion v science and why the human race never seems to learn, it's just as timely now as when it was written nearly 60 years ago.

Well, I figured I would get one for this month's category at least, and so I have. I read The Last One by Alexandra Oliva. It's about a survival-type reality show, where the contestants don't realize that a devastating pandemic is going on while they are out in the wilderness; one contestant thinks the devastation she is seeing is all part of the game... Strains disbelief a bit, but generally quite readable.

Two in one month for me. Red Rising is recommended for fans of YA Dystopian stories.

>30 AHS-Wolfy: Good to know, Dave, as I have that one on my shelves. :)

The May SFFKIT thread is up:

http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/2017_Unofficial_SF/SFFKIT#May:

I read another for this category: Suffer the Children by Craig diLouie. For horror fans only.

I'm slowly reading The Farm by Emily McKay, but I have to admit, I'm having a hard time with it. I'm just not engaged, and thinking about looking at some reviews to see if folks think it gets better (I usually don't look at reviews, once a book is already in my TBR, for fear of spoilers). We'll see what happens, but considering I've got some travel coming up this month and don't want to lug around a book that's boring me, I may or may not be finishing my read for this category this month... So, yeah.

Well, I finished The Farm. If you'd like to see my rant... er, I mean, my review, there's a full one written. I should say, though, that this may be my Least favorite venture into dystopia yet (which is funny, since it ranges into horror, which I also love), so it's not something I can recommend. It's also not a new take on vampires, which some reviews claim. (For other versions of McKay's ticks, see any number of books; for other versions of the main type of vampire, see Jonathan Nasaw, whose The World on Blood is phenomenal. Come to think of it, if you like horror on any level, you should check out that one.)

I have completed my read of The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. This book certainly lived up to it's hype. I found it a powerful, emotional, and scary read. Published in 1985, it is also amazing that it's themes remain current today.

I am rereading via audiobook the classic dystopian novel Brave New World - I find that I have forgotten it almost completely.

I think I'll go ahead and read Robert Heinlein's The Day After Tomorrow, about an alien invasion.

Nothing else on my "to read" list seems to fit.

When I started Mord im 31. Stock, I expected a mystery. That's not what I got with this tale set in an anonymous country where the welfare state has turned into a tyranny, drunkenness is a crime, statistics are manipulated ruthlessly, and people are forced into bland uniformity by having to eat the same food on the same day in restaurants all over the country, living in apartment blocks with a standard layout of rooms and being fed the same kind of non-information pap in the newspapers and magazines. Published in 1964 and still scaringly possible.

My last read of the month for this theme, And After by Sarah Lyons Fleming is the middle book in a trilogy about the world being taken over by zombies. I am really enjoyed these books and look forward to picking up the third book soon.

>40 DeltaQueen50:

I looked for the first Fleming book at my public library and they don't have it. : (
Added to my wishlist so I don't forget it.

>41 nrmay: I suspect these books were originally self-published and are probably not available in most places. I got my copies for the Kindle from Amazon.

I finished Golden Son the second in the Red Rising trilogy by Pierce Brown. Even better than the first.

I'm not going to finish it tonight, but I've started Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, so I'm counting it anyway! :) So far so good.

I finished The Gunslinger on the long flight to
Anchorage, where it's still April 30...

I read a revised and expanded version with a new introduction and foreword by Stephen King. It's amazing that he wrote this in 1970. Then it took a long time for him to progress the series - and not until after that horrible accident where he was hit by a van did he start to think about getting the series finished, which he re-started in 2001.

It was great to re-read this and get started on finishing the whole series finally!

I read Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel which doesn't fit here (or does it for apocalypse) but it certainly will work for next month.

I did not finish my choice for this month's challenge, real life got in the way.

See you all in the next thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/255049

>36 DeltaQueen50: I finished The Handmaid's Tale too and I agree that it's one scary read. I found it even more disturbing and moving this second time around, perhaps because I'm less optimistic about world affairs that I had been when I first read it in the 80's.

>44 christina_reads: Station Eleven is one of my very favourite post-apocalyptic novels. There are so many layers to it that I'll undoubtedly have to do a reread to appreciate it fully.

I also finished The Girl with All the Gifts by M. R. Carey, which is an excellent post-apocalyptic story that really shouldn't be dismissed as just a "zombie novel" (though it does feature a lot of zombies).

>48 mathgirl40: I definitely think that world conditions play a huge part in how this book affects one. It's a scary and uncertain time right now with an American President who doesn't appear to place much value in women making The Handmaid's Tale seem even more plausible.

I hope everyone enjoyed their Apocalyptic/Dystopian reads and now we on to May's theme of "First Encounters". See you there.

I finally finished Station Eleven, which I had started in April for this KIT. I enjoyed it a lot, although the description of the pandemic and how quickly/thoroughly it wiped out civilization was genuinely terrifying at times! I really liked the postapocalyptic stuff with the Traveling Symphony and would have liked to spend more time with them and the various townspeople they met. The Arthur and Jeevan chapters weren't as compelling for me.

If you're in the US does reading the news count?

>52 mysterymax: LOL