My Favorite Dystopian/Apocalyptic Books

I’m a fan of dystopian fiction, but I’m a bit finicky about it. I tend to stay away from Young Adult dystopian (no Hunger Games or Divergent series, thank you). I usually like more literary-minded picks, but there are exceptions. I’ve been reading Octavia Butler, so I started thinking about my favorite dystopian novels. Here they are, in no particular order:

The Stand, by Stephen King (1978).

How it all ends: Accidental release of deadly bio-weapon

Basic premise/plot: A superflu kills 99% of the population; the survivors must choose between the powers of good and evil for the fate of humankind, following either Mother Abigail (good) or Randall Flagg (evil).

My thoughts: One of my first Stephen King reads, and one of my favorites. It’s a huge book with a ton of characters, but gripping for the most part. It’s been years since I’ve read it, but there are memorable characters I’ll never forget: Trashcan Man, in particular, who likes to set garbage (or anything, really) on fire–and even sets a whole empty city on fire; Tom Cullen, the mentally-challenged guy who is always spelling moon (“M-O-O-N, that spells moon.”) King is always entertaining.

Adaptations: I’ve seen the 1994 miniseries with Gary Sinise as Stu Redman and Molly Ringwald as Frannie. I liked it, for the most part. I haven’t watched the 2020 version, but maybe I’ll put it on my list.

The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood (1985).

How it all ends: Subjugation of women through theocracy take-over.

Basic premise/plot: In the near future, America has been taken over by a theocracy and renamed The Republic of Gilead; in a world of dwindling birthrates, women of child-bearing age have become property with no rights and used by wealthy couples to have children.

My thoughts: I read this book years ago, and it outraged me. Not the book itself, which is brilliant, but what happens in the book. I was young and couldn’t imagine such a thing coming to pass, couldn’t imagine women’s rights being so eradicated and reduced to basically medieval status. Ah, the naivete of youth. Now, it not only outrages me, but scares the hell out of me. Because it absolutely could happen, as far-fetched as it sounds. I won’t get into politics here, but let’s just say I’m not too optimistic about women’s rights just about now.

Adaptations: There was a 1990 film that I never saw (and I heard it wasn’t very good), but I’ve watched the first season of the series on Hulu in 2017. It’s fairly true to the book with a few smart changes, and was sobering and upsetting to watch. In fact, I decided not to watch the following seasons because I just couldn’t bear it, lol. I’m someone who can get through every brutal season of Game of Thrones, but this show just hit a nerve for me and I couldn’t continue.

Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel (2014).

How it all ends: Worldwide Deadly Pandemic

Basic premise/plot: A worldwide pandemic has nearly destroyed the human population; a group of actors and musicians travel the countryside in the Great Lakes region to entertain the survivors with Shakespeare and classical music, as they believe “Survival isn’t enough.”

My Thoughts: I adored this book. I mean, it’s tragic that the flu happened, but the story and the writing is wonderful. If you’re looking for a Mad Max kind of post-apocalyptic world here, you won’t find it–it’s too quiet. There’s just not enough people. But those who are left behind find a way to survive, and this particular group–actors and musicians–try to bring a little joy back into life through art. It makes you think about what makes life worth living, beyond survival. It’s about art and memory and what lasts. There’s a bit of danger from a religious zealot (of course), but it’s the connections between past and present that’s really interesting to me.

Adaptations: HBO Max has a miniseries adaptation, but I haven’t seen it. It sounds like a lot of changes have been made, and I love the book so much, I don’t want to experience that.

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy (2006).

How it all ends: Unknown; landscape destruction and societal breakdown.

Basic premise/plot: An unidentified disaster has reduced civilization to rubble and anarchy. A man and his ten year old son travel the dangerous landscape, heading south along the east coast for warmer weather and hope.

My Thoughts: This is a very difficult book to read. I’m not talking about the language; it’s simple and clear. But the subject matter is so damn heavy. There’s been some vague disaster (I think it’s clever that we, the readers, don’t know what it is, because it puts us in the characters’ shoes–they don’t know, either.) It doesn’t really matter what happened, only that it destroyed life as we know it. A nameless man and his ten year old son traverse an ash-covered wasteland, heading south along the Atlantic coast in search of warmer weather. They must find food and shelter along the way, and avoid those who would steal from them or kill them. Cannibalism is a very real thing (there’s a few scenes concerning this that traumatized me, lol). The man is determined to keep his son alive and safe, though he knows he himself his dying. His son, a sweet, good boy despite the horrors he’s seen, “carries the fire,” which I interpret as the light of civilization, the hope for humankind. It’s a very dark read, but does offer some hope.

Adaptations: There’s a 2009 movie with Viggo Mortensen as the Man and Kodi Smit-McPhee as the Boy. I thought it was a great adaptation, and not just because I love Viggo.

The Passage/The Twelve/City of Mirrors, by Justin Cronin (2010-2016).

How it all ends: Accidental release of scientific experiment that turns humans into vampire-like creatures.

Basic premise/plot: A scientific experiment intending to make humans stronger goes awry; it instead turns the test subjects into vampire-like creatures who escape and either kill or transform the rest of the human population into more of them. The key to saving humankind resides in a little girl named Amy.

My Thoughts: I was totally mesmerized by this trilogy of books. It was recommended to me by my sister, who had read the first book, and I instantly fell into it. My sister ended up not reading the next two books, lol, but I tore into them eagerly. It alternates between past and present, from just before the experiment destroys the population, to a hundred years into the future with people trying to deal with the aftermath. Each book gets closer to the origin of the experiment and how it all went wrong, and how those in the future will begin a new era.

Parable of the Sower/Parable of the Talents, by Octavia E. Butler (1994, 1998).

How it all ends: Societal breakdown and anarchy; theocracy take-over.

Basic premise/plot: In the 2020’s, society has broken down into violence, illiteracy, drug addiction, and corporate slavery. Precocious 15-year-old Lauren Olamina sees the direction her world is going in. After her walled neighborhood is attacked and destroyed, she heads north from LA to northern California with a group of survivors, traversing the dangerous roads, determined to survive and start a new way of living.

In Talents, Olamina and her people have been living in their new community, Acorn, for five years, and it’s beginning to grow and thrive; she and her husband have a baby, Larkin. But disaster strikes–the community is raided by Jarrett’s Crusaders, an extremist group from Christian America; the men and women are enslaved and the children abducted. They live in abject slavery and horror for seventeen months. When they’re finally free, Olamina must decide how to rebuild her life, and Earthseed. Her husband was killed and her two month old baby taken, while her passion about Earthseed is stronger than ever.

My Thoughts: I really wish Butler had been able to write her intended third book in this series, because I did not want to say goodbye to these characters and this story. Talents ended in 2090, with Earthseed flourishing and fulfilling their Destiny, but Olamina and her daughter, finally reunited years after the disaster, have a strained relationship. The ending was fairly rushed, and I think Butler intended to write more about Olamina’s final years, and her struggles with establishing Earthseed and her relationship with both her daughter and her brother, in the third book, which she was going to call Parable of the Trickster. But alas, we will never know that story. These books will stay with me for a long while.

Adaptations: I’ve heard that an adaptation is in the works; A24 has bought the rights and slated to be directed by Garret Bradley, but no other details as of yet.

I’m sure I’ve overlooked other dystopian books that I’ve read over the years, but these are the ones that come to mind and I loved the most.

What are your favorite dystopian stories? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

My December Entertainment Update

Hello friends! Time to talk about what’s been entertaining me lately.

Quest of the Jedi Book 1: The Way of the Apprentice, by Jude Watson. I needed an e-book to read, and after not finishing the series The Last of the Jedi, lol, I decided to try this one. It’s the first in a series chronicling the adventures of a young Anakin and Obi-Wan. Like the other series, these are short junior novels, quick, fun reads. This one has Obi-Wan and Anakin sent to a planet in trouble with two sets of other Padawan/Masters that includes Siri and Ferus Olin (I’ve finally gone back far enough to meet him as a Padawan). The planet has been devasted by some kind of bio-weapon disaster, and the Jedi are supposed to help the planet evacuate. Of course, the story becomes more complicated than that, and it’s essentially a story about Anakin learning (or not learning) how to work with other Padawans. I’ve started Book 2, but got distracted by If It Bleeds, by Stephen King. I’ll get back to it.

Ahsoka Rewatch. I decided to rewatch Ahsoka since a friend of mine at work said he was going to watch it, so we could discuss. But he’s been so obsessed with Loki, he hasn’t even gotten past Part 2. Sigh. Oh well, I enjoyed the rewatch, and like it even better on the second watch. It all seems to come together better when you can binge it rather than waiting a week between episodes, idk. Part 5, Shadow Warrior, remains my favorite episode, but I also just adore Ezra, too. And Baylan continues to intrigue. So many great moving parts to this series, though it comes off a little clunky as a whole.

Parable of the Talents, by Octavia E. Butler. In Progress. I’m about halfway done with this book, and I’m totally engrossed. The sequel to Parable of the Sower, it tells of Lauren Olamina and her Earthseed group finally finding safety and relative peace at Acorn, the community they build together in northern California. But disaster and tragedy strike when The Children of Christian America, a fanatical religious group, descends on the community, enslaves the adults, and steals their children. Very difficult part to read, but Lauren finally escapes and is trying to find her infant daughter. I’m eager to see how this one ends. Butler had planned on a third book but unfortunately she died of a stroke in 2005 before she could write it.

If It Bleeds, by Stephen King. In Progress. I was feeling in a bit of a King mood lately, so I thought I’d check this one out. I’ve always enjoyed his shorter fiction, sometimes more than his novels. I’ve only just started the first story, so not much to report on this one. More next month.

Timeless Heroes: Indiana Jones and Harrison Ford. Saw this a few weeks ago and of course watched it. Harrison Ford and Indiana Jones are intrinsically linked, obviously, and this documentary was about both. I’ve always been an Indy fan but I have my favorites (Raiders and The Last Crusade). And I’ve followed Ford’s career but have by no means seen all his films. I also have favorites of those (Blade Runner, Witness and Regarding Henry are top notch). This doc follows Ford’s career, but particularly focuses on the evolution of the Indiana Jones franchise. I did like the interviews with Ford and I decided I like him a little bit better, as in the past few years he just seemed like an ungrateful jerk, lol. Perhaps just misunderstood, but in these interviews he really radiated a warmth concerning these films that redeemed him a bit for me.

New book announced: The Glass Abyss, by Stephen Barnes. I always get excited when new Star Wars canon books are announced, and this one is no exception. I’m really hopeful about this one, because, as you may know, I’ve never been a big Mace Windu fan. He’s just unlikable, lol. I want to like him, though, and in the past have tried to read the Legends Mace book, Shatterpoint, in the hopes of understanding why people love him so much. But I just couldn’t get into it at all. Maybe a canon book will do better for me, as I prefer canon to Legends. Anyway, this one comes out in August of 2024, so not for awhile. Steven Barnes wrote the Legends book The Cestus Deception, which I have on my shelf but haven’t read yet, lol.

Anyway, this is the plot summary:

The Jedi are reeling from Qui-Gon Jinn’s sudden death at the hands of a Sith. Jedi Master Mace Windu’s feelings about Qui-Gon have always been complicated, and have not been made any simpler in death. While they often disagreed, Mace valued Qui-Gon’s unique perspective, and their shared dedication to the Force made them allies. Without Qui-Gon and his unorthodox views, Mace feels out of balance.

While considering his fallen friend’s legacy, Mace is surprised to receive a final message from Qui-Gon, marked to be delivered to Mace on the event of Qui-Gon’s death. The message contains a last request: a plea to help the Outer Rim planet of Metagos.

Many years ago, a violent solar flare transformed the surface of the desert planet into a landscape of irradiated glass—as beautiful as it is dangerous. Now most of the surviving inhabitants live underground, where rival clans fight to control the planet’s limited resources. As a young Jedi, Qui-Gon protected the Sa’ad farming clan from the planet’s less scrupulous factions. The Sa’ad practice the art of dream-weaving, retaining their waking minds upon sleep in order to communicate and coexist with the wild creatures around them. Qui-Gon vowed to return if they ever required his aid, but now it falls to Mace to fulfill that promise. The Sa’ad’s leader, KinShan Nightbird, has begged for the Jedi’s help in freeing Metagos from the crime lords who threaten to eradicate her people’s way of life.

Intent on fulfilling Qui-Gon’s final wishes, Mace travels to Metagos and infiltrates the enemies of the Sa’ad. But as the Jedi Master investigates the intricate web of adversaries and allies, Mace finds himself pushed to the boundaries of the Jedi code, challenging his beliefs and his relationship to the Force itself.
Amazon

Sounds good to me.

So that’s it this month. What’s been entertaining you? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

My Entertainment Weekend Update

Hello friends, and happy weekend!

In books this week, I finished three different novels; one was a big tome, and the other two were short YA or middle grade books. The big book was The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, by V.A. Schwabb, and it was fantastic. This book held me in thrall, and I highly recommend it if you like Faustian bargain-type stories.

I also finished The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton. My daughter and her class finished it, and I was reading along with her. I’d read it when I was a kid and wanted to discuss it with her. It’s a pretty good book, considering it was written when the author was sixteen years old! Now we just have to watch the movie, lol.

The last one I finished was The Weapon of a Jedi, a middle-grade book by Jason Fry. It takes place between A New Hope and Empire, with Luke on a mission for the Alliance. But he ends up on a planet with an old Jedi Temple, and it’s here he learns more about how to use the Force and become more proficient with his lightsaber. Apparently it’s addressing some questions fans had about how Luke learned these things between the two films. It did a pretty good job, I think, but it was never a pressing question for me.

Soon we’ll choose our new book club book, but until then I needed something on my Kindle to read, so I chose Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure, by Jason Fry and Cecil Castellucci. This is also a middle-grade book, and also a “Journey to the Force Awakens” book like Weapon of a Jedi. This one takes place between Empire and Return of the Jedi, while Han is still in carbonite. I’m really enjoying the Leia-centered canon books, like this one, Leia: Princess of Alderaan, and Bloodline. I like these short little middle grade books, too, because they’re fun, quick Star Wars reads when I need one, but don’t want to get into a big adult one yet.

That’s because I’m still trying to get through Ronin: A Star Wars Visions novel. I was really looking forward to this novel, as something new and different in Star Wars. And it is, but it’s not the story that’s making it slow-going for me reading this book. The story intrigues me; it’s the style it’s written in that bothers me. Most Star Wars books are pretty easy reads, and that’s great; that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy more challenging styles (I’m thinking of James Luceno, for example). But there’s something about this one that makes it hard to read. Most of the time, I have no idea what the hell’s going on, lol. I have to read and re-read sentences over and over to figure out what’s happening. And that’s just too distracting.

I’m sure Emma Mieko Candon is a fine writer, and perhaps Visions is something so completely different that she doesn’t feel beholden to the usual Star Wars writing style. And that’s fine, too. But it’s hard work reading this book, lol. And I’m a capable reader: I’ve read and loved Jane Austen, Tolstoy, Henry James, and any other number of classic authors whose style is, to say the least, challenging. But I don’t want it in my Star Wars books, lol. I’m going to keep at it, though, because I like the story I saw in The Duel and I want to know more. I’ll let you know how it’s going next week.

Anyway, in Marvel movie news, I watched Spiderman: Homecoming and loved it. The Spiderman movies are not on Disney+ as you may know, because of licensing stuff, so I have to watch it on Youtube to catch up. I’d watched the Tobey Maguire Spiderman movies back in the day, and really liked him in the role, but I have to say that Tom Holland really captures the young naivete of Peter Parker perfectly. At first I thought I watched the wrong movie first, that No Way Home must have been the first one (even though I checked) because there’s no origin story here. He already has his Spidey powers. Unless I missed something? But it kind of makes sense, because we already know how he got the powers from the other movies. We don’t need to see it again. Anyway, I loved seeing Tony Stark taking him under his wing. Next week I’ll watch No Way Home, and then I should be ready for Far From Home (that’s not confusing, right?).

And because I can’t seem to get enough superhero movies lately, I watched The Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: the Silver Surfer. I think I had seen the first one way back when, but not the second. They’re super fun with simple plots, and not much else, lol. I wish there were a few more with the original cast. There’s an updated one from 2015 with a new cast, and maybe I’ll check that out next week, too, but I’m partial to the originals. Oh, and it was a gas seeing a younger Chris Evans playing the wild ladies man Johnny Storm, the complete opposite of good-boy Steve Rogers. Flame on!

That’s it this week. What’s been entertaining you lately? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!

My Entertainment Weekend Update

Happy weekend friends!

This week in books:

I’m still working through The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, by V. E. Schwab. It’s a big book, and I’m sinking my teeth into it and savoring every page. It’s a fascinating read about a woman who makes a bad deal for eternal life, but at the price of never being remembered. By anyone. Ever. How she makes it through life this way as she witnesses history is an amazing read.

Still working on The Outsiders, but it’s a small book and my daughter’s class is almost done. I won’t mention it again until I’ve actually finished it, lol.

I’m excited to report that I received the Star Wars book Ronin, by Emma Mieko Candon. It’s based on the Visions short The Duel, with the mysterious Ronin and his faithful straw-hatted droid by his side. I’ve only just finished the chapters that deal with what we see in the short, so from here on will be new material. I can’t wait to see what he’s all about.

I’ve also been reading The Weapon of a Jedi, by Jason Fry, a middle-grade Star Wars book about Luke Skywalker that takes place between A New Hope and Empire. This is also a short book, and I’m about halfway done. It deals with Luke on a mission for the Alliance, but he gets sidetracked into exploring a destroyed Jedi Temple on an Outer Rim planet. Fun. I don’t normally read middle-grade, but I wanted something short and sweet on the Kindle to read on break at work, lol (I hate dragging around big hardcovers).

In Marvel news: I’m saddened that there’s no more What If? episodes to watch. 😦 But, I did watch the movie Black Widow, which is now available to basic Disney+ subscribers like myself. It was good; I enjoyed it. I think it takes place between Avengers: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, when Natasha is on the run and hiding from some government dude after the Sekovia Accords. I’ve only watched those movies once so far, so I’m a little fuzzy about the timeline and events, lol. I’ll have to do a rewatch.

Speaking of rewatches, every now and then I rewatch a favorite Marvel movie or show: this week it was Guardians of the Galaxy. Before my Marvel revelation and conversion, when I saw the previews for this movie when it came out I thought, “Boy, that looks so dumb.” Never in a million years did I think it would be one of my favorites! But it’s so fun, and the soundtrack helps a lot, too. I’m a sucker for 70s easy-listening, and my joy in it is validated in this movie, lol. But I love the characters (I never thought I’d love a gun-toting racoon so much), it’s hilarious, and ties in nicely with the upcoming Infinity War arc.

That’s really about it. The next big thing, I think, is the Hawkeye series premiering on November 24th, with two episodes. I’ve always been a Hawkeye fan, so I’m looking forward to this.

What’s been entertaining you? Let me know in the comments and we’ll talk about it!