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!

(Some spoilery things ahead!)

I finished The High Republic novel Convergence, by Zoraida Cordova. I enjoyed it and am looking forward to its counterpart and sequel, Cataclysm, coming out in April of next year. It concerns the two planets Eiram and E’ronoh, which have been at war with each other for years. Jedi Knight Gella Natai is part of a Jedi delegation to help broker a peace treaty between the two worlds. She is helped in this mission by the two heirs, Xiri A’lbaran of E’ronoh and Phantu-Zenn of Eiram. Added to the mix is Axel Greylark, son of one of the Chancellors of the Republic, who has a troubled past and is sent there by his mother to report back to her. These four young people form a friendship as they embark on a mission to spread word of the treaty and the marriage that will take place between Xiri and Phantu-Zenn; they hope their union will bring peace to their war-weary worlds. However, not everyone wants peace and the mission is threatened from without as well as within.

Xiri and Phantu-Zenn are pretty straight-forward: they are both determined to forge peace between their worlds, and are willing to work together to do it. Gella, for her part, was assigned to this mission on the heels of a failed Pathfinder mission, where members of her team were killed or injured. She is unsure of her place in the Order, has doubts about herself as a team player, but is dedicated to the Force and the success of this mission.

Axel Greylark is the most interesting character in the book, and also the most inscrutable. He comes off as a scoundrel: an insouciant, selfish, jaded charmer, with gambling debts and a price on his head. But we also know there’s a wounded little boy inside, hiding his pain from his father’s death years ago, an accident which involved some Jedi. Ever since, he’s been hostile and mistrusting of Jedi. Of course, over the course of the book, he falls for Gella, but he’s far too complicated to change for the better because of this. He wants to; but feels it’s far too late for him, as he’s involved in some fairly murderous doings, among other things.

The saga of Eiram and E’ronoh continue in the audiobook releasing soon called The Battle of Jedha. I don’t care for audiobooks, but I have pre-ordered the print format of the book that will release in February, as I feel fairly invested in this story. And it’s Jedha, which, ever since Rogue One, has intrigued me immensely. I want to know more about it, and about the various Force religions. It’s why I’ve picked up Guardians of the Whills again, a short novel about Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus on Jedha. I’ll write more about that one next week.

I’m not sure why Vader is on the cover, since he doesn’t make an appearance in the comic.

Anyway, I also received and read the Obi-Wan Kenobi comic the other night. As I’ve mentioned many times before, I’m not much into comics, but every once in a while one comes out that I feel moved to read. This is one of them, as Obi-Wan is probably my favorite character in Star Wars right now. The comic concerns Obi-Wan in exile on Tatooine in his later years, probably quite close to the time of A New Hope. A sandstorm is coming, and he writes a few stories about his past in his journal to pass the time. The five stories span his lifetime, from a youngling, to Padawan to Qui-Gon Jinn, to Clone Wars General, to his mentoring of Anakin, and finally as Old Ben on Tatooine. The subtitle of the comic is “The Purpose of a Jedi”, and these stories examine that very question, as well as prepare him for his lonely exile on Tatooine. As a youngling, he must learn to rely on himself; as a Padawan, he learns to find the light in the darkness; in the Clone Wars, he truly ponders the purpose of a Jedi in war-time, which is always to help others and to choose life, even among death; in a mission with Anakin, he learns to hold on to that purpose even when it’s clear that constant war can consume others; and in the last story, he shows the incredible compassion he’s attained over the years, helping a Stormtrooper attacked by Tuskens.

The comic doesn’t add anything of great import to the canon; it’s more of a character-driven story, exploring Obi-Wan’s state of mind and what he’s learned over the years of being a Jedi. As an Obi-Wan fan, I found it very satisfying.

Also in books, I’ve been continuing my reading of Fairy Tale, by Stephen King. It’s a fun and entertaining book, about a teenage boy and his dog visiting a parallel world that is overcome by evil. I’ll probably finish it this week and write more about it next week.

Reading Stephen King got me in the mood to watch a King movie, and so I watched Doctor Sleep, the sequel to The Shining. I read The Shining years ago, and of course watched the Stanley Kubrick film with Jack Nicholson. This story concerns the adult Dan Torrance, and his life after the horrific events at the Overlook Hotel (and stars our very own Ewan McGregor as the adult Dan). So as a kid, little Danny swore he’d never touch alcohol, after seeing it destroy his father. Well, that didn’t go as planned, and he spends most of his young adult life as an alcoholic. He hits rock bottom, and ends up in a New Hampshire town where he finds help from a man named Billy, who leads him to Alcoholics Anonymous. He gets clean and spends eight years working as an orderly in a nursing home. Through his special abilities (the shining), he helps people pass on to the other side. Because of this, the residents call him “Doctor Sleep.” He turns his life around and has found a rewarding way to use his “shine.”

But.

Of course, there’s trouble. A group called the True Knot is stalking people, children in particular, who have the shining, even if they don’t know it. They kidnap and slowly kill these people, in order to “eat” their “steam”–fear and pain causes them to emit a sort of mist that is a manifestation of their power, and when the group inhales it, it “feeds” them. It causes them to live long lives.

Dan comes to know a 12-year-old girl named Abra who is very powerful in the shining. The group finds out about her existence and wants her. Dan becomes involved in helping her, but in doing so, he needs to confront his past and the (literal) ghosts that haunt him.

I don’t think this movie did very well at the box office, but I was certainly entertained for 2+ hours. I may read the book, once I finish Fairy Tale.

Lastly, I came across a trailer for a movie coming out next March:

I never knew I needed an Adam Driver time-travel sci-fi Jurassic Park kind of movie, but here we are. I’ll definitely be watching that one!

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

P.S.–I saw that the Phase One High Republic YA novels will be coming out in a boxed set soon with new covers:

If I had a bottomless budget, I’d get this, because I love the new covers. I’ll wishlist it, lol.

My Entertainment Weekend Update

Hello my friends, and happy weekend!

I’ve been continuing to read Convergence, by Zoraida Cordova, the adult novel in the first wave of Phase 2 High Republic books. I’m enjoying it, but as an adult novel, it doesn’t seem to have the same scope as other adult HR books. Instead of the usual galaxy-hopping, it takes place mostly on one, or at most, two planets. Add to this its focus on a group of young people, and it seems like another YA novel. That’s fine, it’s a good book, just not what I expected. I have a feeling this first wave of books is setting up the scene for the second wave, where things will possibly come to a head. I’ll write more about it when I finish it.

A story of a boy and his dog and another world.

On Kindle, I downloaded Stephen King’s latest, Fairy Tale. I don’t read all of King’s books, but once in a while he comes out with one that particularly appeals to me. The last one was Sleeping Beauties, and before that, The Dark Tower series (and I heard a Dark Tower series may be in the works for Prime, for which I am very excited). Fairy Tale is about a teenager named Charlie Reade who gets involved in helping out an old man named Howard Bowditch and his faithful dog, Radar. Bowditch has been hiding a secret for many years on his property: a hole in the ground in his backyard with spiraling steps that lead to another world. King really takes his time setting this all up and I’m just getting to the other world, about 80 pages in. I have no idea what this might be leading to and I can’t wait to find out!

I haven’t gotten back to Poldark yet, but in the meantime I’m rewatching the Obi-Wan Kenobi series (for the fourth? fifth? time, lol). This came about because, during one of my husband’s scrolling sessions through Youtube on our TV, he came across the second lightsaber duel between Obi-Wan and Vader in that show. He hasn’t seen the show (he’s a very casual Star Wars fan, doesn’t know much about the prequels, and was unimpressed with the first episode that I made him watch). But he does enjoy battle/lightsaber duel scenes, so we watched. And this, of course, got me in the mood to watch the show again. Because I LOVE this show. While perhaps not as technically brilliant as Andor, it’s the one that gets me in the feels the most. And since I’ll be getting the Obi-Wan comic next week, it seems fitting.

There are a couple of Star Wars trailers that came out this past week that I’d like to note. I’m very excited about The Bad Batch Season Two trailer, the second one we’ve gotten, and it gives us more to chew on and anticipate. In particular, I love that Cody will be in the show. Fans have long wondered what happened to him after Order 66, and now we get to find out. He’s shown talking to Crosshair, and mentioning that a lot of clone troopers are questioning their orders. I’m hoping this means that Cody is, too, and will eventually join with Rex in fighting the Empire. We see Gungi, the Wookiee Jedi Padawan from Clone Wars, and it’s exciting to see a surviving Jedi in the show (and maybe more?). Rex, and Bail Organa, and some new characters. Maybe Ahsoka? Ahsoka doesn’t need to be in everything, mind you, but it wouldn’t bother me, lol. I’m excited to see Echo exhorting Hunter for them to do more, to help fight the Empire. I’m hoping Echo has a bit more to do this season. It all looks fantastic, and I can’t wait until January 4th, when we get the first two episodes.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not a gamer at all, but I did watch the Jedi: Survivor trailer, the Star Wars game that is a sequel to Jedi: Fallen Order. I’ve always been very interested in Cal Kestis’ story, and while I read a version of his story somewhere, and maybe even watched a Youtube version, I still felt like I was missing out. I’m glad gamers are getting more gaming fun from Cal and his crew, but it’s the book that drops the same week called Jedi: Battle Scars that I’m most looking forward to. I’m hoping you don’t need to know a lot about the game to enjoy the book, but just in case, I’ll watch some more Youtube summaries to get reacquainted with the characters. Both the game and the book drop in March of next year.

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