fiction review

FICTION REVIEW


Well, I must say I’m a bit disappointed. I tried to tack up the insulation under the trailer this weekend and it turned into a big squishy pile. The semi-rigid thick plastic vapor guard under the floor buckles and weaves and the board insulation wouldn’t stay attached to it. And even if I had another kind of glue I still don’t think it would work as the “skin” layer on the board was being pulled off at the glue spots ( as if the damn thing weighed much at all ). Believe me, when my brilliant plans fail to take reality into account I get all butt hurt and pouty. So, I pulled out all the miscellaneous patch quilt of insulation out from under the living room rug and replaced it with one piece of insulation, then put the foam insulation and wool rug over that. I don’t know if this is going to work as well. At least the living room got its spring cleaning. We’ll see if it makes a difference, perhaps as early as Wednesday if the forecasted storm is as bad as they claim. On a happier note, my co-worker brought in a bunch of glass for me to use on my solar projects. Hopefully that will have a happier ending. You know I’ll bother you with the results.

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Since we have pretty much covered all future catastrophes in the last few days, volcanic ash chocking your asparagus which is then dusted with a layer of nuclear fallout, let’s return our limited attention spans to doomer entertainment. Today we will review two wonderful books, “Go-Go Girls Of The Apocalypse” by Victor Gishler and “Oil Dusk” by Cape and Buckner. I can’t remember if these books were recommended to me or I just happened upon them. If one of my loyal minions did recommend them, fine job. If not, you slacking whores! Do you realize how long it’s been since I read two good doomer books back to back? Usually you have to wade through a huge pile of crap to get one good one. But for some reason Baby Jesus himself took pity on me and decided to throw me a bone here. I won’t get used to it. Okay, while both of these novels are of course far from perfect, they are the best I’ve seen for awhile. It could just be me, perhaps I’ve given up on the perfect end of the world story and settled for just being entertained. Or, these two really kicked butt.

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“Go-Go Girls” was very tongue in cheek. The author brings up a lot of valid points, but he has fun doing it, rarely taking himself too seriously. He explores the depths to which humans will sink, but also lets our hero wander the wasteland killing bad guys in between visits to a chain of post-apoc go-go clubs. My only complaint was that while he carefully laid out the shortages of manufactured good at the beginning, he kind of lost that thought at the end so that a huge gun battle in cars could take place. But he quickly rebounded in the epilogue which was a very satisfying wind up. One thing that particularly pleased me was the main characters abnormal attachment to coffee which was in short supply. This was a recurrent theme and I couldn’t help myself but to lean back and grin widely as I remembered my minions rude and unsupportive comments about my own focus on post-apocalypse coffee supplies. Take that, bitches!

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“Oil Dusk” isn’t about a post-apocalyptic future as much as it is the beginning of the end as the oil runs out. That event is put at 2015, which seems wildly optimistic, but this story also has a happy ending so you know we’re having a huge supply of sunshine piped up our butts here. Of course, to give the authors their due, they do admit in the afterwards that the normal reader wouldn’t get off so easy. The federal government is still functioning, as this is the period when oil just starts to become unavailable, but it isn’t portrayed as all powerful and all-knowing and we are thankfully spared any militia porn here. Services are pretty much abandoned by all municipalities as the economy nosedives and almost all trade ceases. Everyone is pretty much on their own but in rural Arkansas there isn’t much more than an increase in theft. The original suburban home that was abandoned in Nebraska ( or Kansas, can’t remember ) did see a huge upsurge in violence and looting, but the farmers in the South were left alone. So I guess you could call thisBackwoods Home Magazine Porn. However, it worked even if the story line is too optimistic, because the focus was on the family as it tried to deal with the new reality unfolding before them. The wife was a total twat, refusing to accept there was no more Starbucks or SUV’s or power suits for her liberal sisters in corporate offices anymore. I would normally claim that this wasn’t gender biased, that it could have easily been a man pissed about giving up his sports on cable and his nacho chips and beer. Because 99% of the American public, both sexes, are hopelessly mired in luxury and will never accept it must be given up. However, the wife had just had a baby, so the fact that she allowed herself the luxury of falling into a depression pissed me off to no end. You have a kid to raise, you worthless ass. If nothing else, I think this story was great for highlighting the problems you will have as the family fights all necessary changes. Fighting you so far as to endanger everyone’s lives. Serious smack down time.

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“Go-Go Girls” was loads of fun. “Oil Dusk” was a pretty good cautionary tale in family/group dynamics. I don’t think you will regret getting either one. As long as you have the money to spare and your stockpile is in order.

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