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Suswatibasu (1701 KP) rated The List in Books
Nov 9, 2017 (Updated Nov 9, 2017)
Quite a few plot holes, not very developed writing style
I enjoyed the concept of mixing both an apocalyptic scenario with a dystopian fiction, such as a cross between the Hunger Games and High Rise, however, I thought it fell short in many ways. The context was not particularly developed as we had little understanding of what really happened before and after the Melting. The idea of language as a weapon pre-apocalypse was also not very clear. There was a wild amount of movement and action that was also not fully formed, so it made it difficult to envisage the characters travelling from A to B. Overall, a great, relevant and contemporary topic with a few descriptive flaws.
Russell Evans (179 KP) rated Gaslands Refuelled in Tabletop Games
Feb 23, 2020
Super cheap miniatures game (3 more)
Easy to get into
Fun rules
Unlimited modelling options
No official pre-made pre-painted miniatures (1 more)
Print off your own templates or buy from 3rd parties
A brilliantly written and illustrated book for a tabletop game of post-apocalyptic racing – fast cars with big guns – Mad Max in miniature.
It’s tons of fun and easy to play the basics straight away. After that, there is more depth to the rules to explore and building teams to keep things interesting and have long term playability. To get started, you can use templates copied and printed from the book and normal dice, or like I have done, you can get plenty of third-party companies selling templates, scenery and ‘skid’ dice.
One of the main reasons I picked this game up, apart from the raving reviews I’d seen online, was the DIY modelling aspect of the game. As a long time mini-gamer of things like Warhammer and Star Wars FFG, I’m used to my miniatures burning a big hole in my pocket. Re-modelling and repainting HotWheels cars (Super cheap – a couple of quid vs about £30 for a Star Wars ship) is the best part of this game for me, you can use standard cars if you want to, but there are no official pre-made pre-painted ‘cars’ which may be a negative, if you’re not into modelling.
Fun is the main priority and my favourite rule is that if a rule is unclear, you choose whichever option results in the most carnage for all concerned … This is ‘The Rule of Carnage’.
Highly recommended – if you want a different mini game that’s fun and won’t break the bank, check this out!
It’s tons of fun and easy to play the basics straight away. After that, there is more depth to the rules to explore and building teams to keep things interesting and have long term playability. To get started, you can use templates copied and printed from the book and normal dice, or like I have done, you can get plenty of third-party companies selling templates, scenery and ‘skid’ dice.
One of the main reasons I picked this game up, apart from the raving reviews I’d seen online, was the DIY modelling aspect of the game. As a long time mini-gamer of things like Warhammer and Star Wars FFG, I’m used to my miniatures burning a big hole in my pocket. Re-modelling and repainting HotWheels cars (Super cheap – a couple of quid vs about £30 for a Star Wars ship) is the best part of this game for me, you can use standard cars if you want to, but there are no official pre-made pre-painted ‘cars’ which may be a negative, if you’re not into modelling.
Fun is the main priority and my favourite rule is that if a rule is unclear, you choose whichever option results in the most carnage for all concerned … This is ‘The Rule of Carnage’.
Highly recommended – if you want a different mini game that’s fun and won’t break the bank, check this out!
Awix (3310 KP) rated Deluge (1933) in Movies
Apr 23, 2019 (Updated Apr 23, 2019)
Pre-Code apocalyptic disaster movie boldly goes where Roland Emmerich would follow several times; also manages to be almost definitively non-compliant with the Bechdel test. A series of unexplained disasters including floods and earthquakes destroy civilisation; in the aftermath resourceful lawyer Martin hooks up with plucky society girl Claire, little realising his wife and children survived the catastrophe. Then fate brings them all back together...
The destruction of New York is the most celebrated sequence in the movie, and it stands up relatively well as an example of practical effects in action, but it happens in the first quarter of the movie. Most of the rest of it is concerned with surprisingly familiar post-apocalyptic themes - people come together and struggle to rebuild, raiders prey on settlements, people question familiar moral standards, and so on. The film's gender politics are startling, to say the least: women appear to have no rights and are basically property (and then civilisation crumbles, ha ha). It is interesting and indicative that the film ends with the affirmation of the traditional moral order. Not exactly subtle or nuanced, and the acting is fairly robotic, but it's pacy and the story is an engaging one. An interesting movie that suggests things haven't changed as much as we sometimes think.
The destruction of New York is the most celebrated sequence in the movie, and it stands up relatively well as an example of practical effects in action, but it happens in the first quarter of the movie. Most of the rest of it is concerned with surprisingly familiar post-apocalyptic themes - people come together and struggle to rebuild, raiders prey on settlements, people question familiar moral standards, and so on. The film's gender politics are startling, to say the least: women appear to have no rights and are basically property (and then civilisation crumbles, ha ha). It is interesting and indicative that the film ends with the affirmation of the traditional moral order. Not exactly subtle or nuanced, and the acting is fairly robotic, but it's pacy and the story is an engaging one. An interesting movie that suggests things haven't changed as much as we sometimes think.
Steve Fearon (84 KP) rated Hostile (2017) in Movies
Nov 7, 2018
Claustraphobic (1 more)
Good ramping up of tension
Here in my car, I feel safest of all...
An interesting if not overly original premise, Hostile tells the post apocalyptic tale of a woman in the desert, trapped and injured under her overturned vehicle, whilst being stalked by a mutant creature.
It does a decent job of creating a world and setting for a modest budget, and though its attempts to avoid showing too much for financial reasons are a little transparent at times.
The film oscillates between the post apocalyptic and the pre-catastrophe, and the performances of the main cast are good enough to maintain interest even when going though the largely melodramatic character building of the contemporary setting.
It is ultimately reminiscent of movies like open water, 47 feet under, and even some episodes of the Walking Dead, with the stranded survivor having to survive whilst essentially trapped in one location.
It is a slow burn movie, and very character based, so you spend a lot of time with our protagonist, who was a little cliched, and hard to like most of the time, but a decent enough performance that you can get through the more dialogue heavy parts.
A decent film, and at only 80 minutes, not a huge investment of your time, so might be worth a look if you like your survival movies a bit wasteland-y.
It does a decent job of creating a world and setting for a modest budget, and though its attempts to avoid showing too much for financial reasons are a little transparent at times.
The film oscillates between the post apocalyptic and the pre-catastrophe, and the performances of the main cast are good enough to maintain interest even when going though the largely melodramatic character building of the contemporary setting.
It is ultimately reminiscent of movies like open water, 47 feet under, and even some episodes of the Walking Dead, with the stranded survivor having to survive whilst essentially trapped in one location.
It is a slow burn movie, and very character based, so you spend a lot of time with our protagonist, who was a little cliched, and hard to like most of the time, but a decent enough performance that you can get through the more dialogue heavy parts.
A decent film, and at only 80 minutes, not a huge investment of your time, so might be worth a look if you like your survival movies a bit wasteland-y.
LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Sunshine (2007) in Movies
Sep 20, 2020
Frantic, superhuman space escapism (spacapism? spacecapism? spacescapism?) which revels in chucking its cast of unfortunate characters head-first into ludicrous amounts of mental anguish, bodily torment, and spiritual deformation with nary a single solitary moment of repose. What do you do when you can't even trust your own mind (especially if it's scarier when you can) and don't even have the time to be sure before you act? Part sumptuous feast for the senses, part wildly fun men-on-a-mission space adventure, part bonkers slasher flick, part volatile mindfuck. Still one of the best looking movies you're likely to find, I'm never any less than blown away with how orgasmic this looks and sounds - the CGI is just immaculate. And the tech-fetish is so striking but never intrusive. Bonus points for being a pre-apocalyptic, time sensitive future sci-fi thriller that doesn't turn into a surface-level lecture on misplaced technophobia or "maybe *we're* the real virus" nonsense. Boyle and Garland are a dream team duo, knocked it right out of the park with this one - five hundred times the movie 𝘚𝘭𝘶𝘮𝘥𝘰𝘨 𝘔𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘦 is.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Gamera: Revenge of Iris (1999) in Movies
Mar 15, 2019 (Updated Mar 15, 2019)
Apocalyptic final instalment in Kaneko's trilogy takes the Japanese monster movie to places it has never been before or since. Amid signs of the man-eating Gyaos creatures reappearing in vast numbers, an embittered girl bonds with the life-draining Iris creature to seek revenge on Gamera after her parents were killed in his battle with the first Gyaos some years earlier.
Incomplete Struggle (a much better title to my mind) is much more of a fantasy film than the previous chapter in the story, once again playing cleverly with various tropes of Japanese monster stories. The script takes the trouble to include characters from both previous films (it is clearly intended as a grand conclusion to the story) and also explores notions of pre-millennial angst. Once again, the monster battles are superbly staged, but the big ideas explored by the film are also fascinating, even if some elements of the story are left a bit vague. What one person sees as vaulting imagination and ambition, another may see as the script getting a bit out of control; some may also have an issue with the deliberate lack of closure at the very end of the film. Nevertheless, this movie manages to give the Japanese kaiju genre a sense of majesty and gravitas it has seldom achieved anywhere else.
Incomplete Struggle (a much better title to my mind) is much more of a fantasy film than the previous chapter in the story, once again playing cleverly with various tropes of Japanese monster stories. The script takes the trouble to include characters from both previous films (it is clearly intended as a grand conclusion to the story) and also explores notions of pre-millennial angst. Once again, the monster battles are superbly staged, but the big ideas explored by the film are also fascinating, even if some elements of the story are left a bit vague. What one person sees as vaulting imagination and ambition, another may see as the script getting a bit out of control; some may also have an issue with the deliberate lack of closure at the very end of the film. Nevertheless, this movie manages to give the Japanese kaiju genre a sense of majesty and gravitas it has seldom achieved anywhere else.
LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Into The Forest (2016) in Movies
Sep 19, 2020
A light, pretty take on the bonds of family during hard times gets brutalized halfway through by one of the hardest to watch scenes of 2015 before becoming a powerfully emotional apocalypse tale about how much of your life is actually necessary. This has been criticized up and down for not using a 'harrowing' enough crisis to set the scene, and look I'm just going to tell you right now that I understand why you all think this is 'millennial' but this right here would be my living nightmare. I'm that character in every pre/post-apocalyptic movie who loses their shit after the power goes out in the first five minutes - I don't even go tent camping, like I *need* that shit. To quote Kumail Nanjiani from 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘪𝘨 𝘚𝘪𝘤𝘬: "I'm going to be the first guy to die. I die so the other characters get to find out something weird is going on". Also a big plus that this doesn't turn into some finger-shaking technophobic lecture as it no doubt would have under any other circumstances. No I don't take a ton of stock in this rather simple story on the surface but the real beauty of it is brought to life with these all-in performances, earthly visuals, together with the *deeply* rich and evocative score. It's such a bracingly haunting yet unforgettably sensual experience, and it has one of the more sound 'good thing, bad thing, good thing, bad thing...' structures for the genre. Very lovely.
ClareR (5589 KP) rated The Memory of Animals in Books
Jun 8, 2023
I’m completely braised. I love Claire Fullers writing, I’ve loved everything I’ve read by her and The Memory of Animals is no exception. And the fact that this could be described as a dystopian or even an apocalyptic novel made it even more fascinating. I love this genre - even though it usually enters my dreams and makes for an interesting nights sleep!
This is a pandemic novel - but not our pandemic, not Covid. This is a dropsy-type disease, where those infected swell up, their brains swell up too, they forget - and more often than not, they die.
Neffy (Nefeli) and a group of young people volunteer to be vaccinated against, and then infected by, the virus. Something goes wrong, and it looks as though Neffy and four other test volunteers are the only ones who are alive and well. But they can’t leave the building they’re in and the food is running out.
Neffy is a Marine Biologist, an Aquarist, and my favourite parts were her letters to ‘H’ as well as her flashbacks to childhood and pre-pandemic.
This isn’t *just* a speculative, science fiction book, it’s a story about the human condition, about the human drive to survive against the odds, regret, loss, grief, memory, love and above all, hope.
I could go on and on about this. I would never have expected a novel like this from Claire Fuller after reading her previous novels, but that’s what makes it even better. I actually read this twice (unheard of for me, actually). I finished it and immediately started reading again.
So yes, I would most definitely strongly recommend this book!
This is a pandemic novel - but not our pandemic, not Covid. This is a dropsy-type disease, where those infected swell up, their brains swell up too, they forget - and more often than not, they die.
Neffy (Nefeli) and a group of young people volunteer to be vaccinated against, and then infected by, the virus. Something goes wrong, and it looks as though Neffy and four other test volunteers are the only ones who are alive and well. But they can’t leave the building they’re in and the food is running out.
Neffy is a Marine Biologist, an Aquarist, and my favourite parts were her letters to ‘H’ as well as her flashbacks to childhood and pre-pandemic.
This isn’t *just* a speculative, science fiction book, it’s a story about the human condition, about the human drive to survive against the odds, regret, loss, grief, memory, love and above all, hope.
I could go on and on about this. I would never have expected a novel like this from Claire Fuller after reading her previous novels, but that’s what makes it even better. I actually read this twice (unheard of for me, actually). I finished it and immediately started reading again.
So yes, I would most definitely strongly recommend this book!
ClareR (5589 KP) rated The Wolves of Winter in Books
Mar 11, 2022
I keep doing this. Reading books about pandemics during a pandemic, and then scaring the living daylights out of myself. Thank goodness I’d read Justin Cronin’s The Passage trilogy pre-Covid, because that would really have had me battening down the hatches!
This is about a different flu-like virus, but the mortality rate is far higher than Covid. And then nuclear bombs are also involved, so it’s a pretty full-on start to this remarkable book.
The sensible people move north. In this case, they move to the Yukon, where the virus is less virulent and people can hunt and trap their food. Lynn McBride lives here with what’s left of her family. They’ve carved out a life for themselves and live in relative safety in the barren, white landscape. But they can’t keep everyone away, and soothe outside world starts to encroach in the form of a loner called Jax, and a frankly scary group of people who are intent on seeing the end of the virus, no matter the human cost.
I loved the descriptions of the landscape - I do tend to love a book set in frozen landscapes (Arctic, Antarctic, just somewhere plain cold!), which is odd really, because I can’t think of a worse place to live. It’s a morbid fascination, I suppose. And the descriptions in this book of the cold, the landscape and the difficulties of living there are so evocative. People surviving against the odds always a winning theme.
It wasn’t until I sat down to write this, that I found out that the book was YA. Honestly, it hadn’t even crossed my mind. Ok, there’s no sex, but in my opinion it just seemed too cold anyway 🤷🏼♀️. The main protagonist is in her late teens, and there is a sexual assault and some shooting/ bloodshed. There’s a very cute dog though (also a winning formula for me).
So if you’re feeling brave and like a post-apocalyptic story, you may well fancy reading this. I do wonder if there will be a follow up, because I’d love to know what happens after the final page (it does seem open to that). I’d definitely read it!
This is about a different flu-like virus, but the mortality rate is far higher than Covid. And then nuclear bombs are also involved, so it’s a pretty full-on start to this remarkable book.
The sensible people move north. In this case, they move to the Yukon, where the virus is less virulent and people can hunt and trap their food. Lynn McBride lives here with what’s left of her family. They’ve carved out a life for themselves and live in relative safety in the barren, white landscape. But they can’t keep everyone away, and soothe outside world starts to encroach in the form of a loner called Jax, and a frankly scary group of people who are intent on seeing the end of the virus, no matter the human cost.
I loved the descriptions of the landscape - I do tend to love a book set in frozen landscapes (Arctic, Antarctic, just somewhere plain cold!), which is odd really, because I can’t think of a worse place to live. It’s a morbid fascination, I suppose. And the descriptions in this book of the cold, the landscape and the difficulties of living there are so evocative. People surviving against the odds always a winning theme.
It wasn’t until I sat down to write this, that I found out that the book was YA. Honestly, it hadn’t even crossed my mind. Ok, there’s no sex, but in my opinion it just seemed too cold anyway 🤷🏼♀️. The main protagonist is in her late teens, and there is a sexual assault and some shooting/ bloodshed. There’s a very cute dog though (also a winning formula for me).
So if you’re feeling brave and like a post-apocalyptic story, you may well fancy reading this. I do wonder if there will be a follow up, because I’d love to know what happens after the final page (it does seem open to that). I’d definitely read it!
Kelly (279 KP) rated The Passage in Books
Dec 4, 2018
In depth, well thought out characters (2 more)
Intelligent plot
A nobody is safe story line!
A ‘could not put it down’ read.
The passage is the first of three books which span centuries, covering before, during and after a vampire apocalypse.
I have to say, I was hooked on this novel from the start. Originally picking it up, without even reading the synopsis or reviews, I was surprised to find out that this is actually a novel about vampires (which I did not expect from the title). The build up to the vampire apocalypse is well thought out, flawless planned and written, demonstrating expert skill by Justin Cronin.
The characters are complex, and demonstrate both strengths and flaws, nobody is perfect in this novel not even Amy or Peter, who are the main characters the story centres around. We grow to love these characters, just as much as we grow to strongly dislike characters such as Babcock and Grey. I believe that the emotional connection that I was able to apply to these characters, is what drew me further into the novel. Equally all characters face hardships during the novel, some worse than others, but I found myself wishing that those characters I deemed to be good, would face better times, and those who I felt were bad individuals would soon face their comeuppance. Good or bad however, Cronins’ concentration on the back grounds of the characters does allow us to emphasise and understand why the primary characters within the novel act the way they did, even if this was in conflict with our own values and morals.
As the story unravels, Cronin does jump between different time periods (pre, during and post apocalypse). Although Cronin does give each period a fair amount of time within the book, I did find it difficult to leave the characters from one period behind, in order to move onto another, partially due to the attachment that I had created with the characters. Although the time jumps were carried out at deliberate timings and are not too frequent, I did find them a little distracting.
The story itself makes sense as a stand alone novel, but makes even more sense when read with the rest of the series. When read with the other two novels, The Passage is merely a scene setting novel, for the books that are to come, and as such, has a lot less of a biblical undertone than the series as an entirety (there are a lot of references to the Old Testament in the books that follow). Despite this, the book is a highly enjoyable read, and is not your usual vampire/ apocalyptic novel.
I have to say, I was hooked on this novel from the start. Originally picking it up, without even reading the synopsis or reviews, I was surprised to find out that this is actually a novel about vampires (which I did not expect from the title). The build up to the vampire apocalypse is well thought out, flawless planned and written, demonstrating expert skill by Justin Cronin.
The characters are complex, and demonstrate both strengths and flaws, nobody is perfect in this novel not even Amy or Peter, who are the main characters the story centres around. We grow to love these characters, just as much as we grow to strongly dislike characters such as Babcock and Grey. I believe that the emotional connection that I was able to apply to these characters, is what drew me further into the novel. Equally all characters face hardships during the novel, some worse than others, but I found myself wishing that those characters I deemed to be good, would face better times, and those who I felt were bad individuals would soon face their comeuppance. Good or bad however, Cronins’ concentration on the back grounds of the characters does allow us to emphasise and understand why the primary characters within the novel act the way they did, even if this was in conflict with our own values and morals.
As the story unravels, Cronin does jump between different time periods (pre, during and post apocalypse). Although Cronin does give each period a fair amount of time within the book, I did find it difficult to leave the characters from one period behind, in order to move onto another, partially due to the attachment that I had created with the characters. Although the time jumps were carried out at deliberate timings and are not too frequent, I did find them a little distracting.
The story itself makes sense as a stand alone novel, but makes even more sense when read with the rest of the series. When read with the other two novels, The Passage is merely a scene setting novel, for the books that are to come, and as such, has a lot less of a biblical undertone than the series as an entirety (there are a lot of references to the Old Testament in the books that follow). Despite this, the book is a highly enjoyable read, and is not your usual vampire/ apocalyptic novel.