What are you currently reading?

[jeffingoff]

I just finished Dark Advent by Brian Hodge, which I later found was a revised version of one of his earliest works. It's also the first of his books that I read. The Stand is probably my all-time favourite book, so the similarities between TS and DA were apparent immediately. It was interesting reading the Afterword when BH explained that he had sketched out the novel before TS was published. And for me, while it is part of the post Apocalypse genre, it stood on it's own pretty well. A thoroughly enjoyable (and easy) read.
I'm yet to read Swan Song by McCammon, but that will happen soon. So no need to recommend it to me!
I've started Mad Dogs by Brian Hodge now. I'm interested to see how his more recent writing compares to that in DA.

Still listening to Sleeping Beauties - it's long but I'm almost there. I can't say I'm loving it but I will persist.

I couldn't finish Mad Dogs.But I loved I'll Bring You the Birds From Out of the Sky.

[Martin]

I just finished Dark Advent by Brian Hodge, which I later found was a revised version of one of his earliest works. It's also the first of his books that I read. The Stand is probably my all-time favourite book, so the similarities between TS and DA were apparent immediately. It was interesting reading the Afterword when BH explained that he had sketched out the novel before TS was published. And for me, while it is part of the post Apocalypse genre, it stood on it's own pretty well. A thoroughly enjoyable (and easy) read.
I'm yet to read Swan Song by McCammon, but that will happen soon. So no need to recommend it to me!
I've started Mad Dogs by Brian Hodge now. I'm interested to see how his more recent writing compares to that in DA.

Still listening to Sleeping Beauties - it's long but I'm almost there. I can't say I'm loving it but I will persist.

Dark Advent is still in my TBR but I enjoyed Mad Dogs. I enjoyed Sleeping Beauties but felt it was longer than it needed to be.

[Martin]

I couldn't finish Mad Dogs.But I loved I'll Bring You the Birds From Out of the Sky.

I really enjoyed Mad Dogs, I'll Bring You the Birds From Out of the Sky will be read later this month.

[RonClinton]

Back in the day before post-apocalypse fiction was all the rage, THE STAND , SWAN SONG, and DARK ADVENT were the genre's Holy Trinity (or to my mind, at least). All three remain highlights of the post-apoc form.

I'm starting ARTEMIS by Andy Weir.

[HumphreyBear]

Having enjoyed Dark Advent so much, I immediately added the CD versions of Dark Advent, Mad Dogs and Picking The Bones to my list of titles that I have bought from one of our fellow forum folk. I almost bought I'll Bring The Birds from CD but rememberedthat I have a few grab bags on the go, so decided to wait. Tonight when I arrived home from the office, a huge box from CD was waiting - my end of 2017 10 book grab bag - and one of them was a lovely little signed copy of I'll Bring You the Birds.

Incidentally, Sleeping Beauties was also included. The Scribner edition which I already have. Some other great stuff. A separate post for that.
Ron, I am so excited about ARTEMIS, I bought it twice from Amazon! Dickhead. I wish I had more time to read!

[mhatchett]

Back in the day before post-apocalypse fiction was all the rage, THE STAND , SWAN SONG, and DARK ADVENT were the genre's Holy Trinity (or to my mind, at least). All three remain highlights of the post-apoc form.

I'm starting ARTEMIS by Andy Weir.

I haven't read Dark Advent, so I'll have to get to that. My introduction to apocalyptic literature was Stewart's the Earth Abides. What a great story!

[Theli]

I don't have a deep knowledge of the genre. I've read The Road and The Stand (1990 version). Both were good, I think I prefer The Road. My girlfriend recently read On the Beach and said it was quite good, but very dark and depressing. Anyone else here familiar with that one? It's quite a bit older than even The Stand, I think.

[RonClinton]

Yeah, I should have qualified my "Holy Trinity" of post-apocalypse fiction by labeling those aforementioned three as *modern genre* works. If one goes back earlier, the three post-apocalyptic works that really introduced and popularized the notion/theme(s) to the reading public were:

EARTH ABIDES, George Stewart
ON THE BEACH, Nevil Shute
ALAS, BABYLON, Pat Frank

A bit after that one could certainly include I AM LEGEND by Richard Matheson. Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven's novel's LUCIFER'S HAMMER also leaps to mind, as does Wyndham's DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS and Craig Harrison's THE QUIET EARTH. Actually, as I start to think about it, there are a whole lot of post-apoc novels written between the '50s and '80s that are well worth reading.

And way before any of those we have THE PURPLE CLOUD, M. P. Shiel and H.G. Wells' work. Heck, Mary Shelley penned THE LAST MAN in the early/mid 1800's. I remember reading one by Jack London as well.

[Martin]

Back in the day before post-apocalypse fiction was all the rage, THE STAND , SWAN SONG, and DARK ADVENT were the genre's Holy Trinity (or to my mind, at least). All three remain highlights of the post-apoc form.

I'm starting ARTEMIS by Andy Weir.

Read Artemis as soon as it came out. Enjoyed it but it was not as good as The Martian.

[Theli]

Yeah, I should have qualified my "Holy Trinity" of post-apocalypse fiction by labeling those aforementioned three as *modern genre* works. If one goes back earlier, the three post-apocalyptic works that really introduced and popularized the notion/theme(s) to the reading public were:

EARTH ABIDES, George Stewart
ON THE BEACH, Nevil Shute
ALAS, BABYLON, Pat Frank

A bit after that one could certainly include I AM LEGEND by Richard Matheson. Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven's novel's LUCIFER'S HAMMER also leaps to mind, as does Wyndham's DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS and Craig Harrison's THE QUIET EARTH. Actually, as I start to think about it, there are a whole lot of post-apoc novels written between the '50s and '80s that are well worth reading.

And way before any of those we have THE PURPLE CLOUD, M. P. Shiel and H.G. Wells' work. Heck, Mary Shelley penned THE LAST MAN in the early/mid 1800's. I remember reading one by Jack London as well.

It's interesting to think of the genre going back so far. I was actually aware of (though have not read) many of the ones you named, though they had slipped my mind. Makes you wonder on man's fixation on the subject. I mean, if we really want to go back, the bible even had Revelations and the Mayan's, I think, believed in an impending apocalypse, Norse too, with Ragnarok.

[HumphreyBear]

Read Artemis as soon as it came out. Enjoyed it but it was not as good as The Martian.

It would be very difficult to be as good as The Martian

[Martin]

It would be very difficult to be as good as The Martian

Valid point. I would not compare it either except he tried to make the protagonist too much like Watney and for whatever reason it often fell flat for me. I believe the fact that Jasmine was primarily directing her snarky humor at people when Watney was directing it at himself was the real difference for me.

[c marvel]

I finished reading Mission Raise Hell: The U. S. Marines On Choiseul October-November 1943 by James F. Christ. Now I'm reading The Colorado Kid by Stephen King (HCC paperback).


Cap

[Theli]

How's the Colorado Kid so far? Still have yet to read that one, but I must say the departure from King's usual subjects does intrigue me.

I finished off The Girl In a Swing by Richard Adams and absolutely loved it. It has a quiet eeriness that I haven't encountered in any other novel yet, though maybe Aickman's and M.R. James's shorts would compare.

I followed that up with A Christmas Carol, one of my favourite stories that I had never read. I've always enjoyed the many film adaptations and I had tickets to a theatre adaptation in early December (which was AMAZING!) so I figured I should finally read the novella. I loved it, needless to say.

That was followed up by The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway. A very different story than I had anticipated, yet very captivating. It's filled with hard cynical characters. Hard to love them, but easy to pity them. I had expected as much, what I hadn't expected was the European settings and odd structure. It doesn't really follow a plot as much as the characters themselves.

Lastly I polished of E.T.A. Hoffman's The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. It was a more modern translation, but I think it did a good job of captivating the time and atmosphere. A bit different than I had expected, as I had never seen a true adaptation of the novella, but not too far different. Great fairytale like story, of course.

Now I'm on to Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, just a few chapters in but I am already enjoying it.

[Brian861]

I enjoyed The Colorado Kid. It's definitely set in the SK Universe.