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History Forum / General / What If / July 2008Cormack McCarthy’s "The Road" – similar works?
I have recently read "The Road" by Cormack McCarthy. Although it was a short book, I thought it was extremely well written – brilliantly crafted. I am trying to find other books (and) movies of this genre, but it hasn’t been easy. I’m already well aware of 28 Weeks/Days Later, and I Am Legend, but I am looking for the more obscure alternative titles, if there are any. > I have recently read "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. Although it was a > short book, I thought it was extremely well written – brilliantly > crafted. I am trying to find other books (and) movies of this genre, > but it hasn’t been easy. > I’m already well aware of 28 Weeks/Days Later, and I Am Legend, but I > am looking for the more obscure alternative titles, if there are any. If by "this genre" you mean "postapocalyptic travel stories," the grandaddy of the genre is THE STAND, by Stephen King, though it couldn't be more different in style from the McCarthy. Others include EMERGENCE by David R. Palmer, SWAN SONG by Robert McCammon, DAMNATION ALLEY by Roger Zelazny, A BOY AND HIS DOG by Harlan Ellison, most of the stories in THE BOOK OF THE DEAD (edited by John Skipp and Craig Spector) and the graphic novel series THE WALKING DEAD by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard. kdb On Jul 3, 9:12 pm, Gas Bag <shazl...@yahoo.com.au> wrote: > I have recently read "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. Although it was a > short book, I thought it was extremely well written – brilliantly > crafted. I am trying to find other books (and) movies of this genre, > but it hasn’t been easy. > I’m already well aware of 28 Weeks/Days Later, and I Am Legend, but I > am looking for the more obscure alternative titles, if there are any. If by "this genre" you mean "postapocalyptic travel stories," the grandaddy of the genre is THE STAND, by Stephen King, though it couldn't be more different in style from the McCarthy. Others include EMERGENCE by David R. Palmer, SWAN SONG by Robert McCammon, DAMNATION ALLEY by Roger Zelazny, A BOY AND HIS DOG by Harlan Ellison, most of the stories in THE BOOK OF THE DEAD (edited by John Skipp and Craig Spector) and the graphic novel series THE WALKING DEAD by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard. kdb I recall reading a short story by Ray Russell in Playboy magazine many years ago about a 16 year old girl who along with her dog are the last survivors on earth. After the death of her dog the girl heads north because she has never seen snow and wants to before she dies. She has given up hope of seeing anyone else alive and I remember the story ended with a sad little poem she writes the last line of which was something like "....and death, my husband, will claim me for his bride." Can't remember the title. Ring a bell with anyone? Dave in Toronto A few books that come to mind: - Lucifer's Hammer by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven, about a large comet that strikes the Earth, and the aftermath. Very highly recommended; they should have made a movie out of this instead of making Armageddon and Deep Impact. - Swan Song by Robert McCammon, about a nuclear war and the aftermath. More of a horror/supernatural story, but a good read - The Postman (I never read the book) but by all accounts much better than the Costner adaptation. - Warday by Whitley Streiber and James Kunetka, about two writers who travel across America five years after a limited nuclear war to document how life has changed. Very highly recommended; I wish somebody would adapt this into a movie. >A few books that come to mind: >- Lucifer's Hammer by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven, about a large >comet that strikes the Earth, and the aftermath. Very highly >recommended; they should have made a movie out of this instead of >making Armageddon and Deep Impact. >- Swan Song by Robert McCammon, about a nuclear war and the >aftermath. More of a horror/supernatural story, but a good read >- The Postman (I never read the book) but by all accounts much better >than the Costner adaptation. >- Warday by Whitley Streiber and James Kunetka, about two writers who >travel across America five years after a limited nuclear war to >document how life has changed. Very highly recommended; I wish >somebody would adapt this into a movie. Have not read the McCarthy novel, nor any of the others, but if you want a really good post-apocalyptic novel, read - A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller. Some say it hasn't held up over the years. I am not one of them. The ending is one of the saddest I've ever read .. >> A few books that come to mind: > [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > Some say it hasn't held up over the years. I am not one of them. The > ending is one of the saddest I've ever read .. I fully agree. I have not yet the sequel he wrote about 10 years ago, "Wild Horse Woman". Francis A. Miniter > >> A few books that come to mind: > > [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > > Some say it hasn't held up over the years. I am not one of them. The > > ending is one of the saddest I've ever read .. And so depressingly believable. > I fully agree. > > I have not yet the sequel he wrote about 10 years ago, "Wild > Horse Woman". YMMV, but personally I wouldn't bother. -- Mike Stone - Peterborough, England Q) In the Roman Civil Wars, why did all the bachelors fight for Sulla? A) Because they weren't the Marian kind. [Default] I missed the Staff meeting, but the Memos showed that "Francis A. Miniter" <faminiter@comcast.net> wrote on Fri, 04 Jul 2008 17:37:10 -0400 in soc.history.what-if : >>> A few books that come to mind: >> [quoted text clipped - 26 lines] >I have not yet the sequel he wrote about 10 years ago, "Wild >Horse Woman". It is okay. An interesting book set between the last two 'books' of Canticle. I think in some ways, it might be over long, otoh, it does tell an epic tale, so you kind of need all those extra pages. I liked it enough, but not enough to go back to. tschus pyotr  Signaturepyotr filipivich Most of the intelligentsia haven't studied history, so much as they've absorbed the Correct Position on "History". >> I have not yet the sequel he wrote about 10 years ago, "Wild >> Horse Woman". [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > does tell an epic tale, so you kind of need all those extra pages. > I liked it enough, but not enough to go back to. I tend to agree, incidentally the bbc produced a radio drama based on the first two books of A Canticle, but left out the third... Signature\/ Lyn David Thomas > - Warday by Whitley Streiber and James Kunetka, about two writers who > travel across America five years after a limited nuclear war to > document how life has changed. Very highly recommended; I wish > somebody would adapt this into a movie. They also wrote one about a world dying from ecological disaster and over-population, NATURE'S END, which might be worth a reread in these days of global warming. > On Jul 3, 9:12 pm, Gas Bag <shazl...@yahoo.com.au> wrote: > [quoted text clipped - 26 lines] > > Can't remember the title. Ring a bell with anyone? I barely remember the plot, but the final line sounds like the end of "Xong of Xuxan" (her typewriter had a broken "s" key), which according to a quick internet search was indeed written by Ray Russell. > Dave in Toronto -- Steven J. On Jul 3, 11:59 pm, "David Matthews" <dmatthew...@sympatico.ca> wrote: > "Kurt Busiek" <k...@busiek.com> wrote in message > [quoted text clipped - 31 lines] > > Can't remember the title. Ring a bell with anyone? I barely remember the plot, but the final line sounds like the end of "Xong of Xuxan" (her typewriter had a broken "s" key), which according to a quick internet search was indeed written by Ray Russell. > Dave in Toronto -- Steven J. Thanks!! I think that may be the one. I'd forgotten the typewriter bit but I'm pretty sure the girl's name was Susan. Dave in Toronto > > > I have recently read "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. Although it was a > > > short book, I thought it was extremely well written – brilliantly [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > John Skipp and Craig Spector) and the graphic novel series THE WALKING > > DEAD by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard. Michael Chabon notes that "The Road" is well within the post- apocalyptic strain of sci-fi, and notes other examples in his new book, according to the review I read. Problem is, most high-toned reviewers have no awareness that sci-fi exists--unlike McCarthy, who will use any genre, even the ones called pulp, to make his point. > > I have recently read "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. Although it was a > > short book, I thought it was extremely well written brilliantly [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > John Skipp and Craig Spector) and the graphic novel series THE WALKING > DEAD by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard. And if the travel part is not so important, "Alas, Babylon" is one of my favorites. It's what Jericho could have been. No zombies. Shutes' _On The Beach_ features Australia as the last remnent of 20th century civilization after a nuclear holocaust wipes out the other continents, At that end, the individual's choice is immediate death by cyanide or lingering death by radioactive pollution. The travel component of the book comes from the final voyages of a US nuclear submarine. Its crew, the last living Americans, sail home so that they can die among the corpses of the hundreds of millions of their countrymen who preceded them in death. If you endorse jingoistic warmongering, sample _Panic In The Year Zero_, a B- picture that stars Ray Milland. Rod Serling and Charles Beaumont wrote some Twilight Zone teleplays about exotic circumstances breaking down civilization and ordinary folk become killers and thieves. Mr. Serling and Mr. Beaumont thought the situation was tragic, but in _Year Zero_, Ray Milland shows that is good old fashioned American survival! The lesson of _Year Zero_ is to shoot first and don't screw with questions. If you express a few sentences of regret at what you "had to do," then you're the good guy. The ending of the film has the protagonist family pass a roadblock on the way home to LA, where the bomb dropped just a week before. Yes, within seven days of the Nuclear War, it all is hunky dory and the guards at the roadblock say that the family is okay and will survive. Warmongers razz _On The Beach_ as supposedly too pessimistic about global thermonuclear war. Their corrective is _Panic In The Year Zero_, in which the tragedy that kills everybody in _On The Beach_ causes nothing more than a bad camping trip! > > I have recently read "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. Although it was a > > short book, I thought it was extremely well written – brilliantly [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > > kdb Actually I think it might have been invented by Stephen Vincent Benet, in "By the Waters of Babylon". On Jul 3, 9:12 pm, Gas Bag <shazl...@yahoo.com.au> wrote: > I have recently read "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. Although it was a > short book, I thought it was extremely well written – brilliantly > crafted. I am trying to find other books (and) movies of this genre, > but it hasn’t been easy. > I’m already well aware of 28 Weeks/Days Later, and I Am Legend, but I > am looking for the more obscure alternative titles, if there are any. "Good News" by Edward Abbey. And one I love, no travel to speak of, a very different apacolypse to be "post" of,but never see it mentioned anywhere: "Galveston" by Sean Stewart On Jul 4, 8:02 pm, "Joetheone" <joethe...@dontchabespamminme.com> wrote: > On Jul 3, 9:12 pm, Gas Bag <shazl...@yahoo.com.au> wrote: > [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > "post" of,but never see it mentioned anywhere: > "Galveston" by Sean Stewart Galveston is a very fine book but I had a hard time with the opening. You have to get past a poker game with _impossible_ rules to get into the book. It will be tough for even non-players because the way they play is literally impossible to believe if you even think about it a little. But many non-players won't. But then it becomes a really good book. For some value of "post apocolyptic" <The Last Hot Time> by John M. Ford might qualify and it's a better book than anything mentioned so far. In my opinion, of course, but I'm right. -- Will in New Haven On Jul 4, 8:02 pm, "Joetheone" <joethe...@dontchabespamminme.com> wrote: > On Jul 3, 9:12 pm, Gas Bag <shazl...@yahoo.com.au> wrote: > [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > "post" of,but never see it mentioned anywhere: > "Galveston" by Sean Stewart >Galveston is a very fine book but I had a hard time with the opening. You have to get past a poker game with _impossible_ rules to get into the book. It will be tough for even non-players because the way they play is literally impossible to believe if you even think about it a >little. But many non-players won't. Gee. If you had problems with the first poker game, the last one... Of course by then, you're so far into that world that it doesn't matter. >But then it becomes a really good book. >For some value of "post apocolyptic" <The Last Hot Time> by John M. Ford might qualify and it's a better book than anything mentioned so >far. In my opinion, of course, but I'm right. -- >Will in New Haven Uhh--I'm pretty sure it's me that's right. I'll have to look up your Ford book. Have you read any of Stewart's others? I ordered and read all the other titles of his from the library last winter. I remember I enjoyed them, but for some reason I can't remember a thing about them. > I have recently read "The Road" by Cormack McCarthy. Although it was a > short book, I thought it was extremely well written – brilliantly > crafted. I am trying to find other books (and) movies of this genre, > but it hasn’t been easy. > I’m already well aware of 28 Weeks/Days Later, and I Am Legend, but I > am looking for the more obscure alternative titles, if there are any. Try "Earth Abides." http://snipurl.com/2tv97 http://www.avclub.com/content/node/74664 SignatureBill Anderson I am the Mighty Favog On the Beach by Nevil Shute, I believe.. Very grim storyline; the movie was quite effective. I have recently read "The Road" by Cormack McCarthy. Although it was a short book, I thought it was extremely well written – brilliantly crafted. I am trying to find other books (and) movies of this genre, but it hasn’t been easy. I’m already well aware of 28 Weeks/Days Later, and I Am Legend, but I am looking for the more obscure alternative titles, if there are any. http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/202-2840932-9892657?%5Fenc oding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books-uk&field-author=Cormac%20McCarthy > I have recently read "The Road" by Cormack McCarthy. Although it was a > short book, I thought it was extremely well written – brilliantly > crafted. I am trying to find other books (and) movies of this genre, > but it hasn’t been easy. > I’m already well aware of 28 Weeks/Days Later, and I Am Legend, but I > am looking for the more obscure alternative titles, if there are any. Amnesia Moon Jonathan Lethem Did not Mary Shelley write a novel called the "Last Man"? The book was literally about the last survivor of a supergerm that wiped out all of England (and possibily everywhere else). Alas, I barely remember it's text. Shelley's view point character was a sad sack who moped about, thinking predictable thoughts like "I'm lonely," and "I sure wish I had appreciated people more when they were still around." Ms. Shelley sure as heck did not run with the obvious consequences of her theme. > I have recently read "The Road" by Cormack McCarthy. Although it was a > short book, I thought it was extremely well written – brilliantly > crafted. I am trying to find other books (and) movies of this genre, > but it hasn’t been easy. the movie "stalker" by andrej tarkowskij ( i think you spell him differently in english) might be right for you. > I have recently read "The Road" by Cormack McCarthy. Although it was a > short book, I thought it was extremely well written – brilliantly > crafted. I am trying to find other books (and) movies of this genre, > but it hasn’t been easy. > I’m already well aware of 28 Weeks/Days Later, and I Am Legend, but I > am looking for the more obscure alternative titles, if there are any. RIDDLEY WALKER by Russell Hoban.. T > > I have recently read "The Road" by Cormack McCarthy. Although it was a > > short book, I thought it was extremely well written – brilliantly [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > RIDDLEY WALKER by Russell Hoban.. A terrific book -- set long after the apocalypse, unlike many of the others, but brilliantly written. It was quite a shock to realize it was from the author of BREAD AND JAM FOR FRANCES, which is where I knew him from... kdb There was one post-apocalyptic novel I remember, centered about a small town where the easygoing sheriff had managed to keep order after the bomb dropped, and things were going fairly well...until a gang or a military unit showed up. Does anybody remember that one? Eric Tolle Easy going sheriff keeping order after the bomb dropped? And all goes to hell when the military shows up? I recall a _Twilight Zone_ episode with that theme. The _Old Man In The Cave_. John Anderson was the leader of a small town that survived the Holocaust. But it barely survived: people went hungry but made it from year to year. James Coburn and a squad of soldiers came to the town, supposedly to help it recover. But they had nothing positive to give. They had guns so they could force the townspeople to do what they said. The kick to the story was that Anderson supposedly got orders from the Old Man in a Cave. There was a large supply of canned goods in town that the Old Man had said were lethally contaminated --- but tests run by the soldiers showed the canned food was perfectly okay. Ultimately, the Old Man was revealed as a computer still operating in a cave. The soldiers blasted the machine to bits and everybody gorged out on the canned food that the town had in abundence. The episode's last scene was Anderson walking sadly down Main Street --- everyone, townspeople and soldiers alike, was sprawled dead on the streets and sidewalks. They had learned the hard way that the Old Man was right in proclaiming that stored food was poison. > I have recently read "The Road" by Cormack McCarthy. Although it was a > short book, I thought it was extremely well written – brilliantly > crafted. I am trying to find other books (and) movies of this genre, > but it hasn’t been easy. > I’m already well aware of 28 Weeks/Days Later, and I Am Legend, but I > am looking for the more obscure alternative titles, if there are any. By total happenstance, I have lately read "The Road", seen I Am Legend, and read Jeanette Winterson's latest: The Stone Gods. She is another one who, like McCarthy, isn't a "sci-fi" author, but a writer who writes beautifully and tells whatever tale needs telling to "make the point" as an earlier post said. And movies: Children of Men is absolutely brilliant. |
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