11th book of 2010

Wastelands
Sories of the apocalypse
by multiple authors

Love! I love love love apocalypse stories and this is one big ole book full of em!

There's stories from authors including Octavia E Butler, Orson Scott Card, Elizabeth Bear, Stephen King and Gene Wolfe...

My favourites were:

The People of Sand and Slag by Paolo Bacigalupi. Vivid, a grey and grainy feel, terrifically sad in this brilliant way where the narrator and characters are not but you, as the reader, your heart breaks a little.

Never Despair by Jack McDevitt. Because it has Churchill and he's painted so very neatly. A quiet character study in a ruined world.

Ginny Sweethips' Flying Circus by Neal Barrett, Jr. Rockingly rowdy and fun approach to the apocalypse, flavours of Tank Girl and Mad Max, as Ginny drives around with her companions selling sex, tacos & dangerous drugs. Great stuff.

Episode Seven: Last Stand Against the Pack in the Kingdom of the Purple Flowers by John Langan. The last story in the anthology and the best by far, in this huge way, this engrossing phenomenal story way. From the construction of the words, to the characters and how they are forced to change in mere moments, from the crazy fucked up world that he's invented here - roaving savage beasts and people turning into flowers - it's all amazing. I feel like I could read this story over and over again and get more out of it every time.

If you like post-apocalyptic stories then you should check out this book!

One day I will write my own version(s). I think you can write as many shorts as you want but you only get one novel (Don't ask me where that rule came from. It just appeared!) So, as much as I desperately want to write a sprawling post-apocalypse novel, I'm going to let it simmer in my brain for a while until I have the best kind of skills to write it well, to write it the way it deserves.

the road on the big screen

I saw The Road last night. (It has just been released here in the UK. I hate how movies take 17 million years to get to this country after being released everywhere else).

When I saw the trailer for the movie a few months ago, I was super doubtful. It looked... colourful. The book is grey. How could they translate this book into a film? It's the best story I've read in the last 3 years. So I felt a little protective.

Well, Mr Director Man, I apologise. And Mr Screen Writer Man. You did good. Real good. This is possibly the best book adaptation I've ever seen. True to the book, evoking all the same responses and absorption. I was really impressed.

I loved it.

So, here's an interview with Cormac McCarthy about the movie -- the Wall St Journal managed to wrangle an interview from the private fellow -- alongside John Hillcoat, the director. It's a really great interview, about themes and writing and turning books into movies and apocalypses and fatherhood and luck... so do read it.

And here is Cosmo Landesman's review in the Sunday Times, which is on-the-button.