Tag Archives: future fiction

World War Z by Max Brooks

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A list of excellent things about World War Z:

  • Author Max Brooks (progeny of Mel Brooks) uses the word “decimate” appropriately – it means to kill one out of every ten people, usually as a show of force or intimidation and it is NOT a synonym for rampant destruction. The grammar nerd in me squealed with delight when I read that!
  • Interview-style storytelling means a focus on plot that’s both exciting and quick to read (Corollary: if there’s a chapter that you don’t like, it’s over quickly and the next one won’t be about the same person, the same event, or even the same country)
  • Rapid pacing keeps you on the edge of your seat. I couldn’t put this down!
  • Plausible and thoroughly reasoned geopolitical scenarios and global reactions to the zombie apocalypse
  • It’s the zombie apocalypse. So it’s awesome.

There are only two “bad” things about it, really. First, there’s a hefty helping of military action and associated jargon; if that isn’t to your taste, be prepared to skim or skip those paragraphs. Second, the interview-style format means that there is 0 character development, so if you rely on relatable characters to draw you into a narrative, that’s not going to happen here. But these aren’t really weaknesses as much as they are features of the book – for every reader who hates those features, there’s one who finds them fascinating. If that’s you, this book is sure to please.

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan

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Hillary Jordan’s novel When She Woke is often described as a new dystopian take on The Scarlet Letter.  It is set in a future where an epidemic has left the majority of women sterile and abortion has been made illegal to prevent a declining population.  Prisons are also wildly overcrowded, so to remedy this, criminals who aren’t considered dangerous to society are not locked up but are instead “melachromed”: their skin is dyed so that their crime is instantly recognizable to the population.

The novel’s main character, Hannah Payne, is a very religious young woman who broke the law by having an abortion in order to protect the baby’s father, world-famous Reverend Aidan Dale.  Hannah is caught and tried, and she wakes up a the beginning of the novel with scarlet red skin.  The book flashes back to how she ended up in this position and how she deals with entering society as a an outcast due to the color of her skin and the nature of her crime.

This book was very compelling, so much so that I found it a little painful to have to put it down at times.  It’s a very interesting take on a futuristic society; it’s unique, but not so out-there that you can never imagine it happening.  This might even be a fun pick for a book club because its controversial nature could bring up some very lively discussion!