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FMK #12: Our Oncoming Apocalypses
Well, happy birthday to me, I guess. I would tell y'all to try to figure out what I'm wishing on my birthday candles but you might and then it won't come true.
Last week's F winner - pulling past Coraline at the last minute - was C. J. Cherryh with Downbelow Station. The K leader was actually Starship Troopers, but for the first time ever, the K leader did not have a plurality of K votes; in fact it in was in the top five for F as well. So I'm invoking the hidden rule that the K winner must have a plurality of K votes and giving it to Hominids instead (I knew that was going to be a hard one for K, you don't get a hugo/nebula win if you're comprehensively terrible.)
I am still skating about a week behind on reading but I did finish Castle in the Air! It was good. Review upcoming. Captain Blood coming soon (hopefully tonight.)
For this week I think it's finally time to pull out Apocalypses and Post-Apocalypses. Whoo.
How FMK works, short version: I am trying to clear out my unreads. So there is a poll, in which you get to pick F, M, or K. F means I should spend a night of wild passion with the book ASAP, and then decide whether to keep it or not. M means I should continue to commit to a long-term relationship of sharing my bedroom with it. K means it should go away immediately. Anyone can vote, you don't have to actually know anything about the books.
I pick a winner on Friday night (although won't actually close the poll, people can still vote,) and report results/ post the new poll on the following Tuesday, and write a response to the F winner sometime in the next week.
Link to long version of explanation (on first poll)
Last week's F winner - pulling past Coraline at the last minute - was C. J. Cherryh with Downbelow Station. The K leader was actually Starship Troopers, but for the first time ever, the K leader did not have a plurality of K votes; in fact it in was in the top five for F as well. So I'm invoking the hidden rule that the K winner must have a plurality of K votes and giving it to Hominids instead (I knew that was going to be a hard one for K, you don't get a hugo/nebula win if you're comprehensively terrible.)
I am still skating about a week behind on reading but I did finish Castle in the Air! It was good. Review upcoming. Captain Blood coming soon (hopefully tonight.)
For this week I think it's finally time to pull out Apocalypses and Post-Apocalypses. Whoo.
How FMK works, short version: I am trying to clear out my unreads. So there is a poll, in which you get to pick F, M, or K. F means I should spend a night of wild passion with the book ASAP, and then decide whether to keep it or not. M means I should continue to commit to a long-term relationship of sharing my bedroom with it. K means it should go away immediately. Anyone can vote, you don't have to actually know anything about the books.
I pick a winner on Friday night (although won't actually close the poll, people can still vote,) and report results/ post the new poll on the following Tuesday, and write a response to the F winner sometime in the next week.
Link to long version of explanation (on first poll)
Poll #18379 FMK #12: Apocalypse
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 36
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (1954)
The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett (1955)
The Chrysalids by John Wyndham (1955)
On the Beach by Nevil Shute (1957)
Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank (1959)
Damnation Alley by Roger Zelazny (1969)
After Things Fell Apart by Ron Goulart (1970)
Juniper Time by Kate Wilhelm (1980)
Blood Music by Greg Bear (1985)
Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Le Guin (1985)
Nothing Sacred by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (1991)
Rootless by Chris Howard (2012)
no subject
no subject
I only vaguely recall The Long Tomorrow, but what I recall was being bored. Leigh Brackett's space opera is charmingly OTT, so this was quite disappointing. I think I read Alas, Babylon and it was boring, but I'm not sure if it was that or a different post-apocalyptic book of the same vintage.
I'm not sure how good Blood Music is, since I read it ages ago, but it has an interestingly unusual biological apocalypse - everyone become psychic glop, IIRC.
The Chrysalids is one of the ur-narrative "persecuted psychic kids in batshit religious post-apocalyptic landscape," and I recall it being a good version.
I have not read On the Beach but knowing the premise, I voted kill to spare you. I also know the premise of I Am Legend and voted kill on the basis that we've all practically already read it.
I am totally unfamiliar with most of the others!