5.7 KiB
[Challenge Companion] Power Failure
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Author: u/alexanderwales Time flies like an arrow*
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/4m44wg/challenge_companion_power_failure/
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Score: 17
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Created: 2016-06-01T23:08:02
Post:
tl;dr: This is the challenge companion thread. Post links, discussion, or ideas below.
Civilization-wide power failure is probably one of my favorite tropes, for no real logical reason. I worked on a farm for the better part of my high school years, and there's still a part of my brain that buys into the idea of a simpler time and sees the appeal in a cozy catastrophe -- which is pretty obvious nonsense, if you take a few moments to think about it. Perhaps it's the idea of rebuilding civilization that holds the allure.
When that power failure is applied to a speculative setting, I tend to like it even more. There's something about a severe disruption of the status quo that can tell a lot about a society and offer up some interesting plotlines.
I'm light on recommendations, since while it's one of my favorite tropes, it's also one that I'm fairly picky about. I really wanted to like the Council Wars series by John Ringo, but it got a little too silly for me and a little too masturbatory. I liked the premise of Revolution, but they took too much artistic license above and beyond the premise. Maybe Elantris is a good example? Or Vinge's Zones of Thought series? I'm definitely interested in recommendations for this one.
Comments:
u/Terkala [+6] (8 hours later)
My favorite book for this trope is "Earth Abides". It's about a disease-based-apocalypse. Where the main character survives it because he got bitten by a snake while out hiking and had been recuperating alone in a cabin in the woods.
It goes about the normal trope of things falling apart due to most people being dead. But the book quickly picks up speed as he meets other survivors. And then they start a colony, and starting to try to reboot civilization. There's no huge battle scenes with big stakes. No desperate struggle for survival against impossible odds. Just everyday people trying to figure out how to survive when most of civilization is gone.
It's the most believable and realistic "end of civilization" style book I've ever read.
u/thrawnca [+1] Carbon-based biped (5 days later)
Anything like Day of the Triffids?
u/Terkala [+1] (5 days later)
Not really. Day of the Triffids is about struggling with an external enemy (a non-sapient one, but still an enemy). Earth abides is more about "what would people do if civilization collapsed".
Interestingly, they find someone similar to the protagonist of Day of the Triffids in Earth Abides. He's the first (and only) person to get put to death, with his ideas of polygamy being one of the best ways to spread disease in a no-contraception world.
u/Terkala [+3] (8 hours later)
As a separate recommendation, at the exact opposite end of the spectrum from Earth Abides:
Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines. It's about a zombie apocalypse in a "I can't believe it's not DC Comics" universe. Where the zombie virus simply killed most of the superheros. The remaining ones have set up an enclave at one of the old movie studio lots in hollywood. Because most of them have nice big stone walls and few entrances for security/secrecy reasons.
Main characters: Iron (wo)man. I can't believe it's not Batman. Actual Rorschach. I can't believe it's not Catwoman. And Lizard Superman. And the one obligatory crippled-superhero who has world-shattering power, for about 2minutes per day.
u/SpeculativeFiction [+1] (3 days later)
I've read a couple of his other books (14 and The Fold) and they tend to fall apart at the end.
Partly because the interesting mystery has an unsatisfactory conclusion., and partly because he seemingly is terrible at writing actual combat.
Do you feel he's better about this in Ex-Heroes?
u/Terkala [+1] (3 days later)
I've read a few of his other books (because I started on ex-heroes and wanted to find others from the same author), and I disliked them too. 14 had a good early/mid part, though I agree that the ending was sub-par.
The combat was pretty well written, and I never felt like he got lost anywhere.
u/OrzBrain [+2] Fingers to dance, hands to catch, arms to pull (15 hours later)
Marooned in Realtime by Vernor Vinge. Absolutely perfect. Best science fiction book ever written. Only one that ever made me cry, too.
u/Sparkwitch [+2] (18 hours later)
I've often wanted to see this crossed with historical fiction. Put the Carrington Event in the middle of World War I, for example. Newly electrified cities lose their power as their lines overload and catch fire. Telegraph communication fails across the front lines, and automotive commutators heat up and fuse to their brushes.
A vicious disease kills the world's horses, cattle, and oxen some time in the early 1800s. Alternately, a grain blight that kills all the corn, wheat, and/or rice.
u/adad64 [+1] Chaos Legion (a day later)
Dies the fire comes to mind. I rather enjoyed it, though I haven't read the later books.
u/thrawnca [+1] Carbon-based biped (5 days later)
A bit different, but I'm reminded of 'Secret of the Sixth Magic', where Melizar is disabling the laws of magic