Thursday, August 15, 2013

Dystopian Novels: Life As We Knew It, Quarantine, and Rage Within

Life As We Knew It Series - Susan Beth Pfeffer

1.  Life As We Knew It, 2006
2.  The Dead and the Gone, 2008
3.  This World We Live In, 2010
4.  The Shade of the Moon, 2013

In Life As We Knew It, an asteroid hits the moon, throwing it into a new orbit, causing widespread tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.  Most of the world's population dies, and life is grim for the survivors.  These books are very good, but the books are flawed.

In the first book, everyone looks forward to the asteroid hitting the moon, and absolutely no one has any idea that anything could go wrong.  The book is set in 2006, and think of how the media analyze everything.  People would have been well aware of the danger. 

The author throws in some really unnecessary political bashing that pulled me right out of the book and into reality.  Fiction should never do that.

The electricity goes off for days, then comes back on for an hour or so.  Most everyone is dead, so who is turning the electricity back on?  And why would they, since no one is paying the bills?  And a bunch of other stuff is not logical.  

The first book shows how the situation grows gradually worse, which makes for fascinating reading. Even though some aspects of the story make little sense, I enjoyed these books.

Quarantine - Lex Thomas

1.  The Loners, 2012
2.  The Saints, 2013

These books are very similar to the Gone series by Michael Grant, so if you've ever read those books, you have a good idea what to expect with these.  The teenagers are trapped inside their school, infected with a virus that is lethal to everyone over the age of 18.  The government has sealed off all exits to the school and periodically drops supplies down into the school.  Gangs form, and the students fight to the death for the supplies.  At least one more book will be published.

Dark Inside Series - Jeyn Roberts

1.  Dark Inside, 2011
2.  Rage Within, 2012

A huge earthquake strikes, unleashing an ancient evil that takes over the minds of at least half the human population.  The Baggers are consumed by hatred, hunting down the remains of the normal human population.  The Baggers are not zombies.  They look just like everyone else, except for the black veins in their eyes.  They are controlled by the ancient evil, which desires to rebuild the world according its own plan.

These books are scary and suspenseful in the way of old movies from the early part of the 20th century.  I got shivers.  I had to cover the lower half of many pages as I read, anticipating when something would come at them from the shadows!  I love these books, which are very good, chilling dystopian fiction.  There should be at least one more book coming in this set.

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