Soft Apocalypse

February 7, 2011
In this moving debut from Hugo-winner McIntosh, the prosperous world of 2023 ends not with a bang but with a crackle, the sound of genetically engineered bamboo growing overnight and destroying roads and buildings. Naïve college graduate Jasper struggles to trade charged batteries for food as his "tribe" wanders the Georgia countryside, dodging local cops and designer diseases. Settling in Savannah, they try to find some stability in a crumbling city beset by anarchist gangs and the "scientist-rebels" who release tailored organisms to hasten societal collapse. In the end, each member of the tribe must decide what to give up in order to survive. The novel, expanded from a short story, shows some unevenness in tone, but McIntosh strongly delineates his characters and makes Jasper's struggles very affecting. Though it may be soft, this apocalypse has plenty of sharp edges.

March 15, 2011

In the near future, social organization falls apart as resources become scarcer and the usual sequence of life--education, jobs, family, retirement--breaks down. Coming together in a new, tribelike alliance, a group of former middle-class Americans take to the road in an effort to survive in a world that grows more dangerous and violent each day. This debut novel by a Hugo Award-winning short story writer offers a sobering and not unlikely look at how a decaying society can transform the lives of everyday people. VERDICT Disturbing in its plausibility, this sf debut should appeal to fans of "soft" disaster fiction.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.