Trash or treasure? Outpost by Adam Baker

I can’t take it any more – I just have to complain.  Bitterly.  And at length.

With a name like Outpost, a tagline like “They took the job to ESCAPE THE WORLD. They didn’t expect the WORLD TO END” (and yes, the all-shouty capital letters are as presented), and a cover picture of a hazard-suited dude watching a burning city, it was always going to be either Trash or Treasure.

Sadly for Adam Baker, I’m placing this one firmly in the Trash category. Despite rave reviews from publishers on Amazon, lots of kudos from authors like Stephen Leather, and a general vibe that this is a great and gripping read, I’m not feeling the love.

The premise? Absolutely fab – what’s not to love here. A wintering-over skeleton crew marooned on an Arctic oil rig as civilisation falls to a global pandemic. The characters – hmmm, a little flat (conflicted chubby reverend Jane, dreadlocked dope-growing Sikh engineer Ghost, tattooed ex-con Nail, codeine-addicted doctor Rye: can you say walking cliche?). Tolerable, although there’s no real character development.

The storyline? Well, let’s just say, how many disaster scenario locations can you squeeze into one book? We’ve got the almost abandoned oil rig, the scientists marooned on the ice, the actually abandoned Russian research station full of biohazards, the crashing-in-front-of-their-eyes space station pod (with dying cosmonaut), the floating cruise liner (with infected ravening hordes), and I’m still only halfway through the book.

The thing that’s really tipping the balance, though (because despite all this, I can still see the potential), is the STYLE of the thing.  Every page has strings of sentences like this: “Flash of lightning. She let her eyes adjust. A seething ocean. Surging, frothing waves.”  Every single page. It’s like Dick and Jane Visit the Apocalypse. Can I make it to the end of the book? I don’t know. Do I even want to?  I don’t know. Also, there’s a sequel …

Have you read it? Vote below – trash or treasure? Or suggest some similar books that I might enjoy …

• Find more books in the Trash or treasure series
• Find more (and better? you decide) books about the end of the world

 

Rain, Cabin fever and survivalist tendencies

Isn’t it great to see the sun again, my visions of flood, fire and pestilence are retreating with the clouds parting and the rain abating. The news is no longer full of flooding, the river Avon is once more within its banks and the family have had their flu pandemic shots. Equilibrium restored, no longer do I need to resist the temptation to race to the supermarket and stock up the larder with tins of soup and baked beans.

In our modern cities and towns we still have the primal urge to stock pile wood and food for the winter. Our basic urge to survive helps to explain why television programmes and wilderness survival books like those featuring Bear Grylls have a huge following. Survivalist scenarios change from decade to decade; the threat of world war, the nuclear bomb, pollution and today the threat of peak oil production and global warming. I turn on the news or pick up a magazine to threat of volcanic ash disrupting air travel, speculation over why the Mayan calendar finishes in 2012, Flash Forward’s latest episode points to the end of the world 2015 and our most popular film Avatar is about big business exploiting a planet. Then of course The Road paints a bleak picture of humanity’s future If you haven’t seen the film, read the book.

Perversely I find there is nothing better for making you feel safe and secure in your own “log cabin” than curling up on the couch this winter with a tale exploring futuristic views of post-apocalyptic earth. Your favourite hero struggles to deal with environmental disaster and a regressed civilization, as I pretend those few bottles of sauce and jars of bottled fruit I made mark me a true survivor able to fend for myself. If post-apocalyptic visions aren’t your thing try tales based on prehistoric civilizations where tales of food collecting, trapping and other survival tales abound or try a true tale of human endurance and outdoor life.

• Cormac McCarthy’s The Road The novel paints a bleak vision of a post-apocalyptic America; a land where no hope remains. A man and his son walk alone towards the coast, and this is the moving story of their journey. The Road is an unflinching exploration of human behaviour from ultimate destructiveness to extreme tenderness.
• Jim Crace’s The Pest house America, as we know it, has fragmented. Its machines have stopped, its communities have splintered, its history is forgotten, and the migration has started. This novel presents the story of an America adapting to a ‘medieval future’ without technology, science and social cohesion, and how two people find strength in one another against all odds.

Looking for more? Try:

• Climatic changes Fiction
• Regression (Civilization) Fiction
• Survival skills Fiction
• Apocalyptic fantasies

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What do you like to read in the wee hours as the winter storm swirls and you are safe in bed???

Loving winter think library