I don’t know why, perhaps it’s the impending release of World War Z by Max Brooks, but I find myself interested in post-Apocalyptic literature and zombie movies lately. Something about the idea of surviving a catastrophe that wipes out most of humanity and then rebuilding society fascinates me. And I don’t mean fascinate in a good or bad way. Rather, I’m fascinated by human ingenuity and the endless ways in which human society can defend and organize itself. So, the next time you’re feeling guilty about watching 28 Days Later or Dawn of the Dead (like I did this weekend) or about reading most of S.M. Stirling’s works, remind yourself that you’re being a kind of sociologist. 🙂
One of the books I’m in the middle of right now is Sean McMullen’s Souls in the Great Machine, a book set in Australia about one thousand years after the present. Humanity has survived some ill-fated attempts to combat global warming and managed to create new cultures. What interested me about this book is the prominence of librarians in this book. Being a librarian-in-training myself, I get a kick out of the idea of librarians who fight duels with flint- and matchlock pistols and earn ranks with the word “dragon” in them. (Maybe if they taught dueling in library school, we would have more students. But then again, maybe not. 🙂 ).
On a more serious note, another fascinating aspect of this novel is the way that humanity has recreated technology. Rather than using coal, steam or electrical power, technology is powered by human beings. The train system functions in a Flintstones/paddle boat way and the massive mainframe computer in the central library is made up of human components rather than circuitry or even vacuum tubes.
Aside from these points though, I’ve found it easy to be distracted from this book by other things. Namely, I’ve been distracted by The Lost Cosmonaut, a book I recommended to my public library and that has finally arrived and been checked out to my hot little hands. The characters in Souls are interesting, but there are rather too many of them for me to really bond with them, and there’s so much going on and so much not explained that, again, I’m having a hard time sticking with it. I will stick with it though, as I’ve gotten half way through the book and I would be annoyed with myself for getting that far and then giving up.