Book Review Round Up 3

This is our third review roundup.  It includes the books that have been previously reviewed, and starts at the bottom with the earliest reviews.

I was going to add a Survivalist tag, to distinguish the hard core us-against-the-collapsing-world novels, from the more generally dystopian fare, but it is actually a hard criterion to peg down.  You either have too few books to make it worth the effort, or too many.  Everyone knows that Rawles’ Survivor series would fit the bill, but what about tales of urban survival, or bureaucratic survival, where people are surviving on their pluck and wits?  What about Susan Pfeffer’s stories where the family just lays low and stays out of the way?

Review Roundup	Author	Review Link	Type	Disaster	Real	Read
Retrieved from the Future	John Symour	RevRFTF	AP	PO	5	7
Holding Their Own	Joe Nobody	ReviewHTO	AP	EC, NP	7	6
China Tidal Wave	Wang Lixiong	ReviewCTW	AP	N, NP, EC	4	5
Reawakening Eden	Vivi Andrew	ReviewRE	PA, R	D	5	7
These Will I Bring	Risa  Bear	RevSRTWIB	C	PO, GW	7	5
Love in the Ruins	Walker Percy	ReviewLinR	AP	W, EC	1	2
Tabaco-Stned Mtn Goat	Andrez Bergen	RevTSMG	PO	EC, GW	2	2
The Pesthouse	Jim Crace	RevewPHs	C	D, GW	3	5
Lights Out	David Crawford	ReviewLO	AP	E	7	4
Summer of the Apocalypse	James Van Pelt	ReviewSAp	C	D	2	5
The Star Fraction	Ken MacLeod	ReviewSFr	AP	NP	5	4
Daybreak Zero	John Barnes	ReviewDBZ	AP	NN, NP	3	2
Malevil	Robert Merle	ReviewML	AP	N	5	6
Directive 51	John Barnes	ReviewD51	AP	NN, NP	3	3
Survivors	John W Rawles	ReviewSv	AP	EC	4	4
REAMDE	N. Stephenson	ReviewRMDE	NoA	-	5	5
Salvation City	Sigrid Nunez	ReviewSC	AP, L	D	3	4
Salvage	Robert Edric	ReviewSl	AP, L	GW,EC	6	3
Apocalypse Law	John Grit	ReviewAL	AP	D	7	7
Oil Dusk	Cape,  Buckner	ReviewOD	AP	PO, EC	6	6
Afterlight	Alex Scarrow	ReviewAL	PA	PO, NP	7	7
End of The Age	Ervin Sim	ReviewEOA	PO, SF	G	3	3
Yellowcake Spring	Guy Salvidge	ReviewYC	AP	GW, EC	6	6
I Sniper	Stephen Hunter	ReviewIS	NoA	-	6	7
Soft Apocalypse	Will McIntosh	ReviewSA	AP, SF	B, PO, EC, GW	5	6
Prelude	Kurt Cobb	ReviewP	NoA	-	5	5
World Ends at Hickory Hllw	Ardath Mayhar	ReviewWEHH	AP	N	5	5
Ship Breaker	Paolo Bacigalupi	ReviewSB	C, SF, YA	PO, GW, B	4	6
Red Queen	Honey Brown	ReviewRQ	AP	D	7	7
Things We Didn't See Coming	Stvn Amsterdam	ReviewTWDSC	AP, L	EC, D	6	7
The Windup Girl	Paolo Bacigalupi	ReviewWUG	C, SF	PO, GW, B	4	7
Kingdom of Four Rivers	Guy Salvidges'	ReviewKFR	C, SF	GW, PO, NP	4	6
Far North	Marcel Theroux	ReviewFN	PA	GW	5	6
The Road	Crmc McCarthy	ReviewTR	PA	PD	6	6
Post-Apclyps Dead Lttr Office	Nathan Poell	ReviewPADLO	AP, PA	W	5	5
The Profession	Stphn Pressfield	ReviewTP	NoA	-	7	6
Operation Serf	Chris Sullins	ReviewOS	AP, M	EC, NP	7	4
Into The Forest	Jean Hegland	ReviewITF	AP, L	EC	7	5
Witch of Hebron	James H Kunstler	ReviewTWOH	AP	PO, GW	5	4
Random Acts of Snsess Vlnce	Jack Womack	ReviewRQ	AP, L	EC	5	4
Crossing the Blue	Holly Jean Buck	ReviewCTB	AP	GW	5	5
The Fall of Eden	Richard Michaels	ReviewFOE	AP	N	7	2
Last Light	Alex Scarrow	ReviewLL	AP	PO, NP	7	7
The Unit	Terry DeHart	ReviewTU	AP	N,E	6	4
The Things That Keep Us Here	Carla Buckley	ReviewTTTKUH	AP	D	7	6
The Burning Hills	Louis L’Amour	ReviewRQ	NoA	-	6	5
Emergency	Neil Strauss	ReviewE	NoA	-	-	6
Patriots	John  Rawles	ReviewP	AP, M	EC	7	4
This World We Live In	Susan Pfeffer	ReviewTWWLI	AP, YA	M, V	6	5
The Dead and Gone	Susan Pfeffer	ReviewTDAG	AP, YA	M, V	7	6
Life As We Knew It	Susan Pfeffer	ReviewLAWKI	AP, YA	M, V	7	6
Long Voyage Back	Luke Rhinehart	ReviewTLVB	AP	N	7	5
Three Mokes East East	Philip Revene	ReviewTME	C	EC	5	5
Greybeard	Brian Aldiss	ReviewGB	PA, SF	W	4	3
No Blade of Grass	John Christopher	ReviewNBOG	AP	PD	5	5
Reviewed Earlier
A Distant Crossing	Thomas Park	ReviewADC	AP	EC, NP	5	4
New Coastal Times	Donna Callea	ReviewNCT	AP	GW	5	5
Raggedy Edge	Michael S. Turnlund	ReviewRE	AP	EC, NP	5	3
Gardener Summer	Nova	ReviewGS	AP	EC	6	5
Good News	Edward Abbey	ReviewGN	PA	GW	3	4
The Jakarta Pandemic.	Steven Konkoly	ReviewTJP	AP	D	7	6
The Noah Countdown	B.T. Post	ReviewTNCD	AP	EC, GW, NP	6	5
But Not for Long	Michelle Widgen	ReviewBNFL	AP, L	PO, GW	7	7
Partial Reviews
Memoirs of a Survivor	Doris Lessing	ReviewTMOAS	AP, L	EC	5	4
One Second After	Wm R. Forstchen.	ReviewOSA	AP	E	6	4

The explanations are at the bottom, but let me reinforce that that Realism (Real)and Readability(Real) are not intended to be qualitative, they are meant as descriptive.  The Scale is 1 to 7 with 7 being high, and thus 4 is the mid-point. 

If you look at the Retrieved From the Future (at the top), its 5 in realism/grittiness means that it is more realistic than typical.  The problems within the book are those that real people might face.  If people actually worry about supplies, and keep track of their provisions, that would tend to be a pretty gritty book.  The type of collapse scenario is not generally factored in unless it is an ongoing issue (such as with Walker Percy’s Love In the Ruins).

Retrieved From the Future has a seven readability.  This means that it is a fairly straightforward, painless book to read.  It is in no way a comment on its relative literary merits.  In fact the “Literary (L) “ notation was added under “Type” because literary works are often a bit tough to read for the inexperience and I wanted to signal that type of difficulty, from that of a long, dull read.  You will note, that of the recently reviewed works both Love In the Ruins, and Tobacco Stained Mountain Goar, both difficult reads, were given “L” notations.

If you want to know which books I liked, you will have to go to the review link.  Usually the paragraph  where I note my enjoyment level is about three from the bottom - particularly as I became more standardized in review format with the later

Type:	AP = Apocalypse in Progress
	PO = Post Apocalypse
	C = Collapsed- The agency of collapse is mostly past
	M= Militia Element
	SF= Elements advanced enough to be unfamiliar to us today
	L= Literary (think low on action, lots of talking)
	YA= Young Adult NoA= Not Apocalyptic R = Romance
Disaster	N= Nuclear
	E= EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse)
	D= Pandemic Disease
	PD= Plant Disease
	B= Biotechnology
	PO= Peak Oil
	NP= Nefarious plotters trying to bring the world down
	EC= Economic Collapse (other than peak oil)
	NN= Nanotechnology
	V= Volcano
	M= Meteor or Comet strike
	GW= Global Warming
	W= Weird Science G= God or supernatural forces
Real	Realistic in tone - is it trying to portray an expected future.
	7 = yes this will happen 4= barely possible1 = strong elements of fantasy
	In most cases, where the effect is not ongoing, I am not factoring in unlikely disaster types.
Read	Readability = is it a fun or at least easy book to read.
	7 = classic4= somewhat enjoyable 1= challenging; literary works often tend toward the challenging.
	Note that you will enjoy a "4" if it is your type of book, but probably hate it if not.