The End of the World As We Know It

Yesterday, I finished reading Station Eleven.

I'd been eyeing it for a while (it kept being recommended as an audio book for hubs), then a friend came over on Monday for a playdate and she was talking about how she's trying to read more and had just read and really liked it. So...it pushed me over the edge. There was a crazy waiting list at the library, so I just bought it and went ahead and added the audio for hubby while I was at it.

It sounded like it should be a good post-apocalyptic thriller type thing.

It...was not.

I mean, it was post-apocalyptic, no question, but it was sort of a rambling, literary affair that skipped around in time -- pre-apocalypse, post, five years out, twenty, this character, that one, this other one who you only ever hear from once.

I think it was meant to be some sort of dissertation on the meaning of life and the ill-effects of technology on modern society. But basically, since I wasn't really in the mood for introspective mumbo-jumbo it was mostly boring.

But the premise had promise! The world as we know it ends owing to "the Georgia flu" -- a mutation of the swine flu. Massive death toll. General collapse of everything because it spread so fast. Etc etc. Great set up.

As I was finishing up Station Eleven, I got a notification that my digital library loan for Year One (by Nora Roberts) had automatically checked out.

I grabbed the book and started reading. I knew it was a post-apocalyptic thriller type thing (a little shift from what she usually writes, but not a huge shift and, in general, I know I'll enjoy anything she puts on paper.)

Wanna guess how the world ends?

Do you?

You know you do.

Mutated. Bird. Flu.

So yeah, somewhere 2 or 3 years ago, there was a writing prompt somewhere that was like: the world ends because of a virulent flu virus. Go.

It reminds me of when The Island came out. At the same time as Never Let Me Go. And one other clone book. Or the year that we had asteroid movies all summer.

It's like they say, there's nothing new under the sun. Just sometimes it all seems to converge.

Happily, Year One actually has a plot (surprise!) and characters I care about, so it's much much MUCH better than Station Eleven could ever dream of being.

So at least there's that.