Slow Apocalypse
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3.7 • 35 Ratings
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
Despite wars with Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as 9/11, the United States’ dependence on foreign oil has kept the nation tied to the Middle East. A scientist has developed a cure for America’s addiction—a slow-acting virus that feeds on petroleum, turning it solid. But he didn’t consider that his contagion of an Iraqi oil field would spread to infect the fuel supply of the entire world…
In Los Angeles, screenwriter Dave Marshall heard this scenario from a retired U.S. Marine and government insider who acted as a consultant on Dave’s last film. It sounded as implausible as many of his scripts, but the reality is much more frightening than anything he can envision.
An ordinary guy armed with extraordinary information, Dave hopes his survivor’s instinct will kick in so he can protect his wife and daughter from the coming apocalypse that will alter the future of Earth—and humanity…
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The title of this molasses-paced story of global devastation is unfortunately apropos. Dave Marshall has advance notice of the rapid and unstoppable destruction of the world's oil reserves originally the plot of Marshall's next movie script, but now horribly true. In a device familiar to readers of Greg Bear's Blood Music and Neal Stephenson's Zodiac, oil-eating bacteria intended for use in a single region spread across the globe. Marshall and his friends survive thanks to being rich and well-prepared, while chaos, starvation, and death happen off-screen and in poorer neighborhoods, remote to Marshall and the reader. Varley optimistically posits a postdisaster "Ecotopia" of happy communism and careful resource use that serves as a traumatizing but effective togetherness retreat for Marshall's family, saving his marriage and teaching his spoiled wife "a new appreciation for real values." Varley has thought hard about the myriad ways oil is vital to our entire infrastructure, but he never really gets excited about the consequences of its disappearance.
Customer Reviews
A very entertaining ride through the future
This is my first John Varley book. But I am definitely impressed and I plan to buy more!
Love Letter to California
It is still Varley but not the one that makes me ignore everything else in life until I finish the book. I enjoyed the premise and the humanity of the apocalypse. Clearly, though, Varley had a lot of memories built up in LA that he felt compelled to share. I feel like I read a lot of this book already in his website travelogues.
OK, John. You got that out of your system. Back to work. I am almost done reading Red Thunder to my daughter and I intend to keep reading the series to her (at least as long as she will let me).
Slow Apocalypse is an L.A. Geography Lesson
The book starts out very slow and it takes a long time to get invested in the characters. Two thirds of the book is spent describing Los Angeles geography. It starts out intriguing, and then becomes very tedious. The last few chapters are exciting and the ending is very anticlimactic. This is not John Varley's best work. It's worth reading if you are a Varley fan, but not one of his best works.