I have finished my second novel...
May. 9th, 2006 12:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darkelf105I have finished my second novel in my one hundred novels project. "The Big Empty" is a post-apocalyptic-type novel set in a future that seems only a few years away. Strain 7 hit America so fast that it had killed most of the population before it had a name. After the initial chaos, a man named MacCauley had stepped in and took over the government and reigned utterly with martial law. Two teenagers were executed for stealing batters, the reader learns from one of the main characters, Michael. Michael and his horrendously stupid girlfriend must flee the restructured New York after they are set up to take the fall for the robbery of a deli. The theft, as is all crime, is punished by death. The story is actually a set of intertwining stories about various teenagers who survived the plague and are not coping with how the new world works. It is a grim, military world with little hope and little freedom. Through the first story of Keeley, a brilliant, ivy-league recruited high school student, the reader learns of Novo Mundum, which is Latin for "I make the world anew". It is a community located in the Big Empty that is trying to put together a life for the surviving American citizens who care to risk execution and seek them out. The Big Empty is the whole middle of the U.S. McCauley has forced all survivors to relocate either to the South, East or West and leave the middle of the country empty, because there aren't enough people to "run the country's middle". Staying in the Big Empty means death by either military or the Slash, a ruthless group of renegade men who are bent on wreaking their own version of anomie.
As the story goes on, the various teens meet and eventually, through force of luck, end up in Clearwater, where they must figure out the code to get to Novo Mundum. Maggie, the idiotic girlfriend of the character Michael ends up leaving and they are almost caught by the military. The end of the story is the teenagers meeting two cloaked and hooded figures from their sanctuary. That's it, the end.
It was good enough novel, but very short. The characters were all very believable, and I liked quite a few of them, but the novel was too short to go much into the new state of the world or the new community that lived in the heart of American's desolation. And since "Alas, Babylon" is one of my favorite novels about a post-civilized world, this novel left a lot to be desired.
It didn't really go into detail about the horrible military structure of the world, and it didn't go into any of the other types of unique survival details that are usually fond in novels like these. The only thing that the novel really pointed out, and not subtle, too, was that humans need more than food and water to survive. They need art and music and the life of the mind, which is what Novo Mundum was supposed to provide, but since one didn't really see or experience very vividly how truly monstrous the world had become, the reader sort of missed the point.
This book while not bad is definitely not one I will revisit. For a YA book, it wasn't what I had expected. Usually when fiction gets stuck with the YA label it's either that horrible, pre-manufactured teeny-pop stuff usually based off of magazines or WB shows and whatever else the corporations can find hacks to write for, or it is unclassifiable and thus really, really good fiction. I had thought that since "The Big Empty" was obviously not something from Glamour or the WB it was worth trying, and while not bad, it was definitely not as good as "Alas Babylon", "Dies the Fire", "The Stand" or even something like "I Am Legend". But I think that if the author wrote more books and fleshed out the setting, the series would be worth reading, as a stand alone, though, I was not impressed. I think I shall add "The Beach" to my list, because now I am craving end-of-the-world type fiction and that is supposed to be good. Congrats, Neville Shute, author I have never wanted to read, you have made the list.
Also, the "Count of Monte Cristo" has not arrived at my library yet, so I must read out of order. I am now going to read "The Beasts" by John Crowley, who wrote "Little, Big" which is another novel on my list. It is short and hopefully I will be done by Wednesday.
As the story goes on, the various teens meet and eventually, through force of luck, end up in Clearwater, where they must figure out the code to get to Novo Mundum. Maggie, the idiotic girlfriend of the character Michael ends up leaving and they are almost caught by the military. The end of the story is the teenagers meeting two cloaked and hooded figures from their sanctuary. That's it, the end.
It was good enough novel, but very short. The characters were all very believable, and I liked quite a few of them, but the novel was too short to go much into the new state of the world or the new community that lived in the heart of American's desolation. And since "Alas, Babylon" is one of my favorite novels about a post-civilized world, this novel left a lot to be desired.
It didn't really go into detail about the horrible military structure of the world, and it didn't go into any of the other types of unique survival details that are usually fond in novels like these. The only thing that the novel really pointed out, and not subtle, too, was that humans need more than food and water to survive. They need art and music and the life of the mind, which is what Novo Mundum was supposed to provide, but since one didn't really see or experience very vividly how truly monstrous the world had become, the reader sort of missed the point.
This book while not bad is definitely not one I will revisit. For a YA book, it wasn't what I had expected. Usually when fiction gets stuck with the YA label it's either that horrible, pre-manufactured teeny-pop stuff usually based off of magazines or WB shows and whatever else the corporations can find hacks to write for, or it is unclassifiable and thus really, really good fiction. I had thought that since "The Big Empty" was obviously not something from Glamour or the WB it was worth trying, and while not bad, it was definitely not as good as "Alas Babylon", "Dies the Fire", "The Stand" or even something like "I Am Legend". But I think that if the author wrote more books and fleshed out the setting, the series would be worth reading, as a stand alone, though, I was not impressed. I think I shall add "The Beach" to my list, because now I am craving end-of-the-world type fiction and that is supposed to be good. Congrats, Neville Shute, author I have never wanted to read, you have made the list.
Also, the "Count of Monte Cristo" has not arrived at my library yet, so I must read out of order. I am now going to read "The Beasts" by John Crowley, who wrote "Little, Big" which is another novel on my list. It is short and hopefully I will be done by Wednesday.
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on 2006-05-09 07:54 pm (UTC)Ugh that book sounds really boring.I do have a question though-
"Two teenagers were executed for stealing batters..."
What is a batter? A kind of food/sandwich in the deli?
From your description it sounds like a
moreboring sequel to Cat's Cradle.erm
on 2006-05-09 08:50 pm (UTC)Re: erm
on 2006-05-09 08:53 pm (UTC)Re: erm
on 2006-05-09 09:03 pm (UTC)Re: erm
on 2006-05-09 09:36 pm (UTC)