Apocalyptic novels are nothing new. They might be gathering momentum as a sub-genre of science fiction, dystopian or horror but they’ve been around for longer than you might think. Indeed, Mary Shelley’s The Last Man was actually published in 1826 but it wasn’t till after World War II when the possibility of global annihilation by nuclear weapons entered the public consciousness that the genre started to build a burgeoning fan base.
Today there are a host of bestsellers that readily spring to mind. Novels like The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert, Zazen by Vanessa Veselka and of course The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Amongst genre bestsellers, the quality of writing and the depth of social discourse underpinning Apocalyptic novels and post-apocalypse novels has never been better. At their best, they stun you with their visions of ultimate endings both small and catastrophic with hauntingly bleak futures, but sadly the bestsellers represent just the tip of an awfully big iceberg with a huge amount of dross below the surface.
Get beyond the simple mechanics of writing a novel and Apocalyptic fiction is not an easy sub-genre to master. Readers want to be kept on the edge of their seat, but for Apocalyptic fiction to really strike an accord with its reader it needs to penetrate their psyche. To do this an author must not only imaginatively create the externally distressing and chilling elements of the end of our world as we know it they must reach us on an emotional level and this is something very few authors truly master.
Google top tips for writing Apocalyptic Fiction and you’ll be overwhelmed by the choice. Skim through a few of those posts and you will find the same advice churned out over and over again. There would be little value in repeating it here so we wanted to leave you with just one poignant piece of advice. Be it famine, virus, genocide, natural disaster, alien invasion or hordes of rampaging Zombies the most important thing for an Apocalyptic fiction author to do, the one thing they must get right to really stand a chance of having a bestseller is to ensure they capture the human consequences. The choices, the hardships and the innermost feelings of the characters they create and it’s the authors who master this that really stand out.
We recently reviewed 99% Down by Chaselyn Roderick and we think she pitched it perfectly. You can find our review HERE.
As always, we write our blogs with the intent of sparking a degree of reflection. If you are currently in the process of writing an Apocalyptic Fiction novel or about to pen your opening chapter or would just like to share your favourite read your thoughts are always welcome.
We work with both traditionally published and “indie” authors who have self or independently published books and our mission is simple. It’s to discover new and talented authors and help them give their work the attention and awareness it deserves. We do this by providing professional and credible reviews which are respected by our readers. Our primary focus is on fiction across all genres, non – fiction with broad appeal and selected poetry.
“The world might not have ended, but most of us that are left wish it had. My name is Rowan Keys. I had a family once. But now, it’s just me. My dad said we were the lucky ones. That wasn’t true. I’m just part of the 1% left waiting to die.”
Possibly the trickiest of all writing genres, the thriller comes with high expectations, which are hard to fulfil. So what do we expect from a thriller, and why do we enjoy reading them so much?
An action military thriller that delivers, it’s the first book in Edward’s Dirk Lasher series and there is plenty of heavy-duty action here. Definitely enough to sate readers with genre appetites, but there’s no supercilious over-thinking.
The best historical fiction novels tell stories about characters achieving something extraordinary and here Ford uses this premise to not only explore political ambition and the twisted corridors of power but the divisions and conventions of race and gender too.
Police Procedural Fiction Book Reviews From BookViral Share on facebook Share on google Share on twitter Share on linkedin A Gripping Police Procedural You Won’t
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