One thing I love about the canal is its honesty like a sick, swollen artery beneath the Botox of suburbs. A canal running through Baxter's neighborhood probably represents this dichotomy of characteristics best. 4)Ĭape Town through the lens of Baxter's cynical gaze is a bleak, visceral setting ("The sky is almost the exact gray of the diseased lung of a two-packs-a-day smoker"), filled with graffiti and grime, a raw mix of wealth and poverty that is borderline. It's not enough, but at least it's something. I snarl and hiss with rage as I jackhammer my fists into his kidneys and he struggles violently. He is an abrasive, arrogant personality with an uncomfortable propensity for violence and casual malice, which is encapsulated in his interactions with his autistic brother Rafe.įrom experience I know I only have seconds to inflict as much damage as possible before my mother comes to break us up. The protagonist is a sixteen-year-old named Baxter Zevcenko, a manipulative teenager who sees the schoolyard as a battlefield, his cohorts as tools, and pornography as business instead of idle recreation. But while the genre as a whole does not necessarily shy away from difficult material, Apocalypse Now Now, reeking of grit and magic, sometimes feels like it's on a calculated safari, a quest to be as edgy and inappropriate for possible. Certainly, it comes with all the hallmarks of the genre: an enterprising teen, an impossible destiny exceeding the protagonist's wildest imaginations, a cabal of supporting adults, and a handful of adolescent problems. This is The Human Apocalypse.This review is part of our 2014 fund drive bonus issue! Read more about Strange Horizons' funding model, or donate, here.Ĭharlie Human's urban fantasy Apocalypse Now Now could be tentatively labeled as a "Young Adult" book, a stiff nod in the direction of the more recent Harry Potter titles. This is a story of love, loss, hope, and all the zombies in between. This action-packed and adventure-filled tale of two friends, lost in a reality where the wrath of mother nature reigns down upon them, will have you on the edge of your seat as you wonder just what will happen next to Michael Evland and Ruby Valentine. But what if not all the zombies were mindless flesh eaters? What if some had intention? The undead are everywhere, but what happens when Michael and Ruby are faced with something more, something bigger, something scarier? Mindless zombies are terrifying on their own. Just when the threat of the undead seems to be contained, a new kind of evil arises. Michael and Ruby soon discover that there is a different kind of threat lurking in the shadows. Find out just what zombies are capable of, why they are so greatly feared, and why zombies aren’t the only thing to fear. Discover the untold truth of this post-apocalyptic nightmare. After a massive nuclear war claimed the lives of millions, and utter catastrophe engulfed the planet as radiation warped science as we knew it, he and his new-found friend, Ruby Valentine, set out on a perilous quest for answers.įollow them as they journey to Kansas City, seeking safety in numbers, as they go through and conquer unspeakable challenges. Michael Evland, a 23-year old from rural Kansas, had no one, and nothing to accompany him but a world of chaos―a world where the dead had inherited the earth.
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