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Field Guide to the Apocalypse


Simon Spotlight Entertainment
Nonfiction, Humorous Nonfiction/Media Reference/Survival
Themes: Aliens, Apocalypse, Cross-Genre, Dreams, Dystopias, Plagues, Robots, Undead
****+

Description

So, you survived the end of the world. Meteor impact, alien invasion, killer mutant beasties, global warming, rampant viral pandemic... there are many ways for civilization to collapse and Earth to be irrevocably changed for the worse. However it all went down, you made it through. Congratulations. Now what are you gonna do?
In this new post-apocalyptic Earth, the old rules mean nothing. If you want to stay alive you'll have to adapt fast. What should you eat if you’re scrounging for food on a frozen Ice Age tundra? How can you race your ultracool retrofitted assault vehicle across the wastelands when there are no more Shell stations to refuel at? What do you do if you find yourself in a drug-induced False Utopia eating dead friends for lunch? How can you stop the world from ending to begin with? This book offers tips and tricks for the would-be apocalypse survivor in all situations, many gleaned from the irrefutable disaster-survival geniuses of the silver and small screens.

Review

My decision to call this book Nonfiction is a bit arbitrary, given the number of movies, books, and TV series cited, but enough factual information is presented that I decided it was better suited to this category - that, and it's self-aware about using Hollywood tricks and character archetypes. I got this book for free at a sci-fi convention, but I would've gladly paid full price for it. It's hilarious and informative (disturbingly so, as Marco explains the mechanisms behind global warming and other potential apocalypse-inducing planetary processes.) I wasn't familiar with a few of her movie/TV references, and some I knew only through cultural osmosis, but it was still great fun. My only complaint is that Marco goes overboard on the swearing. Swearing grows less effective the more it's used, and at some point it becomes downright annoying. Aside from that, this is a highly enjoyable read, though I suspect that the timing - this being just after the horrific Hurricane Katrina disaster that wiped more than one town off the map and plunged the survivors into a state of apocalypse-like desperation and chaos - will affect sales and people's ability to laugh at topics such as "The Modern Girl's Guide to Looting."

 

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