Ketchup

How cannot I not blog for one of my favorite books of all time (thus far) and it has a sequel!…Plague Year hits home in those of us whose hearts are called to the mountains. You appreciate mountains all the more when the city is home, yet when something goes awry their beauty and magnificence is a small respite from the comforts of home. It’s only normal to feel cut-off from civilization when you stay in the backcountry for a while…wondering what’s become of the turbulent world on the other side of the hills. Yet civilization falling silent under a tide of death is far from what anyone expects or imagines. Jeff tells such a story like a madman peeling-back ever deeper layers of horror to a captive and mesmerized audience…Imagine that idyllic ski bum job at a podunk resort becoming a front-row seat for a very real apocalypse that your family is taking part in…being forced into a relentless fight for survival while any hope of rescue is killed-off horribly within all of the once safe-harbors of human society - and that only because they realized too late the measure of safety you posses by chance, like the terrifying chance of living in the fall-out zone of a hydrogen bomb rather than ground zero. The fading lights from millions of cars pointed at the islands of bleak hope where you survive are the surreal death rattles of mankind. The demise of the human race is a tragic feeling only less so when death has you in its grasp, not when you’re just out of reach but hardly a stretch away.
 

Wow, Mountain Man! Do you live near Leadville? Did I read that right?

You should be reviewing books professionally, btw. "[Carlson] tells his story like a madman, peeling back ever deeper layers of horror to a captive and mesmerized audience." Superb.

Appreciate it!!!
 

great review the mountainman has made! it made me even more eager to read the books!
ps: i'm trying to picture john scalzi as a beatle :) long hair, flower power, peace signs... naaaaaah!
 

Greetings, Horia Nicola, and thank you for stopping by! I suppose the off-hand Beatles comment must have sounded really weird without context... :)

I'm a huge fan of what I call "Dinosaur Rock." You know, the Beatles, Jethro Tull, Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane -- and something that Grace Slick said in an interview has always stuck with me. This was back in 1967. Airplane was beginning to make a splash. They'd just released "White Rabbit," which of course became one of their all-time best chart-topping songs. But it topped at #2, because the Beatles had released MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR and their song "Hello Goodbye" was in the number one slot.

For years, the Beatles were *always* in the number one slot.

I don't remember Slick's exact words, but it was something to the effect that, by '67, everyone else in the rock world had pretty much given up on hitting the #1 slot themselves. That was simply the Beatles' place, so the #2 was what the rest of the rock groups were competing for. That's kind of sad and heroic and profound all at the same time, eh?

It's really not fair to John for me to put him in that corner, but, wow, the guy came strong out of the gates, writing wildly popular books, and everywhere I turn he's right that the front of the pack. Sort of like the Beatles.

;)
 

there's much, much truth in what your saying about john scalzi. he's a kind of institution. the sort of writer for whom everything just seems to come in place, at just the right time. it's a rare, rare talent and one can only envy him.