Something... New? Old?... Different.

This summer I saw "Soft Apocalypse" by Will McIntosh on the shelf many times. I passed it as I searched through the new books lining the shelves, skipping over the tired 'end of the world' novels and looking for something new. It taunted me, with it's enticing cover and back cover description, but I was too jaded to pick it up for more than a few seconds. I thought I knew what it would contain, I'm an avid reader of everything apocalypse related and even I was over-saturated with such novels this year. They were all the same, the end of the world had a formula, and it was BORING.

 Yet there "Soft Apocalypse" was, waiting, every time I came into the store.

And finally it was too much, I picked it up and began reading the first page. And then I sat down on the floor of the book store to read the second, third... And then I was in line, waiting impatiently, to take my new favorite book home. I read it cover to cover in a night.

"Soft Apocalypse" had finally given me something new and different to read. It was a story about us, all of us, in a real situation. And sure, the main characters are essentially a 'rag-tag team of gun-toting surviors' but they aren't special, they are just like us. These survivors could be our neighbors, our friends, ourselves. They are real people, living in really horrible circumstances, and doing just what we would all do in those circumstances, the best that they can.

Perhaps the best part of "Soft Apocalypse" is the idea itself, for once in the speculative end of the world, struggling to survive isn't fun. The characters aren't people to be jealous of, they are starving, dying, scared and at a loss for what to do. There 'exciting' world isn't the ideal one that's often portrayed, they aren't walking around being a law onto themselves, raiding wide-open grocery stores and saving damsels in distress. They are literally starving to death, they are on the run from people who are stronger than them and life, while it occasionally has it's little joys, isn't easier this way.

Will McIntosh does the incredible with this novel, he breathes new life and real originality into a genre that seemed like it was dying it's own slow death. "Soft Apocalypse" is frightening in it's realism, terrifying in it's believability and it offers us the most important thing any novel can, it offers us a chance to think about what we would do. Who would we be in these circumstances? Certainly most of us wouldn't be the heroes we usually read about, it is much more likely that we would be like these characters. Or, horrifying though this may be, not a survivor at all.

So, if you love apocalypse stories, check out "Soft Apocalypse" for a vividly written taken on our tried and true favorite genre. And if you don't like apocalypse stories, check out "Soft Apocalypse" for a realistic, gritty and wonderfully written novel about a group of people trying to survive in horrible circumstances.

And Will McIntosh, keep writing and I can't wait for your next novel, "Hitchers" due out in Feb. 2012!