Ecological Disasters

[mextex12]

Whilst I am a fan of all sorts of mind-bending sci-fi, I've recently developed a taste for ecological/apocalyptic scenarios e.g. Seed of Light - Edmund Cooper, The Death of Grass - John Christopher, The Drowned World - J G Ballard and Hothouse - Brian Aldiss Can anyone recommend some other titles, preferably British and from 50s-70s. Cheers.

 

[j d worthington]

Of course Ballard also did The Wind from Nowhere, The Drought (a.k.a. The Burning World), and The Crystal World....

And John Brunner did an "ecological dystopian" trilogy, Stand on Zanzibar, The Jagged Orbit, and The Sheep Look Up... the first won the Hugo award, and the last has been selected as one of the 100 best horror books! (Seems odd, perhaps, but it definitely fits....)

I suppose one could also consider Brian Aldiss' Barefoot in the Head as an ecological disaster, really, as well....

 

[Abernovo]

I suppose an obvious author would be John Wyndham.

The Day of the Triffids and The Kraken Wakes are apocalyptic. Both have some small ecological commentary within them. The Chrysalids is post-apocalyptic. All three of them are from the fifties.

 

[antiloquax]

The Furies[\I] by Keith Roberts. It's ages since I read it, but I enjoyed it. Giant wasps, after a nuclear disaster.

 

[dask]

THE RAGGED EDGE by John Christopher was pretty darn good.

 

[dask]

Can the Ballard books mentioned above be considered truly British?

 

[j d worthington]

Can the Ballard books mentioned above be considered truly British?

Eh? In what way would they not be? I'm not trying to dismiss your question, but I have no context to indicate otherwise; so if you'd let me know where you're coming from on this one, I'd appreciate it.

From my own understanding, they are considered among the leading works of the British New Wave; Ballard was one of the most impressive and critically-acclaimed British writers of the field; they have a distinctly British approach to the material that would be completely foreign to, say, an American writing the same; etc.

However, if you have some ideas to oppose to the above, I'd be quite interested in hearing them.

 

[Sourdust]

Can anyone recommend some other titles, preferably British and from 50s-70s. Cheers.

Is the preference for British titles because of the geographical setting, or the generally gloomier, more defeatist tone?

In any case, besides the obvious answer of 'more Aldiss [Greybeard?] and Ballard' (and many of the dark stories published in New Worlds), I wouldn't overlook some of the more notable American post-apocalypse novels, such as George Stewart's Earth Abides (number 2 in David Pringle's chronological '100 best SF novels' from 1985) and Leigh Brackett's The Long Tomorrow.

For more in-depth surveys, the SF Encyclopedia (always an excellent source of obscure, quite idiosyncratic reading lists, often from oddball genius John Clute) has entries on Distaster, Climate Change, Post-Holocaust, and Ruined Earth.

 

[Bick]

Admittedly american, but I really liked "Twilight World" by Poul Anderson. (Post nuclear apocalypse setting). Wrong country of origin, but it sits in the middle of your preferred date window beautifully.

 

[dask]

Eh? In what way would they not be? I'm not trying to dismiss your question, but I have no context to indicate otherwise; so if you'd let me know where you're coming from on this one, I'd appreciate it.

From my own understanding, they are considered among the leading works of the British New Wave; Ballard was one of the most impressive and critically-acclaimed British writers of the field; they have a distinctly British approach to the material that would be completely foreign to, say, an American writing the same; etc.

However, if you have some ideas to oppose to the above, I'd be quite interested in hearing them.

Sorry, thought his not being born in England might have had something to do with it. Don't know how old he was when he finally got there. If he was really young and England was all he knew, then sure. If he was older and had major cultural influences somewhere else, then could his work be truly British?

 

[Sourdust]

Sorry, thought his not being born in England might have had something to do with it. Don't know how old he was when he finally got there. If he was really young and England was all he knew, then sure. If he was older and had major cultural influences somewhere else, then could his work be truly British?

It's true that the colonial and wartime experience (living in Shanghai until he was 15) was of critical importance to Ballard's development, but culturally he was no more Chinese than Kipling was Indian. Nationality is a complex issue, though, and not necessarily helpful when talking about writers: of a population of tens of millions (hundreds in the US case), how many of them go on to become notable novelists? What does it mean to be 'truly' British or American?

The point is that the likes of Ballard and Aldiss were highly atypical, and that the impulse to write SF was linked to a desire to escape the drabness of post-war British culture. We should also note that Aldiss's Hothouse was partly inspired by memories of his wartime experience in the jungles of Burma.

 

[dask]

Makes sense. Thank you.

 

[merritt]

The tide went out - Charles Eric Maine
Old favorite re-read!

 

[Montero]

Hadn't appreciated it was the same JG Ballard as "Empire of the Sun".

 

[neopeius]

Whilst I am a fan of all sorts of mind-bending sci-fi, I've recently developed a taste for ecological/apocalyptic scenarios e.g. Seed of Light - Edmund Cooper, The Death of Grass - John Christopher, The Drowned World - J G Ballard and Hothouse - Brian Aldiss Can anyone recommend some other titles, preferably British and from 50s-70s. Cheers.

It's from the 80's, but it has a classic field--"Nature's End" by Strieber and Kunetka (they did WarDay as well)

 

[High Eight]

The Furies by Keith Roberts. It's ages since I read it, but I enjoyed it. Giant wasps, after a nuclear disaster.

Giant wasps that are actually aliens. Roberts wrote it as an hommage to John Wyndham - and did it very well.

 

[BAYLOR]

No Blade of Grass John Christopher

 

[merritt]

Dust - Charles Pelligrino
Mites eat the world!

 

[Tom Hering]

This list should help: 60 years, 60 novels about the end of the world: http://www.science20.com/adaptive_c...chronological_curriculum_ultimate_catastrophe

 

[Mark Ragland]

I also can recommend Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, about a comet hitting the earth. Also, The HAB Theory by Alan W. Eckert, which has to do with the melting of the polar ice caps.