New stuff at my Blog 'Life in Zacks World'
A new story, with some very atmospheric photos, by Alastair Robertson, a new one by me and a couple of new interesting links.
Comments welcome.
F

Cool - I never pictured you as a zombie person, somehow...

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Night of the Living Fred.....

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Night of the Living Fred.....

Awesome!

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Cool - I never pictured you as a zombie person, somehow...

I wasn't until a few years ago when I read World War Z by Max Brooks.

There was something about the Zombies as he showed them that fit in with my general doomer mindset I guess

You can read more about why I started Life in Zack's World here:

Life in Zack's World: Tales to tell...

F

If you were turned on to zombies by the apocalyptic scenario, you might also be interested in The War Against the Chtorr. For me this is more compelling as a doomsday scenario.

Earth is first truck by several plague waves that wipe out about 4/5 of the global populace. Then weird plants and animals are encountered, at least one of which is highly predatory toward humans. Although there is never any direct evidence, the military comes to the conclusion that the planet is in fact undergoing an alien invasion by the introduction of a foreign ecosystem, probably deliberately engineered. It's pretty bleak; mental disorders from various sorts of trauma are widespread, there are very few people with proper training in the fields in which they now work, and the situation seems to keep getting worse.

There's some dubious pyschology thrown in, and it's definite a love it or hate it type of thing, but given what you mention above it might be worth a look.

Originally Posted by contracycle

It's pretty bleak; mental disorders from various sorts of trauma are widespread, there are very few people with proper training in the fields in which they now work, and the situation seems to keep getting worse.

Which are also themes in series such as "BattleStar Galactica" (although I like the serie, it also annoys me at times. They discuss the humanity of Cylons endlessly, like they never heard or thought of a Turing test. I am only at Series 3 so please don't spoil the ending... although my friends already told me it makes very little sense/is weird) or "Survivors" (I haven't seen that one but it matches).

TBH, these days, maybe influenced by Fred and Francois (or by the crisis), I am quite fond of the post-apo theme. But mostly the idea of the fall of civilisation and adaptation to a new, harsher, reality. In French, you got such things as "Jeremiah" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremiah_(comics)), some of them have been translated in English. I always had a weird thing for Herman's style of drawing. (http://abyss.hubbe.net/gfx/covers/cm...enaries-lg.jpg and http://abyss.hubbe.net/gfx/covers/cm...n-water-lg.jpg). It's basically pretty ugly but his storytelling is so strong, it makes me like it. The serie is a lot quieter and more reflexive than these two images suggest...

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You also got "Summerland" in the RPG sphere. I played one game of it and it was alright...

Review of Summerland - RPGnet

The setting is based around "The Event"; the sudden appearance of a vast forest that was "destructively superimposed" upon human civilisation, destroying most infrastructure. It also came with a paranormal power, the Call, which seduced eighty percent of humanity into its depths never to return. The small remaining communities of humanity discovered that they could only resist the Call through strong human connection. A handful of individuals are able to resist the Call and travel through the Sea of Leaves; the Drifters, invariably people so traumatised in past experience that they resist the siren-song of the Sea of Leaves. The game has a strong setting; it expresses its themes as "survival, hope and redemption" along with horror and magic. Style is stated as action/adventure, investigation/discovery, and survival. The Drifters in seeking acceptance in communities must somehow overcome past traumas - but then be subject to the Call. As a whole, the setting reminded me a lot of J.G. Ballard's "natural psychodramas" such as The Wind from Nowhere, The Drowned World, The Drought, Vermilion Sands etc.

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