Given its initial publication date during 2012, this novella is in keeping with the flurry of Incan END-OF-THE-WORLD stories that probably flooded the Sci-Fi magazine market during 2012. That said. It won the Nebula "Best Novella" category in 2034 - so a big thumbs up from the Sci-Fi Writers Assn.
Some of her best work is about civilaztion transformations / paradigm shifts. So in keeping with the best tradition of Sci-Fi's social commentary, this novella looks at how humans might view the end of the world as we know it - from before, during and after.
Some readers might view it as pro-green, but if you're into archeaology or math theories, this is really a story about what happens when a complex system moves out of one stable pount and approaches a new one. Complexity Theory says that massive systems take a a long time to disrupt - with each one pulling out another underpin.
BTW. this is not really fiction. The last two times we ran into this scenario, the huge Yellowstone and Indonesian supervolcano explosions 600.000 and 70,000 years ago brought the human species down to less than 100 people suriving in just a few places. The last Ice Age has nothing on these two events - as this story illustrates.
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Kuzu
Some of her best work is about civilaztion transformations / paradigm shifts. So in keeping with the best tradition of Sci-Fi's social commentary, this novella looks at how humans might view the end of the world as we know it - from before, during and after.
Some readers might view it as pro-green, but if you're into archeaology or math theories, this is really a story about what happens when a complex system moves out of one stable pount and approaches a new one. Complexity Theory says that massive systems take a a long time to disrupt - with each one pulling out another underpin.
BTW. this is not really fiction. The last two times we ran into this scenario, the huge Yellowstone and Indonesian supervolcano explosions 600.000 and 70,000 years ago brought the human species down to less than 100 people suriving in just a few places. The last Ice Age has nothing on these two events - as this story illustrates.
--
Kuzu
Andrew L. (mythreeblondes) reviewed After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall on + 55 more book reviews
This is a novelette, so its rather short to have been published on its own. The characters are kinda "meh", but the plot technique of weaving three different points of view/time lines is interesting, as is how the story eventually comes to fruition. I'd recommend it for any fans of Nancy Kress or green/environmental types.
