My wife and I arrived in Singapore last week with our two teenage daughters for a short vacation with relatives who have a house in the rolling hills of the Upper Paya Lebar district. Before we departed the USA we were oblivious to the haze which had just started to creep over the island nation, a smoky presence delivered by the wind blowing in from Indonesia. For the first … [Read more...]
Post-peak fiction: First Journey
We're pleased to publish the first chapter of the latest installment of W.R. Flynn's Shut Down series of novels, set in the Pacific Northwest after the collapse of the global economy. This excerpt comes from Flynn's volume entitled First Journey: After the Shut Down, in which the post-collapse colony in Corbett decides to send a small crew on a mission to explore the ruins of … [Read more...]
Peak fiction excerpt — Buck: A Survivor of The Shut Down
We are pleased to run an extended excerpt from WR Flynn's Buck: A Survivor of the Shut Down, just released this May. The novel is a sequel to Flynn's earlier Shut Down: A Story of Economic Collapse and Hope, which we reviewed last year. Enjoy. Chapter One "Joe, look!" Chris Saunders said, as he nervously drew his handgun for the first time in nearly two years. "Whoa," … [Read more...]
Collapse could happen, literally, overnight
In the granddaddy of all collapse books, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 18th-century historian Edward Gibbon gave ancient Rome a full 500 years to deflate. Half a millennium for any society to collapse always seemed a bit too generous to me. Heck, American civilization has only been around for about 300 years. So I never assumed that … [Read more...]