Man. Are you familiar with the Spanish word "cajones"?

Reaching the masses through print Doomer Porn is worth a shot, it's just that most of the US just reads IMs anymore it seems. Also we've just bumped up our shipping rates, which has yanked book prices up a notch I'm sure.

You're familiar with the term "Doomer Porn," right?



I'll play Counterpoint and offer the opinion that SM's writing sucks out loud. Gave up on Dies Fire about halfway through, after the pilot and family conveniently meet up with the guy who, waddya know, happens to be an expert bowmaker. Just the thing you need in a world where guns suddenly don't work. Maybe it's an experiment in absurdism, deus ex machina goes reductio ad absurdum?

He's a lot better than the Lights Out guy though.

I thought Lights out was a fun Summer read. But the Ultimate Doomer Porn was Lucifer's Hammer. If I could get a hold of Last Light, I would certainly buy it.

Cliff (start a revolution, grow a garden)

Well, I finished Last Light yesterday and I can unreservedly recommend it to all those who like 'end of the world' novels. Without doubt this is an action novel, it follows the trials of one family through the collapse of civilisation and shows us just how hard survival through a hard crash would be. There is no 'happy ever after' ending to this book.

There are several strands to the novel, the father (an oil engineer) has to fight his way back to the UK from Iraq, the mother, daughter and son actually live through the crash in the UK (this was my favourite part of the book) and there is also a global conspiracy sub-plot that adds to, rather than taking away from, the main plot. The author manages to get in quite a bit of Peak Oil related discussion via the father, Andy Sutherland, without it ever being forced and I think that any 'average' reader would come away from reading this book with a completely altered perception of the invincibility of Western civilisation - this is actually a hope of Alex Scarrow's as expressed in his endpiece.

I would recommend reading this book (that deals with the actual crash itself) followed by John Seymour's novel Retrieved From The Future (that deals with the post-crash period) - as far as I am aware these are the only two novels that deal expressly with Peak Oil.

Obviously Last Light is fiction but it still managed to send shivers down my spine on several occasions and it made a nice change from reading books on Permaculture, Gardening and Self-Sufficiency - although it did give me even more incentive to carry on planning for an uncertain future (even here in the Scottish Highlands!).

Go buy this book today if you can!
Fergie

Hi,

thanks for posting your thoughts.

Sadly, in the UK, there's absolutely no promotion going on for the book. All I'll have to increase awarness of it, is word of mouth.

So to that end, if I could ask you to post a review on Amazon.co.uk for LAST LIGHT, that would help immensely.

As for being available in the statrs. I'm hoping the US rights will sell soon, but, for our American cousins on this forum, you can get it from Amazon in the UK....but I suppose the exchange rate might make it cost a tad more.

Anyway, I hope the book scares the crap out of the head-in-the-sand readers who've never heard of PO...and if just a few of them go on to google the term and open their eyes, then writing the book will have been worth it.

Hi Alex,

I posted my (5 star ) review to Amazon this evening - three people have given the book 5 stars already which isn't bad!

Good luck with the book, it deserves a wide readership.

All the best,
Fergie

spotted it. Thanks for that.

Hopefully the book will lead more members to this forum as well.

Sounds like a fascinating read to me..how do I buy it?

And I'm sorry, but I LOVED the dies the fire trilogy by SM Stirling, and am going to eventually see about getting other books by him.

Lights Out was an okay online novel..I found it much like eating popcorn..not really nutritious but good to snack on.

Well, at the moment it's not for sale in North America/Canada. You can buy it from Amazon.co.uk...or, you can buy directly from my website, the bonus being I'll sign and write a personalised message.

It's a bit much of me to say it's a good book...but really, if you're after a novel that puts into words everything all of us Peak Oilers have been thinking about....then maybe this'll be a good buy for you

best

Alex Scarrow

For those of us that aren't going to buy it online, give us an address we can send a bit of our depreciating dollar to. I love a good peak oil novel. The only other I know of is Charlie MacArthur's The Awakening. (Self Published)

Hi Revi,

if you go to http://www.scarrowshop.co.uk/

you can buy it directly off me - cut out all the fat middle men. I'll sign it, dedicate it, etc etc.

And I'm sure it will scare the crep out of you as it seems to have done with most people...judging by the emails I've been getting of recent.

Hi,

Just wanted to say: amazing book! Couldn't put it down, read it in 2 days.
Just posted a 5-star review at amazon.


Spoilers ahead:

The book ended on a hopeful note, but it felt a little less plausible than the rest of the book which had a no-holds barred, realistic feel to it. It also seemed to bar the possibility of a sequel (or 2); I would have really liked to know what happens after the 1st week covered by the novel.
But overall, great; educational and entertaining. Thank you, and hope it will be more widely discovered.

Available Stateside now: Last Light

I just ordered Last Light. It should be a good read. I'll pass it on to friends. I am amazed that this is the first real peak oil fiction to hit the marketplace. There have been two major documentaries, at least, but still no peak oil movies as yet either.

I love a good book, and I hope I have it by the middle of December, so I can read it over the Christmas holidays.

Thanks for the heads-up. I didn't know Amazon was now stocking it state-side.

Yes...please...spread the word on your side of the pond. Obviously I'm after additional sales, but more importantly I want Peak Oil to have a much higher profile. Whilst documentaries and essays are useful tools to spread the word, a piece of mass-market fiction is more likely to punch through at an emotional level and engage those sheeple who'd rather think the world will always remain this comfortable.

LastLight has a chance of doing that...I wrote a book that really, genuinely seems to scare those readers who've never heard of PO.

Good. They need to be scared.

Anyway...hope you 'enjoy' it.

I'm wondering if this is the fictional side of Oil Shockwave?