Good 'end of the world' book?

d0rktower

Call me strange but I have always enjoyed 'end of the world' type books such as Deathlands/Outlanders by James Axler and friends, The Stand by Stephen King and even Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard which fits into that genre somewhere I'm sure. But that's about all I can find....I want some more. Any suggestions?

Answer
In a way...
Like in your examples ( I haven't read Axler yet) there's a kind of hope for humanity in most of these books - some of the books I mention are merely dystopian but since I share your 'fondness' for 'end of days' books I think you might like them as well!
John Updike - Toward the End of Time (unbeatable!!!)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Toward-End-Time-John-Updike/dp/0375400060/sr=1-2/qid=1164767562/ref=sr_1_2/202-1357687-0197463?ie=UTF8&s=books
Kurt Vonnegut - Galapagos
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Galapagos-Kurt-Vonnegut/dp/0586090452/sr=8-1/qid=1164765812/ref=sr_1_1/202-1357687-0197463?ie=UTF8&s=books
Kobo Abe - Inter Ice Age 4
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobo_Abe (no specific information available but a great read)
Arthur C. Clarke - 2001: A Space Odyssey
http://www.amazon.co.uk/2001-Odyssey-Arthur-C-Clarke/dp/1857236645/sr=8-3/qid=1164766191/ref=pd_ka_3/202-1357687-0197463?ie=UTF8&s=books
Haruki Murakami - Hard Boiled Wonderland And the End of the World
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hard-Boiled-Wonderland-World-Haruki-Murakami/dp/0099448785/sr=1-1/qid=1164766350/ref=sr_1_1/202-1357687-0197463?ie=UTF8&s=books
H.G. Wells - The Time Machine (no hope for anyone in the end)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Time-Machine-Penguin-Classics/dp/0141439971/sr=1-2/qid=1164766552/ref=sr_1_2/202-1357687-0197463?ie=UTF8&s=books
David Seltzer - The Omen
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Omen-David-Seltzer/dp/0451219422/sr=1-1/qid=1164766705/ref=sr_1_1/202-1357687-0197463?ie=UTF8&s=books
Amitav Ghosh - The Calcutta Chromosome
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Calcutta-Chromosome-Fevers-Delirium-Discovery/dp/0380813947/sr=1-1/qid=1164766792/ref=sr_1_1/202-1357687-0197463?ie=UTF8&s=books
José Saramago - Blindness
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blindness-Panther-Jose-Saramago/dp/1860466850/sr=1-1/qid=1164766971/ref=sr_1_1/202-1357687-0197463?ie=UTF8&s=books
Amin Maalouf - Balthasar's Odyseey
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Balthasars-Odyssey-Amin-Maalouf/dp/0099452081/sr=1-5/qid=1164767010/ref=sr_1_5/202-1357687-0197463?ie=UTF8&s=books
Karel Capek - War with the Newts
http://www.amazon.co.uk/War-Newts-Karel-Capek/dp/0945774109/sr=1-4/qid=1164767142/ref=sr_1_4/202-1357687-0197463?ie=UTF8&s=books
Doris Lessing - The Fifth Child
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fifth-Child-Paladin-Books/dp/0586089039/sr=1-1/qid=1164767230/ref=sr_1_1/202-1357687-0197463?ie=UTF8&s=books
+ Memoirs of a Survivor
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Memoirs-Survivor-Doris-Lessing/dp/0006493254/sr=1-1/qid=1164767269/ref=sr_1_1/202-1357687-0197463?ie=UTF8&s=books
+ The Golden Notebook
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Golden-Notebook-Paladin-Books/dp/0586089233/sr=1-1/qid=1164767289/ref=sr_1_1/202-1357687-0197463?ie=UTF8&s=books
Paul Auster - In the Country of Last Things
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Country-Last-Things-Paul-Auster/dp/0571227309/sr=1-9/qid=1164767322/ref=sr_1_9/202-1357687-0197463?ie=UTF8&s=books
P.D. James - The Children of Men
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Children-Men-P-D-James/dp/0571228526/sr=8-9/qid=1164767906/ref=pd_ka_9/202-1357687-0197463?ie=UTF8&s=books
Pierre Boulle - Planet of the Apes
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Planet-Apes-Pierre-Boulle/dp/0899683312/sr=1-3/qid=1164768064/ref=sr_1_3/202-1357687-0197463?ie=UTF8&s=books
+ anything by Franz Kafka!
Anyway - you will find more good movies on this topic (eg. Silent Running/ Alien3 etc.) than (original) books....
And please give Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go a try - it's stunning!!!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Never-Let-Me-Kazuo-Ishiguro/dp/057122413X/sr=1-1/qid=1164768580/ref=sr_1_1/202-1357687-0197463?ie=UTF8&s=books

the book 'EYE OF THE WORLD'?

ugh

Has anyone of you guys read 'eye of the world' by Robert Jordan?
if you did, can you PLEASEEEEEE give me the short summary of this book
thx :)

Answer
I have. Great book, but LOADS of tiny details.

So I've given two summaries. The first is really basic and doesn't give you any idea of what really happened in the book. The second has more details, but is quite a bit longer. (edited down from the wiki entry, but covers the absolute bare basics).

First:
Dragon Reborn is prophesied to break the world. Rand al'Thor is being chased by monsters and the arch enemy of the original Dragon. Through several battles and guided by a witch, he fights off the arch enemy successfully and realizes he is the Dragon Reborn. The end.

Second:
"The prologue is in the Age of Legends, ~ 3000 years before the rest of the book and introduces Lews Therin Telamon commander of the forces of Light in the war against Shai'tan. His victory was not without cost, however; as a result of the tainting of Saidin, the male half of the One Power (enables users to do 'magic', Lews Therin has gone insane and murdered his family. He is confronted by Ishamael, one of the Forsaken, who restores his sanity, allowing him to realize he killed his family. Faced with the magnitude of his crimes, Lews Therin commits suicide by drawing deadly amounts of Saidin, thus creating Dragonmount.

Fast forward to timeline of the rest of the book, an unexpected attack by horrid monsters seems to target Rand al'Thor and his two friends, Matrim Cauthon and Perrin Aybara specifically. Hoping to spare their loved ones from any further attacks, the three young men decide to flee the village by night, accompanied by Moiraine Damodred, an Aes Sedai (kind of a witch/sorceress), and her Warder (her specially trained bodyguard), al'Lan Mandragoran. As they attempt to leave, their surreptitious escape is discovered by the innkeeper's daughter, Egwene al'Vere, and a wandering gleeman, Thom Merrilin, who join them.

Chased by the monsters, the seven companions make their way to the nearby city of Baerlon, where Rand and his two friends begin experiencing dreams in which they are taunted by an arrogant man who calls himself Ba'alzamon. Shortly before they depart, Nynaeve al'Meara, the village Wisdom of Emond's Field, arrives to retrieve the four villagers. When Rand and his friends refuse to return with her, Nynaeve joins them to ensure their continued safety. (Chp. 11-17)


The travellers are forced to take refuge in the ancient, abandoned, and deadly city of Shadar Logoth, a place so evil even the monsters fear to enter. While there, Rand and his two friends foolishly try to explore the ruined city and meet a man named Mordeth, who first offers them riches in exchange for a small favor, then attempts to kill them when he learns that their companions include an Aes Sedai and that their eventual destination is Tar Valon, the home city of the Aes Sedai order. The three barely escape, and only reach their companions just before nightfall. Monsters enter the city during the night, forcing the companions to run and get seperated into smaller groups.

Rand, Mat, and Thom stumble across a moored ship on the nearby river and the captain reluctantly grants them passage to Whitebridge. During the journey upriver, Ba'alzamon continues to haunt Rand's and Mat's dreams, and Mat becomes strangely reclusive and suspicious of strangers. Rand discovers that Mat has kept a ruby-hilted dagger from Shadar Logoth despite Moiraine's earlier warning, but fails to connect this new acquisition to Mat's changed behavior.
In Whitebridge, the trio are confronted by a monster and Thom apparently sacrifices himself to buy Rand and Mat time to escape, and the two continue alone on the road toward Caemlyn.

Once in Caemlyn, Mat confines himself to his bed and seeks to avoid all contact with outsiders while Rand makes the acquaintance of an Ogier named Loial and embarks on an unlikely adventure. Logain Ablar, a recently-captured False Dragon, is being paraded through the streets of Caemlyn. While seeking to catch a glimpse of him, Rand climbs a wall and accidentally falls over the top into the palace garden, where he meets Elayne Trakand, heir-apparent to the throne of Andor, her brother Gawyn, and her half-brother Galad Damodred.

Meanwhile, Egwene and Perrin plan a route that should take them from Shadar Logoth almost directly toward Caemlyn. Along the way, they meet Elyas Machera, a man who can communicate with wolves. He tells Perrin that he, too, can develop this gift though Perrin shows little interest in this possibility. Elyas and the wolves decide to accompany the two youngsters at least part of the way to Caemlyn. They travel for a few days with the Tuatha'an, a nomadic, pacifistic people, before striking out on their own when the wolves witness one of Perrin's dreams featuring Ba'alzamon.

After fleeing from massive swarms of ravens and crows sent to mark their movements and kill them, they run afoul of a legion of Children of the Light commanded by Geofram Bornhald, father of the officer encountered in Baerlon. After witnessing the death of a wolf at the hands of a Whitecloak, Perrin, whose talent has developed despite his efforts, goes temporarily insane and kills two of them. Elyas escapes, but the Children of the Light hold Perrin and Egwene prisoner, planning to execute at least Perrin as soon as they reach Amador.

Moiraine, Lan, and Nynaeve rescue Egwene and Perrin from the Whitecloaks just as one overzealous individual is contemplating their premature execution. Together they travel to Caemlyn, where they are reunited with Mat and Rand, who has only just returned from his adventure at the castle. Moiraine immediately diagnoses Mat's "sickness" as the corrupting influence of the ruby-hilted dagger, and she uses her powers to diminish its effects, although she cannot heal him completely or break his attachment to it.

Loial warns Moiraine of a threat to the Eye of the World, a threat independently corroborated by a story heard by Perrin and Egwene while among the Tuatha'an and by the dreams of Rand, Mat, and Perrin. Moiraine decides that in order to reach the Eye of the World in time to stop the Dark One, they must take the Ways (passageways built by Aes Sedai for Ogiers to travel far distances in short amounts of time). The group is guided along the dangerous (now tainted by an evil black wind that drives you mad) Ways by Loial and emerge in Shienar, where they meet Lord Agelmar Jagad and Ingtar Shinowa in the fortress of Fal Dara, on the eve of an expected battle against a Trolloc army.

The group enters the Blight in search of the Eye of the World, guarded by Someshta (the fabled Green Man). The Eye is revealed as a pool of pure Saidin, and when the companions exit they are confronted by the Forsaken Aginor and Balthamel. Balthamel dies at the hand of the Green Man, and Aginor is consumed by the One Power as he battles Rand for control of the saidin at the Eye of the World. Guided by blind luck and instinctive knowledge, Rand uses the supply of saidin to decimate the Trolloc army and defeat Ba'alzamon.

Afterwards, Rand realizes to his own horror that he channeled the One Power, and that he is condemned to a fate of insanity and rotting death. The book ends with Moiraine's ominous statement to herself that, "The Dragon is Reborn." "

PS - If you are considering reading the series, you may want to wait. Jordan has yet to finish it. It now consists of 11 books (if you don't count the prequel) and the 12th (and supposedly final book), A Memory of Light, is not set for release until early 2009. And the last few have not been up to the standard of the first six.

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