EMOTIONALLY14: Cloud Zombie's Land of Post-Apocalypse and Dystopia

Welcome to Cloud Zombie’s Land of Post Apocalypse and Dystopia!

This little segment is not really for reviews but instead it has me talking about some of my favourite dystopia/post-apocalyptic fiction throughout films, TV and books. They're not always necessarily good or bad, some of them are bloody atrocious but sometimes that can make it more fun!

You get to choose if you want to give them a try if you haven’t already seen them.

Film: Dawn of The Dead (1978)

Following a growing epidemic of zombies that have risen from the dead, two Philadelphia S.W.A.T. team members, a traffic reporter and his television executive girlfriend seek refuge in a secluded shopping mall. - Plot summary courtesy of IMDB

As a little tribute to George A Romero I would like to include one of the ‘Dead Trilogy’. I have been a very big fan of his for a long while. Romero's works are the reason I enjoy all things Zombie and Post-Apocalyptic. I was also fortunate enough to meet him a few years ago at London Film and Comic-con, where he signed my Dead Trilogy while looking like a wise old owl. I swear his glasses frames got bigger with each year he aged.

I have picked the original Dawn of The Dead because it is my favourite one of the three and I have always loved the setup of it. The characters are just as scared as we are and they live from one moment to the next. If we were suddenly thrust into a zombie apocalypse I have a feeling that we wouldn’t do half as well as they did with surviving, as it's my belief that a decent chunk of the world is too selfish to care about their fellow human.

The whole surviving the zombie apocalypse in a huge shopping centre/Mall really rocks my inner Prepper (Definition here). A mall wouldn’t probably be the best place to use in this kind of situation because there are just too many entry points to secure. Though the success overall depends on your group size and dynamic, weaponry resources and the layout, you just wouldn’t have the man power to keep the mall safe.

TV Series: The Tribe

A group of young adults struggle to survive in a world where all the adults have been killed by a mysterious virus. - Plot summary courtesy of IMDB

The Tribe is a TV series that I grew up watching in my early teens. It fascinated me as a kid because it was about a world where all adults are dead from a man-made disease and everyone from children to teens were left alone to fend for themselves. I tend to gravitate to this kind of thing in films, TV and books because it’s such a great subject and you never know if it’s going to turn into a Lord of The Flies style situation. The material is fun despite the child/teen actors, so if you can get past that and just enjoy the subject matter for what it is then you should be fine.

The costumes are great as well.

The kids begin to form tribes for safety since there are many young children that have been alone since their parents died an unknown amount of time ago. Some of the tribes just want to get on and try to salvage what is left of their lives while others want power over everyone. The series follows a tribe called the ‘Mallrats’ (No not the 1995 film by Kevin Smith).

As well as being entertainment aimed at older kids (much like Emotionally14, it also deals with different subjects that kids working their way to teens have to deal with. Sometimes the subject matter is a little more to the point and sometimes it deals with things that are not always taught or talked about in schools.

This could be down to religious considerations or any other number of factors. To list a few of the subjects: Teenage pregnancy, sex, addictions, sickness, bullying, disabilities, politics and many other subjects. The Tribe was more like a soap drama for kids than just a normal kids adventure.

Book: Bluescreen By Dan Wells

Los Angeles in 2050 is a city of open doors, as long as you have the right connections. One of those connections is a djinni — a smart device implanted right in a person’s head. In a world where virtually everyone is online twenty-four hours a day, this connection is like oxygen — and a world like that presents plenty of opportunities for someone who knows how to manipulate it. Plot summary courtesy of Goodreads

Bluescreen is a Cyberpunk Dystopian novel by Dan wells and a first in the ‘Mirador series’. It’s fast-paced, mysterious and very futuristic. The world of Mirador is high in technology but the divide between the rich and the critical poor is too wide due to new technology taking over peoples jobs. Gangs roam and fight in the streets, the drug trade is ripe as the fights get worse between the gangs and the high powers of the city.

Dystopian Cyberpunk is always a fun genre to watch or read and I thought Bluescreen was different enough to be exciting. The main character Marisa Carneseca, a second-generation Mexican, lives with her family and spends most of her time on the net where she enjoys her virtual life more than her normal one, and she also has a bionic arm. I have the audiobook of this one and finished it last year, I recommend the audiobook because you get a better feel for the characters.

This book makes me think of Blade Runner, The Matrix and Tron the most. I’m looking forward to reading the next in the series as I am currently partaking in the 2017 Dystopia Reading Challenge by Cornerfolds.com. I have read 25 books so far in this challenge at date of writing and plan to read many more before the end of the year.

As always, thanks for reading!