Quote:
Originally Posted by CHunter_Author
Two books I can think of off the top of my head are, "The Bradbury Report" Steven Polansky and "The Road" by Cormac Macarthy
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These look like examples of books that aren't
labelled as SF, which is a rather different thing.
The Road is dystopian and post-apocalypse, but the precise nature of the apocalypse is never stated. We are simply presented with a father and son seeking a place where survival is possible in a ruined world. The thing that separates it from SF as traditionally presented is that we don't know what caused the disaster - we simply see the aftermath.
The Bradbury Report
is arguably SF, but not apparently labelled as such to reach a wider audience. (The author is a college teacher whose other writing credits are all literary, like the New Yorker.) It's also an old theme in SF: the first exploration I can recall of this particular idea was Michael G. Coney's "Friends Come In Boxes" from the 70's, with a risk-taking protagonist whose friend is also his legally designated source of spare parts.
The publisher of The Bradbury Report is Weinstein Books, an imprint started by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in 2007. The Weinsteins were formerly the founders of the Miramax film production company, acquired by Disney in 1993. Weinstein Books aims for bestsellers, so not calling The Bradbury Report SF in unsurprising. A film deal for this down the road would also not be a great surprise.
Whether it's any good as SF is another question, as SF is expected to at least try to get the science right, and the underlying premise in The Bradbury Report is open to large questions.
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Dennis