Inhumanity inspiration #1 - The Death of Grass

Most post-apocalyptic stories have a "man made" disaster that brings about the apocalypse; government virus accidentally released or nuclear fallout being the two big ones. Whenever nature is the source of the disaster, the time period of the story shifts thus changing the genre from "Post-Apocalypse" to "Pre-Apocalypse" more commonly known as "Disaster". This is done to create large set pieces (think of films like San Andreas, Geostorm or The Day after Tomorrow. Giant waves, tumbling cities and earth splitting quakes. But what they also have are scientific inaccuracies as big as the fissures that split cities down the middle.

So when I read The Death of Grass, its emphasis on the human side in the wake of a eco-disaster was refreshing. But it also showed that the scenarios John Custance, the novel's protagonist, faces on a much smaller, more intimate basis are far more terrifying than the CGI laden blockbusters.

I remember getting a copy of John Christopher's novel for my Science-Fiction module while studying for my English Lit. Masters degree. It was small, short and best of all, easy to read, meaning I could blast through it in one sitting and enjoy my weekend.

By the end my entire perceptions of mankind had changed for the worst. While most post-apocalyptic stories try and one-up their peers with violence and gore to try and showcase the worst in a humanity without inhibition, Christopher's novel deals with the terrifying tightrope one man walks between survival and civilisation. This balancing act that grows in difficulty as the story progresses, forms the majority of the novels tension.

The story is so cleverly constructed that we as readers also descend into a sort of organised savagery, so when we put the book down, we have discovered something very dark and unsettling about ourselves. A must read in my humble opinion.

This started a fascination with Eco-phobia in science fiction. A passion that formed the foundation of Inhumanity.