Black Holes in the Earth

[andygates]

For some reason the zombie apocalypse just feels too damn survivable these days. I've developed a kink for black-holes-inside-the-Earth fiction, which is surely as niche as it gets.

The Forge of God - Greg Bear - Not strictly black holes but some truly awesome moments of utter, crushing, "oh feck"; tight tense countdownery; and a hugely memorable catastrophe more than make up for the weird aliens whose motivation never convinced me. Then again they are aliens.

The Krone Experiment - Craig Wheeler - A scientific wotdunnit dressed in Cold War atomic-brink thriller clothes. Sort of like a Michael Crighton, but with much better science and even stiffer characters (yes, it's possible). Good for the 1980's clichés as much as the science-geek spotter's guide to phenomena.  Mmm, Russians.

Can anyone recommend any more..?

Comments

[thudthwacker.livejournal.com]

I liked Earth by David Brin.

[ravenbait.livejournal.com]

That's part of the uplift series, isn't it?

Ecco the Dolphin is all his fault, you know. I may never forgive him. That shark sequence... Pah.

[ravenbait.livejournal.com]

I find it almost impossible to believe that the author of The Serpent Mage is capable of writing anything that can be described as tight and tense.

[arabis.livejournal.com]

Not quite the same, but have you come across Alastair Reynolds at all? If not, give his Revelation Space a go. You can read an excerpt on Amazon.

[flitljm.livejournal.com]

This did happen in Dan Simmons' Hyperion, but was a historical event so peripheral to the main story.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

The prose is a bit shambling, but the countdown is tense. It has the right level of escalatory utterfuck for the end of the world.

[thudthwacker.livejournal.com]

That's part of the uplift series, isn't it?

No, actually -- entirely standalone story. "Uplift" is one of the series I've been meaning to get to. I read Sundiver, but that's about it. And now there appear to be a set of trilogies set in the "Uplift" universe. Jeez.

[ravenbait.livejournal.com]

The Uplift series was pretty good.

When I was 12.

[ravenbait.livejournal.com]

So was Thomes Covenant, mind you.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Keep meaning to re-read those. At least the first three, before it got silly. I have a feeling that what looked really deep and angsty back then is going to come across as whiney and petulant now (kinda like Trent Reznor)...

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Ooh, sounds fun :)

[despaer.livejournal.com]

Larry Niven did a number of short stories based upon the behaviour of neutron stars and black holes away back when, as in before Hawking radiation was first mooted. I have never actually got round to reading any though; let me know if they are any good...

Oh, I also remember a really bad docudrama called end day which presented a number of doomsday scenarios for modern earth (Yellowstone, SARS++ that kind of thing). The last scenario was the creation of strangelets inside a particle accelerator.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Mmm, strangelets :)