What we’re about
Have your family and friends ever accused your taste in books of being a bit...dark?
Do you secretly find it a little bit exciting imagining what would happen if society as we know it were to fall apart?
Are you used to choosing your footwear based on its suitability for 'when the zombies come'?
Then you're in the right place!
Join us for a friendly monthly discussion of post-apocalyptic, dystopian, and related genres of books. We will have some pre-set questions to help guide discussion, but also allow the conversation to flow.
We have been running since January 2024 originally on Facebook, and now exclusively on Meetup.com.
We meet once per calendar month in a central location to discuss a pre-set book that should be read/listened to in advance of the session. There is a charge of £2 per person, per session, to contribute towards the cost of Meetup.com platform costs.
Attendees must be 18 or older. Other than that, everyone is welcome to join.
Upcoming events (2)
See all- Cheltenham PABC: Julia by Sandra Newman (400 pages)The Swan, Cheltenham, Cheltenham£2.00
As voted on in the April session, in June we will read Julia by Sandra Newman.
There is a nominal fee of £2 for each session from January 2025 onwards. This is to contribute to the cost of hosting the group on Meetup.com.
The payment link for June is here: https://monzo.me/devonedwards-joseph/2.00?d=June%20book%20club%20%F0%9F%93%9A&h=m0-iif
Feel free to arrive from 6.30pm if you'd like to meet people, get a drink, and have a chat before we start the book discussion at 6.45pm.
The expectation is that you will buy, borrow, or stream the book and read or listen ahead of the session, and then we will discuss it together.
You do not have to have finished the whole thing to attend, as long as you don't mind spoilers. :)
How to find us:
I have booked a table for us at The Swan under my name (Devon) - the bar staff will be able to direct you to it.
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Book description:"
London, chief city of Airstrip One, the third most populous province of Oceania. It's 1984 and Julia Worthing works as a mechanic fixing the novel-writing machines in the Fiction Department at the Ministry of Truth. Under the ideology of IngSoc and the rule of the Party and its leader Big Brother, Julia is a model citizen - cheerfully cynical, believing in nothing and caring not at all about politics. She knows how to survive in a world of constant surveillance, Thought Police, Newspeak, Doublethink, child spies and the black markets of the prole neighbourhoods. She's very good at staying alive.But Julia becomes intrigued by a colleague from the Records Department - a mid-level worker of the Outer Party called Winston Smith, she comes to realise that she's losing her grip and can no longer safely navigate her world.
Seventy-five years after Orwell finished writing his iconic novel, Sandra Newman has tackled the world of Big Brother in a truly convincing way, offering a dramatically different, feminist narrative that is true to and stands alongside the original. For the millions of readers who have been brought up with Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, here, finally, is a provocative, vital and utterly satisfying companion novel.
" - Cheltenham PABC: After World by Debbie Urbanski (368 pages)The Swan, Cheltenham, Cheltenham£2.00
As voted on in the May session, in July we will read After World by Debbie Urbanski.
There is a nominal fee of £2 for each session from January 2025 onwards. This is to contribute to the cost of hosting the group on Meetup.com.
The payment link for July is here: https://monzo.me/devonedwards-joseph/2.00?d=July%20book%20club%20%F0%9F%93%9A&h=m0-iif
Feel free to arrive from 6.30pm if you'd like to meet people, get a drink, and have a chat before we start the book discussion at 6.45pm.
The expectation is that you will buy, borrow, or stream the book and read or listen ahead of the session, and then we will discuss it together.
This particular book is available for 'free' as an audiobook if you have a Spotify premium subscription.
You do not have to have finished the whole thing to attend, as long as you don't mind spoilers. :)
How to find us:
I have booked a table for us at The Swan under my name (Devon) - the bar staff will be able to direct you to it.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Book description:"
Faced with the uncontrolled and accelerating environmental collapse, humanity asks an artificial intelligence to find a solution. Its answer is simple: remove humans from the ecosystem.Sen Anon is assigned to be a witness for the Department of Transition, recording the changes in the environment as the world begins to rewild. Abandoned by her mother in a cabin somewhere in upstate New York, Sen will observe the monumental ecological shift known as the Great Transition, the final step in Project Afterworld. Around her drones buzz, cameras watch, microphones listen, digitizing her every move. Privately she keeps a journal of her observations, which are then uploaded and saved, joining the rest of humanity on Maia, a new virtual home. Sen was seventeen years old when the Digital Human Archive Project (DHAP) was initiated. 12,000,203,891 humans have been archived so far. Only Sen remains.
[storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc’s assignment is to capture Sen’s life, and they set about doing this using the novels of the 21st century as a roadmap. As Sen struggles to persist in the face of impending death, [storyworker] ad39-393a-7fbc works to unfurl the tale of Sen’s whole life, offering up an increasingly intimate narrative until they are confronted with a very human problem of their own.
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