I was happy to see that Library Journal mentioned Falling Sky in an article about diverse subgenres in Science Fiction. It’s mentioned under the “zombie” section, despite the fact that there are no actual zombies in the book. Nevertheless, that was one of the influences that went into its conception. Falling Sky blends elements of several subgenres together in what I hope will be a refreshing take on some of the familiar tropes.

The post-apocalyptic genre has been on my mind lately, partly due to this article on io9 about post-apocalyptic art as well as the recent remastered release of The Last of Us game which I’m playing for the first time.  Falling Sky is, above all else, a post-apocalyptic story.  It takes place in the near-future, after an epidemic has shattered society. It allowed me to tap into my love of that genre and play with some of its elements.

I’ve written about the genre before, both at Tor.com and for LitReactor.com, but I never seem to grow tired of it. Those two articles will show you some of my favorites in the genre, but it’s one that is constantly being reinvented. When I was a kid, it was all about the post-nuclear wasteland, from Mad Max to Gamma World to Fallout. But the genre has shifted as our fears have. Disease is more often seen as the the precipitating factor in the apocalypse these days and the bleak landscapes of those past landscapes have been replaced by images of verdant overgrowth. It’s something I tried desperately to keep in mind as I was writing the book (and will continue to do so as I work on its sequel) — Nature flourishes when Man falters.

As I mentioned in some of those previous articles, what has always attracted me to the genre as both a reader and a writer is that I find post-apocalyptic stories to be stories of hope. The apocalypse has already happened. Many of these stories are about people trying to reclaim something out of the ruins of civilization, trying to rebuild. In that respect, Falling Sky is no different, though, without spoiling anything, I’ll warn that attempts to rebuild don’t always go well in the world of the novel.

What about the other genre influences? Well, they’ll have to wait for the next post…