When the Apocalypse Refuses to Align with Expectations - A Review of The Nightmare Stacks

The Nightmare Stacks by Charles Stross

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Being raised Catholic means that I have a fairly good notion of what to expect when the end of the world comes. It was never explicitly covered in any of the catechism classes I underwent while growing up, but as an eager reader I didn’t find it too difficult to skip through everything else in the Bible and read the Book of Revelations. Since I did this after I’d been introduced to other world mythologies, what I read wasn’t all that new - indeed, much of the imagery made it seem like John of Patmos had been reading up on the Norse sagas in his spare time. It would take a few years before I learned to appreciate the importance of the concepts in Revelations, and how appealing it is to the downtrodden and the oppressed (Christianity’s target market, if religions might be said to have target markets). After all, not only does it lay down, in very clear, specific terms, just exactly what will go down when the world ends, but more importantly, it tells the reader in equally explicit language who is going to win, who is going to lose, and what to do to be on the winning side.

This fascination with the end of the world intrigues me - not least because of how often it has been portrayed in media. I suppose it’s a good way of exploring themes of human resilience, courage, and heroism against seemingly insurmountable odds, but what really interests me is the sheer variety of ways the world could end. From meteor strikes to alien invasions, and, yes, even the apocalypse as described in Revelations - all of those and more have been portrayed on the big screen, the small screen, in images and in words. It has gotten to the point that lately, it appears that storytellers have just moved on and decided to tell stories of what happens after the apocalypse has come and gone - dystopian fiction is probably the hottest sub-genre at the moment, especially in young adult fiction. It’s as if the apocalypse is already a given; what’s more interesting is watching humanity pick up the pieces years after it’s happened.

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