OK, but bizarre. A boring page turner. Somehow both dated and prescient. Not badly written, but the story itself was, well, bouncy. Some of the plot devices bordered on ridiculous, and calling the ending "cliche" would be an understatement. This is a disturbing and paradoxical book, but worth reading. ( )

Excellent post-apocalyptic sci-fi. As the titles implies, there is no one big event but a sucession of little ones that erode the quality of life for people. Very well done & the author pulls no punches which I appreciated. ( )

Soft Apocalypse by Will McIntosh was not as good as Grave Goods….at all. Actually it kinda sucked. The story followed one man and his “tribe” as they struggled to survive in a world that is slowly destroying itself with designer viruses, food shortages, revolutions, rebellions, and straight up violence. Yet during all this the main character (who’s name i have COMPLETELY forgotten) is more focused on his lack of love and all he really does is cry. It was boring, annoying and very anti-climatic (word of the day lol). I’m amazed I finished it, and thankfully it was a free book. ( )

I think I may have just found my favorite dystopian SF. Maybe not as good as, say, The Postman or The Stand, maybe, but out of all the last decade's dystopian runs, I like this because of the freaking REALISM.

What? So it's like The Road?

NOPE. Not gritty like that. The title is okay but it really should be named SLOW Apocalypse. This is how it will probably land on us. You know, putting a frog in a pot and set the temp to low. This is how the world ends. Not with a bang... but a whimper.

We're damn suckers for that kind of destruction. :) We might not like to admit it, of course, and all these dystopias like the plagues and the radiation and the zombie outbreaks... but what happens when we run out of resources and our natural cupidity and incompetence drags us down?

The usual. Death. Destruction. But what will it REALLY be like? Especially if it's SLOW?

People will adjust to the new norms. Try to have relationships. Grumble about the new depression. Perform hugely boneheaded stunts. Eventually, run out of road. And all the while, just trying to get by.

That's REALISM for you. Doing good where you can or letting it all rot, trying to find a bit of happiness in the crap and sticking with friends where you find them. No huge rape-fests. No blowout fight of good versus evil. There are still dicks with guns and politicians without a clue and nuclear warheads going off in this novel, but events are spread out as the apocalypse comes to a full boil. You wake up from your 1950's dream to see the 1980's. You wake up from your 1980s' dream to see the 2010's. Only it's worse. Much, much worse.

You still hungry? Trying to sell a few tampons for a piece of bread? How about all that murdering of illegal immigrants by the trainload?

Oh, yeah, this is rather timely. And you know what? It's very realistic. It might even be happening to us right now. How's that for scary?
( )

Although I really appreciate what this author was trying to do, and there were some powerful moments in Soft Apocalypse, I admit that I had a hard time getting into this book and then sticking with it. There were points when the writing was awkward, and then there were also a lot of moments that felt built for shock value--some of which I found far more disturbing than believable even though I generally enjoy really dark reads. Those dips into shock value--which included violence against animals--are probably enough that I won't consider reading more of McIntosh's work in the future, although the world was interesting and the main characters were, for the most part, pretty believable.

Still, I wanted more. It felt like this book was built more on idea/concept and shock than plot, and while I can accept and appreciate that that may be part of the point, given what the book is about, it didn't really work for me. As post-apocalyptic tales go, there's a lot of originality to admire here, but I just can't say it's a book I'd recommend. ( )