Working on a concept for an Apocalyptic novel...

D

DammitBoy

Carbon Dated and Proud
And I'd like to solicit some help from you guys on some of the issues I'm having with my outline.

First Issue: trying to decide what genre/meme I'm going to pursue. Which of the following sounds like the most interesting scenario?

w) a zombie apocalypse

6) global financial societal collapse

iii) an asteroid impact that cause enough disaster to foment regional societal collapse

13) a successful EMP attack on the U.S. by Iran/Venezuela

Myself, I'm leaning towards the last scenario as opposed to any of the others. Financial collapse seems boring, zombies seem overplayed, asteroids - also done already pretty much.

I can think of only one or two books that have dealt with EMP as an apocalypse concept.

My storyline would take place in a small southeastern town in the U.S. and is more of a rural than an urban tale.

Please detail why you picked your choice out of the four.

Thanks in advance for your input.
 
1. How is an EMP attack on the US even remotely plausible? That makes the premise uninteresting.

2. How is an EMP attack on the US "apocalyptic"? Humanity is fine, it's just the US that's fucked. Who gives a shit.

3. Make it about the Occupy movement taking over worldwide and leading us to savagery and cannibalism as they secretly preached all along.
 
Brother None said:
3. Make it about the Occupy movement taking over worldwide and leading us to savagery and cannibalism as they secretly preached all along.
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Please stop trolling and limit your responses to the OP, thanks.

An EMP attack is possible, and would destroy the majority of the electrical grid. You're a bright fellow, what do you think would happen if there was no electricity to the majority of the U.S. for 1 year or longer?

All that is required is one or two nukes detonated at about 26 miles above the middle of the continent.
 
How about you ruin the whole world with EMP?

The, eh...Earth's magnetic field goes wacko, north magnetic pole becomes southern and vice-versa, which results in global EMP which fries everything. It's science.

And seriously, who gives a shit about US getting nuked, EMP-ed or Bi-Orbitarily Testicularly Cancered?

So, if I had to choose...13.
 
DammitBoy said:
w) a zombie apocalypse

Myself, I'm leaning towards the last scenario as opposed to any of the others. Financial collapse seems boring, zombies seem overplayed, asteroids - also done already pretty much.

I can think of only one or two books that have dealt with EMP as an apocalypse concept.

My storyline would take place in a small southeastern town in the U.S. and is more of a rural than an urban tale.

Please detail why you picked your choice out of the four.

Thanks in advance for your input.
Click to expand...
Lesson 1 on Zombies:they are never overplayed. http://www.theanimenetwork.com/Anime/High-School-of-the-Dead/Spring-of-the-DEAD/Watch Just when you think zombies are just done to death(heh,that was a pun.) you find something new.Also this series has EMP attack as well.(somewhere near the end maybe episode 6 or something.) Anyway my pick is zombies.Make the dead rise again ,Dammitboy !
 
DammitBoy said:
An EMP attack is possible
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Sure, if this was the cold war. Your modern-day enemies lack the capabilities, it's an empty threat. Only buying into fear-mongering would make this seem plausible.

And again, why do you think people would care if it just happened to the US? Apocalyptic scenarios are always worldwide or threatening to be worldwide.
 
Again Kharn, this is not a debate thread about EMP. Please try to remain on topic and pick a scenario you like and feel free to discuss why you like that choice.

Thanks for your input.

If you'd like to start a thread debating EMP, I'm sure you know how to do that.
 
DammitBoy said:
Again Kharn, this is not a debate thread about EMP. Please try to remain on topic and pick a scenario you like and feel free to discuss why you like that choice.

Thanks for your input.
Click to expand...
Your welcome! :evil: (could have easly helped destroying this thread you know.)
 
DammitBoy said:
Again Kharn, this is not a debate thread about EMP. Please try to remain on topic and pick a scenario you like and feel free to discuss why you like that choice.
Click to expand...

Discussing why a specific topic is *not* good is as valid as discussing why it is good. You pointed out yourself the zombie choice is played out, so is your post not allowed by your arbitrary rules on feedback. Allow people to post what they will. Complain again about input and this thread is vatted.

EDIT: OCCUPOCALYPSE! Instant bestseller.
 
first of all, why does it have to be a defined apocalyptic event?
why not leave it undefined, as in the road?

if I had to pick one, though, I would vote for gamma ray burst -- how often do you see that?
or maybe the blacks.
 
If everyone is hung up on nukes generating the EMP, then how about looking at another source of a large EMP besides a nuclear explosion.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosively_pumped_flux_compression_generator

The EMP itself would cause enough damage to be truly horrible for the USA. more than 50% of the USA would have a nice cold winter with no heat. Police etc without communications or the ability to police their towns except on foot or bicycle would be totally ineffective.

Society could break down really quick.

WPD
 
A zombie apocalypse may seem like a fun idea, but as long as there's not so much shooting shit up and more person aspects (seriously, is it fun to read about brainless fuckers when you've got such a bright, colorful and barely explored human?). Also, they don't have to automatically be the zombies we're used to - flesh eating, scary ass rotten guys. Much like that Invasion movie, where an alien artifact lands on Earth, and turns people into 'zombies' - they don't eat, they simply spit some puke at your face and you're infected. Hell, they even have a brain and act smart. Up to you.

The idea of a financial crisis seems... plausible, if you're up for describing all the aspects of it. You can think of Death Race (the '08 movie with Statham) as an example of what it could turn out like, but for me, it doesn't seem that explored yet. I mean, you're certainly going to be focusing on how people live and what they do rather than what they did to let this happen in the first place, right? Then it might be more fun to read for a broader audience.

The asteroid sounds a bit too Disney. You know, asteroid lan- OOOH SHIT WE'RE DEAD. I hope you don't end up with crap like 2012, you know.

The EMP attack, while not quite possible (I'll leave this to Bro), doesn't sound like it's about to collapse the world. I mean, zombies eating everyone, an asteroid destroying much of the Earth and leaving few resources to live on, and a financial crisis where people are simply unable to live in a capitalist society and have to make a few leaps back are more possible to stir shit up.

Unless you're telling me SkyNet is about to rule the world, and some assholes launch an EMP attack leaving people without much of the technology they were so used to rely on. That still sounds... not good. You see, physical destruction just looks better.

I know it's up to you and shit, but you could always explore more and more aspects of a post-apocalyptic world. What if the robots took over (aka Terminator)? What if oil runs out (and shit hits the fan)? What if we advance to interstellar technology and travel and some private planet owners start waging a war, forcing governments to play under their rule? What if the Middle Ages didn't really survive the black death? What if my computer just blew up and I didn't have enough money to buy another one?

When I choose concept for a story, I tend to give myself an idea of what I'm about to write (a really broad sketch of the plot). After this, ideas just pop in and out and you edit your story as you move on.

Have fun reading all the crap I just wrote here.
 
EMP is nice. Worked for Dark Angel.
And considering that the US power grid is so hilariously bad, the effects would probably be pretty apocalyptic.
So yeah, I'd go for that, too, maybe not by Iran/Venezuela, though.
How about a military coup conducted by fundamentalist christians, and when that fails, they launch the EMP to rise in the following chaos?
 
If BN trolls someone he is doing it the classic style :D

Just joking.

Anyway. I agree with him though EMP is not the most likely scenario. Even world wide.

How so ? Well during the "nuclear age" (lets call it that) the principle of the EMP was a feared phenomenon. Simply because they learned about it with the nuclear tests. And it has the potential of great damage to any electronics. But today many military systems and installations have protections. Even if not perfect but enough here and there to survive it. Take the Eurocopter Tiger as example it is a military unit which was particularly developed with protections against EMP weapons in mind. While it is of course not perfect it shows that there is technology with EMP in mind. And I am sure the US military has similar or even better technology available.

Would some attack on the US or the whole world with EMP be a huge damage ? Yes. Would it be like the apocalypse ? Well I am not so sure. The Human history already survived hard situations and managed to over come it. WW1 and WW2 devastated huge landscapes. It takes time. But humanity would recover.

The EMP would only be a problem for a relative short time like you described for 1 year (probably even less).

The scenario would be interesting though with the change of the magnetic field.
 
eom said:
first of all, why does it have to be a defined apocalyptic event?
why not leave it undefined, as in the road?

if I had to pick one, though, I would vote for gamma ray burst -- how often do you see that?
or maybe the blacks.
Click to expand...

Since it's a southern town, interracial relationships will be featured to some extent.

I loved 'The Road', but I don't want to copy it.

I'm really kinda leaning to a future scenario where Iran has the capability to launch a nuke straight up about 20+ miles (I mean how hard is that, you have no real target except "UP") and this is fiction, so gimme a break (kharn).

The idea ties Venezuela in by using converted cargo ships to get the nukes into U.S. ports, close enough to make launches that would be effective.

Millions of people would die on day one, further on more millions would die of starvation, lack of medicines and hospitals, the breakdown of society, disease, predation, etc. - the studies claim that over 60% of the population would die within six months.

Tying that to world apocalypse would be easy. Perhaps Iran's actions starts WWIII? U.S. submarines would counter-launch, the world cop would be gone, China and Russia might flex their muscles, North Korea might attack South Korea, and so on.

That kind of stuff would be a small side-plot to the main storyline however and mostly irrelevant.

My idea is the storyline is more about how people in a small town react and deal with the aftermath.
 
Ok, that sounds good, but mmaybe you can include something that I've seen touched on in any post appoc story --- movie or book, and it's kind of become a pet ppeeve of mine after watching the road.
why don't people grow mushrooms in their houses for food?
mushrooms would have to be more apppealing than eatingg some grubby homeless guy.
 
Oh, and, a scenario where Israel goes all badass on Iran is quite possible. Oil goes too high, Middle East wars, lots of dead bodies, and a town in the Southern US is eating its corn and spending the day at the local bar.

Man, would I love to read that.
 
I think Jericho (TV series) was a pretty awesome show and it had a similar idea but with nuclear attacks on all major cities of the USA.
 
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