Strange Stories II: The Empty Earth by Roger Mannon

[gilda_elise]

It’s the near future, 2025. Climate change, ignored by too many, left unaddressed or under-addressed by the world's nations, has grown worse at speeds far beyond our most dire predictions. World-wide destruction is now unstoppable. Monster storms rage across the planet, giant wildfires reduce forests, cities, and towns to ash.

In the second story, an ancient virus released from the thawing tundra lays waste to humanity.

Lonely survivors of the imagined apocalypse tell their stories of Earth’s last days.

The book is divided into two stories, both of which focus on one survivor. As far as they know, there are very few others left.

The first story Alone, takes place after a pandemic kills the vast majority of the human race. A survivor wanders through what is left. I really liked how it’s presented; there are no monsters, only a lone man trying to figure out how he’ll live out the rest of his days. With nothing but time, he creates a place for himself. Though civilization, and most of mankind, is gone, his life is still fulfilling.

The second story, Tipping Point, is more frightening. The survivor’s father tried to warn people, but was basically ignored. So he turned his efforts to making sure that he and his son would survive. Though they have tools and a safe harbor, much of the earth is dying. By the end of the story the survivor is alone. His fate is uncertain.

Both stories are haunting and well told. They’re fiction that could easily be non-fiction.

This is actually my last book review for 2025. And I managed to fulfill all my book challenges:









Mount TBR 2025 Book Links


Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.

1. The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson
2. The Silence of the Girls (Women of Troy #1) by Pat Barker
3. Withered + Sere (Immemorial Year #1) by T.J. Klune
4. The Traitor's Son by Wendy Johnson
5. All That Heaven Allows: A Biography of Rock Hudson by Mark Griffin
6. You Like It Darker by Stephen King, Thomas Hayman (Illustrations)
7. The Fireman by Joe Hill
8. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
9. Lark Ascending by Silas House
10. Memorials by Richard Chizmar
11. The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History by Serhii Plokhy
12. Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati
13. The Border by Robert McCammon
14. The 2084 Report: An Oral History of the Great Warming by James Lawrence Powell
15. Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes
16. All Over the Town by R. F. Delderfield
17. The Last Days of Richard III and the Fate of His DNA: The Book That Inspired the Dig by John Ashdown-Hill
18. Somewhere Beyond the Sea (Cerulean #2) by T.J. Klune
19. Blood of the Children by Alan Rodgers
20. For Fear of the Night by Charles L. Grant
21. We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer
22. America First: Roosevelt vs. Lindbergh in the Shadow of War by H.W. Brands
23. American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham
24. The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
25. A Beginning at the End by Mike Chen
26. Lost and Found by Marilyn Harris
27. Strange Weather: Four Short Novels by Joe Hill
28. Three Wild Dogs by Markus Zusak
29. Full Throttle by Joe Hill
30. Lost in a Good Book (Thursday Next #2) by Jasper Fforde
31. Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky
32. Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King
33. Pearly Everlasting by Tammy Armstrong
34. The Women of Troy (Women of Troy #2) by Pat Barker
35. The Conjurers by Marilyn Harris
36. The Regulators by Richard Bachman (Pseudonym), Stephen King
37. Islands of Abandonment: Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape by Cal Flyn
38. The Nun's Story by Kathryn Hulme
39. The Bones Beneath My Skin by T.J. Klune
40. They Thirst by Robert McCammon
41. Blue World: And Other Stories by Robert McCammon
42. Unruly: The Ridiculous History of England's Kings and Queens by David Mitchell
43. Run by Blake Crouch
44. Babylonia by Costanza Casati
45. What a Bee Knows: Exploring the Thoughts, Memories, and Personalities of Bees by Stephen Buchmann
46. A Path Where No Man Thought: Nuclear Winter and Its Implications by Carl Sagan
47. 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill
48. Curfew by Phil Rickman
49. The King's Justice by Stephen R. Donaldson
50. Virgin by F. Paul Wilson
51. The Ancients by John Larison
52. Children of Memory (Children of Time 3) by Adrian Tchaikovsky
53. Claude’s Christmas Adventure by Sophie Pembroke
54. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King
55. The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia



56. Quick Fixes: Tales of Repairman Jack by F. Paul Wilson
57. Followed Home (Exalls Attacks, Book 1) by Andre Gonzalez
58. The Recipe Box by Viola Shipman
59. One Day All This Will Be Yours by Adrian Tchaikovsky
60. Zoo Story: Life in the Garden of Captives by Thomas French
61. A Rip in Heaven by Jeanine Cummins
62. X Troop: The Secret Jewish Commandos of World War II by Leah Garrett
63. Strange Stories II: The Empty Earth by Roger Mannon