The Holocaust Engine

The Holocaust Engine by David Rike and Stephen Patrick

Category: Thought Experiment (Page 2 of 2)

What we’re reading

September 4, 2020 /

From Stephen Patrick:

blur book stack books bookshelves
a romantic setting in the bathroom
adult blur books close up

One of the best things about working with a writing partner is how we compliment each other to make us and our stories better.

Our individual reading tastes are hard to describe, but we both have a unique discipline beneath the madness. Below is a small snippet of what we are reading as The Holocaust Engine prepares to launch. Please share your own in the comments. We’d love to see where you are casting your gaze these days.

DAVID:

Every year I have a reading list with categories: classic, course study topic, recent sci fi, new author, etc.)  I just finished this year’s classic, Joyce’s Ulysses, hated it.  All high brow mainstream fiction is self-serving but Ulysses just seemed to hold its readers in contempt..After that I read Greg Bear, Hull Zero Three — which was a fantastic palate cleanser.

STEPHEN:

I love the art of discovery in reading. Each year, I split my targets among science non-fiction, history/biographical, top 10 contemporary fiction, classic fiction and “literary” classics. My stack is currently anchored by the Norton Anthology of English Literature (the 3k page powerhouse we hated in school), which gets me from Blake to Kipling to Conrad to Achebe. It sits next to my palate cleanser: Fritz Lieber’s “Our Lady of Darkness”. “The Biggest Bluff” by Maria Konnikova and “The Great Influenza” by John Barry complete the stack and keep the lights on deep into the night.

Where to start?

September 2, 2020 /

As we move toward the release of The Holocaust Engine and our own first lines, it seems fitting to drop a few of our favorite fiction first lines.

Add yours in the comments section

  • It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. —George Orwell, 1984 
  •  A screaming comes across the sky. —Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow
  • All this happened, more or less. —Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five 
  • He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. —Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
  •  It was a pleasure to burn. —Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
  • In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. —F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby 
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David Rike’s Top 5 Books about apocalyptic disasters

August 23, 2020 /

#5 The White Mountains, by John Christopher  (Alien Invasion), young adult, but an absolute classic in the field.  I read it, 4th grade, maybe fifth, and it was my favorite book for years. 

#4 The Earth Abides, George R. Stewart (disease) how timeless is this book?  When I bought it, it had a cover with a guy sporting an 80’s mullet.  It wasn’t until the end of the book that I realised it had been written MUCH (1949).   

 #3 A Canticle for Lebowitz, Walter R. Miller Jr., (nuclear) beautifully written.  Emotionally devastating.  Nuclear holocaust books that call for an emotional investment that they never earn (On the Beach) are a dime a dozen.  Canticle earns it. 

#2 The Passage Justin Cronin (viral vampires), it couldn’t sustain it in the next two books, but the first book is a masterclass in the fast crash, end of the world as a disaster, run, run, run! fast paced action thriller.  Wonderfully wrought characters. 

#1  Lucifer’s Hammer Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle (meteor strike)I don’t even think there’s a close second.  This book simply gets everything right.  The action, the characters acting in a realistic way, the plot threads that twist brilliantly before drawing to a satisfying conclusion.  Largely forgotten now, It spawned a host of copycats in the literary field which in turn spawned a pair of Movies. This one is the gold standard!

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