Galactic Milieu! I think there may be more of those books than I read.

There were three ( Jack the Bodiless, The Diamond Mask, and Magnificat ) plus Intervention (which is split up into Surveillance and Metaconcert in the Mass-Market editions). Intervention isn't technically part of the Galactic Milieu but it comes right before it, so I've always read it as one long, 5-paperback series, at least since I found the Intervention books at a used bookstore a couple of years back.

I'm on my second copy of several of the paperbacks, and they're falling apart. This is bad news, since they appear to be out of print, and I'm sure as hell going to be reading them again. Something about these characters really compels me to the reread. Strangely, the Pliocene Exile really didn't do it as much for me (I read it through once, and haven't had an urge to revisit).

I'm pretty sure I haven't read Intervention. But I am now remembering the Exile, and I liked them much too.

It's cool that Wikipedia lets me go back and visit.

For those wondering, Under the Rose is just as addictive as Secret Society Girl. I'm not sure it's as good, but it definitely grabs you.

I'm pretty sure I haven't read Intervention.

It's pretty hard to find, though good library systems probably have it. I read it first on a computer - I actually learned to navigate the rather intimidating book-ahemming world (IRC Fserves... shudder) JUST for that book, after searching every used bookstore in the Pasadena area. Finally found it on a NYC visit.

Nice review, 'suela. I keep meaning to add book reviews to my internet presence, but alas...

Anyway, one comment early in your review makes for a good prompt, I think:

A lot of [apocalyptic] novels, of course, presume nuclear annihilation--in fact I am aware of very little apocalyptic fiction written before the development of the bomb....

Me either. Lovecraft, maybe? Call of Cthulhu is more how it's just that the stars aren't right, otherwise we'd be all apocalypted. Anyone?

Earlier apocalyptic fiction was more like the book that gave us the word: descriptions of the last days, when Christ returns, rather than . There are a lot of sinners writhing in agony.

I know there were a few before WWII. There was Mary Shelley's The Last Man, anyway. The earliest novel I can think of in that vein is Daniel Defoe's Journal of a Plague Year, but that was based on an actual apocalypse. Certainly during the plague years many writers thought the world was coming to an end. Also, didn't the robots kill all the people in Kark Capek's "R.U.R"?

I think it took WWII for people to believe that all of mankind could be wiped out.

The War of the Worlds and The Poison Belt are pretty apocalyptic-y.

based on an actual apocalypse

I mentioned to someone today that the Rocky Horror lyric "river of night's dreaming" is the title of a short story (that long pre-dates the musical), and he asked if there was a book named Morpheus Flow. I don't think there is, but that's a great title.

the Rocky Horror lyric "river of night's dreaming" is the title of a short story

Thank you, I had no idea!

Day of the Triffids = post-apocalyptic, yes? Though it was written after WWII, I think, so possibly not relevant.

Ooh, The War of the Worlds. I should have thought of that. It does have that last-minute bacterial reprieve.

Day of the Triffids goes with all those other early '50s "this is the way the world ends" books. J.G. Ballard practically made a career of destroying the world in different ways for a while.