Each year, classes begin at Cégep (it took place last week) marks the end for me this summer. The summer was well filled, however, between writing, a trip on the North Coast with Ariane , Fantasia, meeting friends, reading, movies and much more. Part of my summer reading was devoted to such "post-apocalyptic," I'd like to explore strange. The authors who do it often describe the eventful life of characters who, after a world war, find themselves in a futuristic world and devastated. Returned to a more or less wild, this universe is characterized by multiple risks: the armed groups, radioactive areas, dangerous life forms, etc.. This sub-genus belonging to the family of science-fiction film enjoyed some success in the early 1980s. The representative of the most famous was probably the Mad Max trilogy ... Other films, however, had previously addressed the issue, among other A Boy and His Dog . Since there is perhaps no genre or subgenre minor (in qualitative terms), the post-nuke, "as it is also called, has led to successful or less acoomplies works, according to the inspiration, work and talent of each. Sometimes titles do not miss a plume of fun: The Exterminators the year 3000, for example.
When you are in a receptive state of mind, this sub-genre can give rise to readings or viewings rather pleasant. This summer, I discovered Highway wild , Julia Verlanger, recently republished by Bragelonne (which will publish the complete works of this interesting writer). Served by writing autodiegetic (1st person singular) nerve, the story recounts the wandering and the role of a lone survivor who must go in a futuristic Paris in order to bring a valuable formula. Between religious fanatics, mutant forms of life and various vicissitudes, the events follow one another without downtime and are enhanced by a well-placed humor and interesting nuances. You can read this book first degree as an adventure novel in a picturesque world or make a reading more in depth to identify certain sub-texts, which are particularly interested in social organization, its contradictions and strategies to maintain the established order. 
More playful, but more delusional, too, the series Jag Zeb Chillicothe (actually Christian Mantey) was co-written over the numbers, among others by Joel Houssin Brussolo or Serge. The episode I read, newts -Men, tells a haunting story. Our hero, Jag, be rough, man of action above all, becomes a slave in a mine, which is really a giant meteorite buried in the sands of the desert ...! Jag and his friend Cavendish should dive into an underground lake to bring back pearls, not fish without crossing explosives. To withstand the toxic waters of this strange lake, the two men, like their colleagues, are graft-singular fish parasites that serve as filters ... Gradually, these parasites cause in protecting their torpor which it becomes increasingly difficult to break. If the web contains several negative reviews of this novel, I enjoyed it very curious by its climate and its writing baroque fusion Brussolo and Mantey, who favors a style a bit outdated, but sometimes very raw. We must take this episode of Jag for what it is: a delusional pulp which hosts the bizarre and dreamlike paintings. Mantey had previously attempted a series of style, the Black River, under the heading Chronic back wild. Attention cover toxic: 
Finally, I read the first novel in the series The Omega . Feature: the bulk of the book is actually a pre-apocalyptic tale , to establish under what circumstances the nuclear dispute occurred. Here we are in the pure "product" 80 (nuclear war is provoked by a conflict USSR / USA), which describes the action scenes that shows almost like a time series B . The hero, Rourke, is a specialist in survival in extreme conditions ... The novel is constructed in a manner quite complex (given its status as pulp ), alternating a variety of perspectives, some of those characters who do a cameo. The writing here is intended mainly bare, unadorned. Of course, the Apocalypse occurs finally announced, and the last chapters of the book see Rourke combat various threats classic dangerous bikers (Hell's Riders), wild dogs, places radioactive ... Subsequent episodes will develop further such incidents, no doubt. 
It made me want to see some films of the genre, which has already started with the hilarious The Bronx Warriors , Italian film of a large picturesque. With its sultry climate and pure pleasure of narration, post-nuke is in any case, very suitable for summer reading. Finally, during my trip on the North Shore during Ariane read The Road by Cormac McCarthy (another post-apocalyptic novel), I traveled a different path in mind, that of the massacre Highway (no less!) Joel Houssin second novel published in the collection Gore Black River, which I mentioned here. It is this time not a post-nuke, because it is still a pleasant change. Very conducive to reading owing to holiday decor, this novel tells how a traffic jam (during summer) and force a couple of young travelers to stop for the night along the highway. In the surrounding forest, two bizarre characters, the Elder and the Younger ( more or less monsters! ), are hunting, spurred by a ravenous hunger! To see all these human prey drives them mad. Which meal in perspective ... ! Not without humor, and with a flair for the lapidary phrase, Houssin succeeds in presenting many characters and narrative points of view. It becomes impossible to break away from reading this ...
A fun reflection of one of the "monsters" of service:
The stupidity of living things does not, however, spoiled the flavor of their meat.
Early in the novel, Cadet, naive predators, hiding in a pine tree to observe his potential victims. The poor monster was so hungry that he "is [is] to shake, shaking down a drizzle of thorns. This was not fear that made him shudder [...]. He prayed that his brother leash a little. Just a little bit ... "
Having never read Houssin, I discovered an author in full possession of his means. After reading it, too, Ariane told me it was the title (and paratext) reduction, given the qualities of the novel. Stuck in the format of 155 pages and have to respect the specifications, Houssin was much more generous as one might think judging a book by its cover illustration or fourth ... It seems the pinnacle of the collection, the book's most disturbing that there appeared to be the second and final "Houssin" who was published, The Pitch tortured, I almost dread reading as they say the book is horrifying! Attention illustration toxic (bis):
