The Year of the Women of Armageddon [REVIEW]

Posted on by Jamie Gibbs

Thanks to Tavia and the guys at ICoS for having me give my two penny’s worth on the Women of Armageddon 2013 calendar. I have been known to cast an appreciative eye over the female form in my time, so 12 months’ worth of post-apocalyptic ladies sounds right up my street. Does the calendar cut the mustard?

women-of-armageddon-daniela-march

The Women of Armageddon calendar looks pretty damn good. The images are high quality and show a decent range of locations and props that show the individual personalities of some of the models.

There’s a definite Sucker Punch meets Borderlands vibe to the aesthetic of the photos; a tongue in cheek, satirical look at traditional glamour calendars but still using the sexuality of the models to great effect (Daniela, Miss March, has a post-apocalyptic Scott Pilgrim vibe going on that is pretty funky).

What I like about these models is that they’ve got sex appeal, yes, but they also look like they could hold their own in a fight. These aren’t your typical “oh, I broke a nail!

” divas. These are bad ass babes with guns!™ It’s a nice touch that some of the models are also heavy metal musicians too, so you know they know how to handle themselves.

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REVIEW: Wool by Hugh Howey

Posted on by anninyn

Wool by Hugh Howey is set in a post-apocalyptic world where people live in vast, underground silos.

In a ruined and hostile landscape, in a future few have been unlucky enough to survive, a community exists in a giant underground silo.

 Inside, men and women live an enclosed life full of rules and regulations, of secrets and lies.

 To live, you must follow the rules. But some don’t. These are the dangerous ones; these are the people who dare to hope and dream, and who infect others with their optimism.

 Their punishment is simple and deadly. They are allowed outside.

 Jules is one of these people. She may well be the last.

Review copy provided by Random House through NetGalley

A note: This is actually the Wool omnibus, collecting  Novellas 1-5 of the series originally self-published by Howey. I’m new to the wonderful world of Wool, which is shocking considering my status as one of the main reviewers at In Case of Survival. However, it has a lot of what I like in a series – a female protagonist, a post-apocalyptic world, an assault against oppressive regimes.

These things are my catnip. So, how does it pan out for me?

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Don't be Fat… Or Do.

Posted on by tavia.

This isn’t about how I saw some obese person in the mall and thought to myself, “I’d never want a fat person in my apocalypse party because they’ll ruin everything.

No, this is about me being a chunk monster and realizing that I’m at a huge disadvantage and might want to either do something about it or look it in the eye and acknowledge it while planning my survival.

Jamie, Anninyn and Char have talked about getting fit for the apocalypse by running, walking and learning to fight. I talk about social manipulation and staying pretty…

It’s not that I don’t value physical fitness; it’s that I’m really bad at it.

That’s the saying after all: Write what you know.

I know about being chubby and weird and kind of good looking if I put some work in.

The problem is being fat, unlike being Black or a woman or Gay or ugly, is a very real disadvantage in an apocalypse. Not only because you’ll be less physically fit than your fellow survivors but also because everything about survival becomes infinitely harder.

A few things I know I’ll have to consider as a fat girl in the post apocalypse: Continue reading “Don't be Fat… Or Do.”

Kill 'em With Kindness

Posted on by tavia.

Sometimes my fellow, future post-apocalyptic queens and I like to daydream together about what our ideal post-apocalyptic world will be like. We plan to run the post-apocalyptic world not through strong-arming communities out of their supplies but through kindness. This world often involves copious amounts of  moisturizer, rum, and POWER.

Some people will argue that kindness doesn’t go hand in hand with drunken, supple-skinned overlords. I beg to differ.

It’s not just you, I also doubt I could beat you in a fist fight or quick draw but I’m sure I could beat you in a game of which glass is filled with rum and which glass is filled with rum and poison!

Sharing is caring and I think you look tired and thirsty and I’m ever so grateful you helped me out of this pothole. I’m inclined to show you a bit of “kindness” in return (we talked about women in the post-apocalypse).

The rum isn’t only for entrapment purposes though, we believe in rewarding hard work be it by ourselves or by others. Loyalty is earned after all.


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Should I take my pets?

Posted on by anninyn

I recently got kittened. My new pets spent the last two months turning my life and my house upside down. They’re wonderful little weirdos, and I love them more than I love most people.

Which is why I will go out of my way to save my pets in the event of an apocalypse, while leaving you to die in the dust.

The problem is that this choice doesn’t really go along with my reputation of ‘super-together, hard-hearted practical survivor’, so I’ve been wracking my brain to think of at least semi-logical reasons for this choice. To, you know, justify it to the people who think they’re better survivalists than me because they’ve genuinely shut down all their ‘give-a-shit’ parts, even though that just makes them a dangerous sociopath.

So here are my totally-logical-not-based-on-loving-the-tiny-squeebles-enough-to-explode reasons to keep your pets post-apocalypse.

Oh, and I’m going to put pictures of my cats in this post. You have been warned.

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The Land of The Video Game Apocalypse

Posted on by tavia.

Video games and the apocalypse go hand in hand. Player One is always that one guy with shit to do and an appointment on Tuesday trying to make his (or her) way through this mess and help all these people out—how’d they survive before Player One came along?

But, we keep coming back to these needy people in their dangerous world because of some romanticism that we can hack it, fix it, or beat it into submission.

Of all the video game apocalypses, which is the worst; which is the best? Is it the overwhelming zombies of Resident Evil, the galactic invasions of Mass Effect, the aggressive extermination in Halo, or some other hellish scenario?

If given the choice, I’d find this Unicorn Apocalypse from the Samsung Mobile commercials and be there. I don’t know all the details of Unicorn Apocalypse I just know those are two things I need to see in one place in order to die happy.

Some of my favorite and most feared video game apocalypses

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Post-Apocalypse: The land of hairy women.

Posted on by anninyn

So, I watch a lot of post-apocalyptic and dystopian TV. I read a lot of fiction. I thoroughly enjoy doing these things.

The problem is with consuming such a huge amount of one thing is your brain starts to go to strange places, thinking strange things.

This leads to me questioning all sorts of things that are probably supposed to be ignored.

But the main thing that is bugging me at the moment?

How in the hell are these women so fucking hairless?

I mean, I know that smooth legs and underarms are the current beauty standard (though that has not always been the case). And I know that actresses have to stick to these standards even more than the rest of us.

But this is the post-apocalypse. They’re scarred, covered in mud and blood and wearing filthy, tattered clothes. How come, when they can’t seem to wash their face, do they have enough hot water, soap and razors to shave their legs? Is this really a priority in the post-apocalypse? ‘Oh, I know I’ve got to run from the aliens, just let me wax first.’

Oh, I know. Suspension of disbelief, blah blah blah. I mean, if I can accept that they’re all so pretty and well fed, surely I can expect the preternaturally smooth legs and underarms.

But I can’t. And you know why? Because I am the owner of a female body. I know how fast my leg hair grows, and I know what I look like when I’ve been unbothered for just a week. It utterly stumps me that they are unafraid to let us see their heroines bloodied and ugly crying, but they can’t show ‘em with a tuft of underarm hair.

What do they think? That the viewers, after watching all the death, murder and torment, will draw the line at some hair where hair naturally grows?

We’re all grown ups. We understand that hair grows. And it breaks the illusion (for me) to have these women with their limbs as smooth as dolls.

Tell you one thing. I am not shaving in the post-apocalypse. And if it bothers anyone, if people are genuinely so concerned with my body hair that they’ll forget we’re three meals away from starving to death, they can suffer and die alone in the wastes. Because their priorities are FUCKED.

5 Apocalyptic Lessons to Learn From TV

Posted on by tavia.

Art imitates life or Life imitates art depending on how you choose to live. No living person has been able to explore the depths of apocalyptic life the way television has– and we could learn a few lessons.

From the human on human violence of 28 Days Later to the choices made in The Walking Dead, we could learn a thing or two about some of the choices we might have to make in a post-apocalyptic world.

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What if you worked at Death Inc. and it was your job to start the apocalypse?

Posted on by tavia.

The first thing I thought of when I saw Ambient Studios announce Death Inc. a PC (and MAC) game coming out this summer was that is reminds me of Black & White (Lionhead Studios).

No, I do not think it looks like a knock off. I think it embodies the same brilliance and unique balance that makes the player not the hero or the villain but the story itself.

Black & White, a game that is anything but, is one of my favorite but out of date games. In Black & White you play as a minor god with the goal or working your way up to being a major god wither through fear or adoration from the people below you. It was amazing.

As the main character in Death Inc. you’re charged with spreading a plague through medieval England. Yes! I’m in already.

The images posted remind me of a cross between A Kingdom for Keflings and Double Fine would put out. Both are things I love and would be happy to have more of.

Continue reading “What if you worked at Death Inc. and it was your job to start the apocalypse?”