One thing about an apocalyptic novel is that you don’t have to understand 1) what happened to cause the disruption of the human race–unless of course the author wants to make a statement about things like war, toxic poisoning of the waterways, weapons of mass destruction, corporate downsizing, or the interrupted cycle of the cicada; 2) what parts of the global land masses have survived in what states of rehabilitative possibility because the novel happens in a place that either is managing somehow, or the folks are moving out to one that does; and 3) who won.
But we do need to have some idea of why human behavior has evolved (devolved) into the way the characters are acting. We realize that people may become selfish, greedy, desperate, etc. in a world that is shortly sad of edible food and fuel. But Sharpe’s characters are slapping each other around, and I mean, really beating each other badly for no good reason.
I realize that much of this is sort of a parody, and yet I’m not getting the meaning.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology