On the HahaFiction shelf
Earthdoom!
Earth has more than one apocalypse on its hands. A new ice age, rabid lemmings, nuclear trouble and alien invasion compete with demonic possession and Hitler clones. An overqualified cast of experts has to face disasters arriving in an increasingly unreasonable queue.
From the publisher’s blurb
“Can things get any worse? Sure they can. The disasters are just getting started!”Read the full description at Publisher description, Baen ebook edition
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What makes it funny?
Catastrophe-fiction formulas are multiplied until their excesses become the story. The experts are absurdly accomplished, the heroines absurdly desirable, and the next calamity is already waiting while everyone deals with the last one.
The comedy at work
Langford and Grant also let the characters resent their own dialogue. In a passage reproduced by Langford, private complaints about the quality of their lines interrupt the disaster performance. Wordplay adds another stream of jokes to the accumulating crises.
Try this if…
Familiarity with older disaster novels helps with this broad British spoof. Readers who enjoy recognizing a formula and watching the author exaggerate it have the clearest way into the comedy.
Good to know
Mass death, sexualized stereotypes and Hitler are among the comic materials. Some British references are dated, and the barrage of jokes offers no guarantee that characters will survive.
A few distinguishing details
- Several rival apocalypses unfold at once
- Characters privately complain about their own dialogue
More funny horror
Sources & further reading
- Earthdoom by David Langford and John Grant
Author commentary
- Christian Sauvé review
Review
- Author edition history and commentary
Author commentary
- Publisher ebook page
Publisher
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