Post-Apocalyptic A to Z: Rebuilding

A central theme to any post-apocalyptic story is trying to get back what we've lost. Even in as grim and seemingly hopeless tale such as The Road, the main character hopes for a better life somewhere down south, and keeps pushing himself and his son to get there. I suppose that that's what the genre is really about, that and being a way to warn the reader of all the many ways we can screw up our civilization.

James Maliszewski over at the Black Gate blog has an interesting post on this topic, and comes to the conclusion that humanity will always survive and always try to pick up the pieces. If you're not a reader of that blog, I suggest you check it out. There's all sorts of good stuff about fantasy, science fiction, and horror over there.

This photo shows a private library in London after it got bombed during the Blitz. For more on this iconic image (one of my all-time favorites) see this informative blog post.