We are, apparently, hungry for the end. In books, TV and films, there is no end of zombie apocalypse, asteroid smash, planetary plague. But what comes after the end? Not many works of modern Armageddon literature portray a plucky band of humans in the post-apocalypse methodically bootstrapping themselves back up to the level of hi-tech civilisation we currently enjoy. So the science writer Lewis Dartnell has written a book on how that might happen.
It is marketed as a guide here are the basics, it promises, that you future rebooters of modern life will need to know but it's also, in a way, a work of speculative fiction. The world after the end of the world, Dartnell says, may well look pretty "steampunk": a mish-mash of technologies from different historical periods. Do not be surprised, if you survive the apocalypse, to see a salvaged car chassis drawn by a horse as long as someone has reinvented the right kind of harness. The early part of the book also spends a fair bit of time on some grubbily gratifying apocalypse porn, explaining why, without the proper maintenance, all roads and buildings will fall apart dismayingly quickly, and sourcing piquant stats for survivalists: should you be lucky enough to commandeer (and defend) a supermarket, one of average size should feed you for about 55 years.
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