Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse

Crime writer Victor Gischler told SCI FI Wire that he's making his science fiction debut with his latest novel, Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse. The book was inspired by the work of Cormac McCarthy, but perhaps not the McCarthy novel you'd think.

"I'd absorbed a couple of Cormac McCarthy novels, specifically Blood Meridian, and it hit me how great it would be to write a post-apocalyptic novel in the style of McCarthy," Gischler said in an interview. "Blood Meridian seemed so bleak and violent it was practically post-apocalyptic anyway. I got 20 pages in and knew it was pointless to try to be a Cormac knock-off. I kept thinking of jokes and satirical scenes. I decided I had to do the post-apocalypse my way. A good thing because my pal author Anthony Neil Smith called and said, 'Did you know Cormac McCarthy has written a post-apocalypse novel called The Road?' So I was almost the stupidest author alive.

How ridiculous it would have been for me to try and out-McCarthy Cormac McCarthy."Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse follows the adventures of Mortimer Tate, who, at the start of the novel, has been hiding in a Tennessee cave for nearly a decade after the fall of civilization. "He finally comes out to see what is left of humanity and to find his ex-wife," Gischler said. "The only organized civilization is clustered around a chain of Joey Armageddon's Sassy A-Go-Go strip clubs. I can't exactly remember why I thought this was a good idea. Mortimer goes from one adventure to another until a final climactic battle. The novel walks a tightrope between a legitimate action-adventure story and over-the-top satire."

Gischler said he admires authors who use real science, but Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse is about the lack of technology, a regression to barbarism. "The characters are forced to consider things like Scotch Tape and bubble wrap," Gischler said. "How are those things made? Such simple items, yet gone forever when civilization falls. People don't realize how completely they rely on technology every damn day."

A film version of Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse is at the beginning stages of production. Gischler himself is working on a few screenplays, and he has just finished writing several issues of Punisher: MAX for Marvel Comics. His next novel remains untitled, but he promises it will include vampires, werewolves, zombies and alchemists.

-John Joseph Adams