Engine Summer by John Crowley

9/10

Most apocalyptic fiction is obsessed with the scream of the crash. Crowley, however, is interested in the long, beautiful silence that follows. Engine Summer is not a tale of rusted gears, but of "transparent" living. We follow Rush that Speaks through a world so far removed from our own that our skyscrapers have become literal myths.

The structural integrity here is deceptive; the prose feels like gossamer, yet it holds the weight of a profound, heartbreaking revelation. Crowley explores how stories define our reality and how the "saints" of the past are merely the ghosts of a digital age. It is a quiet apocalypse, devoid of zombies or nuclear fire, focusing instead on the evolution of human connection. If you seek a wasteland of grit, look elsewhere. If you want to see what grows in the ruins of the human heart, this is essential.