Pocket Apocalypse

by Seanan McGuire

Other authorsAly Fell (Cover artist)
Paperback, 2015-03

Status

Available

Call number

PS3607.R36395

Publication

DAW Books, Inc (New York, 2015). 1st edition, 1st printing. 368 pages. $7.99.

Description

Fantasy. Fiction. Thriller. HTML:The fourth book in New York Times-bestselling Seanan McGuire's witty urban fantasy InCryptid series about a family of cryptozoologists who act as a buffer between humans and the magical creatures living in secret around us. "The only thing more fun than an October Daye book is an InCryptid book." —Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of Sookie Stackhouse series Endangered, adjective: Threatended with extinction or immidiate harm. Australia, noun: A good place to become endangered. Alexander Price has survived gorgons, basilisks, and his own family—no small feat, considering that his family includes two telepaths, a reanimated corpse, and a colony of talking, pantheistic mice.  Still, he’s starting to feel like he’s got the hang of things…at least until his girlfriend, Shelby Tanner, shows up, asking pointed questions about werewolves and the state of his passport.  From there, it’s just a hop, skip, and a jump to Australia, a continent filled with new challenges, new dangers, and yes, rival cryptozoologists who don’t like their “visiting expert” very much. Australia is a cryptozoologist’s dream, filled with unique species and unique challenges.  Unfortunately, it’s also filled with Shelby’s family, who aren’t delighted by the length of her stay in America.  And then there are the werewolves to consider: infected killing machines who would like nothing more than to claim the continent as their own. The continent which currently includes Alex. Survival is hard enough when you’re on familiar ground.  Alex Price is very far from home, but there’s one thing he knows for sure: he’s not going down without a fight.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member ladypembroke
I love McGuire's writing style, but the characters in this book made me stabby. I kind of hated everyone except the two main characters and a couple of side characters, the mice, and the dog. Other than that, everyone sucked. The Twenty-Sixers are not presented as a good group here at all. I'll be
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glad to go back to Verity's story because while I enjoy the romance/partnership between Alex and Shelby, everyone else in this novel can disappear, and I wouldn't mourn their loss. Also, there were a couple of typographic errors in this novel that I had not seen in previous ones.
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LibraryThing member lavaturtle
A great fun romp as usual for this series.
LibraryThing member bgknighton
A rollicking adventure down under. Alexander goes home to meet Shelby's parents -- but of course, there is also a werewolf outbreak to deal with, multiple family tensions, crypto relations to straighten out.....
LibraryThing member bluesalamanders
Pocket Apocalypse was very good, but also upsetting. I’m not sure this one will go into as heavy rotation as the rest of the series, since it leans a bit more toward the gruesome and scary than the previous three. Well, I avoid horror and this was not so gruesome and scary that I couldn’t read
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it, just a bit more so than the others. And there is that one scene (if you’ve read it, you know what I mean) that made me cry.

Still straight-up good storytelling, good characters, and now an exciting new setting. Also still full of fantastic cryptids, old and new. I particularly liked Basil.
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LibraryThing member PerpetualRevision
Although I still prefer the stories from Verity's POV, I enjoyed this second story from Alex's POV more than the first one. I'm not sure why, but it might've been that the plot for the second story was more compelling. And, as always, I adore the Aeslin mice!
LibraryThing member WinterFox
So here we are at book 4 in the InCryptid series! I read Discount Armageddon, the first book in this set, a while back, and was fine with it, but not enough to continue on, I guess? But then I thought about it more, and I wanted to read more of McGuire's stuff, and so now I'm through another one.
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And it was enjoyable, although I doubt I've liked any of the books in this series as much as the Toby Daye books.

In this one, Alex Price (the brother of the main character of the first two books) is taken back to Australia by his girlfriend to help manage werewolves making their way to the continent. And in InCryptid-land, lycanthropy is even worse than you'd normally think, because any mammal can be turned into a werewolf, so the potential pool of wolves is much larger. Also, being an island ecosystem, having a whole new set of predators around could be really devastating. (This in a continent that has like a million feral camels because someone thought camels were a good idea.) But of course, things get to be more complicated, and y'know. Werewolf shenanigans of a creative and clever variety.

Even though it's a different set of characters from the first Alex book, I think I enjoyed this one a bit more than the previous one. The setting was well thought through, with a good cast of characters among the Australian crypto-zoologist crew, and the writing is, as usual, a lot of fun - good character beats and humor, a different enough voice from Verity (or Toby), top notch use of talking mice. Lots of creative non-humans, both sentient and not, really. Those relationships are always interesting to see here. And the plot had some good twists, which I will not divulge. It's also more horror-y than a lot of McGuire's stories are; I'm not really a huge fan of that generally, but it wasn't enough to put me off.

A couple of points, though: there's always so much more people talking about how proficient they are at escaping or hurting each other in this series, a lot of posturing, and... I guess maybe it's not unrealistic, given the character set, but there always comes a point in these where I've had enough of it, and it's never when the book has run out, it seems. And some of the stuff around the werewolf plot and Alex's attitude towards it seemed... again, maybe not unrealistic for the character, but I did want to shake him a couple of times, and was happy when essentially one of the other characters finally did.

So yeah, I mean... these are still fun reads, and I'm not stopping with them. I already have #5 on my nightstand. We'll see how long it takes to get to that one. I wouldn't read this one first (definitely at least read Half-Off Ragnarok before this), but if you're enjoying the series, this'll be good for you, too.
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LibraryThing member STACYatUFI
POCKET APOCALYPSE brings Alex and Shelby to Australia where they are willing and ready to help Shelby's family with their werewolf problem. You thought the Prices were difficult? Just wait until you meet the Tanners.

Alex and Shelby might not always seem like the most obvious couple, but watching
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them work together in POCKET APOCALYPSE made it clear they are meant to be. It was nice to see how other cryptozoologists live and work. It wasn't so great to see their prejudice towards those that are not human. I am glad that Alex and Shelby were able to go there and help and show them that not all 'monsters' are monsters. Alex did not have an easy time in Australia. Shelby's dad was not happy that his 'little girl' brought a man home, but even worse, he doesn't like that Alex's family is former covenant. He questions his actions at every turn and gives him a really hard time about everything.

On to other things. It's great to see Sarah getting better. She isn't herself yet, but she is closer than she was during the last book. I continue to love the Aeslin mice. They are a big hit in every book and as I learn more about them, I like them even more.

There have been two books for Verity and Dominic, two books for Alex and Shelby, will Antimony be next? Can't wait to find out and learn more about her.

* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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LibraryThing member krau0098
This is the fourth book in the Incryptid series and the 2nd book in this series from Alex Prices’s point of view. This was an excellent continuation of this series. It was a very fun read and I really enjoyed it a lot. The fifth book in this series will be titled Chaos Choreography and is
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expected to release in 2016. Chaos Choreography will feature Verity Price again.

Alex knows it’s time to get worried when his girlfriend Shelby start asking questions about werewolves. Ends up Shelby’s home country of Australia is having some trouble with werewolves and Shelby’s family needs Alex’s expertise. Against his better judgement Alex journeys to Australia in hopes of preventing a widespread outbreak of werewolfism. Hopefully he can survive the werewolves and, even tougher, survive meeting Shelby’s family.

This book again follows Alex, Verity's brother. This time the story takes us to Australia where we meet tons of new and intriguing creatures. Additionally we get to meet Shelby's family, they are just as crazy as the Price family.

There is a ton of action in here as well as some wonderful cryptozoology. I truly enjoyed this book, it was just a great pleasure to read. This book deals more with werewolfism as a virus, so at times it has a bit of this viral outbreak panic feel to it. We do still get to meet some fascinating creatures as well though.

Most of the story is a sort of mystery where Alex and Shelby (and her family) are trying to track down patient zero and figure out who has and has not been infected.

I love both Alex and Shelby as characters; they have a lot of depth to them and are fun to read about. The Aeslin mice play a huge role in this story as well; they are hilarious and intriguing little beasts.

The story wraps up nicely and I just really enjoyed the whole book. In fact I have really loved this series as a whole.

Overall this is a wonderfully fun and creative addition to the InCryptid series. This whole series is recommended to urban fantasy fans; it's more light-hearted than McGuire's October Daye series but just as wonderful. I can’t wait to see what Chaos Choreography holds for us. I also highly recommend McGuire’s October Daye series; it is less action-packed than this one but still wonderfully creative urban fantasy.
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LibraryThing member tldegray
3.5/5 stars. This was so much fun. Alex goes to Australia to help out with a werewolf thing and to meet his fiancee's family. It was hilarious and serious and one moment--and if you've read the book you know what I'm talking about--tore my heart out and stomped on it.
LibraryThing member jjmcgaffey
Lovely as usual. This is the second book for Alex - he and Shelby go (back) to Australia, to her family and friends, to help them deal with an outbreak of werewolves. Alex teaches them a lot about what makes a person a person, and learns some rather difficult lessons himself - about werewolves, and
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about his family and some of the guides they've written. Most of the people, including Shelby's family, are rather hard to take - unrelenting disdain and anger are uncomfortable companions, and they've barely relaxed by the end of the book. Not a favorite, although it's still excellent and I will be rereading it.
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LibraryThing member mirihawk
I highly recommend the audio book version. I own the Kindle version too, for WhisperSync and those times when my headset doesn't cut it, but the reader does a great job. It's a good story.
LibraryThing member m_mozeleski
If you've read the book (or written it), you know exactly what I am talking about when I say WHY, SEANAN, WHYYYYY?

The book was rip-roaringly wonderful except when the sun went out and there was a total eclipse. Can't get over it. Am CRUSHED.

5/5 stars for making me cry real tears. Many times.
LibraryThing member unsquare
This is the second InCryptid book featuring cryptozoologist Alex Price and his Australian girlfriend Shelby Tanner. This installment is sort of like Meet The Parents in Australia with the added danger of werewolves. When Shelby convinces Alex to come to Australia with her to help stop a local
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werewolf infestation, Alex learns that her family is not going to be easily sold on her American boyfriend. He also encounters a truly terrifying adversary in the pack of roving werewolves, simply because the nature of their disease means that their bites are infectious and any mammal can be infected, but the only treatment is highly toxic and very dangerous. The mystery in the previous volume was definitely engaging, but it didn’t have quite the same visceral edge as the threat of being ravaged by a werewolf and turned into a mindless killing machine. As soon as I finished this volume, I bought the next!
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LibraryThing member murderbydeath
The second of Alex's books, and the best of the two by a clear margin. This one takes place in Australia, and the author nails the setting, while taking the mickey about (northern) Australia's natural population's inherent desire to kill everyone. Half-off Ragnarok struggled to get this cultural
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uniqueness right, in my opinion, so it was a relief to see the improvement here. Shelby still remained elusive as an individual, but her family members more than compensated.

Shelby's family is why I didn't like this book even more; they're over-the-top asses to Alex and it teetered on caricature.

The plot was good; while I wasn't shocked by the turn of events, I didn't see them coming, either. I love how the author and Alex brought in the wadjets, using this angle to work in the injustice of ‘otherness’, though the Yowie's (who I loved) circumstances turned what was a subtle but effective highlight on that injustice into something more like a sledgehammer.

The Aeslin mice are here but I did not appreciate the turn of events the author took with them. Maybe she'd argue it was necessary to the story line, but she'd never convince me. Luckily it was a relatively short scene.

With every book of McGuire's I've read, I have both enjoyed them and found them problematic. That I mostly keep coming back (I've skipped a few) for more Price family antics suggests she gets it right more often than she doesn't.
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LibraryThing member jennybeast
Oho, so apparently all I needed to do was wade through the first few books, and at this point McGuire has hit her stride as a writer and I am hopelessly, hopelessly hooked. Fast-paced cryptozoological adventure that just never lets up -- this time in Australia, with werewolves and future in-laws --
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so fun times and knife throwing all around. Yippee!
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LibraryThing member Glennis.LeBlanc
Catching up on the InCryptid series, I fell behind and now I’m binging on the books to finally catch up. Book 4 has Alex going to Australia to help Shelby’s family with a werewolf breakout. Of course no one is happy to see Alex since he is a descendant of a former Covenant member and Australia
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actually managed to kick them out. The Thirty Six is a group of people dedicated to protecting the native cryptid monsters but the group doesn’t think to ever speak to the sentient ones. Most of this book deals with people butting heads on everything from does Alex have a cure for werewolf bites and why he shouldn’t be dating Shelby. The Aeslin mice get a bigger role in this book and that is just joyous. Book 5 will swing back to Verity as the main POV.
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LibraryThing member StarKnits
So much love for Alex and Shelby

Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2015

Physical description

352 p.; 4.22 inches

ISBN

9780756408121

Local notes

Signed (as purchased; stickers indicate that it was originally purchased at Books Inc. as a signed copy).
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