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This book was the Bibliogoth book for December. It’s a late 40s post-apocalyptic story set in the US. In this case the event that wipes out most of humanity is a strange, and unidentified plague that kills 99 percent of the population. It’s very clean and for the most part doesn’t leave huge piles of corpses around. The main character travels around the US looking for survivors before moving back to his parents’ house. The destruction and the effects on the survivors and nature when left alone by humans were quite interesting. Unfortunately, when they started their own community things got a little less interesting.
The biggest problem with the book was that civilisation fell apart far too quickly. The second generation showed none of the characteristics of people, let alone civilised people. They reverted instantly to the classic images of “the savage”; none of them were interested in books, or the past or indeed anything. They were by far the most apathetic bunch. There was also very little violence, people looted but seemed to have no moral qualms about anything. When a man showed up who disrupted their community, by showing interest in the “slow-witted” girl, the elders’ response was to kill him before he was able to do anything to her!
With a title like The Earth Abides I was exacting the complete destruction of humanity and the fact that the Earth itself would survive, but this was not the case primitive tribes grew up around the few different communities that survived.
Despite these complaints it was interesting, in that way that good science fiction will tell you more about the society it was written during than the future of humanity. Because of this it was a very interesting vision of 50s America.
The biggest problem with the book was that civilisation fell apart far too quickly. The second generation showed none of the characteristics of people, let alone civilised people. They reverted instantly to the classic images of “the savage”; none of them were interested in books, or the past or indeed anything. They were by far the most apathetic bunch. There was also very little violence, people looted but seemed to have no moral qualms about anything. When a man showed up who disrupted their community, by showing interest in the “slow-witted” girl, the elders’ response was to kill him before he was able to do anything to her!
With a title like The Earth Abides I was exacting the complete destruction of humanity and the fact that the Earth itself would survive, but this was not the case primitive tribes grew up around the few different communities that survived.
Despite these complaints it was interesting, in that way that good science fiction will tell you more about the society it was written during than the future of humanity. Because of this it was a very interesting vision of 50s America.