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Earth Abides
- Genre: PostApoc
- Author: 1949
- Year Published: George R. Stewart
- Pages: 337 pages
- ISBN: 0449213013
- Reviewed by: CyberPunkFuture on Sun 7 Oct 07
Review:
A post-apocalyptic novel presumed to be set in the late-40's/early-50's (it's never made exactly clear) California Bay Area. The main character, Isherwood Williams (Ish to friends) comes down out of the mountains after a research/camping trip to discover that everyone is gone. Just gone. He does some exploring and finds a newspaper article describing an extremely lethal plague that has swept the globe. Though a figure is never given, we're talking a mortality rate of probably 99% or higher.
Faced with complete and utter isolation, Ish tries to decide what to do in a world with no more people. At first, he behaves in a rational, law abiding manner. He hesitates to break into stores for food. He hesitates about 'stealing' a car. Slowly these perceptions fade as he realizes that all humanity along with all the rules of society are gone. He explores the immediate area and eventually finds 4 people, all in some way incapacitated with shock and the horror of this post-apoc existence. He leaves them, preferring solitude and sets off on a cross-country trek to see the remains of the country and possibly find any suitable survivors. So he heads out from the Bay Area towards NYC, and ends up passing a few people on the way, but none whom he feels the urge to bond with. He comes back to the Bay and settles down for a lone existence. He later discovers a lone female survivor, and they end up getting together. Over time, a few more survivors are brought in, and eventually they have a small group. Being a biological apocalypse, all settlements are intact so survival for them is simple. Raid a grocery store. Find a house. Use any car you can find.
The author then fast-forwards about 20 years. The original survivors have had several children, and some of those are of age now to have had children of their own. The commune starts to face the problem of a decaying infrastructure and the automatic processes of mankind begin failing. No more running water, no more automobiles. The younger generations have never known the full extent of these luxuries and so are unable to deal with the rebuilding and maintenance of them. So we begin to see a slow return towards a primitive state.
The final part again jumps ahead about 15-20 more years, and we see a more profound shift in the commune towards a primitive society. Ish is the last survivor of the old world, and the young treat him as an almost divine shamanistic figure. Knowing that he could never teach them such advanced things as engineering, Ish ensures the survival of the tribe by at least teaching them rudimentary survival techniques like fire-building and hunting with bow and arrow.
I really enjoyed this book, though the reading was slow in parts and the author held to some rather outdated ideas (hardcore feminists beware). It raised a number of interesting questions. In any sort of global pandemic on the scale presented in this book, you can be pretty much guaranteed you aren't going to be left with the 'best' of the human gene stock. Do you rebuild with what you have, or survive the best you can? What are the functions of society and the State? Are our current 'traditions' worth saving?
The Good:
- A good look at the world if man were too simply vanish. Natural growth, selection, domesticated species vs. wild, etc...
- It's not your normal post-apoc 'wasteland' style story. All infrastructure is left initially intact, so the story focuses more on mankind and his place in the world.
The Bad:
- A little dated, both in reference and ideology
- Granted, following the course of a small tribe year after year for 20+ years would be boring and make for a prohibitively large book, but something about his fast-forward scenes just didn't sit right with me. I would've like to have seen a little more detail.
Rating:
Final Scoring:
4.0 MegaTons of a possible
5 MegaTons
Personal Recommendation: Staple PostApoc fiction. Read it
Availablity:
Amazon
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