The Day They H-Bombed Los Angeles

• Genre: PostApoc
• Published: 1961
• Author: Robert Moore Williams
• Pages: 128
• Paperback ISBN#: (Predates ISBN system)
• Reviewed by: UncleDrax on Thu 4 Sep 08

Official Blurb:
A Hollywood star, a housewife, a nurse... A doctor, a G-man, an engineer... They were among the pitiful handful of survivors who faced starvation, disease, and something infinitely worse - the terror that roamed the ruins!

The horde of monsters had once been men and women, but now were transformed into something never before seen on Earth!

Review:
Pre-apologies for those on the west coast, but any book that hits L.A. with hydrogen bombs in the first few paragraphs instantly grabs my attention.

The story follows a handful of survivors that escaped the atomic fire, only to find themselves penned into the LA basin by the Government (back in the day when the Government could do no wrong, much unlike today). Tom Watkins, a former Marine Sargent, inadvertently leads a rabbled bunch that survives the atomic blasts. This bunch includes a few good 60's era stereo types; the sultry yet out-of-touch Actress, the beautiful and single nurse, the orphaned child, the childhood friend that now seems oddly calm, the old white-haired absent minded Doctor/Scientist and about a half-dozen more along the same lines. These aren't new stereotypes in the least, but they were probably not as tired when the book was first written. Together this group go about their 3-pronged quest to survive, escape from the ruins, and the most importantly; find out why Los Angeles was bombed.

The book itself is a light read (128 pages) and has a fairly simple and direct plot. There are a few minor twinges the author added for reading flavor, which is good. It's not a dis-interesting book, but nor is it a book that 'you can't put down', but rather it's somewhere in-between.

What I liked:
- Good light 'summer read' that doesn't bog down in details or bore the reader.
- Fun stereotypical late-50s-earily-60s 'modern era' sci-fi.
- They bomb L.A.... more then once..


What I didn't like:
- The story, scenery, characters and so on, could have probably been a little more complex to help enrich the reader without letting boredom set in.
- Stereotypical 50s/60s happy ending.

Final Scoring:

Personal Recommendation: If you stumble across it, go ahead and pick it up.. it's a good stand-by book for waiting in lines that will fit in your back pocket.

Availablity:
  Used book sellers wherever you may find them.
  Amazon  

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