Alas, Babylon

Rating:
Summary: Great as a teenager, even better now!
Review: I read Alas, Babylon in high school and thought it was a fantasic story. I have had to re-purchase this book a number of times...friends loved it and kept it. I now have it again! Pat Frank takes you to an earlier Florida and sets you in a atomic war haven. Would you survive?

Rating:
Summary: Very Good
Review: I have an affinity for post-apocolyptic novels. I was hesitant to purchase this novel because I was afraid that it would be too dated for me to enjoy. As it turned out, Alas, Babylon IS dated, but not so that it interfers with the story.

What I enjoyed the most was recognizing the context of the times that this story was written and the writer's attempt to address social issues of that era. Pat Frank made an obvious attempt to give women power; the President is a woman and a young girl saves the day by catching fish when no one else could. This is interesting because the battle for passage of the Civil Rights Amendment hadn't really begun when this book was written. Although I did find his discription of the women's need to have a man to take care of rather outdated. But, it was interesting because I can't imagine someone writing those types of stereotypes today. Also, the writer touches (however slightly) on southern segregation. I felt that he tip-toed around this subject a little too lightly, but I don't think that he was writing about that subject so his light treatment of racism and segregation didn't bother me too much.

All in all I enjoyed this novel immensly. I wouldn't be put off by the fact that it was written forty years ago either.

Now, can anyone recommend any other post-apocolyptic novels to me? Please send any recommendations to: [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: loved it as a teen, love it at 50
Review: one ofthe most enjoyable books i've ever read. the first time i read it i was a teenager now i'm 50 and still enjoy it.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent - one of the best of it's genre!
Review: I couldn't put it down; best post nuclear holocaust novel I've read since The Last Ship!

Rating:
Summary: one of the best books I read
Review: It was an extraordinary real picture of human beings trying to struggle for their lives by catastrophe. I thought that people were stunned if they read the book of how a small town can ever survive a nuclear blast. I would recommend this book to all high schools for summer reading.

Rating:
Summary: Terrific Story of what could happen....
Review: I hear mixed reviews of this book, but I must say that it has always been a favorite of mine. This book glimpses into a world that has taken a path we may not want to travel, and shows us what may lie ahead. One of the characteristics that I enjoyed the most was the lack of information. Other stories will tell you what is transpiring play by play, but "Alas Babylon" brings it to you as any common man or woman would get it: No superior information or unraveling plot lines. Merely the unanswered questions, and doubt that exists from not knowing what has happened, currently happening, or going to happen.

Rating:
Summary: a book worth reading
Review: When I first began reading Alas, Babylon as part of my summer reading assignment for school, I imagined it would be very boring and not worth the trouble. At the start of the book, it did take a while for it to interest me, but as soon as the nuclear attacks began, I couldn't put down the book. I finished it within the next day. I reccomend this book to anyone who will give it a little patience at the start, because It will be worth it by the end. You're not going to see too many books with such a wonderful and wild plot as Alas, Babylon. Read the book!

Rating:
Summary: A Classic!
Review: I thought this book would be dated but when you read it you realize that human nature and the will to survive is never dated material. Neither is a good book! You come to know and care about the characters - what is happening around the world is secondary to what is happening to them directly. This is their story - not a story of how the world is coping. Read it and enjoy it for what it is - a scary, but uplifting story.

Rating:
Summary: A must-read apocalyptic novel
Review: This is the best apocalyptic book I've ever read. It's definitely a classic. It may be a little dated, and it doesn't have all the gory details as McCammon's "Swan Song," but it's entertaining, and scary, from cover to cover. Certainly helps one appreciate peace. It's almost a survival guide. You'd have to be closed-minded and naieve not to acknowledge these terrifying possibilities....

Rating:
Summary: Warning about technology still makes this book relative.
Review: The first time I read Alas, Babylon was almost thirty years ago as a high school student. As I reread it this summer, I was prepared to find it badly out-of-date. After all, it was written in a time when nuclear war was believed to be survivable and no one had heard of a nuclear winter. I was surprised to find just how well the story has held up over time. The theme that man will survive, come what may, is one of hope, and hope never loses its appeal in whatever form. However, its chilling warning about technology makes Alas, Babylon just as relevant today in our e-mail, Internet, computerized, digitalized world as when it was first written. And that warning is that the more we depend on technology, the more helpless we become without it.