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Summary: How the end of civilization would really go...
Review: Earth Abides is a thought provoking look at how the world would go if almost all people were eliminated from the picture. Some very interesting looks at the eco-structure, reformation of small societies and how they would interact from the short term to the long term. The book has some very sad and touching aspects that help you relate to the characters. The technology is a little outdated because of when the book was written but you can get past that. Overall, a very good book. One I would think in a few years I might like to read again. If you liked "The Stand", and have wondered what would might happen 50 years afterwards. This is the book for you.
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Summary: This is one of my all time favorite books.
Review: I just read this book again. I don't know how many times I've read it and I enjoy it each time. I bought it at a used book store in Las Vegas years ago and I'm so glad that I did.
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Summary: One of the few books I have read thrice.
Review: I did not notice the year until the second reading. The story plays out today as well as it did in the forties. Profound and thought inspiring. My wife is a lit major and had little experience with SF. This book opened a new world for her. It is unfortunate more of Stewart's work is not available. I was originally intrigued by the location. San Lupo Drive is San Luis Drive in the hills of Berkeley, CA. The rocks are Indian Rock Park. Everthing fits. Stewart talks of walking down to to a shopping district, Solano Avenue. The cleanliness of society's destruction was an interseting twist. No mess and madness. Imagine suddenly being a surviver on the planet. A good series to read is Earth Abides, Lucifer's Hammer, and Into the Woods. Throw in The Children of Men.
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Summary: I can't wait for my 11 year-old son to read it!
Review: I have been looking for this book for a long time. I read this book for an Environmental Science class at Long Beach State about 20 years ago and it made such an impact on my thinking about the environment. Every time I see grass growing up through the cracks in the street or the roots wrapping around pipes I think of the book. While the environment seems quite fragile, it appears that it is not a fragile as we think and we are the fragile ones.
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Summary: Long-cherished book.
Review: I have been searching for this book for the past 35 years. It was a story I have never forgotten since reading it in my teens. I applaude the publisher who has reissued it. Can't wait to read it again and share it with my friends.
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Summary: One of the most memorable books I've ever read.
Review: A friend lent me this book many years ago. I loved it. But I forgot the title and author and when I recently wanted to reread it no one was able to help me. I searched and searched for it to no avail. Finally someone on a sci fi newsgroup was able to help me. This book is fascinating. It is one of my all time favorites. The author has an incredible imagination and you really believe this is what would happen if civilization were to die off. It is so full of vivid details and really makes you think.
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Summary: Wonderful
Review: This book is one of the most moving and realistic surival novels that I have ever read, the suceive plauges of Domsicated animals and pests for one, and the point that the most brilliant minds of of western, and Gobal Civilization would break under the strain of the end of civilization seems all to true. Though the very end of the book was depressing(as San Fransico burns, and the Part about the new Human tribes) but even though civilization is pushed under, it is suggested that it will rise again in the far future though as we watch civilization unravil as Isherwood tries to pick up the peices is heart breaking, his attempt at a school is sad and the way that he finally breaks under the strain of being remembered as a god. This is a great classic of Sf Read this book!!
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Summary: Great short book!
Review: It really made me think about the sensativity of the planet and society of every day life.
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Summary: Subtle meditation on frailty of civilisation
Review: Reading Earth Abides what struck me most was not the story, though this was certainly well told and presented, but how bravely the book took an unusual tack on its chosen topic: the survival factor of our civilisation and man himself when measured against geologic or cosmic time as represented by the planet Earth. Normally we are reasured that the embers of civilisation and man will never go out, and that we will always triumph as a species. Almost every film, book or play impresses this perception upon it's audience. And at first, as Isherwood works to rebuild, it seems Earth Abides will follow the same route. Then things start to change, and the reader begins to feel an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of their stomach; Isherwood's attempts start to fail, and the flickering ember of 20th century civilisation begins to dim. At the last, time takes its own course, and our ability to outlast even our own planet, never mind spread to the Universe as many SF books believe, is brought into question. And it is with this that the book triumphs. We are asked to question our entire society, and its true prospects for survival. One of the few books I've read that made me question the daily trip to the office, not from the point of view of myself, but my entire species, and to wonder what on Earth we are doing to ensure the real future of our species.
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Summary: A thoughtful, serious look at how people survive disaster.
Review: Ish, a college student, survives a rattlesnake bite and mysterious illness alone on a mountain camping trip. When he recovers, he can't find anyone and slowly realizes a plague has wiped out the human race. He wanders across the country, finding only a few stunned survivors and makes an intelligent and courageous decision to not join the first people he finds. After a period of terrible isolation, he finds Em, a true survivor like himself. They are happy together and attract five other survivors. A tiny little tribe grows around them. Ish devotes his life to trying to bring back civilization as he knew it. He fails at his superficial efforts at farming and at educating the children. He succeeds beyond his deepest dreams at giving his descendants the tools they need to create a healthy, happy way of life. The novel works as a thought-provoking study of what do you do when the world collapses around you. It has some weaknesses. Here and there, the fact it was written in 1949 shows. One can argue that Ish would have been able to get the children to read if only he hadn't been such a boring pedant and he could have been a better farmer if he'd been willing to explore alternate ways and crops. The book's strengths greatly outweigh its weaknesses. For one thing, with not much action, it's a true page turner. This is a fantastic novel to discuss and to argue about and to ponder the fundamental question it raises. What would you do for the rest of your life if you survived the end of the world?
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