Earth Abides

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Summary: The real Armeggedon.
Review: I have read and re-read this book over the years. It is riveting, entertaining and more than likely prophetic. The bomb that may destroy us all is the one we can not defend against, the incurable, quick-acting and all powerful virus. A nuclear Dooms-Day could not be more horrifying.

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Summary: A riveting book that is hard to put down front to back.
Review: The well conceived story captures the imagination from the start. That's why we buy books like this...right? The intellectual and forward looking main character reminded me of the captain in "The Last Ship". Read it!

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Summary: Still a classic
Review: Science Fiction books are hard to remain classics given our growing understanding of science and technology. Earth Abides is an exception because it is written from the perspective of an anthropologist trying to cope with the fact that his world has been destroyed. Like many readers this book changed my life> I read it in my teens, in my 20's and I guess it is time to pick it up again in my 30's.

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Summary: Worth reading, but disappointing
Review: Considering all the raves, I was disappointed by Earth Abides. Although the premise was interesting, it never really went any place and kind of left me hanging. I thought the discussion of how man's departure from Earth affected other species was thought provoking and well done, but the rather dry writing style and lack of depth in the characters left me underwhelmed.

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Summary: This book is awsome!!
Review: All i have to say is this book is sooooo gooood!

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Summary: I am not a sci-fi reader and I loved the book.
Review: First of all, I think D.D. Shade's analysis of today's society on Earth Abides is unsubstantiated. This book is still a great book today because it is a classic. A classic, by definition, relates to all time. The assination of JFK or MLK would not have had any greater impact on this book. This book, like Ish, will continue to stand the test of time because of it's overall classical themes. That man is the complicating variable on the planet earth. Regardless of if a man or men die, the earth abides.

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Summary: Earth Abides took me to a whole new area of literature
Review: I read this book in High School in the 70's in Saratoga Ca. I have a teenage daughter and I can't fathom that she is not required to read these types of books anymore. My mind constantly wandered with Ish. I dreamt of what I would do in that situation, of how I would react. Needless to say I finished the book in one weekend well ahead of my classmates, and decided to just start it all over. I recomended the book to my Mom, and she also fell in love with it. Ever since we are both on the lookout for others like it. I have read most of them (The stand, postman, alas babylon, on the beach, SWAN SONG (the best), plus mony other forgetable tales), and thank Earth Abides for my passion for these books. I wish someone would write another that is as good as this.

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Summary: THE FIRST BOOK I EVER READ MORE THAN ONCE!
Review: I have only read 2 books more than once - "Earth Abides" by George R Stewart, and "The Quest of Aah" by Alexan Farelane. If you read one book a week for 70 years, you would only have read 3,640 books in your lifetime. There are millions of books you will never be able to read - even with the Reader's Digest versions! Life is way too short to read the same book twice - except for books which can change your life. These 2 books are "Life Changing" books. The thing which most appeals to me with "Earth Abides" is that our hero is just an ordinary guy and his failures are at least as impressive as his successes. He starts off with the best of intentions, becomes an unwilling leader by default, and is unable to persuade the other survivors of the need to maintain and/or restore the facilities and civilization we have come to take for granted. I KNOW that this is exactly how it would happen for me, if I was in his place! I know what I'd want to have happen, but circumstances would prevent me from being able to make it all happen.

"The Quest of Aah" is a fantasy about the seven levels, the seven valleys, higher planes of existence, stages on the journey from Earth to Heaven, some of which any spiritual person can relate to, and anyone on a secular plane can be entertained by. The novel is presented as a memory, and is the way we hope it will be when we reach the end of our lives. It is completely different from "Earth Abides", but if you like speculative fiction, then it is worth a read (or TWO!)

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Summary: The few left after a plague cope and reestablish society.
Review: This is a story of the first years and the ensuing decades in the lives of the very few survivors of a natural plague. At first, there is a detailed overview of one survivor's (the main character and often narrator per se) actions in the first several months after the plague. This account of the "short-term" impact of a plague has been seen in other SF stories and might seem repetitous. But where this story is different, and where this novel is in a class of its own, is where the plot goes when this survivor meets others and small families begin and a community develops. The challenges which are faced by and met with by this group are detailed, yet are those involving environment and illness which are perhaps expected. But more interesting is what new moral values that arise and what "holdover" values (school, religion) which are attempted to be maintained, but are not or can't be embraced by the new generations which follow. The book follows the community though several decades, jumping years and stopping to go into detail about an event or time period -- but giving several pages in between as a summary to provide a good junction between sections...thus keeping the story flowing. The book ends with the natural death of the main character and seeing that the new generations have embraced a "new and different" value, knowledge, and societal system which is suprisingly similar to another culture -- and perhaps quietly challenging the reader to ask whether or not such the result is good or bad; and, whether or not the result was destiny, or the result of proper or improper actions of the original group of survivors. For a book written in the late 1940's, it was very, very far ahead of it's time.

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Summary: A novel to be read, generation after generation
Review: After reading Earth Abides in 1968 as a 10th grader, I have read it six more times, getting a new insight of the book each time. My son (11yrs of age) has now read it twice with the same enjoyment as I have. It is a book that makes the mind think, wonder and dream the " WHAT IF" and "COULD IT REALLY HAPPEN" questions. Read it, sit back and think it. After the hair on the back of your neck sits down. Then read again next year.