Earth Abides

Rating:
Summary: A Classic Which Abides
Review: A plague wipes out most of humanity, and one man (Isherwood Williams) tries desperately to save a piece of civilization to pass on to the generations of survivors. The first part of the story deals with his survival of the plague, and his journey around the country looking for signs of survivors.

He returns to his home (in the Bay area of California) where he finally meets a woman (Emma) whose courage convinces him to start a family, which becomes a 'tribe' as a few other survivors come to join them. He tries to pass on as much knowledge as he can to the children of the tribe, but his efforts are largely in vain as civilization continues to regress. Ultimately he realizes a way to pass on some very basic knowledge to help his descendants in the future.

The author does an excellent job of dealing with the plague, the after effects of such a plague on nature, as well as the slow decay of the cities and infrastructure of our civilization. He also describes well drop into a primitive society that would result from the plague. There is also an interesting moral dilemma when the tribe has to deal with a potential threatening outsider who tries to join them.

The flaws of this story are few. There are a few sections which clearly take place at roughly the time when the story was published (1949). As a result, some of the references to technology and personalities make those sections of the story feel a bit dated. This only happens a few times though, and doesn't really hurt the story.

This book won the first science fiction award given when it won the International Fantasy Award in 1951. In 1987, it rated 28th on the Locus All-Time Poll of All-Time SF Novels, and in 1998 it tied for 41st on the Locus poll of SF Novels written before 1990.

Rating:
Summary: Dated but still very good book
Review: This is the granddaddy of post apocalyptic novels. Whenever I read this book I see bits of so many post apocalyptic novels in it. Well written, well delivered. If you like post apocalyptic books then read this one. It wasn't until the release of EARTH THE NEW FRONTIER that I read a better end of the world book than Earth Abides. Both of these are classics in the post-apocalyptic genre.



Rating:
Summary: A GOOD READ - IF YOU CONSIDER WHEN WRITTEN
Review: I enjoyed this one. It is a very good read and certainly gives us some food for thought. We do need to remember when this one was written as to social attitudes, etc., but if we keep this in mind, it is good. I suppose you could read the book for it's social commentary, relate it to unspellable philosophical stances, blah, blah, blah, as one reviewer did, or you can read it for a very nice story to read on a rainy weekend. I enjoyed it, will probably read it again and highly recommend it.