Earth Abides

Rating:
Summary: Haunting tale of the fragility of human civilzation.
Review: A brilliatnly written socio-sic-fi. Though the book is a bit austere for the scope fo the catastrophe, it is truly a wonderful tome! Like the later work of Stpehn King's The Stand, Earth Abides explores the questions and illustrates the harrowing reality that might be if a "super" disease were to kill most of man-kind.

Thought provking and beautifully crafted.

Rating:
Summary: Death with the turning of a page.....
Review: In 10th grade we read a story that dealt with the end of the world in our English class. I was intrigued. As i spoke again of this story a year later my 11th grade english teacher suggested that i read "Earth Abides". I shrugged off the suggestion being as though it was from my teacher (one of the lesser evils in my life) and it wasn't untill later that year when i found it on the library shelf that i finnally picked it up and began to read. I managed to rack up over 30 dollars in library fines because i litterally refused to return the book to its rightfull home. After reading it straight through three times in a row, I began to keep it under my pillow. I would pull it out at night and open it up and read randomly wherever the pages led me. Earth Abides may just be the most inspiring book I have ever read. I am now a Senior in Highschool. I since have bought a copy of Earth abides to replace the library's copy so that i could keep the copy that i had grown so close to. It is not so much the story or the people in it that i have attached myself to. The understanding of human nature and the way we react to crisis, and the way we move through life never ceases to amaze me. As I prepare myself to go into a career in Pyschology Stewart continues to be a constant inspiration in my search towards understanding of human behavior and human emotions. Also I am inspired as a writer. I can only dream that someday i will be able to write as well as Stewart. To be able to convey my thoughts or create and develope a character as well as he does would be beyond my imagination. Earth Abides leaves one person in awe and leaves them dying to read more but afraid to turn over the last page, for fear of ending the story. A wise person once said that finishing a good book is like losing a close friend. This holds true in Earth Abides. Whenever i read that last page my best friend dies with a simple punctuation mark. But as the book continues to remind us, Men go and come, BUT, earth abides.

Rating:
Summary: The most thought-provoking book I've ever read
Review: As I look at the many Amazon customer comments, I see a real split between very favorable and unfavorable reviews. This seems to be because some readers are looking for conventional science fiction/fantasy or adventure. Much as I love those genres, this isn't it, so if that's what you're looking for, save yourself the trouble and don't read Earth Abides. If you do read it, don't expect it to be something it's not.

Earth Abides is a book for people with a strong streak of curiosity, who cannot resist thinking and speculating about the human condition. If this is you, few books will satisfy you as well as this one. It first captivated me when I was 14 - yes, there are teens who would be very excited by this book - and I am now on my fourth reading. There is no other novel to which I have returned so regularly. If you are possessed of this curious, speculative streak, then you will appreciate the protagonist, Ish, who himself is driven to understand the horrible event that has overcome the world and to raise and shape a new world. You will also appreciate the realism of the action and characters, and the underlying drama of the situation and tragic heroism of Ish, and you will not for a minute miss the contrived drama and heroism that make for conventional action fiction.

Rating:
Summary: MY FAVORITE SINCE GRADE SCHOOL AND I'M 31 NOW
Review: However, if you want Mad Max or his clones go elsewhere. Since I read this book back in grade school it has always been on my shelf, in fact I usually have 2, one personal copy and one copy to give to friends. I read many of the reviews of this book and wonder if some of these people read the same book. To me Earth Abides is one of the most uplifting books ever written. This book shows that no matter what comes, life and happiness will happen. No matter all Ish's failings to teach his people, his Greatgrandchildern are happy, they do not miss what they never knew. He teaches them to survive and they will teach themselves the rest. Again I say if you are looking for an actionpacked end of the world book I would recommend Daybreak-2250 A.D. by Andre Norton. However if you want one of the best books written that will make you think about humanity and all its failings and gifts, READ THIS BOOK! I just wish I could have given it 15 stars instead of just 5.

Rating:
Summary: Where are the Generators?
Review: I liked the book but all the characters were technologically ignorant. Even in the forties they had small portable generators but this was ignored in the book. One part of the book basically said they let all the lights go out. People knew about generators then and if not you would've have soon found out.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting
Review: In short, I liked the first half of this book - the plot is intriguing and you don't want to put the book down! But after reading 2/3 of the story you expect something more to happen but the tempo goes down, the main character gets more introspective and the flow of the narration starts to falter. The book starts to get boring and you just want to get through to the end to see what the end will be like. With a better pace all the way through, I would rate this book higher.

Rating:
Summary: A little dated, but still a good read
Review: First off, I should state that this novel was written in the late forties, and thus reflects many of the prevailing attitudes of the time. It is rather sexist, and even vaguely racist (although neither element is malicious, just ignorant) so if you think that may ruin the novel for you, then you probably want to skip it. That said, if you can look at "Earth Abides" in the context in which it was written, you will find a thoughtful, entertaining novel.

"Earth Abides" is predicated on a super-virus wiping out the overwhelming majority of the Earth's human population, while leaving the rest of the animal kingdom unaffected (at least directly). The story follows "Ish" as he struggles both to survive, and come to grips with the loss of civilization. Over time, a community of survivors gels around him, and they work to scratch an existence out of the ruins of San Francisco.

Stewart takes a rather bleak view of the survivors of the holocaust, not to mention their children. Rather than trying to reestablish "civilization" they slip into a more or less Stone Age existence, supplemented by the leavings of a culture they are completely alienated from, and that is not understood by the children at all. While I understand that Stewart was seeking to comment on what makes up a "civilization", and what the natural human condition is, or should be, I think he introduced an element of wishful thinking into his narrative (strange as that may sound). It is extremely unlikely that things as fundamental as literacy would completely disappear within two generations, and while they might very well fail, I suspect that survivors would at least attempt to maintain electricity, water supplies, etc.

Where this novel really shines, and what I found most interesting to read, was Stewart's descriptions of the ecology of a North America largely depopulated of humans. He does a superb job of predicting the fluctuations in various animal populations, and I believe that the long-term balance that he predicts is probably not far from what would actually happen.

Ultimately, "Earth Abides" is an entertaining novel that leaves one thinking about how they would react in similar situation. While I don't necessarily agree with the way the novel plays out, I was constantly challenged to come up with an explanation as to why I thought things might be different. In the process, I gained a deeper appreciation for the depth of Stewart's characters, and the challenges he pitted them with. If you enjoy "apocalyptic fiction" this is definitely a book for you, but even if you have not strong feelings for the genre, I suspect you will enjoy the excellent characterizations, thoughtful story and wonderfully realized world.

Rating:
Summary: Earth Abides
Review: Earth Abides is a book about no matter what happens to the race of people, Earth will always abide. A Man named Isherwood Williams somehow survives this fatal virus that is going around killing the whole human population. Ish then spends almost the rest of his life driving across the country searching for survivors. When he finally meets a group of survivors he "marries" one of them and has about twenty children with her.
Ish does find a few survivors, however it was definitely not enough to keep me interested in finishing the book. I thought this book was long, drawn out and sometimes too boring. If George R. Stewart, the author, would have spiced it up a bit with more science fiction things happening. For instance if more abnormal things happening to the humans than just death like it was a flesh eating virus and then something else happened with the virus. The genre of the book is Science Fiction. The plot this author had in mind was a god idea however if it was only about one hundred pages shorter and the ending with the twenty children was cut then it would have been easier to keep
interest.
So all in all the book had very few parts that could have been
edited out and still would have made sense. The idea of the book and the plot of the book was good. I like the little reality the book had in it. Again if there were more science fiction, and less pages, it also might have been better. So that is why I gave the book a measly two stars out of five. I think this a reasonable amount and I commend the author on his work. I would recomend this book to someone who loves to read and is interested in books about little science fiction and little reality.

Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Book I've Ever Read
Review: The Greatest Book I've Ever Read

In the book Earth Abide, By George R. Stewart the

subject at hand throughout the book is the survival of man. This

book takes place in San Francisco California where a vast plague

has almost wiped out all of the Homo-Sapiens. This book follows

the life and times of one man (Isherwood)and his struggles to r

rebuild his past American life. This is very heart warming that

our culture would last to the breaking point of our species. I

hope you all feel the same.

Isherwood starts out in the mountains on a school study

trip. This is when he became sick from a rattle snake bite. Here

even before the plague he had to struggle for his life. "I just

have to cut the bite holes and extract the poison,(Stewart 12).

This characteristic shows that he is a survivor and foreshadows

his success aaginst the plague.

He also in many other ways begins to stabilize his

survival iin this book. He ensures safety by meeting other

survivors and creating a tribe. He tries to edjucate their youth

with their past culture, but loses the young ones to more

exciting activities. He even tries to better the adults, but he

faces complete anguish because not a single person cares. "No

thanks, were going to play with the bulls, and go dodgin,

(Stewart 44).

Isherwood thorugh much heart ache and disappointment,

goes for one last hurrah to save his people. He teaches his two

middle aged boys to drive, and sends them in a cross country

search of survivors. When they return, it was to no avail. They

gave up and found no one worth finding. Ish is lost agian to

this new world.

This is a reamarkable book that is one so captivating is

causes internal turmoil in yourself. By reading of a quite

possible tradgedy, it makes life much sweeter. Also by seeing

another man struggle so hard for all that we stand for is

inspiring. Even though Ish couldn't accomplish what he wanted

it's good to see he had a moment of clarity at the end of his

life. For then he realized how the only constant is change, and

that Earth Abides.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book!
Review: I first read this book in high school -- 1964! And, loved it soo much I "forgot" to return it to the library <blush>. I've re-read it numerous times over the years and enjoyed it every time. I hope you enjoy it, too. It's a tremendous read.