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Earth Abides

by George R. Stewart, Jonathan Davis (Narrator)

3.90 · rating details · 3,819 ratings · 558 reviews

An instant classic upon its original publication in 1949 and winner of the first International Fantasy Award, Earth Abides ranks with On the Beach and Riddley Walker as one of our most provocative and finely wrought post-apocalyptic works of literature. Its impact is still fresh, its lessons timeless. When a plague of unprecedented virulence sweeps the globe, the human rac...more

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Published October 15th 2009 by Brilliance Audio (first published 1949)

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Jun 19, 2010

Dan rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: early-sf

Men go and come but the earth abides.

I picked up Earth Abides because it was one of the inspirations for Stephen King's The Stand and because I've been in a post-apocalyptic mood lately. Earth Abides didn't disappoint.

It grabs you from the start. Isherwood Williams (Ish), gets bitten on the hand by a rattlesnake just after discovering an old hammer in the desert. After days of suffering from the rattler's bite, Ish wakes up and no one else is around. The beginning rem...more

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Jan 31, 2011

Jim rated it

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Shelves: science-fiction, classics, apocalyptic

I thought about giving this 5 stars as it is one of the best & earliest of the modern, serious apocalyptic SF novels. Written in 1949, it is a bit dated in some ways (the use of chemicals, lack of panic, & some equipment) but overall, it held up very well over the years. I don't agree with some of the specifics, but the story is not so much about specific technology, but about humanity & I think he presented a very interesting set of ideas.

If you're looking for action & adventure...moreI thought about giving this 5 stars as it is one of the best & earliest of the modern, serious apocalyptic SF novels. Written in 1949, it is a bit dated in some ways (the use of chemicals, lack of panic, & some equipment) but overall, it held up very well over the years. I don't agree with some of the specifics, but the story is not so much about specific technology, but about humanity & I think he presented a very interesting set of ideas.

If you're looking for action & adventure, this book isn't for you. It is more thoughtful, posing interesting questions about the human condition. It does this by following one man who survives the end of our civilization & sees what happens to several generations of his descendents. How the rest of the world fares is briefly addressed, sometimes quite personally, but always in a perfunctory manner. I don't think this harmed the story at all, though. Any more detail would have bogged it down & not helped the central themes.

I'm not sure if I read this before, but parts seemed familiar, especially the end. Does anyone know if there was ever a short story done of this or did part of it appear as a novella or something?

(view spoiler)(less)

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Ish Williams Interesting that you see the lack of panic as dated. I first read the book in '61 and that's how people were. Calm, accepting like the little black ...more
Jun 23, 2011 11:27am

Jim I think there was more trust in the government back then or something, if folks would have reacted the way described in the book. I'm not sure they w...more
Jun 23, 2011 02:18pm

Jun 27, 2011

Daniel rated it

· review of another edition

Sometime in the 10 days that it took me to read through this book, I decided that the title could be renamed to "Earth Bides"--as in the Earth bides its time, and so does George R. Stewart in his deliberate study of the decline of civilization following a world-wide plague. After a strong first part, Stewart's story dips into a depression of shallow character development and didactic storytelling. Agenda takes the fore, and Stewart's writing takes a manipulative turn as his character m...moreSometime in the 10 days that it took me to read through this book, I decided that the title could be renamed to "Earth Bides"--as in the Earth bides its time, and so does George R. Stewart in his deliberate study of the decline of civilization following a world-wide plague. After a strong first part, Stewart's story dips into a depression of shallow character development and didactic storytelling. Agenda takes the fore, and Stewart's writing takes a manipulative turn as his character marionette from one crisis to another. Put bluntly, the middle of 100 pages of this book were, at times, a bore.

Still, "Earth Abides" is interesting for its time and place in fiction. Stewart wrote and published "Earth Abides" in 1949, so the society that gives way to nature and the passage of time is one that is devoid of cell phones, personal computers, internets, the multitude of plastic goods, disposable water bottles, a gi-normous nuclear industry and all of its lovely by-products, the civil rights movement, the Vietnam war, the sexual revolution, and other cultural movements and institutions that inform much of our modern thinking. The post-apocalyptic landscape that Stewart constructs is therefore very different from those that other artists depicted in the decades that followed. There is no radiation poisoning; no talk of world governments; no talk of the rest of the world in general. Without a nuclear arsenal to contend with--not to mention, any Cold War hang-ups about good vs evil, or all of the propaganda-prompted thinking that came with that period--his survivors are less attached to the world in any international sense, and thus free to consider their prospects for long-term survival in the context of an insular world that is less cynical than those proposed by other writers in later decades. (In fact, having read this, I am now interested in picking up other apocalypse-oriented fiction such as "The Plague," "Swan Song," "The Stand," "Hiero's Journey," etc, and comparing everyone's take on how it all ends).

Also topical at the time is Stewart's depiction of people's lingering reliance on consumer goods such as matches and rifles and canned goods. His characters represent those who were immersed in the growing consumerism of the late 40s and used to its comforts. Once they assemble and agree to build a new life, they continue to seek out products and goods that they counted on for sustenance and industry. The main protagonist, Isherwood Williams, recognizes the limitations to this practice, and devotes himself to constructing a society that will be more self-reliant and capable--at least, in his eyes. Stewart plumbs some good insights from these parts of the story, and his portrayal of the different generations that follow the dissolution of civilization rings with enough truth to hold interest. Unfortunately, he is so keen to demonstrate his ideas that he resorts to didactic prose and plotting that is reminiscent of the dense writing that Ayn Rand poured into "Atlas Shrugged." The story slows considerably (one year occupies nearly 150 pages, whereas 21 passed by in less than twenty), and the characters devolve into flat game pieces that Stewart pushes around into arrangements that serve his agenda.

"Earth Abides" is a long-winded elegy about mankind (and I must stress the male gender implied in that word, as female characters play only a minor role in the story) and its place in the world without the context of civilization. As stated, it is notable for its time and place in literature, and for the influence that it had on future writers such as Stephen King. If you do pick it up, consider this advice: set aside a healthy amount of time, and just power through to the last sixty pages, where Stewart rests most of his agenda, and writes some poetic and profound prose about the end of life as he knew it.(less)

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Oct 05, 2008

Aerin rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: lit-ra-chur, sciencefiction, apocalyptic

Cold War-era post-apocalyptic fiction is a favorite genre of mine. Although the idea that the world will end has always been with us, it wasn't until the development of the nuclear bomb that we as a species were faced with how easy it would be to annihilate ourselves. Nowadays, it seems like every day brings another potential agent of mass destruction: biological warfare, global warming, fundamentalist terrorism... We're so used to the idea that the world could end at any minute that it hardl...more

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May 24, 2009

Kemper rated it

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Shelves: apocalypse-now, sci-fi, classic-lit, germs-viruses

It comes across as a little dated. (When the hero sprays his pregnant wife's clothes with DDT because of flea concerns and it's considered a good thing, you gotta laugh.) But the core story holds up remarkably well.

Instead of the typical apocalyptic aftermath story with brave survivors fighting for survival, we get a small band of average people who would rather coast along by scrounging off the old world rather than trying to rebuild.

Stewart was doing a version of 'L...more

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Jul 31, 2008

Huan-hua rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: lovers of post-apocalyptic fiction

Recommended to Huan-hua by: book club

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I loved this book. Someone else picked it for my book club a few years ago, and most of the people in the group hated it, so it's not for everyone--but I really enjoyed it.

I'm a sucker for postapocalyptic sci-fi, and this is subtler and gentler than the usual overblown, testosterone-laden books about hordes of zombies and cannibals and crazy-eyed survivalists with guns... it does a nice job of conveying the image of the world ending not with a bang, but a whimper. Most of humanity h...more

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Oct 06, 2008

Matthew rated it

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With the expiration of most of earth's population rendering most technological advancements useless and thrusting religion as we know it into obscurity, man has to learn to inhabit, and assign new meaning to, an uncivilized earth. Although a little slow at times, Earth Abides is a thoughtful, eloquently written novel, avoiding many of the pitfalls of the post-apocalyptic sci-fi garbage that it spawned. Written in 1949, it is remarkably apt today, only dating itself at times in it's treatment of ...more

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Mar 17, 2008

Jeff Straub added it · review of another edition

I couldn't even finish it. I really wanted to; it was a neat take on the good ol' end of the world story, but I just couldn't get past how dated it was:

"He took a cigarette from the lacquer box on the coffee table"
"He turned on the radio and waited for the tubes to warm up"
"He laid down on the davenport"
"Again, he spent the night at a travel lodge along Rt. 66"

It just kept taking up more and more of my energy to n...more

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Feb 04, 2011

Alice rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: found-through-goodreads

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Perhaps, he felt in his mind, that was the difference! That was the difference between woman and man. She felt only in terms of the immediate, and was more interested in being able to spot her child’s birthday than in all the future of civilization. Again, he felt superior to her.

I don't mind dated language in books, particularly when the book was written then. I don't mind dated ideas necessarily, as someone who likes classics and historical fiction. What I found in this book, which...morePerhaps, he felt in his mind, that was the difference! That was the difference between woman and man. She felt only in terms of the immediate, and was more interested in being able to spot her child’s birthday than in all the future of civilization. Again, he felt superior to her.

I don't mind dated language in books, particularly when the book was written then. I don't mind dated ideas necessarily, as someone who likes classics and historical fiction. What I found in this book, which I had hoped to like as a fan of post-apocalyptic works and with a respect for its fathers, was that it dragged on slowly (albeit as slowly as time would drag on post-apocalypse), had little in the ways of interesting characters (I liked the dog more than the passive, egotistic protagonist, who, despite his sense of self-grandeur, was hardly a fountain of original thought), and that it did not redeem itself in any way. An interesting and perhaps accurate depiction of a speculative post-epidemic America, but with blinkers on.

The bleakness seeped into my consciousness like water oozing from a sponge of desolation, but unlike works like The Road, I found it not touching, not disturbing, not moving at all... just bleak and empty and rather devoid of character. And, yes, as the fact I quoted one of the more repulsive lines from this book, as a woman I felt put off by the misogyny in it. Ah, she may be the mother of nations, but woman, according to Earth Abides, is stupid, excitable, and unable of perceiving the same distant concepts and abstract notions that Ish and, indeed, Stewart are.

Then there are Evie and the native Americans Ish encounters early in the book. It would have been better, he had often thought, if they had merely put a can of sweet ant-poison within her reach somewhere. Well! I don't think Charlie thought so. And George certainly saw her as more than what he had written off when she was struggling as a child from the shock of the whole thing. Who knows? She was just Evie... none of the characters were particularly fleshed out, except Ish, and to an extent, Em and Joey. Joey's death was probably the most interesting part in the book.

It's not a terrible book, but I only finished it out of a sense of completionism. Even books I don't like have their place in my literary canon, refining my palate and reinforcing my contempt of certain ideas. Furthermore, by virtue of its citation as influences of greater works, and its place in post-apocalyptic literary history, it's at least notable, but I can't help but find that merit undeserved.

The rise and fall of humankind is a fascinating story, but I definitely think humans themselves are far more fascinating than this. Naturally its outdated worldview can be forgiven somewhat for its archaicness, but it doesn't make it any easier to swallow.

PS I did enjoy this bit:

“Oh,” she cried, “do not ask me for more courage! I do not know the arguments. I never went to college. All I know is that we did what we thought best. If there is a God who made us and we did wrong before His eyes—as George says—at least we did wrong only because we were as God made us, and I do not think that He should set traps. Oh, you should know better than George! Let us not bring all that back into the world again—the angry God, the mean God—the one who does not tell us the rules of the game, and then strikes us when we break them. Let us not bring Him back! Not you too!”

In its defense, perhaps I was looking for something else in this book that was not there. Did I understand what it was converying, that men go and come while Earth abides? Yes, but somehow, I found it so colourless I could not really develop a conviction about it at all.(less)

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Dec 20, 2007

Bob Lang rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: All

There is more to life than being an observer. The protaganist, Isherwood Wiliams, watches the world or what is left of it deteriorate and wonders why someone doesn't do anything about it.

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Nov 28, 2010

Crys Harris rated it

· review of another edition

The characters never read hooked me and drew me in.

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Nov 26, 2011

Mur Lafferty rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: audio, novel-research, scifi, read-in-2011

I am a couple hours into the audiobook, and annoyed that Ish is kind of a dick. I understand the book will reflect the thinking of the time, but that doesn't make me enjoy the sexist writing any more (this is why I have trouble with classic SF). beyond that, Ish doesn't seem to really mourn the world, he keeps a detached and scholarly view of everything. he abandons a drunk because he doesn't want a companion of that ilk, then feels little remorse when he finds the man dead of alcohol poisoning...more

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Mar 27, 2008

Thomas rated it

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Recommends it for: Teens and Older

Shelves: my-science-fiction-bookshelf

This is my favorite novel of all time. I first read the story way back when I was in high school, so I can recommend this to young readers.

The story may well be the first post-apocalyptic novel of its kind - I know of no others that have proceeded it and I do not count H.G. Wells' The Time Machine as in this category. Regardless, I consider this book to be the standard against which all other post-apocalyptic novels should be judged.

George R. Stewart is well suited to wri...more

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May 02, 2009

Sisimka rated it

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Shelves: library

This was the first 'post apocalyptic' novel I ever read. Oddly, I found it on my mother's bookshelf when looking for something to read one day. This is one of those books I'll remember forever, and probably one of my all time top ten. I wonder how it will stand up to a re-read?

5/1/09: Stands up awesomely well to a re-read. Its a classic!

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Jun 29, 2010

Liz rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: dystopias

As an employee at UC Berkeley there is a kind of liberation that comes with reading of someone breaking into Doe library after the fall of civilization as we know it to get to the books inside. I do hope he remembered to have them scanned by the people at the checkout desk. :-)

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Sep 07, 2007

Deborah rated it

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Shelves: alltimefavorites

what i loved about this book was it's reality... what would happen if?
a massive epidemic - nearly everyone on earth dead... the practical end of what would happen next. gathering a few survivors, building a new life and lifestyle. the main charactor (your basic mild mannered guy) over time realizing that he needed to teach the next generation what they'd need to survive without common utilities or grocery stores. this book made me think... and one of the best 'visuals' .... 'he sat and wa...more

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Mar 06, 2009

Mary rated it

· review of another edition

This was read for ENG 360A Class taken in 2007.

Readings Environmental Novel English Class required.

This was a really quick read and I actually read it for an English class.
It's a post apocalyptic story followin one survivor and the issues he needs to deal with and think about.
I'm usually not too keen on these types of stories but this one caught my attention because of the timelessness in regards to survival and ecology.

Stewart address...more

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Dec 08, 2011

Jayme rated it

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Great book. I really enjoy apocalyptic fiction. I have read a lot of it and this one has got to be towards the top of my list.

This book takes on more of an human approach to the end of the world. There is not a great deal of action but the pace does not get sluggish. Unlike most end of the world fiction this one has a much broader scope and looks at the future of a "Tribe" of survivors instead of just the main character. Plus in most of these type of stories there is o...more

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Oct 24, 2011

Brandon Jensen rated it

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I just finished this book. 1/2 of the book reminded me of the series on the History Channel called Life after People. The short of it is that 999 of 1000 people are destroyed by an airborne plague. Almost all the people are gone, but the infrastructure remains intact. The author reasons what would happen in this scenario initially focusing on how the earth would reclaim certain human-maintained things like roads, lights, sewage and forests.

The second portion of the book primarily hi...more

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Sep 07, 2011

The_antichris rated it

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Shelves: sffantasy

I will read almost anything that involves wiping out 99% of Earth's population, but Earth Abides is a remarkable, singular example of the genre. Humanity dies not with a bang, nor with a whimper, but with a courageous, dignified going into the dark. But that isn't the point of the novel, not really: it takes place off-screen, while Ish, the protagonist, is on a solitary research trip in the mountains, and sets the stage for a subtle character study; a plausible imagining of how small, isolated c...more

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Jul 19, 2011

Austin Bruce Hallock rated it

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Recommends it for: anyone

Recommended to Austin Bruce by: This was the "book of honor" at the 2011 Potlatch SF convention

I enjoyed Earth Abides more than any novel I've read in a long time. Although we modern readers can quibble with many of the technicalities of this book written in the late 1940s, it's obvious the author did lots of research and had a great deal of feeling for his subject. To label Earth Abides as just another post-apocalypse novel does not do it justice. Though it was one of the first of this sub-genre, the focus is on the human story, not the sensational events. In addition, the writing is...more

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May 24, 2011

Elaine rated it

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I love most science fiction, and I always enjoy a good post apocalyptic book. I recently bought this and some other PA books as part of trying to make sense of the horror of the ongoing Fukushima disaster, although this book isn't about nuclear holocaust, but about the end of civilization as it was in 1949, and what happens to one small group of people who live as a community in what was Berkeley, California. I won't lay out the plot, as hundreds of people in this review list have done that, but...moreI love most science fiction, and I always enjoy a good post apocalyptic book. I recently bought this and some other PA books as part of trying to make sense of the horror of the ongoing Fukushima disaster, although this book isn't about nuclear holocaust, but about the end of civilization as it was in 1949, and what happens to one small group of people who live as a community in what was Berkeley, California. I won't lay out the plot, as hundreds of people in this review list have done that, but I want to share my feelings about and responses to it.

The style of writing and conversation was slightly formal, sometimes stilted, sometimes lyrical, and I rather enjoyed its difference in style. One reviewer here said something about the author setting up the situation and then seeing what the person/people would do, and I feel that's true, that it's what the author did.

I felt Ish was a bit too pedantic, and not traumatized enough, perhaps, by what had happened, although he mentions that himself. I also felt he was, well, maybe a bit of a jerk! The book was inside his head all the time, as he made judgments about people and things, some of which were a bit embarrassing, but maybe true to a certain type of graduate student, a bit full of himself and his intellectual prowess.

I enjoyed reading how the Tribe evolved and changed, and it was interesting how they didn't seem to be very industrious, but seemed to just live by scavenging from the detritus of the civilization that was gone. Ish, too, didn't seem very ambitious, with no follow through. Although he talked often of how important it was for the children to read and do math, and tried to teach them, I got the impression he didn't do very well, and he even inadvertently made the Doe Library at the UC campus into a taboo place instead of a place where the children would feel free to go and enjoy and use, read and learn.

The evolution of the hammer was an interesting thing; it made sense that something like that would happen. The last section, where Ish is very old, worked well, I thought. The style was different, and the people were by that time talking differently, as well. It seemed that Ish did attain some understanding and peace with how things went, and how they would go. In all, the book was one specific take on life after civilization. It's actually more likely, when you think about how passive we have become, that people would be unambitious, as The Tribe was, than all the organizing in other PA books, such as The Stand, although they had that Good Vs. Evil thing going on.

It couldn't happen that way now, however, because if most people died from a plague, that would leave all the nuclear plants in the world untended, and they would sooner or later explode, and then there would be a nuclear holocaust. That's the saddest thing to me, that if/when this civilization goes down, there can't be another, at least not for 4 billion years (U-238's half life), because no one in the world has put in place a way for the plants to be just turned off and left alone.

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May 02, 2011

Adam Calhoun rated it

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Earth Abides is a strange book. Divided into three sections, I found the first intensely boring, the second interesting if naive, and the third surprisingly touching and deft. We are treated to the aftermath of a plague that wipes out most of humanity. We see not just the first few months after the plague but the full extent of a man's life as he watches new generations grow up that know nothing of civilization.

Life after the plague seems like quite the jolly affair, traveling abo...moreEarth Abides is a strange book. Divided into three sections, I found the first intensely boring, the second interesting if naive, and the third surprisingly touching and deft. We are treated to the aftermath of a plague that wipes out most of humanity. We see not just the first few months after the plague but the full extent of a man's life as he watches new generations grow up that know nothing of civilization.

Life after the plague seems like quite the jolly affair, traveling about in the wide open road with no cares in the world. When you've got your dog by your side, what else do you need? Until you find a woman and settle down. Then some strange ecology will rampage around until everything settles down and you have babies. End Act I.

Act I is 22 years later as the few survivors and your large families confront the consequences of living off of this earthly paradise (?). When you can scavenge for canned food, why should you bother with anything else? Unfortunately, the main character is a cranky man who believes in the power of hard work and is suddenly disappointed, after 22 years of sloth, that his children and grandchildren don't build outhouses when he suddenly wants them to (running water having just stopped working - that's good engineering!). Although fairly naive, this slowly works through the questions of how you build a civilization from scratch, what you need to pass on, and how you try to 'encode' those ideas in culture. An interesting start, though I'm sure more recent books have thought more about this.

The final chapter is decades later. Our friendly hero is the only person left from before the plague and is regarded as something of a God - "the last American". It shows his senescence as he slowly passes out of usefulness. Although he is treated as something like a deity, he is not really needed for anything. He is only able to sit around, his mind cloudy, staring out across the bay. We see how his great-grandchildren have adapted and are at home in 'the wild' with an indigenous religion (whose symbols are accumulated through the book).

Since it is one of the first post-apocalyptic books, I guess you can forgive some of the plot that has been improved since then. The writing's not great, and the beginning is boring, but once you get to the second section it starts rolling and gets better and better.(less)

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May 01, 2011

Dani Lane rated it

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What I enjoyed most about this book was that the main character was just an ordinary guy, and his reaction to a world where you were starting afresh was probably typical of most people. But that was also frustrating. He and eventually the few survivors he connects with would simply raid stores for food and supplies, never thinking about what would happen someday when all the food was either spoiled or gone. They have electricity for a while, but that finally ends and you would think that this wo...more

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Feb 11, 2011

Joseph Rodgers rated it

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Earth Abides is a work of science fiction literature of high caliber. The story follows a few surviving humans on Earth after an extinction event wipes out most the world's population.

I will first mention the bad, because the good far outweighs it. I read this book for my Science Fiction Literature class, and some of my classmates had some complaints about it. The most common of these were complaints about the main character being indecisive and unheroic. Displeasure over the 3rd person

...more Earth Abides is a work of science fiction literature of high caliber. The story follows a few surviving humans on Earth after an extinction event wipes out most the world's population.

However I find that these complaints short change a good book that has very few failings. I think that language of the book might be considered dispassionate or formal, but every passage is teaming with honesty. Much of the books content deals with speculation on what human, animal, and plant ecology would be like after an extinction even. The book also presents many sociological theories that were unheard of during 1949. Even though it is not a character driven narrative a lot of the imagery that George Stewart uses is beautiful, and at times touching.

I think that while writing this book Stewart used Aristotle's concept of an "Action Idea" to decide what characters would be included in the story. Stewart doesn't go for drama he just looks to complete the action. Some readers might not like this, but I enjoyed it and while reading "Earth Abides" I felt the loss of society very acutely.

George Stewart also displays an adept mastery of symbolism in "Earth Abides", essentially any plant or animal life mentioned symbolizes something, mentions of technology and architecture, but most importantly is the symbol of the hammer. If you read this book for the first time bring a writing utensil and underline every mention of the word hammer.

All in all "Earth Abides" is a great read whether for school, enlightenment, or pleasure. George Stewart asks a lot of questions, and you might not like some of the answers he provides. But at least he tries to answer them.

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Feb 09, 2011

Christina Zanakos rated it

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I am currently taking Science Fiction Literature here at UCF right now, and have to read a new science fiction book every two weeks (conviently, at the same time helping me with this class). Earth Abides is a novel about a man named Ish left with a small amount of people left on earth after a nuclear explosion. The tale begins with Ish meeting a black woman Em and repopulating the earth, along with other friends that they meet along the way, eventually becoming what they name "The Tribe"...more

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Feb 02, 2011

Jeffrey Moll rated it

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This novel depicts a world after disease spreads and practically wipes out all of mankind. The story follows Ish, a rather independent individual that is constantly looking for companions in this post-apocalyptic world. The beginning of the novel focuses on Ish surviving as a scavenger living off of the past and what is left of the modern world. There is a distinct moment where Princess (his beagle) runs off to chase a rabbit, Ish contemplates leaving the dog and going on with his journey alone....more

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Nov 30, 2010

Bob Ross rated it

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Picked this up because I heard this was the inspiration of Steven King's "The Stand". Written in 1949, it tells the story of a man named Ish that is one of the only survivors of a worldwide plague. Ish was based on Ishi, the last Indian who wondered out of the woods in the 1920's in California and was studied by Berkeley. Stewart taught at Berkeley so we see how he came up with this story.

I am puzzled why this is considered a classic and is so well reviewed, other than wh...morePicked this up because I heard this was the inspiration of Steven King's "The Stand". Written in 1949, it tells the story of a man named Ish that is one of the only survivors of a worldwide plague. Ish was based on Ishi, the last Indian who wondered out of the woods in the 1920's in California and was studied by Berkeley. Stewart taught at Berkeley so we see how he came up with this story.

I am puzzled why this is considered a classic and is so well reviewed, other than what I call "Star Trek syndrome", which is sci fi people had such a dearth of material back in the day they tend to gush over any author (or crappy TV show) that provides sci-fi rather than dealing objectively with the question of whether the book is actually good. There is no action or plot, the characters except for Ish are paper thin, and even he is arrogant and pretentious. The book starts out well with his story of how he survived and taking a tour of the USA to assess the damage done by the plague. But once Ish "settles down" the story crashes to a snooze.

The story covers a few generations and is the life of Ish from beginning to death in a Brave New World. The author obviously pays homage to Huxley in the stilted language the narrator uses (almost a pretentious Shakespear-like dramatics) and his Ish is like the savage in BNW as they are both supposedly smarter than the people around them and can only watch with horror what is happening to people. Did this author think all sci fi had to be written in a weird shakesperian pretention because Huxley did it?

As others have pointed out, even though it is refreshing that people do not act the way we expect in fiction, it does get tedious after 21 years people still are eating out of magic cans. This is usually pointed to as how this book is special. People are lazy and Ish doesn't really seem to like the survivors he meets. However, this starts to become unbelievable after year five or so. They do not learn to plant crops, make things, or do anything really. Kids are bored with learning..wow what a dilemma, make them learn like people have been doing for 50000 years!

The author seems to not have a good grasp on the science (bad for this genre) as things last wayy! too long to be believable for the point he wants to make. (food, cars, razors, etc..are indestructable in this world)The worst sin for me, and what ruined the book is the fact that all this behavior is not organic to the characters, but seems shoehorned into the author's preordained conclusion people would revert to a primative state. Its ok to get to that conclusion if it is true to the story and organic, but it isn't here. Ish gives up on teaching because the kids are bored and are therefore hopeless, what kid wants to learn and be at school? People just eat cans for a generation because people don't want to learn new skills..there is no long term planning at all and it isn't believable. In Cast Away, Tom Hanks character was a mild manner Fed Ex guy that could spear a fish in three years on an island..people learn when they have to, they have kids in this book, where is the long term thinking?

It may be ok to give this to students for a literary history of the genre, but I felt it heavy handed and stilted and dated. People do not act like real people, talk like real people (he actually calls his wife "oh mother of nations!" please) or make decisions like real people. I am sure that in the time it was written he may have had to sugarcoat an interacial union and tone down sex, but it comes across as absurd in the 21st century. (Ish the main character realizes after being involved with his wife Em for years after she is pregnant that she is black! He is the smart character btw) Barely finished it.(less)

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Aug 26, 2010

Melissa rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: didnt-finish

I tried, but this book is too old fashioned for me. It reminds me of something Richard Matheson would write. The main character, Ish, drives me nuts. The women are all idiots according to him - but courageous, since they have the children, so that's okay! Apparently, after a plague wipes out nearly all of humanity, the difference between men & women can be summed up as: "She felt only in terms of the immediate, and was more interested in being able to spot her child's birthday than in all t...more

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Jul 06, 2010

Becky rated it

· review of another edition

Isherwood Williams is "Ish" to himself and to most who know him. Ish, a graduate student in geography, out in the wilderness of northern California doing fieldwork, is bitten by a rattlesnake on the opening page of Earth Abides. As he's fighting fever and delirium alone in his cabin, an even larger battle is being waged in the greater world, a battle of which Ish is unaware and which will be lost before he even regains consciousness. A deadly and extraordinarily fast-acting virus, o...moreIsherwood Williams is "Ish" to himself and to most who know him. Ish, a graduate student in geography, out in the wilderness of northern California doing fieldwork, is bitten by a rattlesnake on the opening page of Earth Abides. As he's fighting fever and delirium alone in his cabin, an even larger battle is being waged in the greater world, a battle of which Ish is unaware and which will be lost before he even regains consciousness. A deadly and extraordinarily fast-acting virus, of unknown origin but transported to the far corners of the world by air travelers, is killing off humanity, nearly to the point of extinction. When Ish emerges from his fever days later and descends the mountain, he discovers that the world as he knew it is gone forever.

His reaction, perhaps as a defense mechanism, is detached and unemotional; a reaction of detachment, Ish tells himself, is right and fitting for the scholar and philosopher that he is. He decides to travel across the country taking stock, looking for other survivors, and making note of how the earth is reacting. His journey, always one of observation and study, takes him all the way from the Bay Area of San Francisco to New York and back again, to the house in which he grew up. Along the way, scattered amidst the vast stretches of an America mostly devoid of people, he will meet occasional survivors, all in a state of shock at being alone in such a big world, but none any more interested in him than he is in them.

Disinterested. Apathetic. Passive. These words describe the attitude of Ish and the rest of humanity's survivors for most of the book. They are content merely to live off the leavings of the civilization that came before rather than trying to rebuild or create a new one. It is a frustrating attitude for Ish--particularly when he begins to see it in himself, over and over--but is even more frustrating for the reader. Dig a well! you scream to yourself, long before Ish even idly turns over the idea, before lazily discarding it. Plant a crop! Tend the herds of cattle that have gone feral and roam the countryside! Teach the children to read and write! Build a government!

But it is not until the last pages of Earth Abides that we see a new society arise, and then it is not so much from the ashes of the civilization that ended so abruptly and so finally, but organically, as if from the earth itself. Perhaps George R. Stewart saw a complacence in people of the post-war world of 1949 in which he wrote this book. Perhaps he felt that the only way to build a new civilization would be to see the old one utterly forgotten except in myth and legend. Whatever his reason, Earth Abides is maddening and inspiring in equal measure, and well worth more than one read.(less)

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About George R. Stewart

George Rippey Stewart was an American toponymist, a novelist, and a professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley. He is best known for his only science fiction novel Earth Abides (1949), a post-apocalyptic novel, for which he won the first International Fantasy Award in 1951. It was dramatized on radio's Escape and inspired Stephen King's The Stand.

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“It is a strange thing," he thought, "to be an old god. They worship you, and yet they mistreat you. If you do not want to do what they wish, they make you. It is not fair.” — 2 people liked it

“In that world, those with seeing eyes could only blunder about, but the blind man would be at home, and now instead of being the one who was guided by others, he might be one the one to whom the others clung for guidance.” — 2 people liked it

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