After The Efflorescence of Oil, the Fall of The Cities, and the False Tribulation, America is once again becoming a world power uniting most of the North American continent, from Panama to Labrador, under the thirteen stripes and 60 stars of the American flag and for the sake of the Dominion of Jesus Christ on Earth.

But all this is backdrop. The immediate story is of young Adam Hazzard,naive and trusting lease-boy, born and raised on a fuedal estate on the north-central plains of Athabaska (ree Canada) and his involuntary odyssey across a large swath of America and the mid-22nd century with his friend Julian Comstock, exiled nephew of the murderous President (read Emperor), Deklan the Conqueror.

The plot is fairly straight-forward and easy to divine, but the real pleasure of this novel comes from Adam's voice and innocence about the world at large. He is the classic American Abroad, full of faith and nobility, charming and diasarming in his innocence and openness, yet unafraid and undaunted. A great amount of humor is discovered as the reader realizes a greater understanding than Adam of what is really going on. Also, the style is that of a 19th century Letter to the Dear Reader...with footnotes!

Others have mentioned parallels to the story of Emperor Julian in Gibbon's Rise and Decline of the Roman Empire and Vidal's Julian. As I have read neither, I am forced to leave comparison's of the three works up to the literary acumen of the Reader. (As Adam Hazzard would phrase it).

Robert Charles Wilson creates a unique post-apocalyptic world logically extended from current trends and forecasts. His world will stick in your memory because of the voices of the characters he draws.