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". It is important that Em is black and Ish is white because at the time of publication in the early 1900s, it was still illegal for interracial couples to marry. There is a brief jump in time with a chapter entitled the quick years, which quickly recaps over 20 years of the tribe's life, fending for food and learning to hunt, etc. The novel basically states that humanity must go back to the old ways in order to make earth what it was, or attempt to. The novel ends with the death of Ish, handing the hammer, a sacred tool that has come to signify power and authority, over to his grandson Jack, who seems ready to take a leadership role of all those remaining. Though the story went a little slow for me, I enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in science fiction.