Stefan wrote: "DeeDee, what you just wrote me reminds me of The Rift by Walter Jon Williams, another post-apocalyptic book we read here. One of the characters in that book was a banker or stock trader, who just couldn't cope with the changes and had no "transferable skills" and ended up drowning in an alcoholic haze. I always thought that was a poignant part of that novel."

That part of "The Rift" was exceptionally thought-provoking.

DeeDee, what you just wrote me reminds me of The Rift by Walter Jon Williams, another post-apocalyptic book we read here. One of the characters in that book was a banker or stock trader, who just couldn't cope with the changes and had no "transferable skills" and ended up drowning in an alcoholic haze. I always thought that was a poignant part of that novel.

I too loved the way this tale was told. The eerie deserted gas station ... living off of grocery store food ... and, the eventual adjustment to a new way of life.

I found it especially poignant in the novel that the skills our protaganist had to survive in 1940s America were no longer relevant to post-apocalyptic America. The modern equivalent would be: computer programmers (or Wall Street Bankers), who would need those skills in a post-apocalyptic world? Instead, the farmers, the hunters, and the nuts-and-bolts mechanics would be in high demand.

I've always resonated with stories wherein the protaganist has to deal with the fact that "everything he knows is wrong ... or irrelevent". I suspect that happens in *real life* more than we realize. _Earth Abides_ is in the what we know is irrelevant category. (I liked _Air: or, Have Not Have_ by Geoff Ryman for the same "what we know is irrelevant to the new situation" dynamic.)

I really liked this book from page 1 on. I really enjoyed the details of daily life and the way hopelessness and hope for the future constantly fought in Ish's mind.

It is always interesting to hear other opinions of a book and I'm really surprised to find some folks found the beginning slow. I didn't at all! I mean, the book is not a thriller, but I still found his description of events - his original journey - page turning. I was almost disappointed to get to 'The Quick Years' and not have a blow by blow account of how he spent his days. And yet, in retrospect, the two 'interchapters' work really nicely in the form of the novel with the most important events happening before, Year 22 and in The Last American.

Such a great book, talking about it I could almost pick it up again!

I'm having a really hard time with this one, so I'm glad to see your post, Stefan. I've just hit the 100 page mark, and it's just so slow, and I'm never motivated to pick it up. If I know it'll get better (and from your post it sounds like it does), I'll keep pushing forward.

I thought this was a beautiful book. I was so glad to see it avoided some of what I thought were mainstays of post-apocalyptic SF --- gangs, violence, Mad Max-style chaos. Instead there's a beautiful emptiness to the story --- almost no one is left, so the survivors learn to start over, through trial and error. I like that it focused on maintaining some of the structure of past society (the family, the community, establishing rituals, passing on knowledge to the next generation) while at the same time it's not afraid to break some of the taboos of the time (polygamy, race relations).

If there's one flaw to the book, I would say that the first 100 pages dragged a bit. I have to say that I felt a bit let down when I got to the first "quick years" section where Stewart summarizes a bunch of years in just a few pages: I felt like the first 100 pages could also have been summarized in a few pages. I felt that the book really only started after that first "quick years" section, with the beginning of the new community.

The section with the appearance of Charlie and the subsequent events was excellent. It felt like reality breaking into their paradise --- trying to seduce Evie, bringing disease, forcing them to make their first difficult moral decision. The death penalty meeting was the strongest chapter of the book for me.

I also loved the final section - the way the younger tribe members honored and hurt Ish, the respect for the hammer, the new speech patterns ("as you yourself well know"), Ish's confusion in his final days. Gorgeously written.

Did anyone else feel like there were a lot of Biblical allusions in this story? The serpent biting Ish early on, his son Joey constantly being called "the one", Em being called "the Mother of Nations". I'm sure there were many more that I missed or forgot.

I often try to read older SF and frequently find that it hasn't aged well. So much "classic" SF is more about ideas than about writing a good story or rounded characters. "Earth Abides" definitely is a great example of an early SF book that actually has lasting literary merit.

I had the post-apocalyptic binge last year too. I think this is one of the best of them. It's very realistic and plausible.

The beginning reminded me of Day of the Triffids, the way Ish wakes up and the world is different. I think it's one of the more plausible post-apoc novels I read during my binge last year.

I tracked down a copy of this to read and then forgot about it. I'll have to go looking again as it does sound like an interesting book.

Well I just finished reading this through for the second time and here are a few of my thoughts.

What I think makes this book so wonderful to me is the storytelling style. It is simple, gentle and 'just so'. There are no gimmicks here - no zombies, no supernatural entities or aliens, no great war between good vs. evil, no exploitation or heavy superstition, just straight forward story of what might happen, of what I think would most likely happen if the world succumbed to such a disease.

Maybe it's more that this is what I would like to see happen - that folks would just generally get on with the business of living and make up solutions to problems as they go along. And that's why this will always be my favourite post-apocalyptic novel.

Discussion for Earth Abidesby George R. Stewart