The Old Man and the Wasteland

The Wasteland Saga #1

by Nick Cole

Forty years after the destruction of civilization, human beings are reduced to salvaging the ruins of a broken world. One survivor's most prized possession is Hemingway's classic The Old Man and the Sea. With the words of the novel echoing across the wasteland, a living victim of the Nuclear Holocaust journeys into the unknown to break a curse.

What follows is an incredible tale of grit and endurance. A lone traveler must survive the desert wilderness and mankind gone savage to discover the truth of Hemingway's classic tale of man versus nature.

Now with a new introduction by author Nick Cole.

Genres: Post Apocalyptic, Science Fiction, Fiction, Dystopia, Apocalyptic, Fantasy, Horror

146 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Nick Cole is a working actor living in Southern California. When he is not auditioning for commercials, going out for sitcoms or being shot, kicked, stabbed or beaten by the students of various film schools for their projects, he can often be found as a guard for King Phillip the Second of Spain in the Opera Don Carlo at Los Angeles Opera or some similar role. Nick Cole has been writing for most of his life and acting in Hollywood after serving in the U.S. Army.

Reviews

[Aesaan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ratings: 4.5 stars.

Old Man and the Wasteland is a captivating and moving story of an old man trying to disprove the accusations of being "curst" by taking onto the wasteland, fighting any obstacles including his laziness. This beautiful novella is grounded in every way possible and does feel relatable to our world and/or humanity.

I would highly recommend this novella to anyone looking for a good read, and a must if you are a fan of post-apocalyptic adventure or that of The Old Man and the Sea.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this little novella. It is the story of one old man's journey through the wastelands of a post-apocalyptic American Southwest. To give you an idea of the tone and mood of the book, I was waiting for the titular Old Man to run into Roland Deschain from The Gunslinger at some point during his wandering.

But there are no allusions to Stephen King, those are reserved for Ernest Hemingway and Santiago -- so much so that I don't think I could recommend this to anyone that hasn't read The Old Man and the Sea, as it references often and with good results.

[Jayme · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved everything about this book. The main character is so well written that when you get to the end you feel like you know him. I love the writing style. Most of the book is told through the The Old Man. You really feel what he is going through. I have read a lot of apocalyptic books and this is somewhere in the top three, I am not sure it isn't number one. Without giving anything away, some of the things I liked were... 1. The Old Man forgetting parts of the way the world was before the bombs fell (made it feel real). 2. The difficulty he goes to in trying to succeed in his hunting of salvage. 3. The ending.

This is one of the few books I have read that I have been unable to put down. I highly recommend this book. For the price, there is no reason to not give it a try.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars

A tight well written post apocalyptic novella that is set some time in the future. This is the story of the Old Man, his life, his living,  and his pursuit of salvage. We are not given much backstory, or reasons behind the end of days, just simple drops of terrorism, nuclear bombs, and world wide retaliation.

This short story has many similarities to Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, it is even a book in possession of the Old Man. The entire read can be done in one sitting. I enjoyed the fact that the Old Man may have been a bit of an unreliable narrator. This man is a survivor. He lived through the holocaust and took on a leadership role in his Towne of survivors. After making a blunder by retrieving a "red hot" radio from the east, the people of his Town consider him "Curst" .

The entire story is an attempt at trying to achieve redemption. The Old Man wants his people to respect him and love him again. Like McCarthy's The Road, this book is about isolation and about human nature itself. The Old Man overcomes many adversities and adversaries.  Although it lacks the emotional impact of The Road, it ends up delivering a powerful message.

I love post apoc novels and this book is a great Ebook deal!

[Rebecca Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this little novella. Short and sweet and by the final pages I felt as if we had gotten to know the old man pretty well. This short read is set in a post apocalyptic future. Civilization has been destroyed and seemingly the village the old man is part of still retains its humanity, which is pretty amazing with the grim reality of the world. His village came together after the end of the world as we know it and survived by salvaging; although they daren't venture too far incase the area is still contaminated by the nuclear bombs which happened 40 years ago. The old man feels he is cursed as he hasn't managed to salvage anything worthwhile for a bit so he decides to set off on his own search. The book makes references to Hemingway's the old man and the sea throughout, which I feel adds character to the old man in this novella, and he uses it as a guide with some of his decisions.
The old man manages to survive many scrapes but without giving too much away the ending and epilogue just tied everything together for me. It was a perfect ending but i found the book does make you wonder whether humanity does keep repeating its past mistakes and will we ever learn from history. All in all a fantastic read and not just for fans of dystopian fiction.

[Chris Dietzel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very well done. I enjoyed Cole trying to channel Hemingway's writing style for use in an apocalyptic story, and I also liked his end-of-the-world tribute to The Old Man and the Sea.

[Shayan Foroozesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as bad as I expected it to be. It's the story of a no named man known to us just as Old Man, like Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea. Once upon a time the old man was a great "salvager", finding useful tools from what's left of the old civilization, to try and form a new life and maybe a new civilization.

The structure follows the story of the Old Man and the Sea in which instead of the sea there's just a wasteland forty years after the nuclear bombing and an apocalypse that nearly wiped humanity and life from the face of earth. But it seems some people managed to survive, but we don't know how. They escaped bombing and managed to stay alive, but the radiation? we don't know and Nick Cole does little to inform the reader.

The village in which old man lives is one of the most civilized and humane places I've read in post-apocalyptic books: after forty years of wild tough apocalyptic years they are as civilized and as cultured as we who live before the apocalypse. Of course when we go further in the story, and meet the savages, we see that the villagers are the only or one of the few civilized ones.

The old man is, what villagers call him, a cursed man because it's been a long time since he last found a salvage. The story begins with the old man deciding to leave the village to the cursed east to find a great salvage and prove the villagers wrong: He is not cursed.

In the course of the story we'll see he's one of the luckiest humans on earth and survives all the dangers with sheer luck: He survives the loner motel keeper, the drugged savage, the desert... of course he escapes the pack of wolfs with luck plus smartness. I'm not degrading his efforts and intelligence. He is a tough, smart, and experienced old man who knows the way of life and how to stay alive.

One thing I really disliked about the novel is the political thinking of Nick Cole. The slogans or the laws written on the sewer walls were disgusting. Cole may think he's being wise writing those disgusting childish cheap slogans. One more word: terrorists?! really Cole?

The story has a poor start. It was losing its nonexistent grip and I struggled not to put the book down hoping it'll get better and it got better, but just to keep you entertained and nothing more. It was a light and a fun read with its entertaining but poor attempt to merge the elements of The Road and The Old and the Sea in a post-apocalyptic setting.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pure and simple little novella and I loved it. Now, I am a big hemmingway fan and a particular fan of The Old Man and the Sea so that biases me big time toward the book. I've tried to think of how it would read to someone not familiar with that book and I can't tell if it would come across or not. However, while being a total different subject matter, the author manages to carry much of the same simpleness of story as Hemingway did. And "simpleness of story" may sound like an insult but it's not -- the book is grim and gritty, it's post-apocalyptic, after all -- but it's told so simply that it all rings true and sort of beautiful.

I can see where the style and the pacing may not be for everyone, though and I imagine this book falls into the 'love it or hate it' category depending on whether or not it is 'your thing'. But, as a fan of both dystopian fiction AND the old man and the sea, this little book was a complete treat for me.

[Felicia A Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite sure what to think of this book. It has some pretty impressive ratings/reviews on both GoodReads and Amazon, but I couldn't figure out why. It wasn't terrible, but this book did not really catch my interest until at 82% on Kindle.

It tasted like The Road, with a little The Postman, a drizzle of Hemingway, a dash of Hostel, and a sprinkle of Mad Max. What's that, you say? Sounds like a disaster? Well, yeah. It WAS a post-apocalyptic novel, so disaster comes into play. But it wasn't a disaster like a fallen quiche right before an important dinner party. Though why one would serve quiche at an important dinner party, I couldn't say. But I digress.

So, the Old Man is "curst" because of bringing a radioactive item from a salvaging mission back to his village. After being treated like the redheaded stepchild at the family reunion for having done so, he sets out across the wasteland to...I'm not really sure. Well, ultimately, to break the curse, but I don't know if that's the plan when he sneaks out of the village.

He undergoes tests of endurance, runs from various things, and almost starves or dies of thirst in the desert several times as he heads to wherever it is he's going, which is not clear to him until he gets there.

Major verb tense/point of view/inner thoughts vs. spoken thoughts issues, and often very confusing sentence structure. The Old Man seems kind of bipolar or schizophrenic at times, but hey, he DID survive a nuclear holocaust and lived to be an Old Man, so who am I to judge?

This story was....lonely. Like in The Road, there is little to no dialogue with other people, so we only hear the Old Man's inner turmoil and decisionmaking process(es), and there is nothing else to think about. The book dragged on until right about 82%, when things finally got interesting. And then it kind of pooped out. But it was a happyish ending, and I did enjoy it.

[Gertie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I encourage anyone starting this book and finding it a little "slow" to keep going... quickly things turn to more interesting events well worth hanging in there for.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a dark introspective little story. I found myself rooting for The Old Man on his journey. I got a little lost in his memories with him. I suppose in the end, that is all we have.

[Steve Love · Rating 1 out of 5]

In a word: Terrible.

In more words:
You might be considering this book because it's cheap and has great reviews on Amazon. That's why I bought it, and prepared myself to love it from the start. Instead, it started off with clumsy writing and I told myself I'd give it till chapter 3 or 4 (they're short) and then probably quit. But the writing got a smidge better and a very occasional turn-of-phrase rekindled my hopes that this might turn out to be a worthwhile read in the end. After reaching the end, I can tell you simply: It was not.

One of the book's most basic flaws, in my opinion, is that the author feels he must explain the existence of the wasteland. His answer: terrorists. As best I can glean, sometime in the future "terrorists" have gained air superiority and what must be a massive nuclear arsenal, because they dropped atomic bombs on almost every major city in the United States and there was apparently no stopping them. Forgive me, but I found it hard to suspend my disbelief in this premise.

Another issue is that the book has only one character and yet there is still no character development. The old man never grows or changes, he only reacts to the situations that the author hands him. Yes, Nick Cole does write a few other "characters" into the book, but they are only props to provide conflict for the sake of conflict, or to further the author's heavy-handed agenda.

The turning point for me was when the author's effort to teach some sort of moral or lesson became too overt for my liking. In one chapter, the old man discovers writing carved into the walls of a sewer system. It turns out to be a long list of political slogans disguised as aphorisms about the fall of the United States, and they are about as profound as the comments on an online news article. "Children are smarter than you think." "Peer pressure is when you decide to lob a few warheads at this week's Nazi because CNN told you to." "Rockstars [sic], actors, and politicians don't actually do anything." You get the picture. And there's no discussion or dissection of these ideas. It's propaganda presented as observable facts about humanity from a minor character who is supposed to be seen as heroic and honorable. The author wants the reader to accept as fact that "Hate is not wrong when what you hate is wrong." And judging by the number of readers who have highlighted these lines, he was successful.

So, particularly because I felt like Cole was trying to sell me this story to gain my sympathies, as a reader, I no longer trusted anything I was told and found myself challenging the rest of the book. This was most apparent during the descriptions of a group of "savages" that Cole refers to most often as The Horde. However, he provides a couple glimpses into the thoughts of one of these savages, and we find that they refer to themselves as "The People" the way that many Native American groups do. They also like peyote, ceremonies, sacred places, and just about anything else that could be considered stereotypical of Native Americans. We're also told that they have no rules, no issues with rape or cannibalism, and make a practice of sacrificing children. If that weren't enough, they're led by a former college professor, so this is clearly supposed to show us what happens when "liberals" are left to their own devices. It reminds me of the type of propaganda used to dehumanize any group of people who is "other" or not one of us, and very similar to the stories made up about Native Americans to justify killing them. After all, one of the slogans on the wall says, "People will tell lies to get what they want."

And maybe I'm wrong. It's possible that The Old Man and the Wasteland was never about politics. It may just be a poor attempt at mimicking Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea and McCarthy's The Road.

[Rian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Probably closer to 1.5 stars, actually. It certainly isn't the worst, plodding, politics-shoving, most poorly written book I've ever read (that dubious honor currently goes to Nobody's Princess), but it definitely had its moments.

The Old Man and the Wasteland, in case the title and the author's Hemingway-meets-McCarthy notice didn't give it away, is a post-apocalyptic novel about one man's journey through, well, a wasteland. The writing is mediocre at best, with the occasionally bright patch of prose; the characters are thinly constructed--one review puts them as never changing, but only reacting to the situations the author puts them into, particularly the main character (who you'd think would change given we spend the entire book with him). The book often reads like a creative writing exercise about Hemingway: Cole's frequent allusions or quotations seem forced, his prose is clunky and overly ponderous, as if we're supposed to find some great, deeper meaning in every sentence. It could have also used an editor.

The book did have its good points, namely when it was the old man vs. the actual wasteland, and not some weird The Hills Have Eyes-esque monsters. The Old Man's fight with the wolves was by far the most interesting passage of the novel, even if the switch to the wolf's perspective was often hokey. I had honestly thought the wolves would be the main antagonist in the novel, considering it had taken roughly half the book to get there--but nope, they were dropped for weird uber-right-wing politics (terrorists! liberals! big government! military!!) and cannibals-cum-thinly veiled commentary on "uncivilized indigenous people."

As stated above, the book was all right--palatable, if not necessarily enjoyable--until it got weirdly political in the last third or so. A former soldier wasting precious gasoline by blowtorching giant mini-treatises on a sewer wall? What? The end was oddly cobbled together and slogged towards a fairly inevitable conclusion without any of the finesse of the two authors Cole cites as the primary influences on his book. The epilogue was so wildly unnecessary, rushed, and cloyingly moralistic, as to make me physically upset at not having stopped at the last chapter. Actually, I was ready to give this 3 stars before I read the epilogue, but afterwards, no.

Frankly, I'd say don't waste your time on this one, unless you don't have anything more interesting to read. It's a quick read, but I kind of wish I had the day back.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this story about a month ago and have been chewing on it ever since. I am a huge fan of Ernest Hemingway, so yes, I've read "The Old Man and the Sea" and am actually rereading it now. Why? Because I was so inspired by Mr. Cole's iteration, that I wanted to write my own (extra planetary) version.

Is Nick Cole's work comparable? Yes! Make no mistake about it, this story is amazing and on par with the struggles Santiago faced in TOMATS. The old man in this story is a salvager who, like Santiago, feels the need to more-or-less "go out in a blaze of glory," so that he can prove to his naysaying fellow survivors in their post-apocalyptic world, that age is relative. That struggle is glorious. I love that about both stories. I love stories that illustrate multiple conflicts like these did, such as man versus self, man versus society, and man versus nature. It's what keeps the story moving along quickly. On his quest to bring back something of value, the old man encounters his share of struggles, internal and external, physical and emotional and some seemingly insurmountable setbacks. If loneliness and starvation and thirst weren't enough, imagine cannibals and wolves and, oh wait - go get your own copy and read it!

You needn't worry about reading TOMATS first. This story can and does stand alone; also, it can be read as one part of a trilogy. The narrative style is reminiscent of Hemingway's. I like the no-nonsense, compressed story-telling style; it suited the plot perfectly. I finished feely deeply about the main character and his struggles. I also felt hope. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves the post-apocalyptic genre or Ernest Hemingway.

[Clark Hallman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Old Man and the Wasteland by Nick Cole – This short post-apocalyptic novel takes place some forty-years after the nuclear destruction of the cities in the US. People survive by salvaging through the wasteland. One old man begins a salvaging hike in the baron Arizona wasteland to prove he can still contribute to his small band of survivors. He forages through desert wilderness and abandoned cities while struggling to survive the climate, wild beasts and murderous savages. The old man is a big fan of Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, which he mentions often during his difficult and dangerous trek, and this ingenious story is analogous to Hemingway’s novel. This wonderful book is thought-provoking, inspiring and alarming, but also very satisfying. I will undoubtedly read the other books in this series.

[Lj · Rating 3 out of 5]

I kinda wished I'd read "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemmingway. I might have got more out of this one. But I never have, and have never been a fan of Mr. Hemmingway's writing.

That being said - this was a compelling read about an apocalyptic future. An old man wanting to make something right in a world that felt beyond repair. I don't know how well I would have survived trying to live in his kind of world, but this book truly lays out a survival of the fittest, or at least the most canny in difficult situations.

I heartily recommend this read to those who don't mind harsh realities with little hope for the future. But without giving anything away - the end ends with that small glimmer of hope that we all need.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

If Cormac McCarthy's The Road and Hemmingway's The Old Man and the Sea got together, this novella would be the result.

It's an entertaining journey with a well-fleshed out environment told by a narrator you grow to root for. His lonely desperation bleeds through every page.

Unlike both inspirational works, though, this story's conclusion has an incongruent Disney feel to it. Otherwise, it's a good read worth the price of admission.

[Jeezzle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A mix of Fallout and Hemingway, this book rules. An old man looking for that "last great salvage" goes into the wild of the wasteland though it may be the last thing he ever does, and finds some ..... really cool shit. This is most definitely worth a read. This is among the top ten books I have read in the past couple of years.

[Patricia Kaniasty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally! A post-apocalyptic story that is not all about military and government..........or zombies. This story feels like a one man's account of his own personal survival. Just like it could have really happened. It was a bit like "The Road" by Cormac McCarty but still enjoyable.

[Luis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Como su nombre sugiere, este es un libro (ciencia ficción post-apocalítica) que se conecta de una manera interesante con The Old Man and the Sea de Hemingway. Una lectura muy bonita y muy rápida.

[Tim Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought it was great. Only wish it were longer.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of people seem to like this book a lot. I just liked it a little.

The eponymous Old Man in this story lives in a village, but owing to his age and bad luck, he has not found salvage for a long time - and salvage is essential to this community in post apocalyptic America. Thus he sets off into the wasteland to proved that he is not cursed and find the best salvage of all. Once in the wasteland, he fights off various dangers in his hunt for salvage.

I would probably have got more from this book had I read "The Old Man and the Sea" as plenty of people seem to agree that this story is self consciously based on that one. It is also a standalone story though, and the writing is powerful, the characters well done. There was a definite feeling of "The Road" about this one.

Some people will love the writing style too, but I found it slow and the start was somewhat shaky. As the adventure went on, I also felt (as with "The Road") that I was ready for something less depressing now. Somewhat hard in a world where humanity has all but wiped itself out!

It was worth reading. I was not blown away by it though.

[Olga · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is the story inspired by the Old Man and the Sea, creatively transferred to the setting of post-apocalyptic desert of Arizona forty years after the country (and probably the world outside) was destroyed. Maybe it is better to call an hommage to Hemingway's book.
The laconic style and rhythm of the text intensifies the similarity and suits the story of a old man who fights the odds against age, nature and savagery to prove his worth to the village and bring his "swordfish".

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a post nuclear apocalypse short story set in the wasteland of Arizona. It attempts to closely follow the structure of Hemingway's classic novella "The Old Man and the Sea", with an old man going out into the wilderness trying to recapture his youth and bring back some "salvage" which will regain him the respect of the people of his small village, for whom he has become a bit of a laughing stock.

This part of the novel is well done, with the old man constantly talking to himself, doubting himself and suffering from hunger and thirst as his journey goes deeper into the darkness beyond his known hunting territory.

The trouble is that once we get deep into the heart of the new material and he comes across other remnants of humanity, it all becomes rather silly. I suppose this is a function of dystopian novels in that our credulity is stretched, but unfortunately mine broke about 3/4 of the way through as the old man was cast into the physical fight for his life which in the original source was against the sharks who were eating the enormous giant marlin he had caught. One of the great themes of Hemingway's novel was the complete isolation that Santiago felt alone on the sea and it was a shame that the author couldn't keep this up and just maintain the struggle against nature.

I suppose the clue was in the last line of the synopsis...."A book lover’s action flick." That is precisely what went wrong. Spencer Tracey suddenly had to become Bruce Willis improbably surviving against all odds. Great cover mind you. Shame the novel didn't quite live up to the promise.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written, instant classic

I downloaded The Old Man And The Wasteland while looking for zombie books to add to my Kindle collection. It didn't take long to figure out that this is not a zombie book at all, but rather a classic post-apocalyptic tale. And a beautifully written tale it is. The writing is truly inspired and the imagery is picture perfect. Following the Old Man on his trek was a real treat for me as I have been down these same roads many, many times over the years.

Congratulations to Nick Cole on an outstanding novel. I have now purchased the paperback to add to my bookshelf and I look forward to reading much more from him in the years to come.

[Ruth · Rating 1 out of 5]

I may be the only one who didn't care for the book. A lot of walking about a post-apocalyptic desert, looking for things to salvage. The change of viewpoints from one paragraph to the next threw me off. I'd recommend a reader borrow this book from lendle.me if they are not sure if they want to buy it.

[Samuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marred only slightly by some line level editing issues, this self published short novel was a very enjoyable read. Hemingway's classic is both a frame around and a character in this book, set with parts of the post apocalyptic bleakness of The Road and hints of the humor of Fallout. Recommended.

[Mitzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to put down, well-written, interesting pre-diaster flashbacks, fantastic ending. I've read quite a lot in the post-apocalypse genre and this is one of my favorites. Looking forward to see what he writes next.

[Don Stahl · Rating 5 out of 5]

The imagery was outstanding. Someone should seriously consider this as a screenplay. I didn't want it to end. Get this book.

[Heather Hartling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. I couldn't put it down! I can't wait to read more of Nick Cole's writing.