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Earth Abides,
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Tony Minoldo
Because you're probably the end result of what 40 years of horrendous education caused to the USA (and now is causing to the rest of the World): I'm by noi means a conspiracy theorist, but Hollywood films have greratly contributed, making a majority of movies with ceaseless and mostly meaningless constant action and not time to analyse...This book, if you made an effort, is a masterpiece...Now, with a new deadly virus rampaging, just imagine the collapse of civilisation, and how, contrarily to most Hollywood movies, not ex marines in their 30s will survive...The survival would be of course random, due to genetics or where the survivors live (to avoid contagion), and how, once the few months of canned food expire in the shelves, only those used to plant or find their own food, hunt, fish and cook, would survive...The book is marvelous, give it a chance...Please?
Andrew Wilson
One of my favorite books. I'd have been maybe 10 or 11 when I first read it and then lost it for many years. A re-read as an adult was captivating.
The author creates a world and then looks at Ish's place in it. We understand something of the why as well as the how - it isn't all killing, action, adventure. it is about a life lived after apocalypse. Reading this book as a kid shaped my thinking.
Boring, no, not at all.
The author creates a world and then looks at Ish's place in it. We understand something of the why as well as the how - it isn't all killing, action, adventure. it is about a life lived after apocalypse. Reading this book as a kid shaped my thinking.
Boring, no, not at all.
Thomas
It's not, you probably are.
CW Hawes
The book is only boring if one isn't used to this kind of writing. The work is essentially plotless and more of a character study. Something like the work of Kazuo Ishiguro. When I first read the book, I found it exceedingly fascinating. It may be this just isn't your cup of tea.
Jeff Cooper
i hear what you are asking; others have given alotta answers... lemme chime in. you're bored cuz... well... you're young... ennui is par for the course nowadays. i'm old (60)... i read Earth Abides in English 180Z at Cal Berkeley... prolly before you were born. it was a Science Fiction class and this was one of the 25 books i read for it.
now... i hear ya... it's boring for alotta reasons. books in general are boring now... very few of them have any laser effects for example. this is one reason why trumplethinskin doesn't read. it's a reason why many people don't read books anymore. heck... even i rarely read books anymore.
did you read it all? did it make you think about the global warming morass we find ourselves in now? one reason to read a book like this today is to consider how forward thinking it was for the time it was written. i know... i know... trying to find justification for a book written 70 years ... a book that seems dated and has little action.
the reason (as others have noted) is that science fiction projects alternate possible futures at times... and... THAT TIME IS NOW! yeah... it was some kinda virus that wiped out humanity in the book (as i recall... it's been 40 years since i've read it). now... while reading it... rethink "eco disaster"... and then focus on the rebuilding.
of course... movies like "Omega Man" give you action... based on a similar premise... and we've come to expect action in our sci-fi. i remember when "Avatar" came out and everyone raved about it. personally i found the writing extremely weak... everyone's entralled with the CGI and my response was "meh... it's 'Dances with Smurfs.' i wish they'd spent more than $37 on writing."
so there you have my two cents... lemme know what you think!
now... i hear ya... it's boring for alotta reasons. books in general are boring now... very few of them have any laser effects for example. this is one reason why trumplethinskin doesn't read. it's a reason why many people don't read books anymore. heck... even i rarely read books anymore.
did you read it all? did it make you think about the global warming morass we find ourselves in now? one reason to read a book like this today is to consider how forward thinking it was for the time it was written. i know... i know... trying to find justification for a book written 70 years ... a book that seems dated and has little action.
the reason (as others have noted) is that science fiction projects alternate possible futures at times... and... THAT TIME IS NOW! yeah... it was some kinda virus that wiped out humanity in the book (as i recall... it's been 40 years since i've read it). now... while reading it... rethink "eco disaster"... and then focus on the rebuilding.
of course... movies like "Omega Man" give you action... based on a similar premise... and we've come to expect action in our sci-fi. i remember when "Avatar" came out and everyone raved about it. personally i found the writing extremely weak... everyone's entralled with the CGI and my response was "meh... it's 'Dances with Smurfs.' i wish they'd spent more than $37 on writing."
so there you have my two cents... lemme know what you think!
John Cates
Well actually it wasn't - but I guess that's a matter of opinion - and we all have those
MaryAlice
Why did I want to close my eyes and go to sleep rather than turn the next page? Because the novel was dull & uninteresting.
Earth Abides may have been interesting read in the 1950s, but since that time we have had movies like Planet of the Apes, Mad Max road warrior, Star Wars & Star Trek. We survived the Cold War, lived through assassinations, saw man land on the moon, invention of the Internet which shrunk the world, so to speak.
We have read true life adventures, people who survived disasters, walked across the U.S. of A., France, Spain and so on, foregoing niceties like running water and electricity.
As someone wrote here, like reading someone's boring diary. I think it was lack of action and conversations that could further author's philosophical views, rather than long pages of Ish's thinking those same thoughts.
Earth Abides may have been interesting read in the 1950s, but since that time we have had movies like Planet of the Apes, Mad Max road warrior, Star Wars & Star Trek. We survived the Cold War, lived through assassinations, saw man land on the moon, invention of the Internet which shrunk the world, so to speak.
We have read true life adventures, people who survived disasters, walked across the U.S. of A., France, Spain and so on, foregoing niceties like running water and electricity.
As someone wrote here, like reading someone's boring diary. I think it was lack of action and conversations that could further author's philosophical views, rather than long pages of Ish's thinking those same thoughts.
Vlada G.
Because it is not so much a novel recounting events as Ish's analysis of events. That makes it hard to relate to any characters (including Ish). It is a philosophical book, and as such lacks excitement and adventure. Every person, conversation, or event is dissected and digested.
Chip
Very boring. I enjoy apocalyptic stories, but this one lacks any real depth. It is like reading someone's boring diary. I felt no empathy or connection with the main character or any character in the book.
Deborah Burstyn
This question reminds me of the movie "Meek's Cutoff" that attempts to show in real time what it was like trudging across the West in a wagon train. This book tries to convey what it might have felt like to be a survivor of a global epidemic in 1949. Think of it almost as time travel - to get into the mindset and values of someone from that era when faced with a situation similar but more dire to what we are facing now. For a faster-paced version, you could just watch old episodes of "Twilight Zone."
Greg Degiere
I found it much more exciting than Alas, Babylon. Maybe that's because it didn't try to create a lot of empathy or connection with any of the characters, as C.W., Chip and Vlada, noted, whereas Alas, Babylon tried and, for me, didn't succeed very well
Linda Zern
Some of the problem with these novels is that they are dated but the genre is a growing one. "Alas, Babylon" absolutely.
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