Posted on 01/19/2021 7:38:35 AM PST by Lee'sGhost
Sounds like Earth Abides by George R. Stewart.
LMAO. Needed that
You already got your answer, but was going to suggest another post-apocalyptic novel (a bit newer tho, it came out in 85). The Postman. The book was fantastic. The movie with Kevin Costner, not so much.
Earth Abides.
Yep, “Earth Abides.” The protagonist was a geologist or rockhound. One day while out hiking, he reached up to pull himself over a rocky ledge and was bitten by a snake. He was in bad shape but managed to get to an abandoned cabin and slipped in and out of consciousness for several days. Meanwhile the rest of the world was being killed off. Post apocalyptic hijinx ensue.
“... was going to suggest another post-apocalyptic novel (a bit newer tho, it came out in 85). The Postman. The book was fantastic. The movie with Kevin Costner, not so much.”
I agree, and I had the same thought, especially since “Earth Abides” has a pickaxe as a symbol of authority (I haven’t read it, that was mentioned earlier here), and “The Postman” has the USPS uniform, as the symbol of authority to survivors. At least back when it was written, when the USPS actually worked and was dependable.
PS, everyone, David Brin, author of The Postman, is a terrific SciFi writer. Try his Uplift series!
Another good post-apocalyptic one: A Canticle for Leibowitz—from Wiki:
“A Canticle for Leibowitz is a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by American writer Walter M. Miller Jr., first published in 1959. Set in a Catholic monastery in the desert of the southwestern United States after a devastating nuclear war, the book spans thousands of years as civilization rebuilds itself. The monks of the Albertian Order of Leibowitz preserve the surviving remnants of man’s scientific knowledge until the world is again ready for it. “
Hah...took all of two minutes. You deserve a prize.
Canticle for Leibowitz was the best of the bunch—with Stirling’s Draka series a close second (though debatable if it is part of the same post-ap. genre)—imho.
If you click on my name, I have a detailed discussion on “science fiction classics”.
Interesting novel, requesting it from my local library. Thanks!
Reading FR pays off in unexpected ways!
For later.
L
A Boy And His Dog.
;)
Hell Comes To Frogtown
Like some others I located the radio play on u-toob and listened to it. Interesting story that reminded me of a similar storyline. Check out the movie Deluge (1933) here: https://archive.org/details/Deluge_1933
I will have to look at his other books. I didn’t know about those. Thank you.
It is a great book. I went to UC Berkeley, where the story takes place, and have rock climbed at Indian Rock above Shattuck Avenue — I believe this is the rock mentioned in the story. Because I was in engineering, I never had a reason to go into the stacks of the great library on campus, also mentioned in the story.
I recently re-read the story with my wife because it is such a perceptive account of how such a thing might go down. The author, George Stewart was a professor at UC Berkeley and took the trouble to envision how our systems would gradually fail if not maintained. I got chills re-reading because of my college days and wondering how these few remaining people were able to cope when we are struggling with our COVID cabin fever today.
Alas Babylon a good book. Just found a 15 part radio drama of “A Canticle for Leibowitz” on Youtube.
“One Second After” is a pretty good survivalist book.
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