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A review by terprubin
Earth Abides by George R. Stewart
3.0
The problem with reading books that are classics in their respective fields is that so many others who came after took up similar tropes and did much better with them.
In a post-plague world, one man and his band of friends and relatives do what they can to survive and prepare for the next generation.
So many books now start with that premise that it is difficult to take a book that fails to consider what later books would handle so well and enjoy it. Though Stewart definitely considers the failure of some man-made items, he neglects others, creating a world that keeps too many of the relics of 1949 functioning for far too long. Yes, he envisions the decay of water systems and electrical power grids. But long after gasoline should have lost effectiveness and long after cars would continue to run, two young men go on a cross-country expedition. And even though those boys go, only one other individual ever makes his way into their camp outaide of a major city like San Francisco... And only because those same two boys happen to bring him back?
And in the entire last section, why are there only young men in the community and Ish? If you take the idea that everyone else has moved on and gone elsewhere, that is fine...and given Ish's mental state near the end, it cerainly seems logical that it wouldnt have been treated in the text... But then why all the consternation about where to go after the fire? Why not, "we will go back to our new settlement"?
I really wanted to give this book 2 stars. But I gave it 3 because of the importance of the novel to the creation of post-plague literature in general. It took me far too long to get through (mostly because it wasn't that interesting) given its short length of less than 350 pages.
In a post-plague world, one man and his band of friends and relatives do what they can to survive and prepare for the next generation.
So many books now start with that premise that it is difficult to take a book that fails to consider what later books would handle so well and enjoy it. Though Stewart definitely considers the failure of some man-made items, he neglects others, creating a world that keeps too many of the relics of 1949 functioning for far too long. Yes, he envisions the decay of water systems and electrical power grids. But long after gasoline should have lost effectiveness and long after cars would continue to run, two young men go on a cross-country expedition. And even though those boys go, only one other individual ever makes his way into their camp outaide of a major city like San Francisco... And only because those same two boys happen to bring him back?
And in the entire last section, why are there only young men in the community and Ish? If you take the idea that everyone else has moved on and gone elsewhere, that is fine...and given Ish's mental state near the end, it cerainly seems logical that it wouldnt have been treated in the text... But then why all the consternation about where to go after the fire? Why not, "we will go back to our new settlement"?
I really wanted to give this book 2 stars. But I gave it 3 because of the importance of the novel to the creation of post-plague literature in general. It took me far too long to get through (mostly because it wasn't that interesting) given its short length of less than 350 pages.