Just finished "Alas, Babylon"

[workinwifdakids]

I just finished Alas, Babylon, the 1959 post-apocalyptic novel about a Florida county after an intercontinental nuclear war. It's the 2nd story of the 'survival' genre I've read, after starting with the internet saga "Lights Out."

There are many levels to this book, the most interesting to me is preparedness. Anyone else have thoughts on this book?

[Greg]

Read it twice... honestly, I thought it was far too rosy.

Try "the postman" next.

What do you think of "Pulling Through" by Dean Ing? (If you can't find it, it's included in the Rackham Files collection that was published relatively recently ('04).

[The Quiet Man]

Try Earth Abides by George R. Stewart. Another post apocalyptic novel written about 10 years prior to Alas, Babylon. Definitely not too rosy!

[Rich]

I'm gonna have to re-read Alas Babylon. It's been about 40 years since I read it and I've gotten it mixed up with "On The Beach" in my mind.

Now Brin's "The Postman" and Millers "A Canticle for Leibowitz" are my apocalyptic choices.

[Cybrludite]

Very optimistic regarding the fallout amounts that hit their county. Unseasonal high pressure system or some-such in the area when the attack happened, IIRC. Also, when the book came out, it was still mostly bombers and short range missiles, and the weapons themselves had long prep times and short shelf lives.

[skb12172]

The Postman = Good Stuff.

The only beef I have with The Postman is that the survivalists were the bad guys.

[staylor]

If you want a survival book based mostly on prepardness I sugest Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collapse by James Wesley Rawles. While not great literature it focuses on surivavl prepardness and gear in its smallest detail, which is one of the reasons it suffers as a novel. Plus it has an interesting take on a economic collapse driven by hyper inflation, tough I think the author severly overestimated the time it would take for local economies to start functioning.