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Synopsis
John Seymour imagines a crash of the structure of Government in Britain and gives a chilling but realistic description of how a federation of East Anglia survives. The recent emergency procedures following the collapse of the South East Asian economies suggest that Seymour is fairly near the mark in his vivid description of life in such circumstances.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Most people had not thought about running out of cheap energy when John Seymour (yes, it's THE John Seymour) wrote this novel. People who have read James Kunstler's "World Made by Hand" (set in about 2025) will have wondered about just what happened between the present day (Kunstler's book was published in 2008) and Kunstler's 2025. John Seymour's book provides one view of the period of collapse which Kunstler largely skips.
Seymour is not a great novelist and the book is an odd mix of good and pedestrian plot, dialogue and description. However, Seymour has done a five-star job at giving a thinking reader a rich vein of ideas and scenarios with which to imagine the future and their place in it.
Seymour provides detail of the fight put up by national authorities to hold on to power - brutally in the UK he depicts. Interestingly, both Kunstler and Seymour share a view of the future in which local, largely self-sufficient communities matter more than nations.
Also like Kunstler, Seymour's world is largely a man's world with children, the aged and sick people playing little active role and being surprisingly unproblematic.
I recommend this book highly to those who want help to imagine the future for which they need to begin planning now. Those who believe "they" (the powers that be) will come up with a solution to the end of cheap energy and want a cleverly written novel will be disappointed. I passed my copy on to my son - he shares my assessment.
Seymour is not a great novelist and the book is an odd mix of good and pedestrian plot, dialogue and description. However, Seymour has done a five-star job at giving a thinking reader a rich vein of ideas and scenarios with which to imagine the future and their place in it.
Seymour provides detail of the fight put up by national authorities to hold on to power - brutally in the UK he depicts. Interestingly, both Kunstler and Seymour share a view of the future in which local, largely self-sufficient communities matter more than nations.
Also like Kunstler, Seymour's world is largely a man's world with children, the aged and sick people playing little active role and being surprisingly unproblematic.
I recommend this book highly to those who want help to imagine the future for which they need to begin planning now. Those who believe "they" (the powers that be) will come up with a solution to the end of cheap energy and want a cleverly written novel will be disappointed. I passed my copy on to my son - he shares my assessment.
Format:Paperback
I did feel for the characters in this book and it was a good read. It is a plausible scenario, however there are many groups not really represented. How did they intend to care for the elderly, injured and sick? Not to mention the usual justice problems of delinquents and worse, and legal spats - perhaps the author felt that full time work for all would solve such problems.
The printing had many flaws with sentences repeated on following pages and at least one instance where words were missing and I was left wondering if a page or two had been left out.
Unlike other apocalypses this one will occur so which author comes closest to predicting the future some of us will unfortunately find out.
The printing had many flaws with sentences repeated on following pages and at least one instance where words were missing and I was left wondering if a page or two had been left out.
Unlike other apocalypses this one will occur so which author comes closest to predicting the future some of us will unfortunately find out.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Interesting and prophetic
31 Aug 2009
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I found this book rather interesting
in one of his last books, written during the nineties, John Seymour (a reference for back-to-the landers since the early seventies) gives a somewhat dark vision of the post petroleum future. Consider, that this book was written in a time, when nobody was really bothering about peak oil and a post petroleum future. Of course, Seymour is not a novelist. Nevertheless, this somewhat dark book seems to have come straight out of the heart of this sustainability pioneer.
in one of his last books, written during the nineties, John Seymour (a reference for back-to-the landers since the early seventies) gives a somewhat dark vision of the post petroleum future. Consider, that this book was written in a time, when nobody was really bothering about peak oil and a post petroleum future. Of course, Seymour is not a novelist. Nevertheless, this somewhat dark book seems to have come straight out of the heart of this sustainability pioneer.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Poorly Written Peak Oil Post-Apocalyptic Novel
8 Mar 2009
Format:Paperback
As far as I can tell, this is the first "peak oil" post-apocalyptic novel ever written. So, that's something. Otherwise, this book's just not very good. The author made some odd decisions, like putting putting "CRASH" in caps throughout. It's about a man in rural England trying to get back to his family after the oil is cut off. Parts of it remind me of the novel Exodus, actually. If you're looking at this book and review, which I suppose you are -- hi there, by the way -- I would recommend Last Light (on the disaster spectrum) or World Made By Hand (on the settled post-peak world tip) instead.
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