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Earth Abides (S.F. Masterworks) (Paperback)

by George.R. Stewart (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (96 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Gollancz; New Ed edition (10 Jun 1999)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1857988213
  • ISBN-13: 978-1857988215
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 2.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (96 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 8,507 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Generally regarded as the classic tale of life struggling on after a global disaster, Earth Abides (1949) was George R. Stewart's only venture into SF. Before the first page the human race has been almost completely wiped out by plague. Our hero Isherwood "Ish" Williams discovers a female survivor and fumblingly tries to bring up a new civilization in the ruins of California. It's an elegiac story of loss as humanity makes it through the crisis, at the cost of our race's painfully gathered knowledge--which seems irrelevant to the new generations as they develop a hunter-gatherer society reminiscent of the old Amerindian tribes, and see no practicality in the fabulous tales of the old days told them by Ish. His nickname is deliberately reminiscent of Ishi, the once famous Californian Indian who was also the last of his tribe and became a misfit in a new world, in his case early 20th-century America. Annoyingly for fans of survivalist SF who reckon civilization can be rebuilt in about a month with a Swiss army knife, Earth Abides proposes that the cycle of regrowth will take significant time ... but there is always time. Stewart's title and epigraph echo the Book of Ecclesiastes: "Men go and come, but Earth abides." One of the sadder, gentler Millennium SF Masterworks reissues. --David Langford


Product Description

In this profound ecological fable, a mysterious plague has destroyed the vast majority of the human race. Isherwood Williams, one of the few survivors, returns from a wilderness field trip to discover that civilization has vanished during his absence. Eventually he returns to San Francisco and encounters a female survivor who becomes his wife. Around them and their children a small community develops, living like their pioneer ancestors, but rebuilding civilization is beyond their resources, and gradually they return to a simpler way of life.
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Customer Reviews

96 Reviews
5 star:
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4 star:
 (14)
3 star:
 (4)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
 (3)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (96 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A timeless classic, 18 Mar 2006
By S. Paul "Flying high" (Yorkshire) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I first read Earth Abides as a teenager and was greatly impressed with it then. I have now just read it again at the age of 53 after finding it through Amazon. This is clearly one of the greatest's texts I have read and I don't say that lightly. I was deeply moved as I re-read the chronicling of the passing of an era and the great deep wisdom of Ish, the main character. Even more poignant in these difficult days. It has given me great pleasure to to record these words of appreciation. I wonder why it has never been made into a film, but am also pleased as the dignity of the message of this book remains untarnished. If you want to read a profound story on the fragile nature of our civilisation and the great strength of human beings read this.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars You Thought A Swan Dying Was Beautiful, 25 April 2001
By A Customer
I have always enjoyed post-apocalypse stories and approached 'Earth Abides' as another of those, if a somewhat more subtle one. But it is not another one of those. Stewart had an uncanny perception of the natural world and this permeates every page. He describes a seductive, idyllic existence where humans and nature are inseparable. One criticism is that of the 'cosy catastrophe'. The first sixty pages or so are slow, but stick with it because it contains the most moving and heartbreaking death scene in literature ever. It is difficult to believe that it was written a half-century ago, so little has it dated.

This is a quiet book and attracts little attention to itself even within sf. It has yet to receive the wider praise I am sure it will one day attain. If one book ever deserved to escape the constraints of genre fiction and find favour amongst the mainstream this is it. If everyone in the world read it, it is hard to see how the world would not be a better place.

There are downsides though. 'Earth Abides' may well become the bench mark by which every book you read after it will be compared to and your friends will probably get fed up of you talking about it.

Only shut up when they've read it too.

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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Gentle and powerful, 24 Aug 2004
By Richard Kelly (Manchester, England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
Imagine a world where most of the people simply die and just a few survive. This is the premise for Earth Abides -I know that this idea has been used endlessly in science fiction, but nobdody has even carried the story in such a peotical fashion.

As a basic overview of the story one man returns from a visit to the mountains to discover that civilisation has collapsed with the death of virtually everyone. He then manages to gather together some people together and forms a small close knit community that eventually starts to return to a more primative nature. Along the way the community has to dish out it's own brand of punishment, to produce it's own food and protect itself from other communities.

We follow the story as man reverts to being a primative again in a world where reading and writing are lost and books are used to make fires.

It's difficult to get across how beautifully crafted this piece of fiction is and it is still a cautionary tale today. This is probably one of my favourite pieces of fiction as it still stands out clearly in my brain and the only problem with it is that I can no longer get that wonderful sense of reading it for the first time!

I would strongly recommend that you read this book - even if you don't like science fiction as it is a simple story marvellously told! 10/10

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A New Season for Earth and Man
I think I first read this book when I was about fourteen, and it made a powerful impression on me then, so much so that I could still remember almost the entire story some forty... Read more
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4.0 out of 5 stars After the apocalypse a distinctly small-town America vision for the future
What would be your first instinctive act you if you awoke to find yourself apparently the last living human after some pestilential catastrophe? Read more
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5.0 out of 5 stars remarkable meditation on ecology and anthropology
This is a beautifully written, quietly profound book that affected me deeply as I read it and has stuck in my mind ever since. Read more
Published 6 months ago by L. Williams

4.0 out of 5 stars What do you mean you've done nothing in 20 years?
As other reviews have said - it is dated and also some core parts of the story are questionable and somewhat annoying. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Halo572

5.0 out of 5 stars Dated, but timeless.
I'm a survivalist, but I'm also a realist. This book tells a highly credible story, which is well written, if a little dated; especially with some of the social and sociological... Read more
Published 10 months ago by David Coomer

5.0 out of 5 stars Well deserved of the title 'classic'
In many ways this is what Brian Aldiss describes as a `cosy catastrophe'. Isherwood Williams, alone in a US mountain cabin is bitten by a rattlesnake and despite treating himself... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Rod Williams

4.0 out of 5 stars A genuine classic, very thought-provoking
This is a very thought-provoking book as it portrays in very vivid detail what would happen if only a few survivors from a plague had to start all over again. Read more
Published 19 months ago by N. Burgess

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Book
I first read this over 30 years ago and over the years I've read it and re-read it and its never lost its impact or failed to move me. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Carr

1.0 out of 5 stars Oh dear, so tedious and just not believable...
I feel I almost have to apologise because I'm so at variance with the majority of the reviewers here. Read more
Published 21 months ago by J. Wallington

5.0 out of 5 stars Very moving and well worth reading
A moving novel tracing the experiences of one survivor in the aftermath of a plague that wipes out most of humanity, then his experiences with a small group of fellow survivors in... Read more
Published 23 months ago by John Hopper

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