“Alas, Babylon.” Those fateful words heralded the end. When a nuclear holocaust ravages the United States, a thousand years of civilization are stripped away overnight, and tens of millions of people are killed instantly. But for one small town in Florida, miraculously spared, the struggle is just beginning, as men and women of all backgrounds join together to confront the darkness.
Dystopia from the 1960’s….when it was very possibly not science fiction but could happen at any day. Nuclear war and the aftermath done very well with some inspirational points and some interesting tangents. If you ever saw the tv show Jericho, this, if not the source material, was one of the books that inspired it.
I really loved this book. The characters were so real. It’s one of those books you can’t stop thinking about when you finish it in a good way.
Too weird
A really good book about surviving a catastrophic event and life afterwards.
The world was on the brink of an atomic holocaust in 1959…and it happened. Mankind nearly wiped off the face of the earth. But the story is not about weapons, but of survival. Of community, of strength in numbers, of hope. This novel does not disappoint in its beginning and its end.
Incomplete and superficial treatment of nuclear war. When a Navy ship passes through a radioactive cloud or sailors drink inadequately treated water from “Operation Tomadashi(?)” during the meltdown of Fukushima Daiichi their suffering is prolonged and horrific, at least until they die. We know more now. We know that there have been approximately …
This was one of the first popular books written that covered a nuke war.
Missed this when it first came out. Eerily current. Read 3 times in a row.
An older book, written in 1959 at the peak of the Cold War, about a nuclear strike on the U.S. by the Soviet Union.
The survivors, in a small town in Florida, do what they must to survive…..fascinating, realistic look at what could have happened then and what still could happen now.
A book that stays with you…
Best Cold War era I’ve read
One of the first post apocalyptic stories. Stills holds up, if a little dated. Please know the dated part is the pre-apocalyptic world. Where we would be after is a realistic look at the world
Even though this book was written in the 1950s, it is so absolutely relative today and very scary as under our current administration, this does not seem so far from reality. The story still holds up, maybe even more so now.
Scared me to death when I read it decades ago and still scares me today.
fabulous
This book was written in 1959 and is very valid to day only people would have a harder time because we have all gotten use to our technology. I read this as a child and I re-read it the other day because of what is happening in our world today. Everybody should read this and let it make them think.,,,,
If you want to know how to survive a nuclear war, this is the book for you. None of the foul language you have in most books today. An all around good read.
Classic. I reread it recently and was still impressed with the book. Even though the story line is set in 1959, it is not stale.
This is a truly great book. It was the first of the true post-apocalypse books and remains one of my favorites even some 50 years after I first read it.
One of best after the big whatever but written in 50s
AWESOME
For the day in which it was written, far-sighted and prophetic. The names and enemies have changed, the weapons haven’t. What could happen today, just with a different flag running up the staff.