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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5207 in Books
• Published on: 1999-06-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

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

About the Author
SALES POINTS * #12 in the Millennium SF Masterworks series, a library of the finest science fiction ever written * The first winner of the International Fantasy Award * 'A profound, poetic, post-holocaust novel of immense stature: so special I wanted mine to be the only copy' -- Garry Kilworth

Customer Reviews

A timeless classic
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.

You Thought A Swan Dying Was Beautiful
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.

Gentle and powerful
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