Alas, Babylon

As anyone who knows me, knows that I consume books. Yes, consume. Voraciously, ravenously, obsessively, all of these describe the way I read. I’m like the feral foundling with a lollipop, I’ll snarl and snip if you get too close when I’m really involved in a story. On a good week, I’ll read at least 5 books. And for the most part I remember all that I read. My son has pointed out to me, I do judge a book by it’s cover. I guess that what threw me off about Alas, Babylon. As you can see,

 

the cover looks pretty dated, I assumed it was published in the last 70’s or early 80’s. It reminded me of Stephen King’s The Stand or the movie Red Dawn. It’s the story of the few good survivors left in a shattered world after nuclear disaster.  You know a predecessor to Walking Dead, but as I read the foreword and the first chapter, I realize the book was older than I thought. Come to find out it was published in 1959. So the author, Pat Frank, was writing about the space race, satellites and an apocalyptic world before the U.S. even landed on the moon. For some reason, the idea blew me away.  It was a fun and fast read. Even better that the story took place in central Florida, one of my favorite states, but the characters and situations were clear and believable.  The book demonstrated the allure of reading older science fiction and fantasy, which is the authors’ premonitions of the future. How an author can imagine a world years or decades before that world becomes reality.

 I’ll leave you with this quote by Admiral  Hazzard, “There are odd similarities between the end of the Pax Romana and the end of the Pax Americana…For instance, the prices paid for high office. When it became common to spend a million dollars to elect senators from moderately populous states, I think that should have been a warning to us. For instance, free pap for the masses. Bread and circuses. Roman spectacles and our spectaculars. Largesse from the conquering proconsuls and television giveaways from the successful lipstick king. To understand the present you must know the past…”