...men come and go but Earth Abides

Did you have fun at Lynn's party last night?

I met so many nice people. Funny how the Internet world works. It's like going to a party in your mind. At least that's the way it is for me. I get this whole vision thing going and you'd think I was at a real party vs a mental one. I come away refreshed and happy and never feeling lonely. 

I'm not sure what that says about me. 

Today, I agreed to do a blog hop. Unfortunately, I don't remember what kind of book we're suppose to blog on, or even who the other bloggers are.

 *facepalm*

There is only a notation in my calendar that says I'm supposed to blog on a book that's not on the New York Times best sellers list or the USA Today best sellers list. 

With such ambiguity in my notes, I decided to blog about my favorite book of all time. 

Earth Abides...by George R. Stewart

If you are into apocalyptic novels you cannot keep this novel off your list. 

Blurb: 

A disease of unparalleled destructive force has sprung up almost simultaneously in every corner of the globe, all but destroying the human race. One survivor, strangely immune to the effects of the epidemic, ventures forward to experience a world without man. What he ultimately discovers will prove far more astonishing than anything he'd either dreaded or hoped for.

The blurb does not do the book justice. 

About the Author

George Rippey Stewart (May 31, 1895 – August 22, 1980) was an American toponymist, a novelist, and a professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley. He is best known for his only science fiction novel Earth Abides (1949), a post-apocalyptic novel, for which he won the first International Fantasy Award in 1951. It was dramatized on radio's Escape and inspired Stephen King's The Stand. --This text refers to theAudio CD edition.


To Read an excerpt click here. 


About the book:

A plague hits humanity and only a few survive. Isherwood, returning from a trip to the mountains, is bitten by a snake. The illness instills in him an immunity against the plague. He goes in search of others to rebuild society or perhaps not, and just let nature take its course. The book chronicles the next forty some-odd years of his life

He attempts to teach his children to read, tries to implant his memories into the minds of others. However, humankind has become a hunter gatherer society, and they laugh at him as he ages and his dreams fade into dust.   

Some say Earth Abides is dated, and yes some parts of it are. Others say that Ish, and others like him, did nothing but pine away for the good old days instead of attempting to rebuild society. Yet, society does evolve with Ish and without him. 

The novel is not uplifting. Ish makes his choices, for good and for bad. Some you may agree with and some you may not, but then it's not your story. 

The one thing Earth Abides teaches us is that society may not be forever. In the blink of an eye our species might be tossed backward into the stone age, where men forget how to make metal, think reasoning is pointless, and live only for the now in keeping their bellies filled and their bodies warm from the cold.

After all...

...men come and go, but earth abides

My series Gemini Rising is about the end of civilization as we know it and the beginning of a new era for mankind. It isn't as if I'm a doomsayer, but I would like my children and grandchildren to understand that the end of society is a possibility. Just look around you for an idea of what I mean. Countries come and go because that is the way of things. People rarely do the right thing as most are focused on one thing and one thing only --------> themselves. 

Not all books have a happy ending, and sometimes, those novels are the most thought provoking kind. 

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