+- Forums (http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomForum)
+-- Forum: Doom Arts (http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomForum/forumdisplay.php?fid=6)
+--- Forum: Doom Books (http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomForum/forumdisplay.php?fid=13)
+--- Thread: The Earth Abides (/showthread.php?tid=5309)
The Earth Abides - Greg - 02-26-2020
For some reason, this book has popped into my head of late. It was probably the first big idea book that I read and was really depressed. Who did get the hammer?
I'm hoping books like Earth Abides, The Stand, and Chuck Wendig's 'Wanderers' are just entertainment and not prophetic.
But I'm sure our government is going to handle the Covid-19 problem in a much better fashion than they did in those books. Plus, I'm not planning on leaving the Lair.
RE: The Earth Abides - King Bob - 02-27-2020
He (wasn't his name Ish?) wanted to give the hammer to his son, but the son died young in an epidemic. Just before he dies (on either the Bay or Golden Gate bridge) the tribe makes him pick a recipient of the hammer, and he chooses a guy who was sort of his caretaker and who I believe had an injured or malformed arm.
I think you'll need to throw in a touch of Bacigalupi's Ship Breaker or Drowned Cities with that for our future.
RE: The Earth Abides - Greg - 02-27-2020
Yes. The bridge. But he didn't approve of the hammer as a talisman. He feared the superstition it represented.
RE: The Earth Abides - King Bob - 03-22-2020
After Greg mentioned this I decided to reread it, back before we got put on lockdown. It's really not very good. He was mainly interested in the idea of the new mythology growing up, and he didn't really work out a lot of things. He has the people still eating canned food 20+ years after the disaster, and not really gardening at all. And Ish, the main character, practically worships books and the library, but he never goes and looks for books that have information he could use. In fact he only goes to the library a couple of times in the book. And he never gets the idea of getting the kids to read by finding books with knowledge they would want, so reading dies out in his group.
Not really worth it
RE: The Earth Abides - Dr. Ivor Yeti - 03-22-2020
Oh, man, I *loved* this book. You’re harshing my (post-apocalyptic) buzz, King Bob!
RE: The Earth Abides - Greg - 03-23-2020
Yeah, I'm not going to revisit books I adored as a callow youth. They will all stay pristine in their magnificence in my memory.
Although, Donaldson.....
RE: The Earth Abides - King Bob - 03-23-2020
Forgot to mention that he has wild cattle roaming all over Oakland. WTF? And I think I read somewhere that cattle can't really survive without human help anymore.