Earth Abides

What an amazing book! I feel pretty well steeped in the post-apocalyptic genre but somehow I'd never read this classic of the type. Or maybe I read this in 2004 or so but have no memory of it. Regardless it was a fantastic read in 2024. Interesting to see its influence on future writers.

Particularly thinking of Kim Stanley Robinson and his econarratives; the side passages in this book narrating changes to the earth post-disaster are very similar. (The edition I read had a forward by KSR). Also some strong connection to Octavia Butler's Parables and Patternmaster books, the tribal society. A little bit of Jemisin / Broken Earth. And games like Fallout of course, particularly the scavenging of artifacts from the lost society. A bit of The Martian in this book too, or rather vice-versa.

I love how the library is kept as this monument and reservoir of knowledge but ends up not mattering one damn bit. Nothing intellectual ends up mattering much, a melancholy thought for me and the author.

One fault of the book is it's unimaginatively sexist. Women are there mostly to be baby factories and in one admittedly moving package, be strong beacons of hope and care during a medical disaster. Would be interesting to read a modern retelling of this same story from womens' perspectives.