Earth Abides

In a glorious new trade paperback complete with an original Introduction written by author Kim Stanley Robinson First published in 1949 and a winner of the inaugural International Fantasy Award in 1951, Earth Abides went on to become one of the most influential science-fiction novels of the twentieth century. It remains a fresh, provocative story of apocalyptic pandemic, societal collapse, and rebirth. The cabin had always been a special retreat for Isherwood Williams, a haven from the demands of society. But one day while hiking, Ish was bitten by a rattlesnake, and the solitude he had so desired took on dire new significance. He was sick for days—and often delirious—waking up to find two strangers peering in at him from the cabin door. Yet oddly, instead of offering help, the two ran off as if terrified. Not long after, the coughing began. Ish suffered chills and fever, and a measles-like rash on his skin. He was one of the few people in the world to live through that peculiar malady, but he didn't know it then. Ish headed home when he finally felt himself again—and noticed the strangeness almost immediately. No cars passed him on the road; the gas station not far from his cabin looked abandoned; and he was shocked to see the body of a man on the roadside near a small town. Without a radio or phone, Ish had no idea of humanity’s abrupt demise. He had escaped death, yet could not escape the catastrophe—and with an eerie detachment he found himself curious as to how long it would be before all traces of civilization faded from Earth.

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.

A light to defy darkness . Battered and bruised, suffering grievous loss, the Company enters the great city of Instruere. they have to warn the Council of Faltha of the Destroyer's threat, and have no idea of the depth of treachery that awaits them. Bhrudwo's tentacles go far deeper into Faltha than any of the Company realises . they find Instruere to be a city divided against itself, and the Watchers are nowhere to be found. then the arrival of a disturbing stranger ignites the political and religious tensions in the city beyond control. Only one thing could unite a land wracked with such mistrust. But can it be found? Or is the Jugom Ark merely a legend? 'Rivals the Lord of the Rings with its sense of scale and grandeur' - Ian Brodie, author of the Lord of the Rings Location Guidebook

Where did the Swarm come from? Who are the mysterious Tesla's who speak of the Ancients? Devastated by World War III, then an alien invasion coupled with Danse Macabre, a deadly virus attack, Earth is almost completely depopulated. The land is devastated. The sky is dark with nuclear winter. Despite the Swarm's invasion ultimately being defeated, billions of humans were taken on board the Battle Core, infecting it and then wiped out when it plunged into the sun to prevent further infecting the Swarm. The remnants of the invaders, monsters out of humanity's worst nightmares, prowl the dark, shrouded landscape. The mothership, containing the Chosen has disappeared into Faster Than Light Transit to an unknown destination. The survivors, including former Green Beret Mike Turcotte, the young Metabols in their biodome, Nosferatu and Nekhbet, the last of the Elders, and others are scattered and in despair. Most strangely, though, is another group: the Fades. The humans who did not become Chosen or Metabols but also didn't die. Who are they? What are they? There seems to be no hope. But forces dormant for millions of years are beginning to stir. Because the Earth Abides.

A vision to address our environment, economy, politics, culture, and to catalyze the radical whole-system change we need now Recasting current problems as emergent opportunities, Terry Patten offers creative responses, practices, and conscious conversations for tackling the profound inner and outer work we must do to build an integral future. In practical and personal terms, he discusses how we can all become active agents of a transformation of human civilization and why that is necessary to our continued survival. Patten's narrative focuses on two aspects of existence--our dynamic but fractured and threatened world, and our underlying wholeness and unity. Only by honoring both of these realities simultaneously can we make sustainable changes in ourselves, our communities, our body politic, and our planetary life-support system. A New Republic of the Heart provides a comprehensive understanding and inspiring vision for "being the change" in a way that can address the most intractable problems of our time. Patten shows how we can come together in our communities for conversations that matter and describes new communities, enterprises, and forms of dialogue that integrate both inner personal growth work with outer awareness, activism, and service.

Ninety-five thousand acres of prime timberland and three mills are the Jensen family's crown jewels. In three generations of ownership, the value has multiplied to over a billion dollars. Nick Jensen is a college graduate and in training to take over, when a wild party turns tragic with a young woman left in a coma, Nick's father dead, and the family business inherited by Isabella Jensen, Nick's mother and an environmentalist. Their inevitable clash leads to dividing the business, but Nick borrows from the wrong people and finds himself in a squeeze from which escape seems unlikely. When the Spotted Owl is listed as Endangered, chaos ensues. Starting in Eugene, Oregon and spreading to the beaches, mountains, forests, and cities here and abroad, the Jensens struggle with dangerous enemies and valiant dreams. A thrill ride from beginning to end.

Best known for his 1949 post-apocalyptic thriller Earth Abides, George R. Stewart (1895-1980) spent a lifetime wandering the American landscape and writing books about its geography and history. An English professor at the University of California at Berkeley, the exceptional scholar-author penned some of the most remarkable literary works of the 20th century, inventing several types of books along the way--including the road-geography book, micro-history, micro-novel, place-name history, ecological history, and the ecological novel. By weaving human and natural sciences and history into his books Stewart created works with a multi-disciplinary perspective on events and places that influenced numerous other writers, artists, and scientists, including Stephen King, Greg Bear, and Page Stegner. This volume considers George R. Stewart's rich oeuvre while chronicling a life-long quest to uncover the deepest truths about the man and his work.

Most books about the environment build on dire threats warning of the possible extinction of humanity. Alan Weisman avoids frightening off readers by disarmingly wiping out our species in the first few pages of this remarkable book. He then continues with an astounding depiction of how Earth will fare once we’re no longer around. The World Without Us is a one-of-a-kind book that sweeps through time from the moment of humanity’s future extinction to millions of years into the future. Drawing on interviews with experts and on real examples of places in the world that have already been abandoned by humans—Chernobyl, the Korean DMZ and an ancient Polish forest—Weisman shows both the shocking impact we’ve had on our planet and how impermanent our footprint actually is.

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject American Studies - Literature, University of Flensburg, language: English, abstract: The theme of nature and ecology is occurring throughout the whole novel. This is why I would like to examine the role of natural environment and surroundings in George Stewart’s novel Earth Abides. Also I would like to find out which part ecology plays and in which way it influences the characters. For this examination I found an appropriate book by Fred Waage which deals exactly with the terms I would like to investigate

"If now a swell from the Deep has swept over this planetary ship of earth, and I, who alone chanced to find myself in the furthest stern, as the sole survivor of her crew... What then, my God, shall I do?." The Purple Cloud is widely hailed as a masterpiece of science fiction and one of the best "last man" novels ever written. A deadly purple vapor passes over the world and annihilates all living creatures except one man, Adam Jeffson. He embarks on an epic journey across a silent and devastated planet, an apocalyptic Robinson Crusoe putting together the semblance of a normal life from the flotsam and jetsam of his former existence. As he descends into madness over the years, he becomes increasingly aware that his survival was no accident and that his destiny - and the fate of the human race - are part of a profound, cosmological plan.

Hailed as “an extraordinary novel of men at war” (The Washington Post) this is the book that inspired the TNT television series starring Eric Dane, Rhona Mitra, Adam Baldwin and Michael Bay as Executive Producer. The unimaginable has happened. The world has been plunged into all-out nuclear war. Sailing near the Arctic Circle, the U.S.S. Nathan James is relatively unscathed, but the future is grim and Captain Thomas is facing mutiny from the tattered remnants of his crew. With civilization in ruins, he urges those that remain—one-hundred-and-fifty-two men and twenty-six women—to pull together in search of land. Once they reach safety, however, the men and women on board realize that they are earth’s last remaining survivors—and they’ve all been exposed to radiation. When none of the women seems able to conceive, fear sets in. Will this be the end of humankind?

Almost the entire population has been wiped out by a major catastrophe. Ish searches to find other survivors and tries to rebuild society.

“Lively, thought-provoking . . . the plot is ingenious, packing a wallop of a surprise . . . Tepper knows how to write a well-made, on-moving story with strong characters. . . . She takes the mental risks that are the lifeblood of science fiction and all imaginative narrative.”—Ursula K. LeGuin, Los Angeles Times Since the flames died three hundred years ago, human civilization has evolved into a dual society: Women’s Country, where walled towns enclose what’s left of past civilization, nurtured by women and a few nonviolent men; and the adjacent garrisons where warrior men live—the lost brothers, sons, and lovers of those in Women’s Country. Two societies. Two competing dreams. Two ways of life, kept apart by walls stronger than stone. And yet there is a gate between them. . . . “Tepper not only keeps us reading . . . she provokes a new look at the old issues.”—The Washington Post “Tepper’s cast of both ordinary and extraordinary people play out a powerful drama whose significance goes beyond sex to deal with the toughest problem of all, the challenge of surmounting humanity’s most dangerous flaws so we can survive—despite ourselves.”—Locus

The tie-in edition of the nine-part CBS All Access series starring Whoopi Goldberg, Alexander Skarsgard, and James Marsden. When a man escapes from a biological testing facility, he sets in motion a deadly domino effect, spreading a mutated strain of the flu that will wipe out 99 percent of humanity within a few weeks. The survivors who remain are scared, bewildered, and in need of a leader. Two emerge--Mother Abagail, the benevolent 108-year-old woman who urges them to build a peaceful community in Boulder, Colorado; and Randall Flagg, the nefarious "Dark Man," who delights in chaos and violence. As the dark man and the peaceful woman gather power, the survivors will have to choose between them--and ultimately decide the fate of all humanity.

Meet Tammy, Egypt, Isis, Nikki, Coco, and Tiny-the bodacious women of the Big Girls Book Club. There's only one rule to being a member. You must be at least a size 14. . . BGBC president Tammy loves everything about her life-especially taking care of business for her husband, Tim. This year, she intends to top all his past birthdays by having a threesome with her best friend, Egypt. Now, if only Egypt will agree . . . And then there's Coco, who has a habit of messing around with married men. But now that she's hooked up with a man who makes his living being every woman's fantasy, all she cares about is making sure he doesn't stray. As insatiable about books as they are about love, these friends are about to discover how tough it is to keep it real when they all have something on the side. "These babes find there's a consequence to every freaky action in or out of the bedroom." -Publishers Weekly "You'll fall in love with the members of the Big Girls Book Club." -Essence ®

From Black Tuesday to the White House, from Plato to Robert Nozick, from Eugene Debs to Richard Nixon, from Peter Cornelis Plockhoy to the hippie communes of the Sixties, from universal basic income to utopian basic income, from proverbial wisdom to multilevel selection, from Big Data to paleomorality, from Prisoner’s Dilemma to social-engineering Israeli kindergartens, from time travel to gene engineering, from the pretzel logic of meritocracy to deaggressing humanity, American Utopia maps the pitfalls and windfalls of social reform in the name of the human use of human beings. Interrogating the assumptions behind four outré utopias by Thomas M. Disch, Bernard Malamud, Kurt Vonnegut, and Margaret Atwood, the book interrogates the assumptions that have historically been central to the utopian project. Whence the seeds of social discontent? Whence our taste for egoism and altruism? For waging war and waging peace? Can we bioengineer human nature to specifications? Should we? Who makes better guardians: humans or machines? And who will guard the guardians?

A “perceptive, affectionate, and often very funny” novel about old college friends at a thirty-year reunion, by the author of The Things They Carried (Boston Herald). From a National Book Award winner who’s been called “the best American writer of his generation” (San Francisco Examiner), July, July tells the story of ten old friends who attended Darton Hall College together back in 1969, and now reunite for a summer weekend of dancing, drinking, flirting, reminiscing—and regretting. The three decades since graduation have brought marriage and divorce, children and careers, hopes deferred and replaced. This witty, heart-rending novel about men and women who came into adulthood at a moment when American ideals and innocence began to fade, a New York Times Notable Book, is “deeply satisfying” (O, the Oprah Magazine) and “almost impossible to put down” (Austin American-Statesman). “A symphony of American life.” —All Things Considered, NPR

The classic apocalyptic novel that stunned the world.