Product Description
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.
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The protagonist is arrogant, lazy and stupid. He likes to sit around smoking cigarettes and thinking about how much smarter he is than all the other survivors while his wife cooks him meals and takes care of his children. He doesn’t bother to teach his children to read, and he doesn’t bother to learn anything medical or mechanical or any other potentially useful skills in a post-apocalyptic world. At one point he runs across some other survivors who are Black, and he thinks about how he could stay and “be king” of them because he is white. The ultimate self-absorbed old white man fantasy.
Rating: 1 / 5
If almost all the people in the world were dead, and you had to spend your life with an egotistical, chauvanistic, racist white guy with definite Arshberger- like symptoms, you’ll love this. Archie Bunker would have loved this guy. I, did not.
Rating: 1 / 5
As I write this, negative reviews of this novel (one or two star reviews) are few and far between. However, I am compelled to join the minority. I could not, in good conscience, recommend this book to anyone. Maybe one needs to be an aficionado of the “End-of-the-World” genre to appreciate this book, but I found it to be contrived and unrealistic. The idea that most of the population would die off due to disease, but that the book’s protagonist would choose to tool around the countryside calmly musing on a variety of generally immaterial and irrelevant matters seems absurd. Also, for quite awhile, he manages to encounter ONLY unsavory or potentially dangerous fellow survivors. The entire un-dramatic tone of the book seems way out of proportion with the incredible tragedy that has befallen the earth.
I very, very rarely leave a book unfinished, and will usually force myself to complete any book I start. But, as they say, “too many books, too little time”. I could not see giving up valuable reading time on a book that offers so very little to the reader, so eventually put this book aside. For me this is the most gravely negative review I could give a book.
Rating: 1 / 5
This novel is possibly the worst piece of drivel I’ve ever tried to force myself through, and I didn’t make it. I quit, and honestly I almost never do that. Ish is maybe the most detestable figure I have ever had the displeasure of meeting on the page. He’s a passive aggressive psycho, a terrible father and leader, and the last man you would want to rebuild civilization. In this type of scenario, anyone with any intelligence that came into contact with him would disengage quickly. I simply might have shot him for being a drain of precious resources. If the whole point centers on the fact that most or any man would fail in this situation, I would have preferred that Stewart kill off Ish in a 20 page short story.
Rating: 1 / 5
If you are easily depressed or get melancholy, do not read this book. If the thought of the human race dying out and mother earth thriving gives you the warm fuzzies, then this book is for you. After the major opening disease-kill tragedy there’s *some* hope for man… then less hope for man… then a little more hope for man… then a *lot* less hope, and on, and on. It’s an emotional roller coaster that, on average, only looses altitude. In the end, earth wins, man looses. I had 100 pages remaining to read and finally had to flip to the last page so. I. could. just. “end it”. Yuk. Two weeks later I still have a bitter taste in my mind. If you like sci-fi’s such as “ender’s game” I predict you’ll hate this book too. My hope here is that I’ve saved somebody else the pain.
Rating: 1 / 5