I didn't finish this book and probably never will. It was really not for me.

Set in 2114, a crew (and one stowaway) arrive by steamship to North America, which had been evacuated after an ecological disaster following an energy crisis. They have to repair the ship, overcome the radiation problem, find food and water, maintain their sanity, find transport, cross a desert, and make friends with the few natives they encounter. With no petrol, this means horses, camels, and the Gossamer Albatross. The book was fun, adventurous, and inventive. Essentially they end up trapped in Las Vegas by an insane leader who has established some sort of order, along with a secluded inventor who has made lifelike androids of famous historical Americans. ( )

Definitely not one of Ballard's finest, but the first two-thirds of this are a fun exploration of peak America, as seen in the late 1970s and 80s, before the cataclysmic Soviet damming of the Bering Strait redirects the jet stream, leading to near-total desertification east of the Rockies and mass escape across the Atlantic. The protagonist is both wide-eyed explorer and vaguely noble remnant American, come from Europe like the rest of his ship's company (albeit he himself as a stowaway), and he begins to grow into the role he's assumed for himself as a possible president in waiting.

The final Colonel Kurtz-like encounter and denouement is both abrupt and jarring in tone compared with the rest of the novel, but while it makes it a bit more of a slog it's still worth a read. The height of civilization, brought low and empty and deserted...another book for our moment. ( )

America crashed and burned during the energy crisis. The vast majority of the population has fled back to their ancestral homelands. Those who remained became the new native Americans. The Soviet Union still, going strong, dams the Bearing Straight creating a man-made climate -- Good for Siberia, but freezes most of Asia and desertifies North America. The story is an exploratory party back to the United States. America is a very different place. Sand dunes cover New York City and most of the interior of the country is desert. The last American president (the 44th) died years ago. The exploring party discovers the person claiming to be the 45th president of the United States, a survivor from a previous mission, calling himself, Charlie Manson -- something lost on the explorers who have no clue about the man who lived over one hundred years previously. Besides, want to serve multiple terms as president, Charlie has a plan to make America great again or at least tropical Las Vegas.

Written in 1981 before anyone could have imagined the current 45th president of the United States adds to an already very strange novel. Pop culture and capitalist past, and the American Dream still remain in a pseudo-religious manner. ( )

Reading this in 2018, with a certain frisson, I saw a reference to the 45th President of the United States at the end of Chapter 1. By Page 146: “For all his weirdness [...] he wants to make America great again”. And p 148, “All I need is ten years to make America great again”. Perhaps an easy prophecy. Hope the rest of the book, which brings roulette wheels and cruise missiles together doesn’t also come to pass. (The reference to cruise missiles shows the book’s age: Published in 1981.) ( )