A classic tale of the unthinkable--a nuclear holocaust in the United States--Frank's gripping story of survivors in a small Florida town. It held up pretty well considering when it was published (1959) ( )

I ran across this book when I was in high school. It used to be required reading in our high school classes and my brothers had to read it. It looked interesting, especially since I'm of a certain age that was at the tail end of the cold war paranoia. I was fascinated by the group of characters. Even though, as others have pointed out, race relations are very dated, I didn't find that distracting. I did, however, think it was strange that fallout couldn't travel to their small community.

Still, the characters are so strong that you can quickly become captivated by them and their struggles. The discussion here as mentioned other similar books. One that hasn't been mentioned is Tunnel In the Sky by Robert Heinlein. Teenage students become stranded on a planet and must band together to survive. I remember that one of the main characters actually doesn't want to go back to civilization when they are rescued. He liked his community and what they had going for them. Also, I think he liked the power he had accrued. Check it out and see what you think. ( )

What a fantastic book! Wonderful characters lace this captvating story of survival after a nuclear exchange. I loved seeing some of the ideas reused in the film 'The Road Warrior': scarcity of gasoline, the Highway men(outlaw scavengers), and Randy's modified truck. I was also impressed by the progression of the characters and their relationships. The small town setting and intimate narrative style reminded me of 'To Kill a Mockingbird'. The last 50 pages went by in a flash. ( )

Wow! I read this years ago, but had forgotten it. As I started to get into it, I recognized the story vaguely & expected it to be dated. It was written the year I was born, so is 50 years old, but I found it wasn't as dated as I thought. I did take some trips down memory lane; radios with tubes in them & a few other minor items. The small town, rural life weathered time very well, though. The lack of electricity is a hardship & they felt it. We'd feel it more today, so the story actually engaged me more as I thought of more items I would miss.The Cold War tensions when we feared a global nuclear war are gone. They've been replaced with a more diverse threat - terrorism. The lack of electricity to power water pumps, refrigerators & more would be even harder on us today. It's very easy to project that from this story. What we imagined as the major threat back then, radiation poisoning, is mentioned, but is not critical to the story.One thing which is dated is the racial aspect, thankfully. Blacks are definitely second class citizens, but even this is used well. The 'second class' citizens rely less on technology & have more to offer toward survival than the elite - a not so gentle nudge for equality definitely pervades the book.Ultimately, the book is about the people & how they cope with the situation. That's well done & makes it a pretty timeless survival story. ( )

What can I say. It is a classic and one of the best post-apocalyptic books out there. Granted, I read this during the knuckle-biting nuclear cold-war days, but I believe it stands the test of time as an account of how a PA situation may unfold.
Highly Recommended! ( )

(Michele, 2009)

The Road and the people eaters are certainly a more depressing comment on what can happen after the Bomb then what Pat Frank thought would happen. In Lord of the Flies Golding predicted if you remove civilization the most likely outcome would be a return to a savage existence. Even in the other venerable disaster book Earth Abides man returns to a nomadic type existence. ( )

I read Alas Babylon and thought my how things change. Comparing it to todays' doomsday books (The Road, In the Country of Lost Things, Zombie Survival Guide, etc), this book actually believed we could rise above our baser instincts and pull together to survive. Heck, they even seemed to improve their life being isolated like that, and naturally the commies started it but we won. I have a remembrance of the whole bunker mentality, the duck and cover school drills. I found it interesting that the author decided to make it a livable existence if not even idyllic in the long run. Whereas, a few generations removed, it seems that today, everybody assumes the world will end but those that survive will be cave dwelling, isolationists bent on fearing what they don't know and killing what they do. I know that this book was a turn around OPEN YOUR EYES breakthrough at the time and I guess as long as there are people walking the planet, there will be fear of the unknown BOOM that takes it all away. But this fella actually made me kind of wish I lived in the surviving community ( )

My favourite book of all time!!! I lent it almost 30 years ago and never saw it again. The story however has never left me. It is haunting and the experiences of the characters, who seemed so real, happened in a way which seemed possible. I highly recommend this book to all.

In 2008, as I was doing my research and reading in preparation for teaching Science Fiction, I ran into a lot of apocalyptic and nuclear paranoia texts that I had not before encountered. ‘Alas, Babylon’, published in 1959, is the most gripping book of its kind, as far as I am concerned. I use the word ‘gripping’ with some trepidation, since it reminds me of cheesy film adverts, but I think that in this case it is the perfect word. This book had a hold on me, not only as I was reading it, but even after I put it down. If I read a chapter before bed, my sleep was invaded by images of a town under siege, by lists of supplies to stockpile for nuclear emergencies, by ordinary night noises amplified into ominous thunder… The novel is thick with the atmosphere of paranoia, so much so that it leaks out of the pages and infects the reader.

One of the greatest things about Pat Frank’s novel, however, is that it’s not really about the anticipation or the paranoia of nuclear weapons; instead, it’s about the characters – about people and how they deal with disaster, how the everyday becomes different but is still everyday. Instead of cold science being the major character, Frank has given the reader real characters to care about – ordinary, flawed people who both luck out and work hard, enabling them to survive amidst nightmare. I was completely impressed by this novel. Certainly, if one looks at it from a 21st century perspective, there are some distinct flaws, but allowing oneself to be gripped by the period atmosphere softens those edges and turns this into a remarkable science fiction experience. Highly recommended. ( )

All in all, this book can only be described as 'depressingly optimistic.'

I read post-apocalyptic science-fiction for the same reason I used to read the 'American Boys' Handy Book' over and over again as a kid: the gadgetry and the unusual solutions impress me. I read these books for the same reason I like to watch 'The Great Escape': because I love stories that seem to ask me 'what would you do if YOU had to live like this'?

Unforntunately, 'Alas, Babylon' is highly unrealistic. Whereas McCarthy's 'The Road' is depressingly pessimistic, Babylon envisions a future where, despite fallout, crops come in clean and Americans can return to the healthy and invigorating (really?) lifestyles of their pioneer ancestors. There are total four outlaws in the book. The town where our heroes live is full of decent people who help their neighbours. Dysentery and typhoid happen, but only to people the reader isn't supposed to care about. Everyone submits to the vaguely-feudalistic, seriously-sexist rule of our man, Randy Bragg, whose name sounds as if it ought to be attached to a video-game franchise.

I'm inclined to think that this book has managed to capture both of the major cultural themes of the fifties: cold-war nuke-dread AND illogical optimism and jingoistic faith in the American spirit. No other time period-- certainly not the one in which we're currently living-- could predict such a comfortable apocalypse. Even 'The Day of the Triffids,' I think, is more realistic than this one.

At any rate, people who are seriously interested in post-apocalyptic science-fiction should read it. It's one of the staples of the subgenre. Others would do better to read 'Triffids,' 'The Road,' 'Children of Men' or something else suitably depressing. They're all better written and, in fact, a great deal more creative than this one. ( )

You can tell it was written in the 50's. The sexism and stereotypes are present but only minorly obtrusive. More concerning is the naivete (of the author, and of the main character).

There was no real societal violence depicted in the story: which may have been realistic in the culture the author knew, but in reality, people aren't going to line up politely, post-nuke and wait to "buy" staples, with useless cash - those with guns will take it and tough luck to everyone else.

Oh, you mean post nuke you wouldn't want to have a freezer full of meat? DUH? If the main character had not believed the warning, that's one thing, but to believe the warning and yet not buy the obvious necessities is naive.

For its day, it's a good story although it's hard to accept that society would have ever been that "nice" in such circumstances, it certainly wouldn't be today. ( )

I read On the Beach and A Canticle for Liebowitz and this is the third of the trio of early post-nuclear war books and so I thought I should read it. It is very attention-holding in the run-up to war and in the actual timeof war, telling what befalls the characters in a small central Florida village. But after four months, it strains the imagination a bit that so little contact has been gained by the characters with the undestroyed part of the wrold, and the second half of the book was less consistently exciting. But it is an extraordinary account, and I was glad as I read that I knew the Cold War was over, and the utter devastation of the fictional accoount was not too likely today, even though the threat of nukes still exists. Better, I thought, than Cormac McCarthy's bleak post-nuclear war book, The Road, though of course not as well-written. ( )

When I chose this book, I wanted to read an apocalyptic book. It had rave reviews and was seen as a must read for this genre. I wasn't disapointed, but I wasn't deeply thrown into the book as I was like, say The Road. ( )

This book kept me on the edge of the seat the whole time. It made me wonder if I'd be so thorough in planning like the lead character did for the upcoming disaster. ( )

I read this book many years ago in high school. For some reason, I could not remember the title. However, the compelling story stayed with me and I always hoped I'd run across the book again. I finally found it!

Growing up during the Cold War era, I could not help but imagine what should happen in the event of a major catastrophe such as the one described in the book. Selfishly, my imagination only held thoughts of my pain, my sadness, my loss. The larger question that Frank seeks to answer is the important one. What happens to humanity in the sad event of a calamity?

I happen to agree with the conclusions Frank puts forward. I can't state what they are because they are spoilers. Suffice it to say that I've given Alas, Babylon my highest rating as it is truly superb. And I've programmed it for my high school literature class as I think that the topic in one that all pre-adults should consider. I highly recommend this book. ( )

One of my favorite post apocalypse books because it depicts how people find ways to survive for the long term. ( )

The classic post-nuclear America book. A rural community pulls through a limited atomic war, reestablishing order.
Cast: small townsfolk, occasional bad eggs
Timeframe: pre-catastrophe through recovery-era
Moral: Individual/community preparedness can help you survive atomic war. ( )

Despite the apocalyptic plot, the novel manages to present a cheery view of American pluck and ingenuity. These were people who still knew how to do things, how to make things; when the supermarket went empty, they knew, for instance, how to set snares for squirrels. There is a deux ex machina aspect to the way many problems are solved—when they run out of salt, someone remembers that there’s an old journal in the attic that says where a huge pile can be found, for instance, and somebody else finds a wind-up Victrola, an old foot pedal sewing machine and other goodies in the attic. The true devastation wrought by the bombs is safely elsewhere, in little towns that don’t have orange groves. On this second reading, I was particularly struck by the “white man’s burden” aspect. Randy’s “Negro” neighbors look to him for support. As a whole, the book is a fun and exciting read, an interesting look at the 1959 psyche, but it’s terribly dated. We have much more larger nuclear weapons now, and even then not many people could expect to be as fortunate as Fort Repose. We know more about the consequences of radiation. We have forgotten how to do so many of the useful things that people in the book can do. And we don’t look at class the same way—Randy’s role as community leader arises partly from his reservist status, and partly from his status as a descendent of one of the great founding families of Fort Repose. ( )

This was one of my first books I read on the aftermath of an atomic war. As far as realism goes it falls pretty far short since there is no mention of fallout affecting this little town. There are clean zones and radioactive zones. But once you get past this absurdity it is a decent read about the human factor in post atomic relationships ( )

Only reason this apocalyptic novel (one of the first ones -- 1959) didn't get five stars is the ridiculousness of any town located between the nuclear targets of tampa, orlando, and jacksonville being left "clean" is absurd, and Frank has messed up his geography badly. Sure, Fort Depose is a fictional place but it seems to occupy about where Fort McCoy is until he has someone going "east to Lakeland." Can't do it unless you go around the globe. ( )

A friend highly recommended this book with the following description: "an uplifiting book about global war and nuclear holocaust."

Okay.....

No one in book club could quite believe such a dichotomy could exist in a book. But, amazingly, she was absolutely right. Everyone in book club LOVED this book. Highly recommended. ( )

This was a fairly compelling read, but seemed almost like a fairy tale (especially after having finished "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy) ( )

"Alas, Babylon" by Pat Frank is a post apocalyptic novel due to a nuclear holocaust. It takes place in the middle of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. The threat of nuclear warfare is carried out as overnight millions of lives are lost as the Soviet Union destroys most of Florida and Washington D.C. with nuclear weapons. A low ranking politician quickly becomes president as it future looks grim. This story takes place in the small town of Fort Repose, Florida. The main character is a man called Randy who lives in the isolated Fort Repose and essentially takes over the role as leader in this town. The story is basically about a small town that tries to survive cut off from all of civilization whilst managing the own treacherous people living within it's own walls.
The book is connected to the theme of Utopias and Dystopias because after Fort Repose is cut from all the rest of the world it is thrown into chaos. This creates a Dystopia for many of the people living there as stores are ransacked and people start killing themselves out of desperation and hopelessness. The story is about Randy and the people of the town trying to create their own Utopia with all the limited resources that they have left. Relationships are key in this novel because of the fragile balance of society and the human minds in the midst of this nuclear holocaust.
I thought the novel was on a scale of good to excellent. It shows close relationships between people who would previously not associate with each other and it also displays a strong sense of justice to the rights and wrongs of their society as they try to make their way towards a Utopian society. It's the kind of book that once you pick it up its hard to put down because you want to know what happens next to their struggling economy. If you are looking for a book with a stronger and heavier storyline this is definitely a good book to choose. ( )

I read this book in the 7th grade. The relationships and the lives of the characters really touched me. I find apocalyptical reading a little depressing but I really couldn't put this book down! I read it the following year again just because it was so good. I also read Brave New World at that point as well; maybe I was into bleak futures at that point of my life. Who knows.

Go read this, its a very quick read and the idea of reverting back to an older style of life is just so darn cool!