Ciencia fiction clasica. Creo que este libro fue publicado en los 60, seguramente en alguna revista de historias de ciencia ficcion.
Un mundo destrozado por guerras nucleares y/o quimicas, tecnologia incomprensible, etc. En general se nota demasiado el pensamiento de la epoca pero me ha gustado como ahonda en la cuestion de ser o no un asesino.
Lo peor es que mientras el protagonista esta bien modelado los demas se quedan en casi nada.
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Very creepy. Good writer but this requires you to be in the mind of a sociopath for far to long. Need a shower. I don't recommend it. ( )

America has been devastated by a nuclear holocaust. Although there are still so-called civilized factions living (and warring) in some areas such as Atla-Hi and Alamos, much of the interior, now called the Deathlands, is blanketed by radioactive dust. Survivors or Deathlanders, who bear the scars both physically and psychologically of this holocaust, have developed a compulsion to kill. They may band together for immediate needs and for short periods but eventually they will be driven to murder each other.

Ray, the narrator, has just survived such a Murder Party when he meets Alice, another Deathlander, and they fall into an uneasy truce. When they stumble upon a plane that appears seemingly from nowhere and then a friendly old man they call Pop, their urge to murder is eased at least for the moment first by the murder of the craft’s pilot and then by curiousity. A decision to steal the plane has some surprising consequences as they learn more about the world outside the Deathlands, about each other, and most importantly about themselves and their motives.

The Night of the Long Knives was written by author Fritz Leiber in 1960 at the height of the Cold War and at the end of the Red Trials in America and the title is taken from the 1934 purge by the Nazi Party of Leftists within the party as well as outside opposition. With the end of the Trials that had destroyed the careers of so many people within the arts including writers, many in the US were trying not only to put this sad period of their history behind them but also trying to understand how it could have happened and how they could move forward. This was reflected in much of the writing of the period but none does it better than this novella by Leiber. Ray talks often about the Last War and the capitalizing these two words reflects both the hope that the world will finally learn from the devastation of war and the fear that, given its recent actions, it has learned very little and, therefore is doomed to repeat it:

Oh, I can understand cultural queers fighting city squares and even get a kick out of it and whoop ‘em on, but these Atla-Hi and Alamos folk seemed a different kind of cat altogether… - the kind of cat that ought to have outgrown war or thought its way around it. Maybe Savannah Fortress had simply forced the war on them and they had to defend themselves…Still, I don’t know that it’s always a good excuse that somebody else forced you into war. That sort of justification can keep on until the end of time.

With its very likeable trio of murderous Deathlanders and it’s sparse noir prose and active voice as well as it’s pacing reminiscent of the language and rhythm of the post-war beat poets, The Night of the Long Knives is still a very highly readable and engrossing novella despite its age. There is a great deal of violence both in the action and the language but this is a surprisingly hopeful story and it’s message is still as important and relevant today, one could almost argue prescient. ( )

http://speculiction.blogspot.com/2015/01/review-of-night-of-long-knives-by-fritz... ( )

An interesting little novella about culture, impulse control, and the end of the world. Not nearly as dated as you might imagine from a book about a Cold War nuclear winter. ( )