I really wanted to like this book, I tried to continue reading, but in the end, I don' think there were enough interesting ideas to grab me. Sorry, I left it unfinsihed

UPDATE: I gathered strength to finish it, and I'm happy I did it. The end is better and I updated the score. Anyway, I don't really like post-apocalyptic books, that might have influenced the score. ( )

It took a little while to track down a copy of this book. Set in a dystopian southern California town called Onofre (between Orange County and San Diego), communities have been isolated after a series of nuclear explosions sixty years ago. Ideas abound as to what exactly set off the explosions and what is happening in the rest of the country and around the world, but little is known due to the loss of transportation and technology. I've enjoyed other works by Robinson -- "2312" in particular, but also "Red Mars," but ended up being a little disappointed by this one. ( )

(...)

Information is key in the novel. Just like the readers, the characters are in the dark about what happened. They are also in the dark about what is happening, for Robinson shows glimpses of a bigger narrative in world politics in the aftermath of the attack – but characters nor readers get to know its true extent. It is a clever narrative device, maximizing the reader’s empathy with the characters: we share uncertainty and frustration about it. It is especially clever because – like the readers – the characters do know about what once was: trains, electricity, hospitals, national pride, and general literacy.

Robinson isn’t showy, and he doses the post-apocalyptic horror extremely sparsely, at the right times, with supreme command – so much that most of the time you even forget you’re reading a post-apocalyptic story at all.

Just as Hank doesn’t have a grip on what happens, he doesn’t have a grip on what he himself is doing. He doesn’t know whether his actions are the right ones, and moral information doesn’t come cheap. The obligatory old man in the story – Tom – seems to have a better grip on things. He’s the only character that survived from the olden days, but ultimately confesses to be a fool too, like anyone. Robinson leaves it to the reader: how much in control are we really, and how is history formed?

(...)

Full review on Weighing A Pig Doesn't Fatten It ( )

It's the late 2040's ( fifty years off when KSR wrote the novel) some time after hundreds of small neutron bombs were set off all over the country, when an attack that had been mean for the Russians was aborted. Thee US was devastated, knocked back centuries and the UN voted that they had abused their powers and since then the entire continent has been under quarantine by the Japanese on the Pacific side, Russians and others on the Atlantic. North of San Diego, in former Orange County, a self-sufficient and equable community of survivors, twenty or so families gets on with living. There is unrest in some of the larger nearby communities -- a sense that the international quarantine has run its course and it's time to fight back and rebuild "America" -- the reality is, that hardly anyone around really knows what the country was actually like before -- but never mind. The story focusses around one event involving a group of late adolescent boys, a raid on the Japanese who land "tourists" on shore to see how the "primitive" Americans are managing, and an old man, Tom Barnard, a survivor of the original holocaust. This is early KSR and it is uneven. The plot is simplistic, the characters are . . . not flat but not quite rounded. The women, well, they are basically objectified, but I know that KSR moves on and matures, so I'll let that be. The writing is often wonderful, especially the descriptions of the landscape. I'll keep reading the series because I am a fan and can't help myself. KSR is one of those writer who, even when not at his best, is better than most. ***1/2 ( )

Good read. Recommend reading sequel 'Gold Coast' first. Gives books and writing a place of honor in the stories. Another case of those that survive write the history, and that it is hard to reach the children by teaching. Great character development in the book. Reminds me of Mark Twain' s Tom Sawyer and Hunklebury Finn stories but not quite as folksy. ( )