Alas, Babylon!

Why is Pat Frank's Alas, Babylon my favorite post-apocalyptic novel? It certainly has it's share of problems.

It's old. Written about 1960, it is sorely out-of-date. The cold war politics don't make sense any more. The lack of knowledge about electromagnetic pulse leaves the survivors with resources that they probably wouldn't have had. I'm not sure that fallout from a medium-sized nuclear strike described in the novel would end the world ala On The Beach, but it wouldn't be as localized as Frank would have it, either. The sexual mores are ... well ... quaint.

So why do I like it? The writing is good. Short, declarative sentences that do their job and then get out of the way. That's what you want in a survival story. The Last Ship would have you believe that surviving polysyllabic words outnumber surviving humans.

It has varied characters, who react in reasonable, but different, ways to the situations they encounter. Randy becomes a leader, but maintains self-doubts. Doc tries to help others, but he isn't fanatical about it. Malachi displays courage and fear. And the characters change over the novel, which means the book is not Patriots, thank God.

The cold war politics are outdated, but the political situations described are reasonable for the time. Although it is never stated who starts the nukin', a mistake by an American pilot provides the trigger event. The plot is not just a thinly-veiled political screed like ... well ... Patriots.

It has interesting details that add to its verisimilitude, such as opening the windows to prevent breakage from a distant explosion, the necessity of salt in the diet, diabetics dying early due to lack of refrigeration for their insulin, the use of bicycles as gasoline supplies dwindle. But it doesn't reduce itself to a thinly-veiled how-to manual like ... well ... oh, you get the idea.

I like that the ending is reasonably upbeat. I've read plenty of dark, depressing post-apo books (On the Beach, Level 7, The End of the Dream, and Warday to a lesser extent) but that theme gets old quickly. On the other hand, it's not overly optimistic either; there are some grim moments, without jarring Pollyannaish comments like "I might have to have four (babies), for every three we keep" that almost ruined an otherwise outstanding Tommorrow.

It wasn't easy to make this choice; there are a number of other top-notch Armegeddon stories: The Postman, the previously maligned Tomorrow, and of course, Earth Abides, which shines despite some of the same problems as Alas, Babylon. But I think that Alas, Babylon is just a little bit better.