A major inspiration for One Second After by Forschten. A very practical book, but Frank was a genuinely good writer and it shows. Forschten’s book is much weaker on characterization and writing craft in general but has more up to date practical info
I just reacquired this, the dog having ate my previous copy. He also ate a Jack Vance book. Seems to have good taste lol. I don't know when I'll get to it but it was suggested to me after I raved about Earth Abides.
I saw it in yesterday's book haul video and chuckled, knowing this video was posting today. I think 'Alas, Babylon' is a good companion piece to 'Earth Abides'. Very different scenarios but a similar optimism in rebuilding.
I had to read both "Alas, Babylon" and "On The Beach" and do a compare and contrast back when I was in Junior High (back in the era when we were still using our school desks as bomb shelters). The intent was to use "Alas, Babylon" as an optimistic vision of the aftermath of a nuclear war vs. the pessimistic vision from "On The Beach". And the liquid psychedelic version in "A Canticle for Leibowitz". Gave me nightmares for years.
@@vintagesf There sure was a lot of it back in the 70's and 80's. In addition to "Alas, Babylon", "On The Beach", and "A Canticle for Leibowitz", there was "Trinity's Child" by William Prochnau (made into "By Dawn's Early Light"), and "Arc Light" by Eric Harry (which technically missed the '80's. Wikipedia says it was published in '92). However, one of the more interesting post-WW3 novels that came out during that time was Whitley Streiber's "Warday". Written as a diary as the author goes on a tour of the post-apocalyptic US, it very much had its interesting sections. And then there was Brendan Dubois' "Resurrection Day" written in 1999 about a nuclear war that occurred when the Cuban Missile Crisis went sideways. It always made me wonder why so many people (admittedly including me) wanted to read depressing fiction about the world being blown to smithereens.
Another I’ve never heard of…but sounds great. The way things are going I’m going to have to read these to get tips on how to survive that nuclear attack on my home…
First read the book in 2009. Have checked it out and read it 4 more times since. Cleaning classrooms, I picked up untold copies off the floor in the room where the class was reading it that semester. I since have checked it out of local library. Awesome book! I'm 68 years old and I learned a few things!
A bestseller of its time that still stands today as a good read. Most are attracted to the novel to read about the horror of nuclear war, but the strength of the novel is about building community in the face of adversity.
This is one of my favorite post-apocalyptic novels from my youth, along with On the Beach. Unforgettable, but luckily didn't create fear in me. There are things in life out of my control, and I learned long ago to accept that fact.
I mentioned in another comment that I visited the Titan II Missile Museum south of Tucson, Arizona. Touring the silo and imagining what it was like to be stationed below ground was chilling. I think we may be too complacent today when thinking about nuclear war.
Have I read Alas Babylon? It was one month into my sophomore year in high school. I was browsing through the school library and I found this book called Alas Babylon on the shelf. Being the son of an evangelical missionary, the title caught my interest. Also, being a budding SF fan in rural small-town community, the subject appealed to me, so I checked it out. Did it influence me? My senior year, I was a student volunteer in the school library and found Alas Babylon on the cart of books I was reshelving. I took a look at the check-out card and realized that I had checked the book out seven times over the last three years. I leave you to draw your own conclusions.
One of my commenters on 'Earth Abides' suggested this book and that is why I picked it up. Certainly seems to have the love that 'Earth Abides' has. I remember practically owning a science fiction book from the library. For me it was 'Planet of the Apes'. Never saw the movie until much later.
I read this book during my 80s post-nuclear holocaust binge and I think it still remains as one of the best examples of the genre. I also read William Brinkley's The Last Ship, which I thought was pretty good despite its On The Beach level of bleakness about the future of the human race after such an event. The tv adaption of the book showcases a very different bio-warfare pandemic premise. Later in the mid-90s I read Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka's 1984 War Day, which is a fictional account of the two real authors traveling across the U.S. five years after a limited nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union. It has some interesting content but not enough dramatic tension for my taste. Also notable for me is Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's 1977 Lucifer's Hammer, which has a comet strike rather than nuclear holocaust. It's clear that the authors did alot of thinking about how best to rebuild society and I can see echoes of this in post-apocalyptic works by S.M. Stirling, John Ringo, David Brin and in Pournelle's own Janissaries books.
read this book YEARS ago. The paperback. Found a hardcover on ebay for 5 bucks. WOW what a find. a couple torn pages but you can touch thih for under 75.00 now. I remember it was a fascinating read. who knows today? at 76 i will view it in a different light. at any rate I will read it again.
Let me know what you think. The more I think about this book, the more I reflect on sustainability and community. Will we be divided or united by adversity.
@@vintagesf 1. We will be engulfed in a WW3 that USA, UK, France, and NATO WANTS 2. The dollar will collapse when the BRICS nations become the new reserve currency. 3. A civil war will break out here in November. ALL of these events WILL happen. And ALL will destroy this country. I have always been right in my predictions. Where I sometimes am NOT right is the timing. 1. Will happen this summer 2. Within the next 3 years 3. Obviously in November. SO what to do? There is nothing us proles can do. The elites want a 500 million world population and will be safe in their bunkers. We will be reduced and swatted away like flies.
@@vintagesf 1. We will be engulfed in a WW3 that USA, UK, France, and NATO WANTS 2. The dollar will collapse when the BRICS nations become the new reserve currency. 3. A civil war will break out here in November. ALL of these events WILL happen. And ALL will destroy this country. I have always been right in my predictions. Where I sometimes am NOT right is the timing. 1. Will happen this summer 2. Within the next 3 years 3. Obviously in November. SO what to do? There is nothing us proles can do. The elites want a 500 million world population and will be safe in their bunkers. We will be reduced and swatted away like flies.
I got my first paperback copy of Alas, Babylon when I was in elementary school in the 1960. There was a program in which students could order paperback books from a book club or something. This was back when you could get a paperback book for well under a dollar in price. It's been my favorite book over the years, and I've read it multiple times. I think it was the major factor for me in becoming a prepper. My original paperback copy got thrown out without my knowledge when I downsized as I retired. I found a nice, hardback copy I carry in my utility bag when I go out. It's also available as an audiobook on UA-cam.
Pat Frank's Alas Babylon is a snapshot of a time that was and could have been. I have had the opportunity to visit his final resting place and keep a box of 'iron rations' in my emergency supplies.
*Alas, Babylon* is the classic Cold War nuclear aftermath book, and it maintains a clear focus through its concentration on one small community, as you mention in the video. The film version of The World, The Flesh, and the Devil appeared the same year (1959) and two years later there was Panic in the Year Zero. This was the theme of the time, the Zeitgeist, and we have an opportunity to experience this again through the books and the films.
Hi Richard. I have indeed read Alas Babylon. I think the first time was in high school... and numerous times since then. You gave a very good description of the story. I think I first read Fail-Safe at about the same time. Pat Frank's story is one of my most loved SF stories of all time. I truly can't begin to guess how many times I've read it.
I remember watching the movie Fail Safe and being scared to death of how close we've come to missiles launched. I think another movie was Twilight's Last Gleaming. Then I visited a Titan II missile silo museum south of Tucson. Once again, that ominous anxiety feeling.
@@vintagesfSomething was nibbling at the back of my mind about that. I don't believe I read Fail Safe but watched the movie in school. It certainly was scary!
@@StevenEverett7 For me, the top apocalypse movie will always be Dr. Strangelove. During my hitch in the Navy, I served on a ballistic missile submarine. One 60 day patrol, they showed it as the half-way night movie. Picture how surreal it was with 50 sailors on a nuclear powered submarine, sitting just forward of 16 nuclear missiles, each carrying multiple warheads, watching Slim Pickens sitting astride a bomb like he was riding a bronco and riding it to its target.
I'm so excited to find this video. I've read many books in this genre and Alas Babylon is by far the best. I give it 10 out of 10 however some of his other books leave something to be desired. This is a title I read a few times a year. I love to return to this world and view these peoples reality. It's hopeful and very realistic. I like that most of the characters didn't descend into darkness and evil. The people who did ended badly.
@@BitOHoney276 There are so many great books buried in the used bookstore shelves that have gone out of print. Thanks to digital editions and places like archive.org these books can be sourced by anyone.
Yes, I read both "Alas, Babylon" and "On the beach" in high school shortly after the books were published over 60 years ago but my first exposure to a post apocalyptic world was a bit earlier when I read "By the waters of Babylon," a novella by poet Stephen Vincent Benet. "By the waters of Babylon" left me stunned and amazed and for a number of years I was very much afraid we would not survive a worldwide thermonuclear war. But not to worry my nearby school had a Bomb Shelter to which all of us could flee for safety! Sheesh...
I read this book in highschool, and i was a horrible student, slept in almost every class, i dont remember the year or teachers name but i remember her face, this book was the inly thing that grasped my interest in school to a point i would take it home and read chapters ahead
It was assigned reading in 1986 at my high school. I've never finished it.. The last two chapters. I have an understanding now of how indoctrination propaganda and fear can influence society. And how such fear and propaganda has racial and religious starting points and thus how religious influences have undermined this country's security. What it means to be an American and have a Constitution. We already declared independence from authoritarians who live by tax and War. We can prevent forest fires!
My goodness, I give it a 9.9 out of 10. Over the last 40+ years, it's a book I read every couple of years and completely satisfied each time.
I had never heard of this but it's now on my radar, thanks Richard.
For a big bestseller, I think it has become a lost classic.
A major inspiration for One Second After by Forschten.
A very practical book, but Frank was a genuinely good writer and it shows.
Forschten’s book is much weaker on characterization and writing craft in general but has more up to date practical info
Read ‘One Second After’ and agree with you.
I just reacquired this, the dog having ate my previous copy. He also ate a Jack Vance book. Seems to have good taste lol. I don't know when I'll get to it but it was suggested to me after I raved about Earth Abides.
I saw it in yesterday's book haul video and chuckled, knowing this video was posting today. I think 'Alas, Babylon' is a good companion piece to 'Earth Abides'. Very different scenarios but a similar optimism in rebuilding.
I had to read both "Alas, Babylon" and "On The Beach" and do a compare and contrast back when I was in Junior High (back in the era when we were still using our school desks as bomb shelters). The intent was to use "Alas, Babylon" as an optimistic vision of the aftermath of a nuclear war vs. the pessimistic vision from "On The Beach". And the liquid psychedelic version in "A Canticle for Leibowitz".
Gave me nightmares for years.
Hmmm. Maybe I should run a poll on my community page for favourite or most impactful nuclear aftermath.
@@vintagesf There sure was a lot of it back in the 70's and 80's. In addition to "Alas, Babylon", "On The Beach", and "A Canticle for Leibowitz", there was "Trinity's Child" by William Prochnau (made into "By Dawn's Early Light"), and "Arc Light" by Eric Harry (which technically missed the '80's. Wikipedia says it was published in '92).
However, one of the more interesting post-WW3 novels that came out during that time was Whitley Streiber's "Warday". Written as a diary as the author goes on a tour of the post-apocalyptic US, it very much had its interesting sections. And then there was Brendan Dubois' "Resurrection Day" written in 1999 about a nuclear war that occurred when the Cuban Missile Crisis went sideways.
It always made me wonder why so many people (admittedly including me) wanted to read depressing fiction about the world being blown to smithereens.
Fawn Leibowitz/ She was going to make me a pot! Name the movie LOL
Another I’ve never heard of…but sounds great. The way things are going I’m going to have to read these to get tips on how to survive that nuclear attack on my home…
First read the book in 2009. Have checked it out and read it 4 more times since. Cleaning classrooms, I picked up untold copies off the floor in the room where the class was reading it that semester. I since have checked it out of local library. Awesome book! I'm 68 years old and I learned a few things!
A bestseller of its time that still stands today as a good read. Most are attracted to the novel to read about the horror of nuclear war, but the strength of the novel is about building community in the face of adversity.
This is one of my favorite post-apocalyptic novels from my youth, along with On the Beach. Unforgettable, but luckily didn't create fear in me. There are things in life out of my control, and I learned long ago to accept that fact.
I mentioned in another comment that I visited the Titan II Missile Museum south of Tucson, Arizona. Touring the silo and imagining what it was like to be stationed below ground was chilling. I think we may be too complacent today when thinking about nuclear war.
Whoa you must be like me. I read both of them close to each other in my youth as well.
One of my favourite in the post-apocalyptic/disaster sub genre for sure. Probably due for a re-read.
I'm certainly keeping it on my shelf.
Have I read Alas Babylon? It was one month into my sophomore year in high school. I was browsing through the school library and I found this book called Alas Babylon on the shelf. Being the son of an evangelical missionary, the title caught my interest. Also, being a budding SF fan in rural small-town community, the subject appealed to me, so I checked it out. Did it influence me? My senior year, I was a student volunteer in the school library and found Alas Babylon on the cart of books I was reshelving. I took a look at the check-out card and realized that I had checked the book out seven times over the last three years. I leave you to draw your own conclusions.
One of my commenters on 'Earth Abides' suggested this book and that is why I picked it up. Certainly seems to have the love that 'Earth Abides' has. I remember practically owning a science fiction book from the library. For me it was 'Planet of the Apes'. Never saw the movie until much later.
I read this book during my 80s post-nuclear holocaust binge and I think it still remains as one of the best examples of the genre. I also read William Brinkley's The Last Ship, which I thought was pretty good despite its On The Beach level of bleakness about the future of the human race after such an event. The tv adaption of the book showcases a very different bio-warfare pandemic premise. Later in the mid-90s I read Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka's 1984 War Day, which is a fictional account of the two real authors traveling across the U.S. five years after a limited nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union. It has some interesting content but not enough dramatic tension for my taste.
Also notable for me is Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's 1977 Lucifer's Hammer, which has a comet strike rather than nuclear holocaust. It's clear that the authors did alot of thinking about how best to rebuild society and I can see echoes of this in post-apocalyptic works by S.M. Stirling, John Ringo, David Brin and in Pournelle's own Janissaries books.
Read Lucifer's Hammer back in the 1980s. Due for a reread and it is on my bookshelf. Niven and Pournelle were great writing partners.
read this book YEARS ago. The paperback. Found a hardcover on ebay for 5 bucks. WOW what a find. a couple torn pages but you can touch thih for under 75.00 now. I remember it was a fascinating read. who knows today? at 76 i will view it in a different light. at any rate I will read it again.
Let me know what you think. The more I think about this book, the more I reflect on sustainability and community. Will we be divided or united by adversity.
@@vintagesf 1. We will be engulfed in a WW3 that USA, UK, France, and NATO WANTS
2. The dollar will collapse when the BRICS nations become the new reserve currency.
3. A civil war will break out here in November. ALL of these events WILL happen. And ALL will destroy this country. I have always been right in my predictions. Where I sometimes am NOT right is the timing.
1. Will happen this summer
2. Within the next 3 years
3. Obviously in November.
SO what to do? There is nothing us proles can do. The elites want a 500 million world population and will be safe in their bunkers. We will be reduced and swatted away like flies.
@@vintagesf 1. We will be engulfed in a WW3 that USA, UK, France, and NATO WANTS
2. The dollar will collapse when the BRICS nations become the new reserve currency.
3. A civil war will break out here in November. ALL of these events WILL happen. And ALL will destroy this country. I have always been right in my predictions. Where I sometimes am NOT right is the timing.
1. Will happen this summer
2. Within the next 3 years
3. Obviously in November.
SO what to do? There is nothing us proles can do. The elites want a 500 million world population and will be safe in their bunkers. We will be reduced and swatted away like flies.
I got my first paperback copy of Alas, Babylon when I was in elementary school in the 1960. There was a program in which students could order paperback books from a book club or something. This was back when you could get a paperback book for well under a dollar in price. It's been my favorite book over the years, and I've read it multiple times. I think it was the major factor for me in becoming a prepper.
My original paperback copy got thrown out without my knowledge when I downsized as I retired. I found a nice, hardback copy I carry in my utility bag when I go out. It's also available as an audiobook on UA-cam.
A classic that deserves a wider audience today. I think it is coming back. Saw a contemporary printing the other day.
Pat Frank's Alas Babylon is a snapshot of a time that was and could have been. I have had the opportunity to visit his final resting place and keep a box of 'iron rations' in my emergency supplies.
it will soon be a reality in todays world
*Alas, Babylon* is the classic Cold War nuclear aftermath book, and it maintains a clear focus through its concentration on one small community, as you mention in the video. The film version of The World, The Flesh, and the Devil appeared the same year (1959) and two years later there was Panic in the Year Zero. This was the theme of the time, the Zeitgeist, and we have an opportunity to experience this again through the books and the films.
Wonderful book that I am so joyed my grandfather introduced me to Alas, Babylon.
@@smitty_qw I was thinking of starting another channel called bestsellers which looked at bestselling fiction from each year of the 1950s and 60s.
I read Alas Babylon by him
It sparked my love / desire to collect vintage Apocalyptic & Dystopian books.❤😊
So many great books in this corner of SF. I recently read Earth Abides by George R. Stewart for the first time. One of my best reads of 2023.
@@vintagesf I loved Earth abides , I read it 2 years ago
Still a favorite. 💖 Have you read "Swan song by Robert r. Mccammon? ☺️
@@avacollins4018 I haven’t. I remember a booktuber saying if you loved SK’s ‘The Stand’ that ‘Swan Song’ was even better. Must keep an eye out for it.
@@vintagesf you will love it ☺️
Hi Richard. I have indeed read Alas Babylon. I think the first time was in high school... and numerous times since then. You gave a very good description of the story. I think I first read Fail-Safe at about the same time. Pat Frank's story is one of my most loved SF stories of all time. I truly can't begin to guess how many times I've read it.
I remember watching the movie Fail Safe and being scared to death of how close we've come to missiles launched. I think another movie was Twilight's Last Gleaming. Then I visited a Titan II missile silo museum south of Tucson. Once again, that ominous anxiety feeling.
@@vintagesfSomething was nibbling at the back of my mind about that. I don't believe I read Fail Safe but watched the movie in school. It certainly was scary!
@@StevenEverett7 For me, the top apocalypse movie will always be Dr. Strangelove. During my hitch in the Navy, I served on a ballistic missile submarine. One 60 day patrol, they showed it as the half-way night movie. Picture how surreal it was with 50 sailors on a nuclear powered submarine, sitting just forward of 16 nuclear missiles, each carrying multiple warheads, watching Slim Pickens sitting astride a bomb like he was riding a bronco and riding it to its target.
@@paulcooper3611I don't remember much of the movie but the one thing I do remember is Slim riding the bomb.
I really liked him as an actor. 😊😊😊
@@StevenEverett7 Me too. He was a definite original. I'm even tempted to say they don't make 'em like that anymore. 😊
Great book!!! I read it several decades ago.....
I'm so excited to find this video. I've read many books in this genre and Alas Babylon is by far the best. I give it 10 out of 10 however some of his other books leave something to be desired. This is a title I read a few times a year. I love to return to this world and view these peoples reality. It's hopeful and very realistic. I like that most of the characters didn't descend into darkness and evil. The people who did ended badly.
@@BitOHoney276 There are so many great books buried in the used bookstore shelves that have gone out of print. Thanks to digital editions and places like archive.org these books can be sourced by anyone.
I am sure I read Alas Babylon for a High School reading assignment...yeah, that long ago! Good video Vintage!
Yes, I read both "Alas, Babylon" and "On the beach" in high school shortly after the books were published over 60 years ago but my first exposure to a post apocalyptic world was a bit earlier when I read "By the waters of Babylon," a novella by poet Stephen Vincent Benet. "By the waters of Babylon" left me stunned and amazed and for a number of years I was very much afraid we would not survive a worldwide thermonuclear war. But not to worry my nearby school had a Bomb Shelter to which all of us could flee for safety! Sheesh...
A lot of money spent on pointless bomb shelters when it came to thermonuclear war. Eventually you would have to emerge into an irradiated world.
@@vintagesf Too right! Bomb shelters were developed to give people the unsupportable notion that we could survive a thermonuclear war.
I read this book in highschool, and i was a horrible student, slept in almost every class, i dont remember the year or teachers name but i remember her face, this book was the inly thing that grasped my interest in school to a point i would take it home and read chapters ahead
It is a forgotten bestseller and a good read.
It was assigned reading in 1986 at my high school. I've never finished it.. The last two chapters. I have an understanding now of how indoctrination propaganda and fear can influence society. And how such fear and propaganda has racial and religious starting points and thus how religious influences have undermined this country's security. What it means to be an American and have a Constitution. We already declared independence from authoritarians who live by tax and War. We can prevent forest fires!