Alan%DCT.AC.UK%DUNDEE.AC.UK@ucl-cs.ARPA (10/28/85)
From: Alan Greig <CCD-ARG%dct@ucl-cs.arpa> >From: mhs@lanl.ARPA >Subject: Re: Man-in-the-Rubble >.. > George Stewart, "Earth abides" >.. >Humfph. Most of these are 25-30 years old. Stewart will probably >be hard to find. No problem in obtaining it in the U.K. anyway. Its part of the Corgi SF classics library and is available in paperback. Never quite could see why its considered a classic though. I found it very predictable and the writing style a bit juvenile. Still I suppose it was probably the first book to look at civilisation after being wiped out by disease (germ warfare ?). Terry Nation's BBC SF series Survivors developed the idea much better in my opinion. Alan Greig -------
leeper@mtgzz.UUCP (m.r.leeper) (11/09/85)
Holy cow! What I have always called the best science fiction TV series I have ever seen and finally someone else has seen it. I saw only the first season of THE SURVIVORS and it was probably the most intelligent science fiction series I remember seeing. I was working in Detroit and we saw it from Canada. People who didn't like science fiction would argue over lunch about the ideas in the series. Yet, I don't think it was ever imported into the US. The first episode has England sort of grinding to a halt as a very bad virus is putting a lot of people in bed. There are hints from doctors that this may actually be worse than the flu, people are just not recovering from it. The main character gets it and goes to sleep. Days pass as she lays in bed asleep. When she wakes up there are so few people left alive in Britain, no two who knew each other before the plague are left alive. Various little societies try to form themselves. The story is really about what makes a society work and what makes one fail. (To a great extent, that is also very much what Wyndham's DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS is about, ironically a very similar story.) Terry Nation based a book on the series, it was really mostly just three episodes turned into a novel, not nearly as good as the original. Mark Leeper ...ihnp4!mtgzz!leeper