After The Blue [Paperback]

Russel Like (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1998

Science-fiction

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

After the Blue is Russel Like's charming, American answer to Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy--straightforwardly funny science fiction with a healthy dose of social satire. The premise is that goofy aliens have destroyed almost everyone on Earth... accidentally. A century later, they're contrite and trying to rebuild human society based on the information they gather from books, movies, brochures, and ... shudder ... old television shows. Problem is, the handful of survivors living in Jamesburg, New Jersey, may not be ready for the Gruumsbaggian idea of how things were.

From Booklist

The four-armed Gruumsbaggians carry a virus that kills all but a few earthlings, and they feel badly about it. They take DNA from the survivors back to their home planet, where they grow human children to repopulate Earth. Meanwhile, Earth's few survivors gather in little Jamesburg, New Jersey, and fashion a fine life for themselves fishing, hunting, and farming. At last the Gruumsbaggians return and almost overnight build pollution machines, fast-food restaurants, tract houses, and gun stores. They force happily married couples to divorce and every woman to bake cookies all day, because according to their videos, that is how human life used to be. A young man named Jack saves the day by writing a book describing how life in Jamesburg was always different. The literal-minded aliens read it, believe it, and go away. In a gentle satire owing much to Swift, Like takes the joke a little far, perhaps, but often is howlingly funny. John Mort

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Brunswick Galaxy Press; 1 edition (February 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966103904
• ISBN-13: 978-0966103908
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,073,523 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Witty social commentary in a science fiction guise., September 20, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: After The Blue (Paperback)

I found this book to be hilarious! The author shows an idyllic society living in the ruins of a world destroyed (accidentally) by an alien race. The Gruumsbaggians are silly and provide great laughs as they attempt to rebuild the 20th century world (more accurately, United States). Their views (misconceptions, one could hope) on modern life, and the human's responses, are interesting, clever, and thought provoking.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Imaginative poke at human nature, May 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: After The Blue (Paperback)

If there's one theme with which I'll take from Russel Like's novel, I would have to say his clever underlying of the absurdities of human nature and the goofiness of society's restraints. I'm not even so sure Russel knows how well he makes us see the reality of ourselves as slaves--slaves to fashion, money, standards. I would even go so far to say that the aliens here are more representative of human mockery than they are extraterrestrial. Like government officials down through the human ages, although these beings feel they are doing right by trying to inspire good order, they entrap people at the same time. In the style of George Orwell's "Animal Farm," Like represents man's desire for freedom at any cost by a group of renegade humans firebombing alien-created malls and restaurants--places where humans are ordered to work. Civilization is having a second chance, laughable at the expense of everyone involved. Russel also 'likens' today's overdone and unneccesary fashion to the clothing the aliens make humans wear to work--all day long! For example, one lead character I laughed at was forced to wear heavy clothing and a busby--a ridiculously enormous fur hat worn by Buckingham Palace guards. The poor idiot was the victim of well-meaning aliens who thought this the norm of the old world they had unconsciously destroyed. Like's imagination for such a plot is revelry in itself. I looked forward to reopening this book every night. Absurdity caused several good laughs.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, amusing sci-fi social commentary., May 1, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: After The Blue (Paperback)

Russel Like's story of sympathetic aliens and post-catastrophe humans is both hilarious and touching. The crux of the story is the irony caused by the aliens' desire to restore a civilization which humans, by dealing with the disaster, have already transcended. The book is both entertaining and thought-provoking, especially to anyone who has ever been stuck in a suburban rat-race. New Jersey residents will be especially amused by the all the local references.