Customer Reviews

The Golden World (America 2040, Book 2)

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I read The Golden World on a recommendation. It is not a book I had ever heard of before, nor would I have picked it up on my own. Post-apocalypse novels were popular years ago and it felt as if there was little variety in plot and characters. Although this book (from 1986) is not especially unique, it was a good read.

Some might argue that The Golden World is in itself not post-apocalyptic, but more of a space exploration/colonization story. However, it is the second in a series, the first being America 2040 in which the world teeters on the edge of nuclear war and total destruction. In this second book in the series, three interstellar ships had been built to blast off from Earth in search of habitable worlds so that humanity would have a chance to live on.

The Spirit of America lands on a world much larger than Earth, but bearing a strong resemblance to the travelers' home planet. For many readers this resemblance is much too strong, even naive, in its Eden-like features. (They even use that name for one geographic location.) Even the most menacing creatures prove to be cooperative. Frankly, everything is just too good to be true, and their settling into their homes occurs so rapidly that a reader has to wonder where the real challenge will come from. Then, the colonists meet the intelligent life forms that live on the world now called Omega. It's as if Evan Innes, the author, wanted to create only one type of dangerous adversary.

This includes members of the ship's company, as a major mutiny breaks out threatening the safety and future of the colonists. Innes and most writers accept that the human race is not likely to just settle into any situation without a few who can't be satisfied with the leadership of others. Trouble makers must exist in fiction to make the story interesting, and to mirror reality.

In spite of the naivete of the plot and the rather cliched characters, this is a good and quick read. It's somewhat surprising that the book is not better known.

This is the continuing saga of the brave Americans adventuring into outer space. This book adds an interesting item....a lone Russian woman survivor, who ends up pregnant by an "alien" creature. I couldn't put this book down. I didn't want it to end.