The Heirs of Babylon (Signet SF Q5299) [Mass Market Paperback]

Glen Cook (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Signet Books by New American Library; 1st edition (December 1972)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451052994
• ISBN-13: 978-0451052995
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #912,293 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Grim & Gritty - classic Cook, June 3, 2008

By 

aPlateOfGrapes (Westbrook, Maine USA) - See all my reviews

This is the second novel published by Glen Cook - his first was published under a pseudonym. The book, a short 192 pages, takes place on a post apocalyptic Earth roughly 200 years in the future. The story is interesting and keeps you thinking and, like all of Cook's books, pulls no punches.

I found this book to be throughly enjoyable and rate it as one of Cook's best. It reminds me of some of his short stories like The Recriuter (Amazing, March 1977), Enemy Teritory (Night Voyages #9), and a story that likely takes place in the same "universe" Song From a Forgotten Hill (Clarion 1).

If you liked the Black Company series, pick this one up.

My only complaint is that I'd like to know what happens next.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars After the bombs had stopped, there was still the war, January 29, 2006

By 

Taylor Rand "samuraijack" (Florida, MO USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

One of Glen Cook's first published novels - although perhaps not "the first" - The Heirs of Babylon is set in a post-apocalyptic world that has not given up the fight despite having little remaining reason to fight for anything but civilization's rubble. Decades after the initial conflict, a rag-tag fleet of poorly maintained and damaged ships - a shadow of the state-of-the-art naval warships they once were - sets sail to teach the enemy a lesson once and for all. I thought there was a sort of epic doomed quality to the novel with the "last ride" of its final naval armada (have I mixed the metaphor?). Anyway, it's a quick read and worth picking up.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One grim early book by Glen Cook, September 11, 2006

By 

Woofdog (Miami) - See all my reviews

This is one of the earliest published novels by Glen Cook, predating dread empire and black company series and much of his prolific period in the 80's by nearly a decade; this is an awfully grim short novel, at about 180 pages of text.

The setting is a post-apocalyptic world about 200 years from now, where a small town in either germany or prussia outfits a surviving destroyer to be sent to a fleet gathering at gibraltar to attack the evil australians. The protagonist and almost all characters are crew on this ship. He must deal with a secret police (the political office), a conspiracy against them and the High Command they serve, a presumed traitor among his crew, suspected of murder, and the choices the crew faces as they draw nearer the sea battles with australia.

Structurally this book reminds me more of 1984 in the political background more than anything I have read recently; you can see a number of cook literary devices which he employs later, including the tactic of having the primary character not reveal everything he sees or thinks or plans to the reader. Even here, you see that Cook is writing 'the way people really are' and the grittiness permeates the story.

Very enjoyable read, though only available used.