| ||||||||||||||||||||
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Clever novel of post apocolypse survival,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Malevil (Mass Market Paperback)
If you are a fan of the post apocolypse genre, then you will appreciate this gem of a book. It is difficult to find, but it is well worth perservering with a search.The title of the book refers to an old castle in rural France, and which is owned by our hero, the narrator of the story. By a happy coincidence of ancient stone and being sheltered by a cliff, a small community survives the aftermath of a "clean" bomb by sheltering within its walls. At first the community is obsessed with the everyday challenges of life - what to eat, drink, will there be fallout? But as the novel progresses, and we learn of other survivors, it begins to look at the very nature of human behaviour when stripped of the facade of civilisation. This is a very "believable book", as much as such a horror tale can be, and it is interspersed with some very astute observations of human behaviour, with both acts of kindness portrayed as well as the abuses of power. The detail of how nature as well as the characters recover from the loss and shock of it all is well portrayed and keeps you turning the pages. This is a treat if you are a fan of the genre. If you are interested in tales of human survival in horrendous times, this is also for you. As I said, hard to find, but well worth looking for!
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A post-apocalypse subsistence economy,
By
This review is from: Malevil (Mass Market Paperback)
This book was surprisingly good. The title put me off, since I inferred that it attributed the collapse of civilization to some silly supernatural struggle, like "Swan Song" by Robert McCammon, which I bought and barely began reading before I dropped it in disappointment. (Not that all supernaturally inspired apocalypses are bad stories: I really liked "The Stand" by Stephen King.) In fact, Malevil is simply the name of the little French community where the story occurs. It is a pretty good story about a subsistence economy arising after a nuclear holocaust. Unfortunately, you never find out what is happening in the world outside that little community, but it is pretty good nevertheless: there is no backstory about the disintegration or reconstitution of the national government, which is the part that I usually enjoy the most in post-apocalyptic fiction, but there is an amusing thread about the basis for the local ecclesiastical jurisdiction where the protagonist relies on some medieval warrants in order to trump the religious charlatan who has established himself as the ruler in the next town over.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Memorable Book,
By
This review is from: Malevil (Mass Market Paperback)
I first read this book in the 1970's, and have spent the last several years looking for it again. Probably the first Post atomic conflict book I had ever read and it still reads well after 30 years. For anyone ordering this as a used copy, be aware that of the two photos provided for this on Amazon, the white cover is actually the hardback edition, while the red cover with the mushroom cloud and a line of people in the foreground is the mass market paperback
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
