Customer Reviews

Malevil

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the one book that stayed with me since the day I read it back in the 70's. A beautiful story of survival and love. I would love to see it reprinted. If you're looking for a great read this is it. As a person who spends most of his free time in a book I will tell you this is in my top five favorites of all time.

For years there have been 2 Reader's Digest Condensed Books sitting on a shelve, untouched and unread. Only recently did I flip through one, straight to Malevil, and decided to read it. I love horses but had not the slightest clue what Malevil was about so there were a few surprises that delt directly with myself. That was the first post-end-of-the-world book I've ever read and it will NOT be my last! I was intrigued enough by it that it took me two days to finish it all. If ever there was a book I think almost anyone can enjoy, it would more than likely be Malevil.

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.

Title kind of says it all, but if you buy this book and you live in the US/UK/Aus/NZ/Canada (etc etc) make sure and double check that the copy you're buying is in English. Seems like the seller would have mentioned that at some point, but they didn't. So now I have a book that I was dying to read, but can't.

I guess I could always learn French huh? =)

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.