Customer Reviews

Shudderchild

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

 

 

Shudderchild by Warren C. Norwood 1987

So I recently found this book while adding a box of old paperbacks to my LibraryThing account. I have read it before but it could have been 20 years ago. Long enough that though the story seemed familiar I had no idea what was going to happen next. Since I have read this book last I have read many other books that fall into that TEOTWAWKI category and must say it was refreshing to read a story of some people in the US after a great destruction, something having to do with plate tectonics and earthquakes, that weren't eating each other. This is not to say life was easy or everyone got along but cannibalism seems to be the norm in this genre. Another thing that struck me and frankly it may be my mindset was the quest for power by several people most notably the priest. I guess the more things change the more they stay the same.

Lastly I liked Norwood's use old infrastructure and equipment. It makes sense to me that people would use gas, trucks, roads, and airplanes as long as they would make things easier for them, perhaps with less and less frequency but still as long as they could cobble things together.

"Shudderday has come and gone. Its cataclysmic earthquakes have killed millions, devastating the planet physically, culturally, and emotionally. Now, West Texas Jeremiah Fronterhouse Cody begins a quest on many levels: to battle invading militant factions, to solve the mystery of his missing wife, and to protect what was once the United States against a threat even larger than the shudder that forever altered the world." A novel of the near-future.