A virus has wiped out 95 per cent of the world's population in just a few weeks, leaving the remaining 5 per cent to stay alive in a world devoid of the most basic amenities - electricity, transport and medicine. The few survivors of the human race are forced to fall back on the most primitive skills in order to live and re-establish some semblance of law and order. Abby Grant, widowed by the plague, moves through this new dark age with determination, sustained by hope that her son, who fled his boarding school at the onset, has survived. She knows she must relearn the skills on which civilisation was built. With others, she founds a commune and the group return to the soil. But marauding bands threaten their existence. For Abby, there's a chance for a new life and love when she encounters James Garland, the fourteenth Earl of Woodhouse, who is engaged in a desperate fight to save his ancestral home. But more important, she must find her son.
--This text refers to the
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"A highly readable adventure story and an equally interesting glimpse back to the Seventies - before computers, mobiles and the least tinge of multiculturalism" -- David Sexton EVENING STANDARD "Nation's novel is based on his original cult series...and is all the better for it, being far, far more gritty and realistic" SUNDAY SUN "This is radically different to the much-loved original television program, and it is also a fine piece of British post-apocalyptic fiction" DEATHRAY
--This text refers to the
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About the Author
Terry Nation was born in 1930 in Wales. After briefly joining his father's furniture-making business and attempting stand-up comedy, Nation turned his hand to writing and worked on radio scripts for The Goon Show and a range of TV dramas such as The Saint, The Avengers, Z Cars, The Baron, The Champions, Department S and The Persuaders. He also went on to write about 100 episodes of Doctor Who and worked on popular American TV series. He died in Los Angeles in 1997.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Survivors: When Society, Culture & Technology Collapse,
By MopedLad (los angeles) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Survivors (Hardcover)
I own the entire 38 episodes of the BBC TV series Survivors and recently read the book upon which it was based. A foreboding tale, with a prescient quality regarding the fragility of humankind and the social edifices we have constructed; I must confess to preferring the TV series somewhat more. The reader is subliminally enjoined to be one of the Survivors, after an apparent biotechnology accident wipes out virtually the entire human race. Pared back to basics, with only the remnants of technology and our modern way of life to cling to, the monumental task of those who have not been killed by the sickness, is simply to go on living. Terry Nation cleverly helps us imagine the mechanics of a back to zero world and the tenuous human interactions therein. 'Survivors' is compelling and daunting, with a definite feel of future reality to it. Though not in my opinion as phenomenal a work as the TV series, it receives 5 stars from me as an adjunct and outline to a simply masterful piece of story telling by Terry Nation. NOTE: A sequel exists written by John Eyers called "Survivors Genesis of a Hero," a surprisingly convincing continuation of the Survivors saga.
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The struggle to survive a global disaster!,
This review is from: Survivors (Hardcover)
Survivors - Terry Nation, the creator of Dr Who and Blake's Seven.Recent apocalyptic stories have been of the "asteroid hits earth, tidal waves and earthquakes everywhere" variety. But this is a more traditional "virus destroys 99.99% of the population" type, and is as a result far more interesting and satisfying. After all, everything is left standing, all the machines and cities, but there are too few people to make anything work. A new strain of influenza spreads by means of air travel. One person infects ten, they each infect more, soon the virus has spread throughout the world, travelling by jet. Just a 'flu at first, but the mortality rate is almost total. Within a month, almost everyone on earth is infected and dying. Everything stops, as everyone is sick or dead. No transport, no electricity, no hospitals, no government, nothing. In our society, everyone is just a small part of a larger process, everyone is specialised. Imagine waking up to a world where all of the knowledge, ability and expertise had just died along with the vast bulk of the population - you and I probably know less than a stone age man as far as living in a world like that is concerned! And that's what this book is all about - the struggle to survive when you have no idea what to do, and no-one is going to come and help you. The heroine of the story is Abby, who gets sick, but lives. As she recovers, the world is suddenly an empty and lonely place. She looks for others, and eventually joins a small community trying to rediscover how to farm, build and live with diminishing technology. Resources are scarce and getting scarcer - petrol is more valuable than useless gold - but some bands of survivors are happier to steal from others than to work to rebuild the world. Abby is our eyes and ears in this harsh world, as we follow her in her search for her son whom she hopes also survived. Abby eventually has to make a hard choice whether to keep her search alive, leading to a tragic finale. When I read this book as a teenager, I was amazed at the incredible detail of the story, how Terry Nation portrayed all of the consequences, big and small, of a world so devastated by disease, as well as the scope of the disaster that befell the world. In this story ALL of civilisation come to an end in the matter of a month or two, and the plausibility of the story is frightening! But in addition to a fabulous story, well told, there is the human drama, played out against a backdrop of hardship and desperation. This is a great book, one you won't forget.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The struggle to survive a global disaster!,
This review is from: Survivors (Hardcover)
Survivors - Terry Nation, the creator of Dr Who and Blake's Seven.Recent apocalyptic stories have been of the "asteroid hits earth, tidal waves and earthquakes everywhere" variety. But this is a more traditional "virus destroys 99.99% of the population" type, and is as a result far more interesting and satisfying. After all, everything is left standing, all the machines and cities, but there are too few people to make anything work. A new strain of influenza spreads by means of air travel. One person infects ten, they each infect more, soon the virus has spread throughout the world, travelling by jet. Just a 'flu at first, but the mortality rate is almost total. Within a month, almost everyone on earth is infected and dying. Everything stops, as everyone is sick or dead. No transport, no electricity, no hospitals, no government, nothing. In our society, everyone is just a small part of a larger process, everyone is specialised. Imagine waking up to a world where all of the knowledge, ability and expertise had just died along with the vast bulk of the population - you and I probably know less than a stone age man as far as living in a world like that is concerned! And that's what this book is all about - the struggle to survive when you have no idea what to do, and no-one is going to come and help you. The heroine of the story is Abby, who gets sick, but lives. As she recovers, the world is suddenly an empty and lonely place. She looks for others, and eventually joins a small community trying to rediscover how to farm, build and live with diminishing technology. Resources are scarce and getting scarcer - petrol is more valuable than useless gold - but some bands of survivors are happier to steal from others than to work to rebuild the world. Abby is our eyes and ears in this harsh world, as we follow her in her search for her son whom she hopes also survived. Abby eventually has to make a hard choice whether to keep her search alive, leading to a tragic finale. When I read this book as a teenager, I was amazed at the incredible detail of the story, how Terry Nation portrayed all of the consequences, big and small, of a world so devastated by disease, as well as the scope of the disaster that befell the world. In this story ALL of civilisation come to an end in the matter of a month or two, and the plausibility of the story is frightening! But in addition to a fabulous story, well told, there is the human drama, played out against a backdrop of hardship and desperation. This is a great book, one you won't forget.
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