The City, Not Long After (Paperback)

~ (Author) "The early morning breeze blew through the vegetable garden in Union Square, shaking the leaves of the bean plants and the lacy carrot tops..." (more)
Key Phrases: The Machine, San Francisco, Civic Center Plaza (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Murphy infuses this tale with a type of surrealism often associated with Latin novelists like Garcia Marquez. . . . A major work. -- Booklist

Product Description

Half a generation ago, a gesture in the name of peace turned out to spread plague and disaster. In San Francisco, the survivors are heir to a city transformed. It is a haunted, dreaming place peopled with memories, and in a strange way nearly alive itself. And although it is only beginning to recover from near-ultimate disaster, the city is at risk again. An army of power-hungry men are descending on San Francisco. Teenagers Jax and Danny-boy must lead the fight for freedom using the only weapons they have—art, magic, and the soul of the city itself.

Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Paperback: 244 pages
• Publisher: Firebird (April 6, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0142404055
• ISBN-13: 978-0142404058
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #945,066 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The spirit of San Francisco lives on, March 10, 2007

By	D.S. Chen (Rancho Cordova, California) - See all my reviews

In "The City, Not Long After," Pat Murphy has written an engrossing tale of post-apocalyptic Northern California, where a plague has wiped out most of the population. Much of San Francisco has become a giant canvas on which artists have used the city's resources to create works of wonder. A military dictatorship in Sacramento, however, is working to "reunite the country" and threatens to use force to add the jewel of the Bay Area to its empire.

A young woman named Jax has been given the task by her dying mother to warn the citizens of the coming storm. She is somewhat distracted by her personal search for her mother, who had promised her daughter that she would be going ahead to San Francisco to prepare the way. Jax must learn some her mother's secrets in order to help the community of scholars and artists find a way to repel the invasion. Exactly how should artists respond to the menace of guns and bombs when such things are abhorrent to them?

Murphy's characters and their artistic creations seem so full of life - in my mind's eye I can almost envision them inhabiting the various neighborhoods of the City by the Bay. The story itself is sad at times (but not overly depressing), haunting and quite memorable.

The underlying message of the novel can be phrased as a question: How much of a price are people willing to pay for peace? Though written nearly 20 years ago, the novel's message seems particularly resonant today, in a time when many Americans are willing to sacrifice personal freedoms and human lives in the name of finding peace and security.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A pick for any who missed this winner, July 3, 2006

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

It's half a century after a goodwill gesture has spread plague around the world, and San Francisco's surviving residents populate a haunted city again at risk. This time it's power-hungry men who are invading, and Jax and Danny-boy lead the battle - using magic and the city's own underlying powers - to solve mysteries and gain power for the future. Highly recommended on its initial publication, the paperback of The City, Not Long After is a pick for any who missed this winner.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How would artists fight a war?, August 10, 2006

By	Kim Boykin (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

After a plague that killed most of the population, San Francisco has become an artists' colony. A young woman goes to San Francisco to find her mother and to warn the residents of the coming invasion. The artists must fight to defend their city, but they'd rather be painting the Golden Gate Bridge blue.

This is an entertaining, unusual, and well written post-apocalyptic story that gives new meaning to the phrase "the art of war." It includes magical elements that I could've done without, but all in all, I really enjoyed it.