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Available
Call number
Library's review
USA, Pipers Run, ca 2050
Indeholder "1. Fristelsen", "2. Terror", "3. Den mærkelige kasse", "4. Forbuden frugt", "5. Fjerne stemmer", "6. Afsløret", "7. Flugt", "8. Pigen med guldhåret", "9. Stemmen i mørket", "10 Skyerne trækker sammen", "11. Åben kamp", "12. Mordet", "13. Mod målet", "14.
Den teknologiske civilisation gik under i en krig, atombomber blev smidt over alle større byer. De overlevende samlede sig om Mennonitterne, en religiøs sekt som havde forsvoret brug af teknik, som de ikke selv kunne fremstille. Sammenbruddet er nu et par generationer tilbage, dvs gamle folk kan stadig huske byerne og deres teknologi, men det er ved at være på det sidste.
Der går rygter om en by, Bartorstown, hvor nogle genopliver tidligere tiders teknik. Der er omrejsende handelsfolk og vi følger to drenge, Len Colter og hans fætter Esau, fra landsbyen Pipers Run. En af handelsfolkene, Soames, bliver udpeget som syndebuk og slået ihjel af landsbyen. De to drenge ser at en anden handelsmand Edward Hostetter redder en kasse fra Soames vogn og de stjæler indholdet, som viser sig at være en radio. De kan ikke finde ud af at bruge den, så Esau stjæler tre bøger fra en af byens spidser, mr. Nordholt, men de kan ikke forstå bøgerne, så det hjælper ikke. Esaus forældre, David og Maria afslører Esau og tæsker ham både til at tilstå og til at afsværge at han nogensinde igen vil forsøge at finde til Bartorstown. Lens far, Elias, er mere skuffet end vred, men han tæsker også Len til han på samme måde lover at være fornuftig.
Det får Len til at stikke af og han tager Esau med. De kommer til byen Refuge og får arbejde på et pakhus for en hr Dulinsky. Han vil gerne bygge flere pakhuse, men efter Mennonitterne fik magten er det forbudt byerne at blive over en vis størrelse. Det ender med at Dulinsky bliver dræbt og Len og Esau flygter. Esau tager pigen Amity med, som er datter af den lokale dommer Taylor. Det er nok klogt for han har gjort hende gravid.
Hostetter hjælper dem med at flygte og tager dem med til Bartorstown, hvor man har en atomreaktor og en elektronhjerne godt gemt af vejen. Man forsøger at finde en måde, så man kan hindre alle fremtidige a-bomber i at virke, men det går ikke hurtigt fremad og måske går det slet ikke. Også her er der gået et par generationer og pigen Joan er præcis lige så træt af Bartorstown, som Len var af Pipers Run. Hun får Len overtalt til at stikke af med hende fra Bartorstown, selv om det er belagt med dødsstraf at gøre det og selv om flugtvejene er bevogtet skarpt. Det lykkes for dem, men senere indhenter Hostettet dem alligevel.
De når til en forståelse og nu hvor Joan har set verden udenfor Bartorstown vil hun også godt med tilbage.
Pudsig fortælling om hvordan en lille enklave af viden overlever og om de etiske overvejelser om hvorvidt man skal holde liv i viden om fx atomenergi og om man overhovedet kan holde den viden skjult, selv hvis man ville. Oveni er der lidt kærlighedsdrama og en variant over sandheden om at græsset altid er grønnest på den anden side af hegnet.
Indeholder "1. Fristelsen", "2. Terror", "3. Den mærkelige kasse", "4. Forbuden frugt", "5. Fjerne stemmer", "6. Afsløret", "7. Flugt", "8. Pigen med guldhåret", "9. Stemmen i mørket", "10 Skyerne trækker sammen", "11. Åben kamp", "12. Mordet", "13. Mod målet", "14.
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Forfulgt", "15. På floden", "16. Et uhyggeligt møde", "17. Vejs ende", "18. Ultimatum", "19. Foran eventyret", "20. Bartorstown", "21. Den kunstige hjerne", "22. Pigen med det mørke hår", "23. Fristerinden", "24. Løsning nul", "25. Len giver op", "26. Flugten", "27. Afgørelsen".Den teknologiske civilisation gik under i en krig, atombomber blev smidt over alle større byer. De overlevende samlede sig om Mennonitterne, en religiøs sekt som havde forsvoret brug af teknik, som de ikke selv kunne fremstille. Sammenbruddet er nu et par generationer tilbage, dvs gamle folk kan stadig huske byerne og deres teknologi, men det er ved at være på det sidste.
Der går rygter om en by, Bartorstown, hvor nogle genopliver tidligere tiders teknik. Der er omrejsende handelsfolk og vi følger to drenge, Len Colter og hans fætter Esau, fra landsbyen Pipers Run. En af handelsfolkene, Soames, bliver udpeget som syndebuk og slået ihjel af landsbyen. De to drenge ser at en anden handelsmand Edward Hostetter redder en kasse fra Soames vogn og de stjæler indholdet, som viser sig at være en radio. De kan ikke finde ud af at bruge den, så Esau stjæler tre bøger fra en af byens spidser, mr. Nordholt, men de kan ikke forstå bøgerne, så det hjælper ikke. Esaus forældre, David og Maria afslører Esau og tæsker ham både til at tilstå og til at afsværge at han nogensinde igen vil forsøge at finde til Bartorstown. Lens far, Elias, er mere skuffet end vred, men han tæsker også Len til han på samme måde lover at være fornuftig.
Det får Len til at stikke af og han tager Esau med. De kommer til byen Refuge og får arbejde på et pakhus for en hr Dulinsky. Han vil gerne bygge flere pakhuse, men efter Mennonitterne fik magten er det forbudt byerne at blive over en vis størrelse. Det ender med at Dulinsky bliver dræbt og Len og Esau flygter. Esau tager pigen Amity med, som er datter af den lokale dommer Taylor. Det er nok klogt for han har gjort hende gravid.
Hostetter hjælper dem med at flygte og tager dem med til Bartorstown, hvor man har en atomreaktor og en elektronhjerne godt gemt af vejen. Man forsøger at finde en måde, så man kan hindre alle fremtidige a-bomber i at virke, men det går ikke hurtigt fremad og måske går det slet ikke. Også her er der gået et par generationer og pigen Joan er præcis lige så træt af Bartorstown, som Len var af Pipers Run. Hun får Len overtalt til at stikke af med hende fra Bartorstown, selv om det er belagt med dødsstraf at gøre det og selv om flugtvejene er bevogtet skarpt. Det lykkes for dem, men senere indhenter Hostettet dem alligevel.
De når til en forståelse og nu hvor Joan har set verden udenfor Bartorstown vil hun også godt med tilbage.
Pudsig fortælling om hvordan en lille enklave af viden overlever og om de etiske overvejelser om hvorvidt man skal holde liv i viden om fx atomenergi og om man overhovedet kan holde den viden skjult, selv hvis man ville. Oveni er der lidt kærlighedsdrama og en variant over sandheden om at græsset altid er grønnest på den anden side af hegnet.
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Collection
Publication
Skrifola, Kbh. 1957
Description
'No city, no town, no community of more than one thousand people or two hundred buildings to the square mile, shall be built or permitted to exist anywhere in the United States of America.' Thirtieth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States Two generations after the nuclear holocaust, rumours persisted about a secret desert hideaway where scientists worked with dangerous machines and where men plotted to revive the cities. Almost a continent away, Len Coulter heard whisperings that fired his imagination. Then one day he found a strange wooden box ...
Media reviews
This is the theme of the Bildungsroman: loss of innocence, change, and the journey from safety into the unknown in pursuit of knowledge. But because Brackett's ambition was huge, she chose for her setting a post-nuclear Ruined Earth. She aimed for no less than the first serious science fiction
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novel of character. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member paradoxosalpha
As an SF author, Leigh Brackett is known for her planetary romances, which are indeed very fine. But this novel, perhaps her most lauded book-length work, involves a more serious and credible look at the future of our society. Indeed, the book's scenario for the not-so-distant time to come is not
In some features, this book resembles Logan's Run, which I read recently. Both involve a protagonist rejecting a stultified society and looking for a possibly-mythical site of organized resistance which has continuity with the lost values of the past. Where Logan's Run has Sanctuary, The Long Tomorrow has Bartorstown. But while Logan flees an urban technocracy, Brackett's Len Colter is trying to escape an American anti-civilization in the etymological sense: a society that has overtly rejected the idea of the city, along with all of the industries and technologies of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
With this rural, piously conservative, post-apocalyptic environment as the setting for what is in large measure a coming-of-age story, the novel invites an even more direct comparison with John Wyndham's The Chrysalids. On the whole, I consider Brackett more successful. She better realizes the ways in which even those oppressed by the prevailing morals have internalized them, and she traces a more extensive and nuanced process of maturation in her characters.
The Long Tomorrow reads quickly -- "I finished The Long Tomorrow today," I remarked paradoxically to my Other Reader -- with digestibly short chapters divided into three component "books," which might have been titled "Piper's Run" (the village of Len's childhood), "Refuge" (a community where his exile leads him as a young man), and "Bartorstown." Although it was not issued as YA fiction, it would serve that increasingly sophisticated market well today. And it continues to deserve the attention of adults willing to reflect on social and technological change outside the myth of progress.
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much less believable now than it was when she wrote it about sixty years ago. The only ways it seems dated are that she didn't predict the microprocessor, or describe any anthropogenic climate change. Given the nature of the story, the first of these is not a significant lack. In some features, this book resembles Logan's Run, which I read recently. Both involve a protagonist rejecting a stultified society and looking for a possibly-mythical site of organized resistance which has continuity with the lost values of the past. Where Logan's Run has Sanctuary, The Long Tomorrow has Bartorstown. But while Logan flees an urban technocracy, Brackett's Len Colter is trying to escape an American anti-civilization in the etymological sense: a society that has overtly rejected the idea of the city, along with all of the industries and technologies of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
With this rural, piously conservative, post-apocalyptic environment as the setting for what is in large measure a coming-of-age story, the novel invites an even more direct comparison with John Wyndham's The Chrysalids. On the whole, I consider Brackett more successful. She better realizes the ways in which even those oppressed by the prevailing morals have internalized them, and she traces a more extensive and nuanced process of maturation in her characters.
The Long Tomorrow reads quickly -- "I finished The Long Tomorrow today," I remarked paradoxically to my Other Reader -- with digestibly short chapters divided into three component "books," which might have been titled "Piper's Run" (the village of Len's childhood), "Refuge" (a community where his exile leads him as a young man), and "Bartorstown." Although it was not issued as YA fiction, it would serve that increasingly sophisticated market well today. And it continues to deserve the attention of adults willing to reflect on social and technological change outside the myth of progress.
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LibraryThing member craso
"No city, no town, no community of more than one thousand people or two hundred buildings to the square mile shall be built or permitted to exist anywhere in the United States of America. Constitution of the United States. Thirtieth Amendment."
So begins the story of Len and Esau, two young men
The story is well written and thought provoking, but light in the realm of science fiction. The setting is an America without machines; everyone rides in horse drawn carts, they build their own homes, and grow their own food. This made for some dull moments, but this novel is more about ideas than action. Questions about how to halt progress are explored. Everyone is afraid of the past so leaders use religion to control the population and keep them from learning and growing. When people challenge the laws and try to prosper they are brutally stoped. Others believe than in the end progress can not be stoped so the use of atomic weapons must be nullified.
This is the first Leigh Brackett novel I've read. She is most well known for writing the script for the movie "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back" and for encouraging and mentoring a young Ray Bradbury.
So begins the story of Len and Esau, two young men
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growing up in a post-atomic war America. Those who survived this future war adopted the lifstyle of religious sects such as the Quakers and the Mennonites. To prevent future atomic strife, a thirtieth amendment was added to the constitution to keep large cities from being formed. Young cousins Len and Esau grow up listening to their Gran tell tales of the world of the past with towering buildings and teevee. One night at a revival meeting a man is stoned for being from Bartorstown, a place where free thought and invention is encouraged. The boys become curious about this place and leave home to find it. What exactly is Bartorstown and will it be the place of the boys dreams?The story is well written and thought provoking, but light in the realm of science fiction. The setting is an America without machines; everyone rides in horse drawn carts, they build their own homes, and grow their own food. This made for some dull moments, but this novel is more about ideas than action. Questions about how to halt progress are explored. Everyone is afraid of the past so leaders use religion to control the population and keep them from learning and growing. When people challenge the laws and try to prosper they are brutally stoped. Others believe than in the end progress can not be stoped so the use of atomic weapons must be nullified.
This is the first Leigh Brackett novel I've read. She is most well known for writing the script for the movie "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back" and for encouraging and mentoring a young Ray Bradbury.
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LibraryThing member ChrisRiesbeck
What a great book! It's hard to believe that someone who wrote something as awfully Fanthorpian as "Mel Gray stared with slitted blue eyes down the valley. The huge sun of Mercury seared his naked body." in 1941, or as fun but pulpy as "the Martian had fought beside him through a long guerilla
It's easy to see why this long overlooked novel has been chosen for the Library of America treatment. The writing is rich and evocative, the characters are complex and mixed, and the story only falters in its pace a bit near the end, and not fatally so. The sense of place is overwhelming at times. Brackett doesn't do this by overwriting, but by keenly described detail, including, when it matters most, how things sound and smell, not just look. Just when the post-atomic war new Mennonite world is too bucolic, the darkness of the fear that binds everyone in place is made clear, not by histrionics but by small observation.
Highly highly recommended.
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campaign among the harried tribes of the nearer moon. He was a good man of his hands, and in the end had taken the bullet that was meant for Stark, knowing quite well what he was doing. They were friends." in 1951, could write "Len Colter sat in the shade under the wall of the horse barn, eating pone and sweet butter and contemplating a sin." just 2 years later.It's easy to see why this long overlooked novel has been chosen for the Library of America treatment. The writing is rich and evocative, the characters are complex and mixed, and the story only falters in its pace a bit near the end, and not fatally so. The sense of place is overwhelming at times. Brackett doesn't do this by overwriting, but by keenly described detail, including, when it matters most, how things sound and smell, not just look. Just when the post-atomic war new Mennonite world is too bucolic, the darkness of the fear that binds everyone in place is made clear, not by histrionics but by small observation.
Highly highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member baswood
Published in 1955 and now part of the science fiction master work series this is a dystopian novel and probably one of the first to consider what the earth would be like after a nuclear war. Brackett imagines a world that has lost perhaps four hundred years of civilisation. A world of few people
The story takes place in America and from the point of view of two teenage cousins living in the village of Piper's Run. The strict religious based society is agricultural, there are no machines, the cities have been abandoned and with them the provision of electricity. Fear of the civilzation that brought the war of Destruction some 60 years previously is beaten into the younger generation. The Colter cousins have not had their curiosity curtailed by the harsh laws and when Esau steals a radio from the schoolmaster they risk everything in trying to make it work. There is a rumour of a city that has survived the Destruction, but after witnessing the stoning to death of a man rumoured to have been there, the cousins realise they would be risking their lives to find Bartorstown.
The book is in three parts the cousins lives in the village of their birth and their escape to a slightly larger riverside town is part one. Following its conflagration they travel across America to the fabled Bartorstown which takes up part two and their experiences in Bartorstown is handled in the final part. The point of view resting with one of the two teenage boys makes it feel like young adult fiction and Brackett writes well in telling the adventurous journey across a post apocalyptic America. The violence is kept within bounds as she is more concerned with their development into young men. The mystery of the city of Bartorstown becomes the raison d'etre of the novel and the hook to keep the reader turning the pages. The book reflects the more innocent, uncomplicated times of the nineteen fifties, but with the fear of progress and the bomb.
There are no super hero or heroic deeds as the story has a realistic setting, however the society that Brackett describes is strictly patriarchal and moving further in that direction after the destruction of the cities. There is no racism or overt jingoism as it would appear that all the world has suffered the same fate. Todays science fiction readers may find the story a little tame, but its limited world building and air of mystery might be enough to keep them entertained. I enjoyed it and so 3.5 stars.
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who now live in fear of science and the big cities and have turned to religion to supply their spiritual needs.The story takes place in America and from the point of view of two teenage cousins living in the village of Piper's Run. The strict religious based society is agricultural, there are no machines, the cities have been abandoned and with them the provision of electricity. Fear of the civilzation that brought the war of Destruction some 60 years previously is beaten into the younger generation. The Colter cousins have not had their curiosity curtailed by the harsh laws and when Esau steals a radio from the schoolmaster they risk everything in trying to make it work. There is a rumour of a city that has survived the Destruction, but after witnessing the stoning to death of a man rumoured to have been there, the cousins realise they would be risking their lives to find Bartorstown.
The book is in three parts the cousins lives in the village of their birth and their escape to a slightly larger riverside town is part one. Following its conflagration they travel across America to the fabled Bartorstown which takes up part two and their experiences in Bartorstown is handled in the final part. The point of view resting with one of the two teenage boys makes it feel like young adult fiction and Brackett writes well in telling the adventurous journey across a post apocalyptic America. The violence is kept within bounds as she is more concerned with their development into young men. The mystery of the city of Bartorstown becomes the raison d'etre of the novel and the hook to keep the reader turning the pages. The book reflects the more innocent, uncomplicated times of the nineteen fifties, but with the fear of progress and the bomb.
There are no super hero or heroic deeds as the story has a realistic setting, however the society that Brackett describes is strictly patriarchal and moving further in that direction after the destruction of the cities. There is no racism or overt jingoism as it would appear that all the world has suffered the same fate. Todays science fiction readers may find the story a little tame, but its limited world building and air of mystery might be enough to keep them entertained. I enjoyed it and so 3.5 stars.
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LibraryThing member clong
This post-apocalyptic book felt quite promising, in a thoughtful, pastoral, almost Simakian kind of way, and the character building is orders of magnitude more thoughtful and nuanced than you might expect in a book of this era. But, to my taste, the ending was rather flimsy and quite unsatisfying.
LibraryThing member ben_a
Like so much science fiction, this one declined in interest with the inevitable logic of an inverse power law. The first scenes are grippingly written, and Brackett deserves credit for doing so little stacking of the deck in a novel of ideas. By section three I was skimming. I wanted to like it...
LibraryThing member Cheryl_in_CC_NV
Some interesting ideas, a decent plot, but it just didn't work for me, wasn't sufficiently provocative or memorable.
LibraryThing member Audacity88
One of the greatest characteristics of science fiction is its ability to incorporate all sorts of ways of life into its visions of possible futures. The Long Tomorrow does so with the Amish, as seen from the perspective of a young searcher for truth who comes up against the confines of the "New
Brackett is admirably impartial, inspiring in us sympathy for the main character without discounting the virtues of the religious mindset that he breaks from. I finished this book feeling that I could appreciate the Amish way of life without wanting to trade my own for it.
The story is in parts directionless, waiting too long for something to happen or the protagonist to make up his mind about something. Also, the characters' internal monologues sometimes feel unrealistic, and one wonders why the protagonist is able to be at the center of so many crucial events. But these are minor flaws, and Brackett's ability to bring her future vision to life makes this a story worth reading.
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Mennonite" community he is born into - a community which is made up, not of a few hundred towns sprinkled through north-central America, but of most of the population of a United States in which the great cities, the centers of knowledge and culture in which so many died during the nuclear holocaust, are constitutionally prohibited.Brackett is admirably impartial, inspiring in us sympathy for the main character without discounting the virtues of the religious mindset that he breaks from. I finished this book feeling that I could appreciate the Amish way of life without wanting to trade my own for it.
The story is in parts directionless, waiting too long for something to happen or the protagonist to make up his mind about something. Also, the characters' internal monologues sometimes feel unrealistic, and one wonders why the protagonist is able to be at the center of so many crucial events. But these are minor flaws, and Brackett's ability to bring her future vision to life makes this a story worth reading.
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LibraryThing member auntmarge64
A middling post-apocalyptic novel about two New Mennonite boys who find a forbidden radio and manage to hear part of a message, after which they run away from home to find the legendary Bartorstown, supposedly an actual city in which scientists struggle to bring back the technological world of the
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pre-Destruction. A leisurely, not particularly suspenseful tale. Show Less
LibraryThing member shagger
I find it interesting that all the best post apocalyptic books were written more than 50 years ago. The Long Tomorrow is no exception. It is a great book. Some of it feels familiar. Like it has been done before. But you realise that if you've read something like this before it was probably one of
Leigh Brackett has written the almost perfect Post Apocalypse novel. But she wrote in a number of genres and for the screen. Later in life she was one of the co-screenwriters of Star Wars: A New Hope. Quite an eclectic career I'd suggest.
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the ones that came later that was inspired by this book. Even though The Long Tomorrow was first published almost 60 years ago it doesn't feel dated or "quaint", possibly because it reads like a period piece. In this post apocalyptic future the US has rebuilt as a theocracy, specifically of the Mennonite persuasion (like the Amish), and they have mandated that technology remain at a mid 19th century agrarian level so that sin technology will not rain down nuclear fire again. Leigh Brackett has written the almost perfect Post Apocalypse novel. But she wrote in a number of genres and for the screen. Later in life she was one of the co-screenwriters of Star Wars: A New Hope. Quite an eclectic career I'd suggest.
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LibraryThing member JohnFair
When Len's doubting nature outgrows his small community, he finds himself and his cousin Eseau caught up in troubles. First, it's a Preaching, followed by a Stoning as the fear enraged citizens turn on a trader as coming from the heretical and hidden city of Bartorstown. It's a sight that will stay
Inside that stolen box was a strange device that buzzed and popped whenever they touched one of the dials of its face and the boys realise they have a device from before the Destruction. For a while the boys get to play with their new toy but when their secret is uncovered by the community, they're beaten to an inch of their lives by their father and their community so they flee their constricted community in hopes that they will find Bartorstown and answers.
But Len finds that the answers he's given don't comfort or ease his doubts, even in the hidden environs of Bartorstown.
If you've only experinced Leigh Brackett's solar system based stories you may find this tale quite a change of pace.
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with Len for the rest of his life and when Eseau found an old box in the dead trader's wagon the two boys put two and two together and realise their old frend Mr Horstetter may also be an agent of the despised Bartorstown. Though no-one quite knew why they should despiseit so much. Inside that stolen box was a strange device that buzzed and popped whenever they touched one of the dials of its face and the boys realise they have a device from before the Destruction. For a while the boys get to play with their new toy but when their secret is uncovered by the community, they're beaten to an inch of their lives by their father and their community so they flee their constricted community in hopes that they will find Bartorstown and answers.
But Len finds that the answers he's given don't comfort or ease his doubts, even in the hidden environs of Bartorstown.
If you've only experinced Leigh Brackett's solar system based stories you may find this tale quite a change of pace.
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LibraryThing member jmecham
I read this one back in a high school sci-fi class. I don't remember much of the story now except the highlights. I remember liking it at the time. It appears to be out-of-print. What a shame. I'd love to get my hands on a copy and give it another read.
LibraryThing member jigarpatel
Classic post-apocalyptic dystopia where all settlements must comply with a prescribed maximum size. The novel starts as a bildungsroman around two cousins brought up in an agricultural society. Their formative years are marked by a battle between their curiosity and strict religious instruction; a
The novel jumps several years, and becomes more philosophical. There's another common love interest. Their inner battle manifests itself in the warring community which they have joined. Embroiled in the discontent, they must decide whether to follow the path of science or dogma. Choosing science, they discover a new world, but not quite what they imagined, leading to a much more difficult decision.
Highly recommended.
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common love interest; and a stoning which leaves an indelible mark on their outlook.The novel jumps several years, and becomes more philosophical. There's another common love interest. Their inner battle manifests itself in the warring community which they have joined. Embroiled in the discontent, they must decide whether to follow the path of science or dogma. Choosing science, they discover a new world, but not quite what they imagined, leading to a much more difficult decision.
Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member JalenV
Well, I've just finished Brackett's THE LONG TOMORROW. Given human nature, I can understand why the scientists of Bartorstown were working toward the goal they had. There are bound to be some twits who'll create nuclear weapons, so one might as well find a way to counter them without resorting to
For the me, the big blind spot (did the author feel she had to write Bartorstown that way?), was that their girls and women weren't being tested for the ability to be scientists and engineers and given the education if they had it and the desire to learn.
Len and Joan needed to go through those last few chapters to know what they really wanted, so I didn't find that part a letdown.
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having one's own bombs. Interesting that their knowledge of history hadn't furnished them with examples of humans who designed something they knew they would never live to see (cathedrals, landscapes, etc.) -- or else they didn't bother to mention such projects.For the me, the big blind spot (did the author feel she had to write Bartorstown that way?), was that their girls and women weren't being tested for the ability to be scientists and engineers and given the education if they had it and the desire to learn.
Len and Joan needed to go through those last few chapters to know what they really wanted, so I didn't find that part a letdown.
.
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LibraryThing member unclebob53703
The journey of two boys on their way to becoming young men in a post-apocalyptic world. Their travels result in some big shifts in the main character's world view, and his struggles and pain are palpable. The ending took me by complete surprise, but it makes sense in retrospect. More thoughtful
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than most books of this kind, and she knows how to keep you turning pages. I seem to be collecting these end of the world books, and this is one of the better ones. Show Less
LibraryThing member SChant
1950s novel of post-apocalyptic US as the preserve of reactionary, bible-thumping bigots who refuse to let people learn and change in case of more divine retribution. 2 young men run away from one such restrictive community in search of the mythical Bartortown which supposedly contains the marvels
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of the pre-apocalyptic world. Of course, all is not as it seems, and one of the men struggles to come to terms with that. To be honest, this could have been a historical novel as the seting wasn't particularly SF, but it was an entertaining read. Show Less
LibraryThing member write-review
When Fear Rules, Reason Dies
Many consider Leigh Brackett’s The Long Tomorrow a science fiction classic because it is among the first mediations on the aftermath of nuclear holocaust and probably because she was one of the few successful female sci-fi writers of the era. Modern readers may find it
And such is the case in The Long Tomorrow. Not many years after the end of a worldwide nuclear war, around eighty years, the United States eschews science, reverts to religious dominance and its strict rules of faith and conformity, and restricts settlements to maximum populations of one thousand and no more than two hundred buildings per square mile. Thus, no more big cities, no more electricity and the conveniences and communications it supports, no more autos, trucks, trains, and planes. Steam power produced by crude engines becomes the technology of the day, livestock provides transportation and power, and roaming traders supply the goods that rural communities can’t manufacture for themselves. Instead of respecting and encouraging scientific exploration and knowledge, society represses both for fear of another conflagration.
Two teen boys, cousins, Len and Esau Colter, chaff at the insularity of their Mennonite community. They’ve heard stories of the past, of the big cities, of the wonders of modern life fostered by the remembrances of their old grandmother, and most particularly of a mystical big city called Bartorstown. They yearn to find it. After a devastating trading day, when a mob of ultra religious zealots kill a trader, Esau finds a radio in the wagon of another, Ed Hostetter. Later, they try unsuccessfully puzzling how to operate it. Nonetheless, it spurs them on to escape their stringent community and set out to find Bardorstown. Along the way, they arrive in a town called Refuge, where they work for an expansion minded businessman, Mike Dulinsky and Esau meets a girl, Amity. When Dulinsky repudiates the wishes of Refuge religious elders and the ambitions of a rival town by building an additional warehouse, retribution and mob action follow. Dulinsky dies at the hands of a local elder, while Hostetter appears to save Len and Esau.
The three, plus Amity, then make the journey to a town in the Rocky Mountains called Falls Creek and there find the Bartorstown they have dreamed about. Except that it bears no resemblance to what they imagined. Instead, it is a small community of scientists technicians who maintain a giant computer called Clementine and a nuclear reactor. They people work tirelessly and to their great frustration to discover a shield to protect humankind from the kind of destruction suffered at the hands of misused nuclear power. The endeavor seems hopeless and the achievement, if it can be had, appears long off in the distant, long tomorrow. Len and his new Bartorstown wife Joan, who long has been disillusioned and seeking escape, devise and execute a plan to flee Bartorstown, though the penalty for such action is death. After attempting to reach his hometown a thousand miles away, being buffeted by hardship, and engulfed again by the religious fatalism he fled, Hostetter finds them and arranges for them to be accepted back into Bartorstown. Len, for his part, accepts that change will come eventually, though he may not live to see it.
Though nearly sixty-five years old, the underlying theme of the novel will still resonate with certain readers.
Many consider Leigh Brackett’s The Long Tomorrow a science fiction classic because it is among the first mediations on the aftermath of nuclear holocaust and probably because she was one of the few successful female sci-fi writers of the era. Modern readers may find it
Show More
slow by today’s standards and the science antiquated, particularly the giant computer brain on the order of an overgrown UNIVAC (itself notable at the time for predicting the outcome of the 1952 U.S. Presidential Election). But others will recognize the theme of fear and ignorance vs. human curiosity and scientific advancement as pertinent today as it was in the 1950s (recall the Red Scare-mongering and national Cold War paranoia). Scientific inquiry and its findings, after all, can be tough for many to abide, especially when it debunks cherished beliefs. And such is the case in The Long Tomorrow. Not many years after the end of a worldwide nuclear war, around eighty years, the United States eschews science, reverts to religious dominance and its strict rules of faith and conformity, and restricts settlements to maximum populations of one thousand and no more than two hundred buildings per square mile. Thus, no more big cities, no more electricity and the conveniences and communications it supports, no more autos, trucks, trains, and planes. Steam power produced by crude engines becomes the technology of the day, livestock provides transportation and power, and roaming traders supply the goods that rural communities can’t manufacture for themselves. Instead of respecting and encouraging scientific exploration and knowledge, society represses both for fear of another conflagration.
Two teen boys, cousins, Len and Esau Colter, chaff at the insularity of their Mennonite community. They’ve heard stories of the past, of the big cities, of the wonders of modern life fostered by the remembrances of their old grandmother, and most particularly of a mystical big city called Bartorstown. They yearn to find it. After a devastating trading day, when a mob of ultra religious zealots kill a trader, Esau finds a radio in the wagon of another, Ed Hostetter. Later, they try unsuccessfully puzzling how to operate it. Nonetheless, it spurs them on to escape their stringent community and set out to find Bardorstown. Along the way, they arrive in a town called Refuge, where they work for an expansion minded businessman, Mike Dulinsky and Esau meets a girl, Amity. When Dulinsky repudiates the wishes of Refuge religious elders and the ambitions of a rival town by building an additional warehouse, retribution and mob action follow. Dulinsky dies at the hands of a local elder, while Hostetter appears to save Len and Esau.
The three, plus Amity, then make the journey to a town in the Rocky Mountains called Falls Creek and there find the Bartorstown they have dreamed about. Except that it bears no resemblance to what they imagined. Instead, it is a small community of scientists technicians who maintain a giant computer called Clementine and a nuclear reactor. They people work tirelessly and to their great frustration to discover a shield to protect humankind from the kind of destruction suffered at the hands of misused nuclear power. The endeavor seems hopeless and the achievement, if it can be had, appears long off in the distant, long tomorrow. Len and his new Bartorstown wife Joan, who long has been disillusioned and seeking escape, devise and execute a plan to flee Bartorstown, though the penalty for such action is death. After attempting to reach his hometown a thousand miles away, being buffeted by hardship, and engulfed again by the religious fatalism he fled, Hostetter finds them and arranges for them to be accepted back into Bartorstown. Len, for his part, accepts that change will come eventually, though he may not live to see it.
Though nearly sixty-five years old, the underlying theme of the novel will still resonate with certain readers.
Show Less
LibraryThing member write-review
When Fear Rules, Reason Dies
Many consider Leigh Brackett’s The Long Tomorrow a science fiction classic because it is among the first mediations on the aftermath of nuclear holocaust and probably because she was one of the few successful female sci-fi writers of the era. Modern readers may find it
And such is the case in The Long Tomorrow. Not many years after the end of a worldwide nuclear war, around eighty years, the United States eschews science, reverts to religious dominance and its strict rules of faith and conformity, and restricts settlements to maximum populations of one thousand and no more than two hundred buildings per square mile. Thus, no more big cities, no more electricity and the conveniences and communications it supports, no more autos, trucks, trains, and planes. Steam power produced by crude engines becomes the technology of the day, livestock provides transportation and power, and roaming traders supply the goods that rural communities can’t manufacture for themselves. Instead of respecting and encouraging scientific exploration and knowledge, society represses both for fear of another conflagration.
Two teen boys, cousins, Len and Esau Colter, chaff at the insularity of their Mennonite community. They’ve heard stories of the past, of the big cities, of the wonders of modern life fostered by the remembrances of their old grandmother, and most particularly of a mystical big city called Bartorstown. They yearn to find it. After a devastating trading day, when a mob of ultra religious zealots kill a trader, Esau finds a radio in the wagon of another, Ed Hostetter. Later, they try unsuccessfully puzzling how to operate it. Nonetheless, it spurs them on to escape their stringent community and set out to find Bardorstown. Along the way, they arrive in a town called Refuge, where they work for an expansion minded businessman, Mike Dulinsky and Esau meets a girl, Amity. When Dulinsky repudiates the wishes of Refuge religious elders and the ambitions of a rival town by building an additional warehouse, retribution and mob action follow. Dulinsky dies at the hands of a local elder, while Hostetter appears to save Len and Esau.
The three, plus Amity, then make the journey to a town in the Rocky Mountains called Falls Creek and there find the Bartorstown they have dreamed about. Except that it bears no resemblance to what they imagined. Instead, it is a small community of scientists technicians who maintain a giant computer called Clementine and a nuclear reactor. They people work tirelessly and to their great frustration to discover a shield to protect humankind from the kind of destruction suffered at the hands of misused nuclear power. The endeavor seems hopeless and the achievement, if it can be had, appears long off in the distant, long tomorrow. Len and his new Bartorstown wife Joan, who long has been disillusioned and seeking escape, devise and execute a plan to flee Bartorstown, though the penalty for such action is death. After attempting to reach his hometown a thousand miles away, being buffeted by hardship, and engulfed again by the religious fatalism he fled, Hostetter finds them and arranges for them to be accepted back into Bartorstown. Len, for his part, accepts that change will come eventually, though he may not live to see it.
Though nearly sixty-five years old, the underlying theme of the novel will still resonate with certain readers.
Many consider Leigh Brackett’s The Long Tomorrow a science fiction classic because it is among the first mediations on the aftermath of nuclear holocaust and probably because she was one of the few successful female sci-fi writers of the era. Modern readers may find it
Show More
slow by today’s standards and the science antiquated, particularly the giant computer brain on the order of an overgrown UNIVAC (itself notable at the time for predicting the outcome of the 1952 U.S. Presidential Election). But others will recognize the theme of fear and ignorance vs. human curiosity and scientific advancement as pertinent today as it was in the 1950s (recall the Red Scare-mongering and national Cold War paranoia). Scientific inquiry and its findings, after all, can be tough for many to abide, especially when it debunks cherished beliefs. And such is the case in The Long Tomorrow. Not many years after the end of a worldwide nuclear war, around eighty years, the United States eschews science, reverts to religious dominance and its strict rules of faith and conformity, and restricts settlements to maximum populations of one thousand and no more than two hundred buildings per square mile. Thus, no more big cities, no more electricity and the conveniences and communications it supports, no more autos, trucks, trains, and planes. Steam power produced by crude engines becomes the technology of the day, livestock provides transportation and power, and roaming traders supply the goods that rural communities can’t manufacture for themselves. Instead of respecting and encouraging scientific exploration and knowledge, society represses both for fear of another conflagration.
Two teen boys, cousins, Len and Esau Colter, chaff at the insularity of their Mennonite community. They’ve heard stories of the past, of the big cities, of the wonders of modern life fostered by the remembrances of their old grandmother, and most particularly of a mystical big city called Bartorstown. They yearn to find it. After a devastating trading day, when a mob of ultra religious zealots kill a trader, Esau finds a radio in the wagon of another, Ed Hostetter. Later, they try unsuccessfully puzzling how to operate it. Nonetheless, it spurs them on to escape their stringent community and set out to find Bardorstown. Along the way, they arrive in a town called Refuge, where they work for an expansion minded businessman, Mike Dulinsky and Esau meets a girl, Amity. When Dulinsky repudiates the wishes of Refuge religious elders and the ambitions of a rival town by building an additional warehouse, retribution and mob action follow. Dulinsky dies at the hands of a local elder, while Hostetter appears to save Len and Esau.
The three, plus Amity, then make the journey to a town in the Rocky Mountains called Falls Creek and there find the Bartorstown they have dreamed about. Except that it bears no resemblance to what they imagined. Instead, it is a small community of scientists technicians who maintain a giant computer called Clementine and a nuclear reactor. They people work tirelessly and to their great frustration to discover a shield to protect humankind from the kind of destruction suffered at the hands of misused nuclear power. The endeavor seems hopeless and the achievement, if it can be had, appears long off in the distant, long tomorrow. Len and his new Bartorstown wife Joan, who long has been disillusioned and seeking escape, devise and execute a plan to flee Bartorstown, though the penalty for such action is death. After attempting to reach his hometown a thousand miles away, being buffeted by hardship, and engulfed again by the religious fatalism he fled, Hostetter finds them and arranges for them to be accepted back into Bartorstown. Len, for his part, accepts that change will come eventually, though he may not live to see it.
Though nearly sixty-five years old, the underlying theme of the novel will still resonate with certain readers.
Show Less
LibraryThing member iansales
Just about every US science fiction writer has had a go at a post-apocalypse novel – and if it was during the first 75 years of last century, it was usually a post-nuclear holocaust novel. Several of the better ones have been by women writers, although, as is usually the case, the ones by male
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writers – Earth Abides, A Canticle for Leibowitz – have been more celebrated. But with Judith Merril’s Shadow on the Hearth and Brackett’s The Long Tomorrow, you have two of the best American post-nuclear war sf novels written in the first half(-ish) of last century. They should be the ones that are celebrated, not Stewart or Miller. But, no matter, we know sf is male-centric, and though we do our best to show this is a false picture, women writers have been immensely successful in genre fiction the last couple of years and that tends to overshadow the achievements of women genre writers of last century. Which it should not. In The Long Tomorrow, the US has turned Mennonite after a nuclear war, and an amendment to the constitution bans towns and villages over a certain size. Cities, you see, make good targets. Of course, the rest of the world has also probably devolved to an agrarian early twentieth-century society, so who’s going to attack the US? But never mind. Len and Esau are curious teenagers in a small New Mennonite farming community, who dream of bigger things, particularly Bartorstown, a mythical town of high tech. After witnessing the stoning of a man linked with Bartorstown, they run away. And end up at the town of Refuge, where they come into conflict with some of the townsfolk because they’re start working for a trader who wants to build an extra warehouse, which will break the aforementioned amendment. This is exacerbated by a rival town across the river which is taking advantage of Refuge’s inability to grow. And then farmers descend on Refuge and put warehouses to the torch, but Len and Esau manage to escape, with the help of an old friend who proves to be from Bartorstown… There’s nothing new in the future US Brackett depicts, drawing as it does on pretty much the entire history of American literature; but the events in Refuge are unexpected, and the arguments against holding back progress, while characteristically American, are handled well. The two leads are typical for sixty year old American sf – ie, white males from comfortable backgrounds – and in fact I don’t recall any POC being mentioned anywhere in the novel. I’m a bigger fan of Brackett’s planetary romances than I am her straight-up sf, although The Long Tomorrow was better than I’d expected. It’s now in the SF Masterworks series. Show Less
LibraryThing member arubabookwoman
Written fewer than ten years after Hiroshima, this classic SF novel depicts a post-apocalyptic society rebuilding itself after a nuclear war. No horrors of war are shown, and people live in mostly rural and agrarian groups. Technology is frowned upon, even banned, and no town is permitted to have
Len and Esau are cousins living on adjoining farms. They have heard rumors of a big city where technology has been preserved, and become obsessed with someday finding that city. When they become teenagers, they run away in search of that city.
There are themes of the conflicts between knowledge and progress vs. ignorance and the status quo. There is a good depiction of the many different religious sects and how they divide people.
There is not a lot of action in the book, and while it is a quick and easy ready, I found it a bit slow-moving. It also has a rather YA feel, not my favorite genre. So while I'm not sorry I read it, it is not one I would whole-heartedly recommend.
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more than 200 buildings. The society has a very 19th century feel, and religion is an important part of most people's lives.Len and Esau are cousins living on adjoining farms. They have heard rumors of a big city where technology has been preserved, and become obsessed with someday finding that city. When they become teenagers, they run away in search of that city.
There are themes of the conflicts between knowledge and progress vs. ignorance and the status quo. There is a good depiction of the many different religious sects and how they divide people.
There is not a lot of action in the book, and while it is a quick and easy ready, I found it a bit slow-moving. It also has a rather YA feel, not my favorite genre. So while I'm not sorry I read it, it is not one I would whole-heartedly recommend.
Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Hugo Award (Nominee — Novel — 1956)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1955
Physical description
144 p.; 17.8 cm
Local notes
Omslag: Kurt Caesar
Omslaget viser en mand, der kigger ind i en timeglasformet skærm, hvori ses ansigtet af en gammel mand med hvidt skæg
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Fremtidsromanen, bind 13
Oversat fra engelsk "The Long Tomorrow" af Knud Erik Andersen
Omslaget er taget fra et italiensk Urania hæfte, nr 122, "La Città Proibita", dvs den italienske udgave
Der er en signatur på forsiden "Caesar" og Kurt Caesar (1906-1974) er en kendt illustrator af italienske og tyske science fiction magasiner
Illustrationer: Carlo Jacono
Carlo Jacono (17 marts 1929 - Milano , 7 juni 2000) var en italiensk kunstner og illustrator, der blandt andet blev brugt af Urania magasinet.
Omslaget viser en mand, der kigger ind i en timeglasformet skærm, hvori ses ansigtet af en gammel mand med hvidt skæg
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Fremtidsromanen, bind 13
Oversat fra engelsk "The Long Tomorrow" af Knud Erik Andersen
Omslaget er taget fra et italiensk Urania hæfte, nr 122, "La Città Proibita", dvs den italienske udgave
Der er en signatur på forsiden "Caesar" og Kurt Caesar (1906-1974) er en kendt illustrator af italienske og tyske science fiction magasiner
Illustrationer: Carlo Jacono
Carlo Jacono (17 marts 1929 - Milano , 7 juni 2000) var en italiensk kunstner og illustrator, der blandt andet blev brugt af Urania magasinet.
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Pages
144
DDC/MDS
| 813.54 |