8. This Place: 150 Years Retold

7. V-Wars: Chronicles of the Vampire Wars

Edited by Jonathan Maberry

My BIL got me this hardback a couple of Xmases ago.  I thought I'd read it as it seems like the kind of book I'd read once and then trade at Encore (I like to amass a small pile to trade for my annual visit to the NDG bookstore).

I had never heard of V Wars before.  I believe John Maberry came up with the franchise idea of a kind global vampire takeover a la World World Z.  This 2012 book is the first of an anthology series edited by Maberry and featuring different horror and/or sci-fi authors.  The common link is that all the stories are set in the same world in which a global pandemic is turning humans into various vampire species. An ancient pathogen, released by melting Arctic ice, infects humankind and activates long dormant or "junk DNA," turning a percentage of people into vampires based on ethnic/genetic factors. Turns out the myths about vampires and monsters had a basis on historical fact, and the centuries of hunting has driven these human species to extinction. The franchise has expanded into graphic novels and comics, and there was even a 2019 Netflix series.

Because the book was so dense, I thought I'd try something different and take notes WHILE I'm reading.  This way, the burden of writing a review, esp for an anthology, would be less painful.  The problem was, after finishing the book, I wasn't sure if a long detailed review merited this book, which was overall a bit meh.  But since I took the time and effort taking notes, I may as well include them!

So far, the first story "JUNK" Pt.1 by the creator himself, Jonathan Maberry, was really quite bad, which was not a good start.  I get that the narrator Michael Fayne is an unlikeable person, a failed actor working at Starbucks who's always looking for his next sexual conquest, but the prose is composed like it came from the mind of a 15 year old boy.  Fayne says things like, she was just "a blonde chick to nail". It's the kind of cringey, hackneyed writing you'd find in a bad TV episode on the SyFy channel.  I think the book was produced as a series for Netflix a few years later.  

Thankfully, the next story "ROADKILL" Pt.1 by Nancy Holder was much better.  There was actual world-building and solid competent writing that kept you engaged with the narrative. The story is told from the POV of Thompson, an undercover DEA who has infiltrated a criminal biker gang known as the Ocotillo Militia, or the O.M., which control a region near the Mexican border.  Ever since the vampire epidemic, much of the local law enforcement had disappeared, and the O.M.s are the only organized outfit that has maintained a semblance of order among the string of border towns.  While the locals both fear and respect the O.M., the only problem is that the leader, Bobby Morrissey, is hell-bent on eradicating all Mexican illegals, claiming they're the ones who are bringing the vampire infestation into the USA.  Today, Bobby would be a hardline M4G4-lovin' Tr*mper (V Wars was originally published in 2012).  There was more to the story, but it was such a nice change from the previous story, which was just awful. 

"JUNK" Pt.2 was less obnoxious than Pt.1, so that was an improvement, mostly because it focused on the POV of Michael Fayne, just after he had gruesomely killed his first victim. The other JUNK stories mostly involve Michael Fayne being interviewed by Professor Luther Swann at the police station. Swann is a folklore expert specializing in supernatural vampires and werewolves, but he's beginning to suspect there's a scientific basis to what's happening with his interview subject.

"LOVE LESS" Pt.1 by John Everson is about a daytime TV host, Danika Dubov, who's just discovering the fact that she's a vampire. She would be racked by nausea, hot flashes and cold sweats at work, and have the strangest hunger pangs yet when she tries to eat something, she can't.  She finds out the hard way when she visits her sister Mila and before she could control herself, ends up drinking her blood. Danika is already somewhat of a sociopathic narcissist so even though she was super sad that she had unintentionally killed her sister, she also derived a lot of pleasure from her first kill as a vampire.  At the same time, she was hoping that she was sated enough to not have to kill another person. A couple of days later, the hunger pangs started up again.  What was funny was how Danika was more worried about feeling like total shit at work again than the fact that she'd have to take another human life to satiate her hunger.  Danika later learns that her sister had survived and also changed.  And they are both Russian wurdulacs, who can only feed on people they love or are close to (the Dubov sisters have Russian ancestry). Danika figures out how to grow her vampire "family", but her sister Mila doesn't reappear until the next installment. The prose is done in that generically mainstream, yet competent, style.  There was a chance for some dark satire, but was just beyond the skill of the writer, but it nevertheless the black humor was amusing and it was an entertainingly trashy read.  

"EPIPHANY" Pt.1 by Yvonne Navarro

Finally, something a little different and like "Roadkill" we're back in the desert. "Epiphany" centers on 17yo Native American Mooney who's living with her foster mother Mother Gaso on the Tohono O'odham reservation in the Sonoran Desert near the Mexican border.  The story begins not long after Mooney had been raped by three Mexican illegals while she was out in the desert harvesting pods in the morning.  As a way to help her recover, Mother Gaso allows Mooney to go on a trip to NYC, where she somehow ends up at the same Starbucks where Michael Fayne was working at and thus contracts the vampire virus from him.  Already a pretty far-fetched coincidence, the virus activates some ancient DNA in her body and she begins to transform.  Then shortly after she returns home, Mooney discovers she's also pregnant from one of the rapists.  Not only is she a teenaged girl undergoing dual changes of adolescence and vampirism!  Unlike Danika in "Love Less", Mooney has more of a moral center, despite being an loveless orphan/foster kid/outcast.  It's the first time a story has remotely delved into the moral quandary of what being a newborn vampire means.

There is a part of herself, the human part that has controller her existence until recently, that views the idea of drinking human blood as disgust and vaguely filthy. The new part of her, the DNA-activated mystery creature who just had its first decent meal, find it so appealing that her mouth instantly waters. A thousand horror movie images flip through her mind like a slide show on warp speed, and they all end in splatter and gore and death. Does she really want to go there, to kill other human beings in order to sustain herself?  ... But as much as she despises almost everyone in town, there is no one in Sells she hates so much that they warrant dying.

"LOVE LESS" Pt.2

We're introduced to one of Danika's kept "pets" from her little blood farm. Sister Mila realizes this inevitable fact: "Her sister's genetic transition had not simply been to change into a creature that fed on humans. Her physical alteration had turned her into a transmitter. When she bit friends and lovers... she somehow transferred a retrovirus that... inserted itself into their genes, initiating the deadly mutation in others. While by nature, the wurdulac was self-limiting, given its boundary of relationships, Danika had, as usual, found a way to play outside of the rules, and in doing so, had set loose a horde of wurdulacs, thanks to her insatiable appetite. Mila had no doubt that you could follow a thread of relationships from every Chicago wurdulac back to Danica." So "Dirty Mila" takes it upon herself to "clean up" after Danika!

"THE BALLAD OF BIG CHARLIE" Pt.1 by Keith R.A. DeCandido

Bronx D.A Hughes Charles aka Big Charlie is of Haitian descent and running for re-election.  The first few pages were devoted to setting and characters.  Journalist Mia Fiitzsimmons interviews Big Charlie and forms a professional relationship with him and his team, campaign manager Barel Grindberg and press secretary Judy Alejo. For several pages, you wouldn't think the world had been taken over by vampires.  Then at a press conference Charles reveals the rather shocking news he has contracted the I1V1 virus and he's now a loup garou, a Haitian form of lycanthropy, where one has full control of one's condition and can transform oneself at will.

"JUNK" Pt. 5 by Jonathan Maberry

With the subheading: Zero days until the V-event. This one was written from the POV of TV reporter Yuki Nitobe, one of the few characters who appears or is referenced in most of the stories so far.  Interestingly, Maberry was more convincing writing from Nitobe's POV than he was impersonating a douchebag in Pt.1.  Yuki has bribed some contacts so she could infiltrate the hospital where Michael Fayne is staying as a patient.  In the previous installment, Fayne had broke through a bullet proof window of a police station and had been shot. One of the security guards Jenkins is a real creep, and in one scene, she feels ill when she realizes he uses lipstick cameras to spy on some of the female patients and contemplates using her hidden stun gun on his nutsack. You can tell where the plot is gonna go. Ambitious reporter wants the big scoop, sneaks into Fayne's room disguised as a doctor to get up close for an interview and it doesn't end well for her and the poor orderly.

"HEARTSICK" by Scott Nicholson

About a redneck farmer who discovers 3 men strung up like cattle in a neighbouring barn and a vampiric "Injun" feeding on one of them.  The vampires are called heart-stealers in those parts, probably because the victims are found with their chest split open and emptied and there's a local Cherokee legend about Raven Mockers who eat men's hearts.  Artus returns home to his wife Betty Ann who's knitting something for a baby and watching Yuki Nitobe on TV talking about the "vampire virus".  Artus has a convo with Betty Ann but doesn't mention finding Billy Standingdeer eating someone in the McFall barn.  We suffer Artus' bigotry as he refers to Yuki Nitobe as that "Jap reporter", Billy as an "Injun" and belittles his wife. That is, until he gets his comeuppance.  Somehow Betty Ann is not as dumb as she seems and has been in league with the Raven Mockers as she offers them her horrible husband to feed on.  

"JUNK" Pt.6

Zero days until the V-event. Picks up where it left off at the hospital.  Luther Swann, Detective Schmidt and Dr. Alice Feldman are discussing Michael Fayne. Then one of the orderlies bursts into the room, holding his neck, which was been ripped open. Chaos ensues. Schmidt calls for backup and a SWAT team. When he hears a woman's scream, he goes in alone to see if he can save her. Turns out Yuki Nitobe's still alive but covered in blood.  Swann looks eyes with the monster that has taken over Michael Fayne's body.  The SWAT arrives to take down Fayne with some gunfire.

"ROADKILL" Pt.2 by Nancy Holder

The O.M.s were the real vampires of Sonrisa, flying over the sand in their trucks; running illegals to ground; swooping after the vans and SUVs of coyotes who still dared cross the vast, uninhabited wastelands to tranport their human cargo. Maybe the coyotes and wetbacks had heard ot he Ocotillo Militia, and maybe they figured, Orale, chinga, there were only seven of those biker guys in a huge desert.

Bobby becomes unhinged, seeing vampires everywhere, except within his own gang, and family.  His brother Walker, seems concerned about Bobby's escalating obsession with getting rid of illegals and vampires, often conflating the two. The gang members don't realize they may have been executing people, when they finally kill a real vampire, which was much harder to kill than with a single bullet.  Thompson, ever quiet, ever observant, figures out Walker has been planning something and that he's been hiding his vampirism from the gang.  The twist is that Thompson's a vampire himself, he's been one the whole time!  But it wasn't clear how long Thompson himself had been one.  Did he turn when he encountered Moncho, who had become a vampire, killed him and then took over his apartment? Who knows.  

"VULPES" Pt. 1 by Gregory Frost

An USAP (U.S. Antarctic Program) team of mountaineering climate scientists is taking core samples from an ice shelf that had calved two hours ago, introducing more than a thousand feet of glacial face that hadn't been exposed in millennia.  The title refers to the protagonist, Ruksana Vulpes.  The story begins with her and her ex-fling Vincent rappelling down the cliff face.  He drills into the ice and accidentally gets some green sludge on himself and her. When they return to base, they give samples of the sludge to the biologists to study.  As it was near the end of a four month stint, the long-term staffers throw a party for the 18-member team at the base.  It seems the vampires are already common knowledge as some were talking about a CNN story. Later, Ruksana flies back to Bucharest, Romania and reunites with her father Decebal and her musician boyfriend Costin.  Decebal happens to be a professor of folklore at the university. Ruksana gets it on with Costin and finds she's unusually horny and her hair is suddenly streaked with a shock of white. A couple of nights later, Ruksana is attacked by a rapist as she's getting into her car and she blacks out.  When she awakes, she's surrounded by police and is taken to hospital. The rapist appeared to be gruesomely killed by a feral dog while Ruksana was bloodied but unharmed. Ruksana returns home with Decebal still very upset as she has no idea what had happened to her.  But I think we all know where this plot line is going!

"ESCALATION" by Jonathan Maberry

Fifteen days after V-event. Luther Swann has been picked up by NSA agents and brought to the Oval Office of the White House to meet the Chief of Staff, who shows him case files involving victims having their throats and/or limbs torn off and all being drained of blood in various parts of the USA. The higher ups are starting to believe Swann's vampire theory is true.  I1V1 aka the Ice Virus is activating dormant human genes that were once responsible for the myths of vampires and werewolves.  At the direction of the president, Homeland Security is assembling a team to handle this outbreak of vampirism and is treating it as a form of terrorism!

"STALKING ANNA LEI" Pt.1 by James A. Moore.

This one was written in that colloquially ham-fisted way that a student would attempt in a creative writing class.  By this point, I'm wondering how many Pt 1's am I going to get? I'm already more than two-thirds into the book.  It features John Lei who's of mixed Asian ancestry and grew up in San Francisco Chinatown.  He's got claws, can climb walls and has pure white hair.  He contracted the "vampirus" at some point and became a kind of hopping Asian ghost who gets his sustenance from draining the life-force out of living beings.  So far, he has only fed on a poor stray dog.  He's tracking down some kind of green monster who's kidnapped his sister Anna and is using her to lure anti-vampire people and kill them.  One of the victims is from a rival triad gang in Chicago and another a politician, and of course, the police thinks it's Lei who did it.  There's not much more to say as I sped-read this one.  I appreciated that it was partly set in SF Chinatown with Chinese-American characters, but wished it was better written!

"THE BALLAD OF BIG CHARLIE" Pt.2 by Keith R.A. DeCandido

Lots of socio-political commentary in this installment which is comprised of multiple media segments, including the Helen Lashmar show hosting a round table discussion featuring Mia Fitzsimmons from the New York Daily News, a public information office for the Blessed Church of Enlightenment (the famous Reverend called for the death of Hughes Charles because he was no longer human and shouldn't run for public office, an ACLU lawyer, a New York senator, and Manhattan borough president, Emma Jaffe, against Big Charlies being in politics. In a later segment, Jaffe is killed by a wolf-like creature in her own apartment. There's an Op-ed piece by Fitzsimmons on Big Charlie.  A year and a half ago, he won the Democratic Primary, as well as the virtually uncontested general election, despite having revealed himself to be a loup garou. Big Charlie sees those who suffer from the virus, who's genetic makeup became altered from the virus, as a minority group that's being unjustly persecuted and wants to fight for their rights to exist as people. There's a narrative segment where Charles invites Barel Grindberg to his office to hire her as this campaign manager again. Confused, she says that the next D.A. race isn't for three years.  That's when she learns Big Charlie wants to run for Senate!  She blurts out, are you out of your fucking mind?

"If you run, you will be absolutely destroyed. Remember what happened with Reverend Mann? Picture that mishegoss every single day. Public opinion on vamps is going down into the drain with every passing day, and if you try to run, you will be ruined. Hell, they'll probably force you to resign. People with I1V1 are getting lynched out there, Hughes!"

"SPECIES GENOCIDE" by Jonathan Maberry

Subheading: Congressional Subcommittee on the V Epidemic - Washington, D.C. - 22 Days after the V-Event. Luther Swann is back explaining things to senators like he's teaching Vampires 101, ie. vampirism isn't limited to blood-drinkers but they're the most famous of their ilk.  Vampires can feed off of life essence, breath, or sexual essence. Some even feed off of emotions, faith, knowledge... and a few are flesh-eaters.  

"STALKING ANNA LEI" Pt.2 by James A. Moore.

The writing quality in Pt 2 has improved probably due to being subjected less inside the protagonist's mildly insufferable internal dialogue.  He interacts with other characters more and there is more action as he tries to intercept the green haired ogre and track down his sister, but the green ogre outclasses him in strength and speed.  There's a twist at the end when he realizes the green ogre and his sister are one and the same, a Hsi-Hsue-Kuei.  Basically little sis wants to be a badass mofo and took over the Chinese mob in Chicago. She wants her big brother by her side but thinks he's a big wimp for refusing to feed on humans.  She tricks him to feed on a henchman and sees how much he loved it, but is disgusted that he still doesn't want to follow in her demonic ways and basically tells him to fuck off and leave her alone. John returns to San Francisco and tries to have a "normal" life while subsisting on a plant-based diet. He's afraid of feeding on a person again as it may overwhelm his sense of right and wrong.  I appreciated the attempt at substance, but it was ultimately an action-oriented story.

"THE BALLAD OF BIG CHARLIE" Pt.3 by Keith R.A. DeCandido

Mia Fitzsimmons gets a tip from a detective about Jaffe's murder.  "If a wolf-like creature had killed both Senator Kapsis--whod just critized Big Charlie on the air--and President Jaffe--who'd just started a nasty ad campaign against Big Charlie--then things did not look particularly good for the Bronx D.A." Mia and Judy figure out that Big Charlie isn't a loup garou, it was his dear mama, and he had been trying to protect her the whole time. Unfortunately Big Charlies lost big time in the senator race.  Soon after, Big Charlie's Bronx apartment is set on fire and both he and his mom disappear (no bodies were found in the charred remains of the building). The story ends with an Op-Ed piece from Fitzsimmons:

"Today, Mickey Solano is the new junior senator for New York State. Whe he is sworn in early next year, he will be expected to vote on legislation against the very virus that gave him his job.After all, if not for I1V1, Alex Kapsis would have finished his term and likely been re-elected, opposed only by the same Frank VanDerMeer who only managed 30% of the vote against Solano. If not for I1V1, Big Charlie would probably not been opposed by Solano in the Bronx D.A. Race, which raised his profile.

Now the Bronx will have an inferior D.A, NewYork has an inferior senator, and a good man whose only mistake was that he was powerless against a virus he couldn't help contracting, has disappeared, leaving only ashes in this place. Worse, those who have I1V1, who had put their hopes in at last having representation in Congress, have gone even further underground lmvilified even more by the Reverend Manns and MIckeyn Solanos of the world."

"EMBEDDED" Jonathn Maberry

Very short, only a few pages long!  128 days after V-Event. Luther Swann accompanies a V-Team on a mission somewhere in Philadelphia where they break into a vampire hideout.  It ends in carnage.

"VULPES" Pt. 2 by Gregory Frost

An improvement over Pt.1.  Some Twilight-esque action with a werewolf vs a coven of vampires.  It picks up where Pt.1 left off.  Ruksana is recovering from the attack.  Her father Decebal, being a folklorist, has an inkling of what she is before she does. Vincent has contacted her, imploring her to fly to Paris, stat.  Ruksana thought some of her team got what she has and are running tests, etc. While she's waiting for a connecting flight, Decebal informs her over the phone of her werewolf ancestry and how she's actually a scourge to the vampiri.  When she arrives in Paris she's surprised to learn that Vincent has organized everything.  In a park area, she's greeted by a dear colleague who leads her down to the underground catacombs. Turns out, that's where all the teammates who had suddenly turned into vampires are hiding!  Their source of food are unsuspecting Cataphiles, trespassing teens who camp out underground so they can explore the tunnels!  A few, like Vincent, can't go out in sunlight and rely on the day vampires to run errands for them. Maybe these newborn vampires are naive or uninformed, but they all assumed that Ruksana had also become a vampire, which was why Vincent contacted her.  When Ruksana removes her clothes and starts transforming, Vincent goes "what kind of hairy-ass vampire are you?".  When he realized she was a werewolf, it was too late!  This synopsis makes it sound sillier than it actually is... well no, it was quite silly, but still entertaining, like how the Twilight series was entertaining.

"EPIPHANY" Pt.2 by Yvonne Navarro

Most of the Pt.2's have been better than their Pt.1 counterparts, which isn't saying much, but mostly because many Pt.1's are focused on setting things up. In Pt.2, Mooney is about 4 months into her pregnancy, still living with her foster mom, attending school and subsisting on live animals she hunts in the desert. At some point, she realizes her baby is slowly starving, so she sets off one night and preys on two illegals camping in the desert.  She doesn't feel too bad about it and wonders why she hadn't done this sooner. Shortly after, Chief Delgado suspects it was Mooney who killed them, but can't prove it. When hunger pangs set in again, Mooney goes night hunting and goes further out into the desert, and a few hours later, she finds the three men who had raped her.  I had to wonder, why are the men still camping out in the desert? it's been four months!  Does it matter when Mooney gets to exact revenge AND satisfy her cravings!  Not to mention, "how fitting that this child should be nourished by the blood of its father." !!

 Soon enough, Chief Delgado comes for her with some backup.

     "Mooney finds the fact that Chief Delgado has brought Border Patrol as backup insulting, their very presence as contradictory as her own modern day existence as a Native American... Instead of being American, Mooney is Native American, instead of being Tohono O'odham, Mooney is an outcast; instead of being human, she is a vampire. Each layer of classification results in more separation, uncompromising and isolating."

Here's twist: Border Patrol is there to offer her a position as an ICE Homeland Security Investigations agent!  (Had to remind myself Obama was still in office). They want to make use of her vamp skills - she can hunt down criminal drug-runners and human traffickers as a source of food AND keep these low-lifes out of the U.S. of A!  The story ends with: "It's taken eighteen years and a genetic modification, but finally Mooney has found her place in the world."  

"LAST BITES" by Jonathan Maberry

Washington, DC - 188 Days after the V-Event. Luther Swann is recovering from the ill-fated V-Team mission in the previous installment and facing a roomful of concerned senators.  Swann is explaining how he believes there are probably many more species of vampires and the numbers of infected are much greater than they know because many are in hiding or are passing as normal because the government are labeling the infected as terrorists.  Swann is trying to convince his nation's leaders how it would be unwise to launch a full-scale war because neither side will win; we'll have to find some way to co-exist.  It seems to be setting the tone for the next books.  So people who have been expecting actual war between humans vs vampires in this book will surely be disappointed!  

I wouldn't be surprised if Maberry wanted to call his anthology Word War V, but World War Z was already taken, so he had to make do with V Wars.  It really came across as a vampire version of World World Z, was more derivative, not as well-written and not was well thought-out.  It was also too long, yet wasn't able to immerse me in its rather superificial world-building.  In comparison, World War Z was entertaining, able to explore some strong socio-political themes and was much shorter. 

 

Overall, V-Wars was a low-key fun read, though rather uneven in execution, which is expected from multiple authors of varying competence. Some stories were better than others, but even with the good ones, I was trying to finish this as quickly as possible, because I wanted to read a book that was actually well-written. I think if you read enough mass market fiction, you become inured to it, but I've been reading a lot of quality fiction lately, so when I come across subpar writing, the contrast is stark. Editing-wise, it felt like a rushed job as the book was rife with minor typos - I came across at least one misused word in almost every story, so the editing work left a bit to be desired.  There are four more books like this one - and I'm relieved I have zero interest in them - there are way to many better-written books out there so spend my precious time on!

6. Alas, Babylon

By Pat Frank

There's a Montrealer who has a sidewalk sale about once or twice a year in the Plateau -- at 4096 Coloniale to be precise. I assumed he lives in that building, but Olman told me he just uses that space to store his finds.  It had just occurred to me to ask Olman about this mysterious collector/scavenger, but he didn't even know if he lives in the Plateau as he doesn't reveal much of his personal life in his blog and FB page.

I'm a professional scavenger making a living selling curbside garbage. This blog details my finds and sales. It also acts as an archive for things beautiful and historic that would otherwise have been destroyed.

Apparently, the yard sales are a way for him (I think his name is Martin) to move smaller stuff that he's amassed during the spring as he sells the larger or more valuable items privately via his site or DMs. From what I've perused from his blog, he finds quite a bit of silver. You'd think it's mostly old silverware that no one uses anymore, but sometimes he finds nice jewelry, even gold!  Once he found an 18k gold necklace weighing in at 28 grams. With the high price of gold these days, that'd be worth $2500-2800, which is a month's rent, and then some.

Anyway, I brought up Martin the Scavenger because it was at one of his sidewalk sales where I acquired this nearly pristine 1976 paperback of Alas, Babylon (1959) for just 2 bucks.  I also got a vintage glass ring holder for my daughter (also for $2).  They seem to go for $15-40 on sites like Etsy and ebay.

I've been aware that Alas, Babylon is a pioneering PA classic, though I'm late to the game in reading it.  Olman and Mt Benson had read it back when we were all active on the now defunct Ramblekraft and the 50-Book blogging club.  Enough time has passed since Olman had read it that he confused the premise of Alas, Babylon with another PA classic, Earth Abides.  Since Olman and Mt Benson had already summed up the novel nicely, I'll go on another tangent.

 

I think it's fitting I found my copy of Alas, Babylon at a scavenger sale.  I imagine if the Troubles came, Martin would still be scavenging away, but for survival as well as a livelihood. In the real world, I picture the kind of (lazy, thoughtless) people who would throw out valuable yet no-longer-wanted things instead of donating them as a mindful way of supporting a circular economy.  Martin the Scavenger would scope out homes for sale knowing that people in the midst of selling often need to get rid of things in a hurry (either their own possessions or those of their loved ones who had passed on), and often they don't have (or make) the time to drop off donation items at a thrift store or charity organization.  The old adage "One man's trash is another man's treasure" really applies here.

The value of things are not only relative, they are suddenly upended after a catastrophic event like The Day in Alas, Babylon.  The idea of a nuclear apocalypse was so inconceivable for the average person that it was impossible to properly prepare for such an event. The protagonist, Randolph "Randy" Bragg, was was privy to a coded message sent via telegram from his older brother, Colonel Mark Bragg, a U.S. intelligence officer.  The brothers had established that "Alas, Babylon" would signify that a Russian attack was imminent as the biblical phrase was often used by a local preacher for his fire and brimstone sermons.  

 

Even with the warning, Randy had less than 2 days warning to prepare, not only for himself but for Mark's wife and two kids, who were arriving from Omaha later that night.  Randy just had time to take out a large amount of cash from the bank to buy a shit load of food and supplies.  As a steak lover, he had purchased a lot of expensive meat to store in the freezer, not thinking that electricity would soon fail if bombs hit key targets. His sister-in-law Helen had to think fast and salt all the meat before they start to turn, but Mark had to go barter a bag of salt because they didn't have enough to preserve all that meat.  The Bragg's then invited their neighbours for a BBQ to use the remainder of the thawed meat.

Money immediately became worthless as people soon resorted to bartering as a way to acquire the things they need, and everyone needed something because you'd have needed weeks, if not months, to properly prepare for such a disaster.  Disaster wasn't even the right word, as it was more like the end of civilization as everyone knew it.  Once power was out permanently, appliances also became worthless. Some people, like Rita and her brother Pete, had hoarded fancy TVs and appliances, thinking that once things "returned to normal", they could sell them for a killing, not yet realizing they were stuck with a new abnormal.

The people who were most self-sufficient and practical were the Henrys, the African-American family living next door to the Bragg family home.  They have "poor folk" skills, ie. hunting, fishing, farming, etc. In short, the ability to live off the land, unlike the privileged white folk who can only use money to buy groceries and pay for the manual labour and domestic services that people like The Henrys provide.  Most importantly, the Henrys metaphorically have liquid gold underneath their property, an underground artesian well that provides an uncontaminated water supply, which they end up sharing with their neighbours. I find it interesting that the Henrys play such a crucial role in the survival of all the white characters yet they aren't even mentioned in the Wikipedia plot summary!

Coffee and gas also became super valuable commodities.  Gas was valued, not just for transport, but for recharging batteries needed to power Admiral Sam Hazzard's shortwave radio, which was the only source of news from the outside world. Months later, when reserves became low and people were sweating out salt from their pores, salt became the most prized item until a natural source was discovered.  

In his foreword, author Pat Frank wanted to realistically portray what life would be like if people survived a nuclear attack.  Even though the small town of Fort Repose was in a contaminated zone, the town was ideally situated in a way that did not receive much harmful fallout.  Thankfully, the novel didn't dwell too much on radiation poisoning, as I got enough of that from the 1984 British film, Threads. The few characters that suffered from radiation had stolen loot from a jewelry shop, unaware they've been hoarding radioactive bling in their own homes.

Author Pat Frank also embued many progressive values into his novel, particularly in the positive portrayal of African-American characters and the inclusion of strong female characters in leadership roles, despite being a product of the 1950s with some dated, traditional gender roles. This review takes a deeper look at how Alas, Babylon was ahead of its time yet also a product of its times.