I read a book! This morning!



I read The Long Loud Silence by Wilson Tucker this morning.

The premise is that bombs have fallen on the eastern half of the United States. Martial Law has been declared west of the Mississippi, and the two halves of the nation have been quarantined from each other. Corporal Russell Gary celebrated his 30th birthday by going on a multi-bottle whiskey bender and sleeping it off in a cheap hotel room. When he wakes up three days later, he finds himself one of the few survivors of a soviet attack on America. He's immune to the weaponized botulism that's killed most of the population in the east. He spends the next five years fighting, surviving and trying to get across the river and back into society.

I couldn't really find anything about this particular book online, but my edition is the '74 revised edition. The original is from '53, and I'm pretty sure the main difference is that Gary (our protagonist) served in Vietnam, although the references to time aren't all consistent after the revision, the novel referring to WWII as if it had just happened. Anyway, none of that matters. I really enjoyed this novel, but they shouldn't make a movie out of it, because it wouldn't make any damn sense. A mini-series or single season television program possibly, but not a movie.

You'll never find a copy of this anywhere (all the best sci-fi books you've never read are always out of print), and mine is too fragile to loan you. First printing hardback editions seem to be $100+, but there are a few places online that have the 70's paperback that I got for under $10.

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The Moon Mission Death Squad is now a Wilson Tucker fan.
- posted by Mason @ 11:07 PM