Alas, Babylon

By: Pat Frank

Narrated by: Will Patton

Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

This true modern masterpiece is built around the two fateful words that make up the title and herald the end - “Alas, Babylon.” When a nuclear holocaust ravages the United States, a thousand years of civilization are stripped away overnight, and tens of millions of people are killed instantly.

But for one small town in Florida, miraculously spared, the struggle is just beginning, as men and women of all backgrounds join together to confront the darkness. Will Patton's narration paints this classic tale as an ominous picture of the terrible possibilites of the nuclear age.

©1959 Harry Hart Frank (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

• Audie Award Winner, Fiction, 2012

"An enthralling and vivid story of the follies and failures of people, their courage and cruelty, their treachery and triumphs. Mr. Frank is a magnificent writer." ( Chicago Sunday Tribune)

"A warm, continuously interesting story of what can happen to a group of ordinary people in a perilous situation." ( New York Herald Tribune)

“Will Patton is a calm and steady narrator whose quiet intensity wraps around this post-apocalyptic saga...He reflects the tones of deference of women to men, nonwhites to whites, and children to adults. In a conversational tone, he quietly brings the characters and their relationships to life.” ( AudioFile)

My kind of apocalypse novel (a bit dated though)

If you are like me and, for some reason, like to imagine how you would survive an apocalypse, this will be a great read for you. It is all survival, all the time, although our main characters seem to all get super lucky on many occasions this does allow for a more complicated and thorough survival story than if they were stuck in some cave eating berries the entire time (which is probably more likely).

It's a bit dated but still very readable.

It was so interesting...

This story was written in 1959 and it shows. I never before appreciated our politically correct world until I read this authentic pre-civil rights book. I don't think any author today could authentically write in this style. It is amusing and horrifying at the same time at how ignorant the US was about race relations.

At any rate, I enjoyed this book primarily because it took place in a fictional town in Central Florida. I currently live in Florida so this aspect of the book made it more interesting to me.

I also read this book after I read, "One Second After," which is a modern post-apocalyptic book. Reading "Alas, Babylon" helped explain many of the things said in "One Second After." It was also interesting to read a nuclear holocaust book written so shortly after WWII ended. I am not from the "Duck and Cover" era, but from "Red Dawn" and other nuclear holocaust scares. I enjoyed this book for that reason. It did get a little trite and slow toward the end.

I love Will Patton's voice and I could listen to anything he reads.

A good listen

I enjoyed this book. The narration was quite good, though some of the voices were overdone. I wish there was more to the story!!

Prescient

Great narrator to a story that could have been written last week. Quite thought provoking.

A Classic

Read this as a kid in the late 60's....as powerful now as then. Yes, some parts are dated. But it was set during the Cold War. Many things have changed since then, but some things not so much. It makes you think about what could/ would you do to survive a mass destruction...

A must read

Early post apocalyptic story with racial tones of the time. Not the usual depression story of the genre.

Great Story PLUS Will Patton

To be honest the story is good but having Will Patton read it makes it great! I can't say enough good things about this book. Did I mention Will Patton? I do find myself now looking for only books that he reads...........

Dated, but still interesting

As you might expect, tales about the end of the world written 60 or 70 years ago can take you out of the story from time to time when you stop to think about any particular plot device. When written, we wanted to think the best of ourselves, sort of like how the Tarzan or Swiss Family Robinson books encouraged us to believe that any European gentleman would overcome any natural obstacle. In the Robinson case, we learned that a remote island would have running water, a university and a spaceport the first 6 months. Will Patton is outstanding, as should be expected.

Best book of its kind

This is the best book yet about what life would have been like if world war 3 had happen in the 50's. It evokes emotions of sorrow and joy. Not sure why it has never been made into a movie. Also I love to listen to Will Patton read.

Really really liked it

I really liked this book. The story was good and it was well narrated. I looked for more by Pat Frank only to discover it was written in 1959 and Audible had no other book written by him. I was totally surprised it was written so long ago. It felt like it could have been written yesterday.
I will listen to it again (very unusual for me). It was that good. If you like the theme of apocalyptic novels of the nuclear age, you will love this one and I highly recommend it.