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Alas, Babylon
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
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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.
Critic reviews
- Audie Award Winner, Fiction, 2012
Featured Article: The 20 Best Survival Audiobooks for the Prepper in All of Us
Whether we’re focused on the apocalypse or just an ill-timed breakdown on the side of a particularly remote road, there’s something about imagining survival scenarios that can be addictive. On some level, we all wonder if we would have what it takes to pit ourselves against the worst the world can possibly offer and make it out alive. That’s why it’s no surprise that survival literature is so popular, and that the stories in the genre are so diverse.
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Jack Isidore doesn’t see the world like most people. According to his brother-in-law, Charley, he’s a crap artist, obsessed with his own bizarre theories and ideas, which he fanatically records in his many notebooks. He is so grossly unequipped for real life that his sister and brother-in-law feel compelled to rescue him from it. But while Fay and Charley Hume put on a happy face for the world, they prove to be just as sealed off from reality, in thrall to obsessions that are slightly more acceptable than Jack’s but a great deal uglier.
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The moods of the mass can't be fathomed...
- By Darwin8u on 05-21-18
By: Philip K. Dick
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Strong Motion
- By: Jonathan Franzen
- Narrated by: Scott Aiello
- Length: 20 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Louis Holland arrives in Boston in a spring of ecological upheaval (a rash of earthquakes on the North Shore) and odd luck: the first one kills his grandmother. Louis tries to maintain his independence, but falls in love with a Harvard seismologist whose discoveries about the earthquakes' cause complicate everything.
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Compelling Story, Ridiculous Narrator
- By DianeReads on 02-28-16
By: Jonathan Franzen
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The Forge of God
- By: Greg Bear
- Narrated by: Stephen Bel Davies
- Length: 16 hrs and 27 mins
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On September 28th, a geologist working in Death Valley finds a mysterious new cinder cone in very well-mapped area. On October 1, the government of Australia announces the discovery of an enormous granite mountain. Like the cinder cone, it wasn't there six months ago.
Something is happening to planet Earth, and the truth is too terrifying to contemplate
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Great Story, Wonderful Listening, But the Editor?
- By George Knight on 07-14-13
By: Greg Bear
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Hornet Flight
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It's June 1941, and the low point of the war. England throws wave after wave of RAF bombers across the Channel, but somehow the Luftwaffe is able to shoot them down at will. The skies, indeed, the war itself seem to belong to Hitler.
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An Outstanding Spy Novel
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Iron Lake
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Anthony Award-winning author William Kent Krueger crafts this riveting tale about a small Minnesota town’s ex-sheriff who is having trouble retiring his badge. Cork O’Connor loses his job after being blamed for a tragedy on the local Anishinaabe Indian reservation. But he must set aside his personal demons when a young boy goes missing on the same day a judge commits suicide—and no one but O’Connor suspects foul play.
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Great New Series
- By Lia on 06-01-18
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The Dead Cat Bounce
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Since she bought her rambling fixer-upper of a house, Jacobia Tiptree has gotten used to finding things broken. But her latest problem isn't so easily repaired. Along with the rotting floor joists and sagging support beams, there's the little matter of the dead man in Jake's storeroom, an ice pick planted firmly in his cranium. Jake's unknown guest turns out to be local boy turned billionaire Threnody McIlwaine.
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too slow of a story...
- By Annette on 03-13-18
By: Sarah Graves
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The Hummingbird
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Deborah Birch is a seasoned hospice nurse whose daily work requires courage and compassion. But her skills and experience are tested in new and dramatic ways when her easygoing husband, Michael, returns from his third deployment to Iraq haunted by nightmares, anxiety, and rage. She is determined to help him heal and to restore the tender, loving marriage they once had.
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A MUST READ or LISTEN
- By Taryn on 01-23-16
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Paradise
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In Paradise - her first novel since she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature - Toni Morrison gives us a bravura performance. As the book begins deep in Oklahoma early one morning in 1976, nine men from Ruby (pop. 360), in defense of "the one all-black town worth the pain", assault the nearby Convent and the women in it. From the town's ancestral origins in 1890 to the fateful day of the assault, Paradise tells the story of a people ever mindful of the relationship between their spectacular history and a void.
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MORRISON AT HER MOST COMPLEX
- By Kennedi Hill on 11-07-19
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Blackwater: The Complete Saga
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Blackwater is the saga of a small town, Perdido, Alabama, and Elinor Dammert, the stranger who arrives there under mysterious circumstances on Easter Sunday, 1919. On the surface, Elinor is gracious, charming, anxious to belong in Perdido, and eager to marry Oscar Caskey, the eldest son of Perdido's first family. But her beautiful exterior hides a shocking secret. Beneath the waters of the Perdido River, she turns into something terrifying, a creature whispered about in stories that have chilled the residents of Perdido for generations.
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A 6 Star Worthy Epic!
- By jksullycats on 10-29-17
By: Michael McDowell
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What listeners say about Alas, Babylon
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Celeste Albers
- 05-24-17
Timeless
I am amazed that it took so long for me to find this book-thank you Audible! This is a true classic and not dated in the way that I feared. There are no explicit sex scenes or graphic violence and the characters know nothing of the modern technology that we take for granted. What we do get is an expertly crafted and narrated story of survival. The characters are well drawn and engaging. The plot is realistic in a way that many more recently written and acclaimed books fail to achieve.
I thoroughly enjoyed it-a new favorite!
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54 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 02-15-12
Awesome
I loved this book. The naration was fantastic,story was great. I recommend this book to anyone considering it.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Andy
- 12-06-11
Post-nuclear apocalypse BBQ
1959. One of the early nuclear war stories. You know what happens.
Much of it seems dated now, but then that's interesting as an insight into 1950s American life in the South. Characters are fleshed out enough to carry the story. Not too melodramatic; brutally matter of fact.
I'd be curious to know more about the reception/impact of this book at the time. I think stories like this did help save us from nuclear apocalypse by clarifying the madness of mutually assured destruction.
Excellent narration.
Thanks Audible for rescuing this.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Debbie
- 03-05-13
You think this couldn't happen? Think Again
Just finished this audio book, which by the way was written when I was only four years old . . . but for a few things, like the prices of things, etc., it could have been written today . . . America thinks the Federal Reserve is infallible . . . nothing is as sure as death and taxes . . . well, if there were no IRS, no central government, no grocery stores, no televisions or dvd players, no drive thrus . . .how WOULD we be able to survive? I grew up in the time when the threat of nuclear war was a real and present danger . . . when fall out shelters existed, and we had drills in school. The cold war was real, the USSR was our enemy. After high school, I became an army wife. We were stationed in Europe when the Berlin wall fell, and the cold war ended. Two sons have served in Iraq, a very different kind of war, yet the similarities of America's political correctness, complacency, and underestimation of the enemy are still here . . . and greater. We are a nation even more spoiled by conveniences than in 1959, yet the author had an uncanny grasp of human nature, both the tendency for evil, as well as good that exists, whether it is current day or centuries ago. The book will cause one to think, to ponder what is truly valuable, and for that alone it is priceless.
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- Lauriesland
- 04-24-13
Left Me Stunned
I opted for this novel because of North Korea's recent threats concerning its nuclear capabilities. Frank's 2005 book begins just before the US and Russia's nuclear holocaust and focuses on a small inland Florida community in the months thereafter.
The carefully thought-out details resulting from devastating shortages--salt and batteries, for example--and how the survivors deal with the loss of communication with other areas of the country are fascinating. Does the United States still exist? How do we feed ourselves and protect our loved ones from roaming highwaymen? What do we do without antibiotics, insulin, and anesthesia? What happens when the town's only doctor is savagely beaten by addicts who steal his meager supplies? How do we keep ourselves warm? On and on.
In a world without fuel-powered transportation, electricity, money, and the comforts we take for granted, the protagonists depend upon their ingenuity, common sense, and courage, and they strengthen the bonds of family and cooperation with neighbors so they can survive.
Effusive praise cannot do justice to Will Patton's narration. He puts you right there with the characters--men, women, black, white, young, and old, of every background. It was amazing.
Listening to this book was an unforgettable experience.
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Overall
- Greg
- 02-15-11
Worth a read
I read this book when it was first published. I still like it. Well narrated. A worthwhile investment of time and money.
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- M.
- 12-28-18
Interesting, but out of date
The story itself is intriguing, and blossoms with detail. The main draw back, which could be somewhat attributed to the era in which the novel is set, is its mildly racist, and strongly sexist content. While these do not overly dominate the book, the main character’s objectifying attitude towards women puts a damper on its otherwise excellent content.
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- Ethan
- 07-13-16
Absolutely outstanding!
Brilliant book with an amazing performance by Will Patton. Highly recommended. It's a very realistic look at what living in a post nuclear war world would be like. Also, no zombies.
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- psnorb
- 10-05-15
Written in 1959, Still Relevant Today.
I was somewhat reluctant to listen to Alas Babylon because I read it for the first time when I was about 13 years old. Many of the books I thought were excellent at age 13 turn out to be less than excellent today. I'm almost 50 and my taste has changed as well as my perspective of the world. A second reason I was reluctant to read this book was because I dislike books that are clearly dated in their technology and writing style.
I have an audible library of over 400 books and I am very glad I returned to Alas Babylon. I did NOT find any of the storyline dated and I am sure that this time around I was more appreciative of the international political discussion that I probably skimmed over in my youth. This is not a survivalist's handbook, but a story of survival that was very well written. Give the book a listen too you will not be disappointed.
Will Patton is one of my favorite narrators.
If you are looking for a survivalist handbook try "Going Home" by A. American
I worry that as the world's population grows and resources dwindle we may end up in a similar situation. God help us if we do.
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- Carolyn
- 07-03-15
Gripping tale of survival!
My first Pat Frank but not my last! First book in a long while that kept my attention the whole way. Couldn't stop listening.
Will Patton was an excellent choice for narrating the story. Don't know if it was the story or the narration - but whatever it was, it worked for me!!
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