Through Darkest America

Post Apocalypse America...Bluevale was about all Howie had seen of the world. Even his Pa, who knew everything, didn’t know much about the way it was before the war.Scriptures said all of the unclean animals had been wiped out. Howie didn’t know what that meant exactly. He’d seen horses. And stock of course. Stock looked like humans. ‘Cept stock had no soul. That’s why they was meat.Howie had a good life for a boy. Then the soldiers came. And what they did to his folks made him grow up right quick. He got his revenge—‘cept now the whole darn army was after him. But he had a huge country to run across… and lots of miles to stay alive.Includes new bonus chapter!First released in the paperback series "Asimov Presents," this novel, and it's sequel "Dawn's Uncertain Light," hold up beautifully decades after their first publication, because their message, and their world, speak to deeply disturbing elements of humanity itself, and that message is timeless."The romantic narrative skillfully moves from a well-told if familiar story of war and the western frontier to areas of ambiguity and uncertainty that readers are left to answer for themselves..." - Publisher's Weekly"A... well-worked-out look at post apocalyptic America." - Tim Powers (Author of The Anubis Gate)

From Publishers Weekly

Another in the new Isaac Asimov Presents series (see above), this provocative novel is set in a world that nuclear war has almost decimated of cities, technology and large animals. To replace farm livestock, the country's sole source of meat is genetically altered humans, without intelligence or speech. A distant civil war out west, its harsh taxes and harsher collectors, force Howie Ryder to flee his family's Tennessee farm. He falls in with outlaw Pardo, who signs on with a big meat drive only to rustle it and playsand preys onboth sides in running guns. Barrett's SF rendering of this latter-day civil war comes complete with a version of slavery, cavalry charges and a young boy representing the country's coming of age. The romantic narrative skillfully moves from a well-told if familiar story of war and the western frontier to areas of ambiguity and uncertainty that readers are left to answer for themselves. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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