Through Darkest America, Neal Barrett Jr.

"Part of the Isaac Asimov Presents series, 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."


This is, it has to be said, one of the weirdest books I've ever read. Not so much for the contents (which are pedestrian) or the style (which is standard) but for the concept behind creating a post-Apocalyptic America which is near indistinguishable from Civil War era America (right down to an actual civil war) and has very little in the way of actual post-Apocalyptic America.

Billed as a book about one man's journey through an America devastated by nuclear conflict, and with the Isaac Asimov presents handle to boot, I expected there to be a little bit more exploration of 'after the end' style ideas. Instead, the main consequences seem to have been a technological collapse (valid), the complete disappearance of all black people and animals in America (errr) and the emergence of a shell-shocked untermensch of people who are used as livestock and a foodsupply.

The problems with much of the book stem from its synthesis of post-apocalyptic savagery and a frontiersman spirit which only evokes the old west or the war between the states. This leads to some slightly on the nose, and seemingly unintentional, parralels once the business of slave herding comes in, which come across as a little bit too much of a 'what if we just ate all the African-Americans?'

This really is a problem; the main character is taken to see a stuffed 'Nigger' at the local fair, right before we find out that his family's farm rears people to be eaten. They are explicitly stated to be non-human, but clearly once were and are indistinguishable from humans other than there vacant nature. The aforementioned disappearance of all the animals, and also all the black people doesn't help. The main conflict is between the Government in the industrial heartlands and the rebelling South. For anyone with even a passing familiarity with American history this should be ringing alarm bells.

In no way am I intending to suggest that the author is racist, or that this is a racist book, but it certainly has racist imagery and, I'm sure, unintentionally racist themes which make it an uncomfortable read. This doesn't sit well with the rest of the story which is a dark but ultimately shallow story, a version of which was done better by Patrick Ness in The Knife of Never Letting Go.

It fails more as a post-apocalyptic imagining than a story altogether, but there are certainly better novels exploring the same idea. This would almost certainly now be a book aimed at teens, but there so many better novels set after the fall of civilisation for a teen audience that this would barely excite notice.

Also Try:
Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go
John Christopher, The Tripods
George R. Stewart, Earth Abides
Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Daniel Woodrell, Winter's Bone