Alas, Babylon Audiobook By Pat Frank cover art

Alas, Babylon

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Alas, Babylon

By: Pat Frank
Narrated by: Will Patton
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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. Science Fiction Post-Apocalyptic Scary Genre Fiction Classics Literary Fiction Nuclear War Fiction
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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)

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It's difficult to believe this book was first published in 1959. The storyline is extremely well thought out, the characters are well defined and very believable.
The book is full of historically accurate facts that take the reader back to the days of what an earlier generation knew as "Mutually Assured Destruction." This audiobook is well worth the investment of your time and money.

Excellent audiobook

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I really enjoyed the book set in central Florida after a Russian nuke attack. Miami, Tampa, Homestead, Orlando and Jacksonville are all gone and millions more are dead throughout the rest of the country. Is survival possible? The most seemingly, insignificant day-to-day uses such as toothpaste, salt, toiletries, aspirin, etc, become luxuries in this post nuclear war event. Money becomes worthless and the rich and poor are now equals. Could you handle it?

The possibilities of survival - 1959 -- Today?

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Who would have thought a book written in the 1950s would have so many relevant messages and themes for today's world? Even sixty years later, with the Cold War a distant memory, Alas Babylon is a potent, chilling picture of what semi-rural America would look like after a nuclear attack. Today we don't fear a nuclear strike by the Soviets, but we live in fear, or at least heightened awareness, of a terrorist strike. With Iran making daily threats against the US and Israel, with Al Qaeda regaining strength, with Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations solidifying power in the wake of the "Arab Spring," the threats today are different but no less real than they were in Pat Frank's day. So the book is chilling and current even though the specifics of the modern era are obviously very different.

The book is very well written, with rich characterizations and great emotion throughout. Will Patton proves to be an excellent narrator--I would listen to anything he reads. I've seen him in movies and on TV but wouldn't have thought of him as a good narration candidate. Well, he's wonderful.

This book is highly recommended for its content, its story, and its reader. Very well done, and well worth my February credit!

Wonderful book with modern relevance

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I read this as a part of my MFA thesis requirements. I had to read a classic in my genre, so I selected this book with little hope that I would really like it, because I hate anything even resembling a war story. I was happily proven wrong. This is an excellent story read by an excellent reader. The plot is rich in character and relationships while supporting a wonderful suspence thread mingled with a science-fiction-esque quasi-apocolyptic landscape. I would suggest this for anyone - man or woman - as a fantastic read.

Wow, what an excellent book

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Probably my top 3 favorite books of all time. It might even be my favorite. It is an incredible story, especially for those post WWII and children of the 80's, like me, when we really feared a nuclear strike from Russia. An incredible listen.

Incredible story

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