Truth: I didn't get much beyond page 50 because I fell asleep...clearly, this is not for me and I have more pressing books that are due back at the library. Going on the not finished list for now and maybe I'll come back around to it eventually.

DNF....no interest in the characters. Made it 27% before realizing I Just. Didn't. Care. Moving on.

The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett was one of those novels I was not sure what to write about when I set down to write this review. I knew I liked it, but had a hard time figuring out why I did. These early Sci-fi novels tend to be “gentle.” I don’t mean the story is gentle, because there is a horrific murder very early in this novel, but the story is written in a way that can be best described as soft.

The main character, Len, grows throughout this novel both physically and emotionally. The choice he made as a child, impetuous as it was, shaped his life for the rest of the novel. Watching him grow and leave behind the childish notions of his youth, was glorious to behold. I guess that is why I enjoyed this novel so much.

This not what would be considered today a post-apocalyptic novel. Because it is set 100 years after the bombs dropped, life has reestablished. There is none of the traditional fallout gangs or mutations. The funny thing is, I did not miss it. What this novel did have was a resurgence of religious extremism, in all its forms. Len’s struggle is not physical, but is instead a struggle about the kind of man he is going to be.

Read this novel, you won’t be sorry.

There are many approaches one can take when writing a novel set during or after an apocalyptic event, and so we have on our hands this time. The Long Tomorrow might actually surprise you because it's not an action drive story, but that in no way diminishes its own take on the premise.

So many stories regarding the apocalypse decide to set themselves far off into the future to cut all ties except those they'd like to keep to the old world, but as the reader learns through the eyes of a fourteen year old Len Colter that's not exactly the case this time around. It has been scantly two generations since the world ended so there are old people still around who remember what the cities were like, for example. And it is a notable example because in this new world order one rule reigns supreme – cities can never return. Does that mean everyone's turned nomadic? Not really, they just returned to more rural life style and put hard caps on what passes for civilized hubs. Going beyond mere cities people also abhor much of the advanced technologies and swept in religious doctrine they consider them evil and remnants of what caused humanity to forsake God who then decided to burn them away for their sinful ways. Such is the world view we get through Len's eyes. View, you might say, is heavily biased considering it comes from New Mennonites who rose to become just one of many sects to keep the society going. This life will soon be cut for our boy protagonist as he and his friend Esau have ideas of their own and don't want to be kept ignorant for the rest of their lives when there has to be so much more out there. Well, if you dodge Ishmaelites who have become zealous savages and a vile place called Bartorstown where technology may have endured to plague the world.

From my setting summary I think you can kinda put two and two together and make an educated guess where this story is going, but it's a good thing the journey itself is why you're here. Seeing these two boys enact their plan and witness the world, with the reader along for the ride, beyond their village is the real draw. Nothing's perfect in this new world yet there are familiar problems. Kinda like with zombie stories you realize despite all external circumstances we are our own worst enemy in most situations, and no matter which form it took it seems like the apocalypse hasn't really changed that. Journey I mentioned above is also an internal one Len's worldviews are tested and he has to decide what to believe in. Even whether his father is in the right and this way of living they practice is the correct one when they weight against the days of yesteryear.

I enjoyed The Long Tomorrow a great deal and would recommend it. There are some things that didn't work for me, especially the resolution and some buildup towards the ending when Len suddenly makes certain calls, but those do not undermine a great story of self-exploration we have here.