There Would Be No Google On The Internets

World Made By Hand by James Howard Kunstler is prominently recommended on the cover by Alan Weisman who is the author of The World Without Us (which I wrote about here).

Kunstler's book is most certainly a fictional attempt at describing what would happen with a significant and rapid reduction of the human population on earth. While Weisman's non-fiction book has everyone disappearing for no particular reason, in World Made By Hand the population is greatly reduced by a "Perfect Storm" of terrorism, several pandemic-like events, war and oil shortages.

World Made By Hand starts out great as he slowly reveals the aftermath in and around Albany, NY. But, the last half is kind of a waste. The idea has great potential, but gets too far away from what ultimately makes it interesting. I finished it, because I don't like to not finish books, but I really could have let it go after the first half.

Make no mistake, however, the first half is really pretty interesting. One of my favorite quotes was related to the status of drugs in the new world.

A few people took to smoking opium, but those with an extremely apathetic attitude toward survival tended not to last long in the new disposition of things. (30)