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Title: Some Will Not Die

Author: Algis Budrys

Narrator: Reed McColm

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-29-12

Publisher: Books In Motion

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 10 votes

Genres: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sci-Fi: Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

The plague struck, and 90 percent of Earth's population died. Those who survived tried to maintain some sort of civilization...which meant more killing, as it turned out. But bit by bit, generation by generation, people began to succeed. With occasional setbacks...

Members Reviews:

where are the last 5 chapters?

Lasting impressions? This book was over too soon! After a lengthy intro into a fascinating world of urban survival reflected in the high plains hunker-down mode that it bred after years of conflict, the book just ends abruptly. The theme of a single man representing a civilizations ideals is very well placed and explored, as is the backlash from said single man's actions to bring these ideals back to the people of post bio-plague America. Unfortunately the last 100 pages or so of the book seems to be missing. Riding off into the sunset saying 'all's well that end's' is just not enough for me.

A few interesting ideas, but riddled with problems

There are many problems with Algis Budrys' "Some Will Not Die" but first and foremost is that the author doesn't seem to be at all sure what it is he wants to write. At some times, Budrys is writing a sort of "future history", at others a political thriller, and still others a rather mundane post-apocalyptic thriller. While the last of these is the primary genre in which one would place the book, the lack of focus results in a thoroughly disjointed novel.

It begins conventionally enough (following a prologue set some years later) with a super-plague, possibly developed by one of the competing parties of the Cold War, tearing through the U.S. and presumably, the rest of the world. The reader follows the path of Matt Garvin, a young survivor who strives to make a life for himself in an emptied on Manhattan. As the book progresses, the reader is offered glimpses of various stages of Matt and his family's life, alternating with the plot line from the prologue. Unfortunately, this approach in a fairly short novel leads to a pronounced lack of character development and plot twists that seem almost random. Moreover, there is only the vaguest connection between the prologue and the main body of the text, which makes for jarring transitions.

To his credit, Budrys does introduce some interesting theories regarding the development of civilization and the allocation of labor, but they are rarely well integrated into the plot, and therefore come across more like lecturing than story telling. Finally, the conclusions of both sections are so overwrought as to be almost laughable.

Ultimately, this isn't a terrible book, but it's not a very good one either. The character development is weak, and breaks off just when it is getting interesting. In addition, there is no unifying theme to the work, and finally, the book is riddled with typos. If you are a big fan of post-apocalyptic fiction, it may be worth reading if for no other reason than its premise is largely believable, which is rare in a genre riddled with absurdity. If you are indifferent to post-apocalyptic fiction, I would pass on "Some Will Not Die" as it doesn't have anything to offer when removed from the context of the genre.

Jake Mohlman

Some Should Not Read

If you love novels about the end of the world as we know it (TEOTWAWKI) then you may be able to wring enjoyment from this dry crust of story.