scifimike | Leigh Brackett - The Long Tomorrow (Reply)

The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In post-holocaust America, technology is non-existent, having been blamed for the nuclear war that wrecked the world. Technology is actively opposed, set in stone by the 30th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; even cities are banned, with population limits set and rigorously enforced by neighboring villages. Fire-and-brimstone religion has come to dominate the countryside, with traveling old-tyme religion preachers roving the countryside to heap Hell’s damnation upon the wicked dream of technology.

Enter Len Colter and his cousin Esau, New Mennonite youngsters dreaming of the past glories retold to them by Len’s elderly grandmother. Against their fathers’ wishes, they sneak off to a revival meeting, where the preacher incites a mob to stone a trader to death on charges of trading in technology. Tech, we are told, comes from a secretive bastion known as Bartorstown… a name synonymous to Hell for most of the world, extending its scientific tentacles against the wishes of Godly men, which will undoubtedly destroy the world yet again. The two boys are shocked at seeing the brutal death, but fascinated with the idea of Bartorstown, so they decide to run away and find its mythical technology.

This is the novel that was billed as "Leigh Brackett's best" on the cover. And the first chunk of the book is Brackett in fine form: a kind of Tom Sawyer pastoralism amongst the small New Mennonite communities of future America. The middle of the book is a journey tale, taking us to various settlements as the boys move on towards Bartorstown. The last third begins to get muddled, losing its momentum and focus; the ending is okay, lacking the resonance that would have made it great.

This is a slick novel, with a lot going for it, though I'm not sure this is Brackett's best: most mature, yes, and most thought-provoking---her closest to mainstream SF. But I'm not sure it's her strongest. The cover is correct, it's "awfully close" to being a great novel, but even as something of a letdown this is still a book I have fond memories of.

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