I read this upon publication, in 1978, and I wish I could convey what a radical, ground-breaking book it was for its time. First, it's post-apocalyptic, but the apocalypse is ecological, where every other book in the genre before that was nuke, nuke, nuke. (As a futurist, she may end up being right, too.) Second, there's a woman protagonist who can and does function alone through most of the book, and she carries a weapon and is good with it. I know people younger than I can't imagine a world in which these are revolutionary bits of characterization, almost unpublishably radical, but back then, they were. I'm still giving an extra star for that.It's dark, yes, as other reviewers say, and not hopeful at all. Survival is a Hobbesian struggle. (view spoiler)[There's no sense a bunch of people are going to rebuild anything at the end of the book. Maybe, just maybe, she can stay alive another day: that's about as hopeful as it gets. (hide spoiler)]

False Dawn

It is the turn of the twenty-first century. War, disease, and pollution have made the Earth nearly unfit for human habitation. In America, food is scarce, and what food remains is quickly confiscated by the Pirates—a murderous band of raiders determined to save themselves and to destroy the last stronghold of civilized human beings—the mutant population.<br /><br />One of these mutants, a woman named Thea, has eluded the Pirates for years. Armed only with a crossbow, her pride, and her common sense, she has been slowly making her way Eastward to Gold Lake—a legendary place of safety and enlightenment. Until one day she meets Evan Montague, a man who needs her help, a man who is also on the run from the Pirates, but for a different reason—he once led the Pirates himself and has now become their most bitter and most hunted enemy.<br /><br />Together, Thea and Evan trek across a dangerous and wasted California, hoping to survive the brutality of twenty-first-century life…and, perhaps, to find Eden before they die.

In a dystopian future, a mutant woman and a former Pirate leader journey across a ravaged California seeking safety and redemption.

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