The Fall of the Shell

by Paul O. Williams

Book Overview

Eleven hundred years after the apocalyptic destruction of the United States of America, peace between the remaining warring tribes has finally been achieved. Despite this peace, the Pelbar stronghold Threerivers retains its secretive and reclusive ways, keeping its distance from the other remaining tribes and guarding against change. A strict matriarchy, Threerivers remains the most conservative Pelbar community under the unquestioned and unyielding...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345305957
• ISBN13: 9780345305954
• Release Date: September 1982
• Publisher: Del Rey Books
• Length: 214 Pages
• Weight: 0.32 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Interesting overlooked work of SF

This is the fourth and central work of a series about the spiritual and technological rebirth of a future North America wrecked by nuclear war. Overtly the setting is straight after-the-bomb, but the construction of societies which each have their own strengths and weaknesses is nice, and the overall flow of the stories is well done.This novel is the best of the series. Williams is a poor creator of setting and character, but the novel moves so gracefully through the plot that many readers will forgive him his failings. The title resonates over and over through events as symmatrical as the huge stone cities of the Pelbar, the one human society in central North America to have continued as an urban civilization. As a literary engine, this is one of the finest fantastic stories I have ever read. Worth a try. If you like it, try the others.