Dale Lehman's Reviews > The Long Loud Silence

This is another of my father's old science fiction books. He bought it in 1954, two years after its publication. It was the early years of the cold war, when terrifying weapons were proliferating. Tucker envisions a devastating attack on the eastern U.S., with nuclear weapons obliterating the larger cities and biological weapons taking out the rest of the region. East of the Mississippi River is a wasteland, while civilization carries on to the west. But the biological contamination must be contained. The Army therefore destroys most of the bridges crossing the river and keeps the few that remain under heavy guard. Anyone attempting to cross into the west is killed.

Following a birthday binge, Corporal Russell Gary wakes up on the wrong side of the river. The novel follows him as he fights for survival in a land where resources are scarce and nobody can be trusted. Always in the back of his mind--and sometimes in the forefront--is the desire to get across the river and rejoin the Army.

I suppose this would be classified as a men's science fiction adventure. Gary has skills and determination aplenty, and he does survive. But he's not a very likeable character. He cares only for himself, uses everyone he meets, and often throws them away when he's done with them. The women he meets are only good for satisfying his sexual needs, and the men, with one exception, are pretty much only good for helping him get across the river. And he persists in that, even though he's been told that if he gets across, he'll be endangering the entire population, because likely he's carrying the disease that wiped out the east. Does he care? Nope. He just wants his old life back.

It's an okay story, otherwise. It's just hard to imagine anybody rooting for this guy or even caring much about him.