It's some years in the future, and a devastating nuclear war has bombed the world, as they say, back to the stone age. Nick Cole's The Old Man and the Wasteland is a journey through a bleak, post-nuclear wasteland. The Old Man still remembers the time before the bombs, and wants to find some semblance of order. Setting out on a cross-country trek across the American Southwest, he works his way from his settlement in Yuma to Tucson. Along the way, he meets up with some murderous dregs of humanity, escaping with his life but leaving a body count behind him.
Cole's vision for the future is bleak and hopeless. Even those people who have not descended into pagan savagery only survive by scavenging. It raises the question, how long after an event of total societal destruction would it take to begin to rebuild productivity and commerce, much less peaceful coexistence and cooperation?
The Old Man and the Wasteland blends action sequences with contemplative reflection on society and survival. It's a brisk, compelling read that offers a taste of what is to come in the next two books in Cole's Wasteland Saga.
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