The Vacant World

Darkness and Dawn #1

by George Allan England

The Pioneering Novel of New York After the Fall - New York City - the end of the 3rd millennium. Monumental buildings in ruins. Central Park a jungle peopled by savage sub-humans. A huge black shape moving across the night sky occluding the stars. Civilization has vanished along with humankind. Into this hostile new world two survivors of our enlightened age awaken from 1000 years of slumber - to fall victims to a world gone wild? - or to give mankind a second chance?

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1914

Reviews

[Neil · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a fast read; I was surprised to find out it was the first of three books. I picked it up on a whim [the cover mixed with the internal blurb about how it was written prior to WWI caught my attention]. It moves at a decent pace; there is a lot of talking and not so much doing in the book. Well, the doing is described in passing; most of the book seems to be the two talking. The character development (such as it was) did turn out to be better than I expected.

The book focuses primarily on their waking up and discovering they have been "tossed" into a distant future. The "time frame" is very odd. The narrative seems to imply that a "large amount of time has passed" between when they woke up and when they discovered they were "not alone." And yet, just before they discover they are not alone, a comment is made that only four days have passed since their awakening! Perhaps I misunderstood the timeframe involved, which would not be the first time. Considering the amount of work done and discoveries made, it would seem that more time should have passed than almost-a-week.

It was about par for the course in that it had the strong, white male as the hero, and the beautiful white maiden as the damsel in distress to be protected. Allan does what he does to protect Beatrice, and it takes ("some") time for him to realize she is capable of far more than he realized. It is also a very chaste book (which makes sense, considering the time when it was written). They are described as essentially walking around naked for several chapters, covered only by long hair and rags. There are no descriptions of their anatomy or such that one would find today. No doubt if the book were written "today" the two would have been having sex the moment they discovered they were alone in the world and naked. It takes nearly the entire book before Allen realizes just how much he loves Beatrice and expresses that love vocally to her before they chastely kiss at the end.

I thought Beatrice had the best character development in the story. After Allan is wounded from a battle with primitives, she does what she has to do to save his life and acquire fresh water (of sorts). Instead of venturing outside, though, she heads into the sub-basement where she remembers pools of standing water, which she collects into basins to carry back up to their abode on the fifth floor of their skyscraper. The changes that occur with her character start off subtle but they do increase/grow. Hopefully it continues into the second and third parts of the story!

There was some humor in the book; I am not sure if it was intentional or not. Regardless, it struck me as funny. Despite having various animals and insects described after the two heroes awaken from their long slumber, Allan makes the comment that there is no there is no other life on the planet (or, at least in NYC). This is clearly not the case, and it is obvious he is talking about humans only and not lower life forms. It still made me laugh when I read the comment after the author described various creatures Allan and Beatrice passed while exploring the ruins of “their” skyscraper.

I also found it humorous that several buildings in NYC were still around after eight hundred to one thousand years had passed. It just seemed far-fetched to me, to honest. In addition, they found so many foods preserved in cans, tins, and glass containers. It beggared my imagination, to be honest. That, and the “fact” that ammunition was still in excellent working condition after so much time. Perhaps ammunition would last; perhaps not. I do not know; it just seemed farfetched.

Then there was Allan’s “creation” – Pulverite. That was hilarious. He ends up creating nine or so vials of this explosive material. It is so powerful that when it is used, six or seven of the vials destroy the forest surrounding their skyscraper-home. Yet, a vial thrown inside the skyscraper does very little damage and the two heroes manage to survive the close proximity to the explosion. The name of the explosive material made me laugh; the variable damage it caused was equally funny.

Finally, even though Allan was an “engineer” and liked to build things, he was shown as having extensive knowledge in a whole lot of topics. A real renaissance man. He knew the scientific names of numerous animals; he knew how to create and repair various tools and appliances. He was able to build things from “scratch” (the materials at hand). He even built a wireless telegraph out of the refuse of a long-dead civilization! Not only was he a real handyman, he also knew how to fire every weapon they found and had had some kind of experience in learning how to use them, previously. He also had experience in trapping, hunting, skinning, and cooking animals. I wish I was that talented! hahahah

The encounter with the “savages” toward the end of the book also was a bit of a stretch. It was funny, but I had the strongest feeling that the “leader” of the savages was going to be some serious trouble and I could see Allan putting a shotgun blast into its gut to ensure the safety of himself and Beatrice while they were getting water. Instead, he inadvertently admitted to a “weakness” to the “tribe’s” leader by acknowledging that he and Beatrice were not “gods.” This led to a ridiculous attack that the two of them somehow managed to survive, which led to Allan being severely wounded and Beatrice stepping up as a character to do what she had to do to ensure the two of them survived.

After surviving the onslaught from this tribe, Allan and Beatrice managed to safely flee from New York (I assume the island of New York) to the mainland and chastely kiss at the end of this novel.

It was a fun book to read. It moved at a fast pace, and I would enjoy finding the next two volumes in the series and reading them to find out “what happens next.” This book never describes what kind of cataclysm destroys civilization as they know it; neither does it reveal who they managed to survive sleeping for hundreds of years without being killed (or killed and eaten) or having decayed into a pile of dust. It was a fairly “simple” book, though, and I would probably rate it somewhere between 2.6 and 2.8 stars. Some of it did get a bit long in the tooth, though, so I will leave it at two stars. I am glad I read the book, though. It was interesting to read.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this out of sci-fi historical curiousity. The characters are flat, and there are giant plot holes. It is early for the genre, but it is also poorly done without literary talent. Instead, the author develops his other notions:

Unfortunately, the plot is horribly and repugnantly racist. Also, the woman is one-dimensional and apparently exists to serve the big Christian hero of the story, this being written by a white man of 1914 ideals.

As for story, the man and woman wake after 1000 years - how? It is never explained. Immediately, she is relieved to do his housework, cooking and sweeping. The Horde outside is the threat, the racist threat, which is made fairly clear in the book. I’ll spare the details here. Anyway, it is too morally corrupt for a modern reader to derive any contemporary pleasure from such a tainted historical piece of fiction. Even Lovecraft was racist, but it does not form the entire basis for action and raison d’être. To draw a parallel, we still listen to Wagner, even though he was antisemitic and begrudged Meyerbeer. It does require silo-thinking or a suspension of the impulse to purge, to find the artistic merits, as they may be.

Books like these should come with cautionary labels.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Even making allowances for the fact that this was written over 100 years ago, unlike my memory of stories by Wells, Verne and Conan Doyle this feels unpleasantly steeped in the racial and sexual stereotypes of the time.

[Віталій Роман · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ідеальний постапок (або потраплянство) + Нью-Йорк. Це історія, подібну якій я сам так і не дописав)

[Two Envelopes And A Phone · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I read on Christmas Day, or as I like to call it, Dec. 25, 2022:

A graphic novel called Southern Cross, Vol. 1! Which was very good.

But before that, I had 44% of Darkness and Dawn, Book 1: The Vacant World to deal with. I say “deal with”, because a bit of an awkward reading adventure began - due to a cascading series of events and revelations - after I read the introductory 56% of The Vacant World. And to explain that, I have to do a bit of a preamble, from even before the 56%.

I read The Vacant World because of my self-inflicted project of reading Radium Age Science Fiction (1904-1933, plus stuff from close enough, plus outright fudging of date parameters). More accurately, I read this book because it is on a reading guide/list glommed off the internet (YOU ARE HERE) called “100 Best Radium Age Science Fiction Books” (plus some proto-SF picks from before the Radium Age, plus some of my own picks which have occasionally been better picks than some of the List’s picks).

I don’t like spoilers, but I don’t mind spoilers. This means I initially read the synopsis that went with this pick on the Radium Age 100 List, but…I would say I read, oh, maybe 14% of the synopsis and mini-review, and then stopped because I realized something about the plot might be given away. But I got about 56% of the way through the actual novel, as I said probably more than I need, 56% (of my physical copy of the book, which, if I hadn’t known already, pretty much told me the book is in the public domain and can be published by anyone in any weird formatting possible to the human imagination), before I stopped for a break. At the break, I suddenly read the entire review/synopsis from that internet list/reading guide, and found out the book had a racist element.

The spoiler explained that in the latter part of the book, this post apocalyptic story from 1914 would feature the arrival of the horde of villains - “African-Americans” showing up to terrorize the white couple protagonists, Stern and Beatrice, recently out of some weird suspended animation that put them in 28th century back-to-nature New York.

I don’t like when things are misstated when it comes to controversial issues where people should be clear. I’ve finished the book now, and the villains are blue, some with white prickly fur, and some with bumpy warts, warty bumps, whatever, you get the idea: hate ‘em more cuz they’re just a bit grosser than they need to be. Morlock-y, okay?

Now, the crap news is that Stern and Beatrice, still in the hiding and peeking stage, before all hell breaks loose, speculate, first that they are barely human but (a) the features are “Mongol”, or wait, (b) then suddenly it seems they look descended from the “Negro, mostly”, and (c) who knows, and (Beatrice here) if the glass is half full and not half empty, let’s not look down on them or even call them “savages”, but actually to be admired as the last, best survivors of the human race, who - give them time - will emerge from the devastation, sort of re-evolve, and re-civilize the globe.

But, y’know, it doesn’t really go that way, after some hopeful and non-racist lip service; Stern and Beatrice are white, not blue inhuman mutants descended from non-white, and so, well, they are our civilized heroic couple. And there we go. And that was interesting. And I wanted to clear the air when it comes to any misrepresentations of what is really going on in the back of this old book. Not “African-Americans” - blue mutants of the future, who look mostly like they descended from African-Americans. Let’s get out racist content sorted accurately. Oh, and Stern and Beatrice think they’re up to some “voodoo”, and cannibalism.

Ah, 1914. Oh, and Beatrice is often portrayed in an outdated, virulently sexist manner…except when she suddenly is not. Sort of: brave, and equal, and a great pistol shot with limited practice, but still chief coffee-getter, sewer, and easier-job-doer - plus “I need this man to feel safe, and I’m falling in love” (except for those wonderful moments when she turns into Wonder Woman or Ellen Ripley and all that shit suddenly disappears).

Three dubious stars for an early, inspired post apocalyptic New York, and the whole I Am Legend Meets Die Hard (home base for our not-blue heroes is a tall, gutted hazardous skyscraper) action vibe. Two stars off for not just making the mutants beyond human and blue and leaving it at that (stupid Radium Age bigots), plus ruining Beatrice’s character every other chapter.

Yes to Southern Cross, Volume 2. Geez I Dunno, to Darkness and Dawn Book 2. 56% chance? 44% chance? Geez I dunno.

[Arthur · Rating 4 out of 5]

This work it old. It read well ... very well like today's novel modernism. It must of been something very new at the time and yet well written too. For this reason it stands out. What it needs was some ... well particularity work on unfolding the story. In so much, what was involved maybe the author didn't feel it was going to be an important work. Or miss a warm public reception or simply publicly misunderstood. Or expectations of reading level.

"This night, however, what with the broken stairs, the debris-cumbered hallways, the lurking darkness which the torch could hardly hold back from swallowing them, they came to a clear understanding of the problem.
Every few minutes the flame burned low and Stern had to drop on more alcohol, holding the bottle high above the flame to avoid explosion." ~ The Vacant World

But like speculative fiction I feel it moved from beginning to end very well, the plot plausibility ... hard to assume such science-fiction plausible really ... but its action and its conclusion excellent, moved all too quickly without much needed work in language skills one may expect. Expressions, phrases and colloquialism, racial slurs etc. seemed normal maybe for the time and helped the story along to express what the author must have been struggling with to compose it and the two more books that follow in as a series.

I'm half way through its second book and already I realize its more complexly designed and is more grander in its descriptively narrative style. I'm pleased over all of the first book and with that said am going to finish the series.

[Amir Anis · Rating 1 out of 5]

SPOILERS ALERT

Good premise--man and woman suddenly wake up to find themselves the only living humans in the world after mysteriously sleeping for 1000 years.

Terrible execution--Two thirds of the story they're searching around for food and water (and somehow they find everything so magically easily), and the last third is a fight with semi-sentient monkeys that have somehow evolved from black men because, alas, the white man has died out and they had no one to civilize them!

Poor writing as well, from the first to the last page it's all exclamations (about a dozen of them are repeated all over and over again) about how the world changed. After the zillionth time, it does get boring. And the amount of scientific mistakes is astounding as well.

I downloaded the complete trilogy thinking I've done myself a favor, given it's free and about the size of one book, I thought it would be full of action and ideas. It had neither. It sucked.

DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME.

[Mike Franklin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Run out of time review.

Even allowing for when this book was written I found it pretty dreadful. Any sort of science was complete drivel. Motivations were completely bizarre or non existent. I was constantly thinking 'Nobody, and I mean nobody, would do that.' It was ridiculous the way small evolutionary changes are noticed in various observed animals until the first humans appear who are so regressed in evolutionary terms to be barely recognizable. Add to that the misogyny and racism and it all just stuck in my throat. I did read to the end but wish I hadn't bothered. Whilst you might try and write much of my criticism off as being down to when it was written, I do not find these criticisms in H G Wells or even Jules Verne both writing around the same period.

[Jason Reeser · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read the whole story, all three parts. One of the most imaginative and fun post-apocalypse fantasies you'll ever find. Very long book. Worth the journey.