Empty World

by John Christopher

When a deadly virus kills off most of the world's population, a teenaged boy tries to survive in a seemingly empty England.

(John Christopher is one of several pseudonyms used by British author Christopher Samuel Youd.)

Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult, Post Apocalyptic, Fiction, Dystopia, Apocalyptic, Survival

134 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Samuel Youd was born in Huyton, Lancashire in April 1922, during an unseasonable snowstorm.

As a boy, he was devoted to the newly emergent genre of science-fiction: ‘In the early thirties,’ he later wrote, ‘we knew just enough about the solar system for its possibilities to be a magnet to the imagination.’

Over the following decades, his imagination flowed from science-fiction into general novels, cricket novels, medical novels, gothic romances, detective thrillers, light comedies … In all he published fifty-six novels and a myriad of short stories, under his own name as well as eight different pen-names.

He is perhaps best known as John Christopher, author of the seminal work of speculative fiction, The Death of Grass (today available as a Penguin Classic), and a stream of novels in the genre he pioneered, young adult dystopian fiction, beginning with The Tripods Trilogy.

‘I read somewhere,’ Sam once said, ‘that I have been cited as the greatest serial killer in fictional history, having destroyed civilisation in so many different ways – through famine, freezing, earthquakes, feral youth combined with religious fanaticism, and progeria.’

In an interview towards the end of his life, conversation turned to a recent spate of novels set on Mars and a possible setting for a John Christopher story: strand a group of people in a remote Martian enclave and see what happens.

The Mars aspect, he felt, was irrelevant. ‘What happens between the people,’ he said, ‘that’s the thing I’m interested in.’

Reviews

[Carie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book when I was a teenager and I have thought of it often since. It has haunted me, but I couldn't remember the name of the book or the author. I spent a lot of time researching before tracking the book down and finding out that it was out of print. I finally obtained a copy from ebay and was excited to read it again.

I found this book to be just as disturbing and thought-provoking as I remembered it. What an eerie, haunting book! Very short (134 pgs.), it imparts a lot, but leaves you wanting more and wishing you knew what happened next, but almost dreading to know. The ending is unsettling, but so interesting. I love the exploration of character, morals, loss, and survival.

I would highly recommend the book, if you can get a hold of a copy and don't mind feeling a little disturbed and unsettled.

[A'ledyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book with no cover re-bound TAPED to the underside of a shelf in my school library. I was in a dark place in my life and this book brought me the light and hope at the end of the tunnel I needed.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Empty World is another post-apocalyptic children’s novel by John Christopher. Neil Miller is left orphaned as the lone survivor in a car accident that kills his entire family. As he adjusts to his new life with his grandparents, a terrible plague sweeps the world, killing off just about the entire population. Neil, who survives the plague, is left in an empty, silent world. Neil deals with the everyday needs of survival as well as the loneliness of being alone in the world as he presses on, searching for other survivors.

Even before the plague sweeps through the plot, this is a bleak novel. The orphaning of Neil, before the plague, is brutally sad. As the plague becomes a major element in the story, the book becomes morbidly fascinating as Christopher describes, in crushing detail, the end of the world as we know it. Everything–the plague, the decay, Neil’s emotional state, the will to survive–is described with fascinating realism throughout the book, making it a compelling and quick read.

I would recommend this book to tweens and younger teens looking for a quick read that is realistically dark and frightening. Not for those seeking fantasy or action-based adventure, but I think readers who enjoyed books like The Giver, not to mention Christopher’s other novels, will find this book to be an enjoyable, thought-provoking read.

[Leo · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. It's a bit frightening, especially now to think about a plauge killing of the adults. It's a good story but I would have loved it more as a early teen as thats when I was hooked on the show "the tribe" with a similar concept

[Lee Osborne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book my wife read as a child, and I read it myself after we got together - as a lover of apocalyptic fiction, I loved it, and I felt it was time for another read after I just read "The Death of Grass".

Apparently this is one of no less than eleven post-apocalyptic novels John Christopher wrote for the young adult market, so I'm certainly keen to find and read more. This one is about a boy called Neil Miller, who has to go and live with his grandparents in a sleepy village after the rest of his family die in a car accident. Shortly after this, a disease known as the Calcutta Plague sweeps across the world, causing premature aging and death - only the young are spared.

The only-the-young-survive trope seems done to death in YA post-apocalyptic fiction and it feels like bit of a contrived plot device sometimes, but I can forgive it here. I've only read two of Christopher's novels, but he's a master of the type of writing I love. This is a short book I ploughed through very quickly, and not a huge amount really happens, but it's absolutely dripping with atmosphere and some haunting images that will live with you. They're beautifully described in simple, concise prose - there's nothing there that doesn't need to be, it all just builds up powerful pictures as you read.

Neil leaves his grandparents' home and ends up in London, where he comes across a few survivors. It would be a bit spoilery to go into too much detail about what happens when he meets them, but his interactions with them are beautifully described, and the (small) cast of characters feels very credible. There's only one dramatic incident really, right at the end, and the ending is quite abrupt but full of possibility.

The book was written in 1977, and it feels somewhat more contemporary than "The Death of Grass", from 21 years earlier, but it's still quite old-fashioned in places. You'd do yourself a favour in remembering that as you read - I get the impression that Christopher's attitude towards women was somewhat unenlightened. It's a minor criticism, though - if you enjoy an atmospheric, haunting and memorable read, there's a lot to love here.

[Melanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's well written and mostly well thought through, good post-apocalyptic story. But I found the last third (when he joins other survivors) so terrible that I had to take 2 stars off.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not 100% sure it's a four star book, but it is exactly the kind of 'juvenile' classic SF that I like to read. Intense, but not too graphic for those of us with weak stomachs. Adequate characters, lots of exploration of ideas, engaging w/out reliance on a forced quick pace. I'm very glad Christopher's books are being made available in new editions and I look forward to reading the rest that my libraries get.

That being said, you might not want to read this yet if you still get the heebie-jeebies about references to a plague/ pandemic. It is interesting how differently Christopher envisioned people handling it than what really played out. I do recommend this short book if you're interested at all.

I loved the character of the biology teacher... I almost wish that one adult had survived because he was so wryly philosophical. Speaking of survivors, it's convenient that the only survivors are a few youth that are almost exactly the same age as each other, not younger or older. But of course that's necessary, and easily overlooked.

And I also am glad to relearn:

This is not a myth; fresh eggs sink while bad eggs float to the top. Simply fill a bowl with cold tap water and place your eggs in it. ... A bad egg will float because of the large air cell that forms at its base. Any floating eggs should be thrown out. (confirmed on google)

[Loie☆ · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars for Empty World!
I’m quite tired so I’m just going to bullet point a few thoughts:

- Very scary to read about something that could potentially happen in reality at any point
- Makes me appreciate time with my family much more
- Very easy to read and fall in step with- makes you feel as though you’re actually in the story and makes turning countless pages easy
- Got straight into the action within the first few pages- made it easy to keep reading
- Easily flowing descriptions- not too heavy but enough to make you stop every now and then to say “man, this is horrible.” The thought of some of the things happening haunted me.
- However, I did remember that when it read this for the first time I was a little disappointed but I couldn’t remember why. I remember why now. The ending. It just feels very rushed and inconclusive. I feel as though there could have been many better endings to have for this novel, yet I was left feeling as though some pages had been ripped out of my book, which made me feel a bit flat.
- But aside from that, a good read.

————-
Update review: 14/04/20
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4 stars
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This is like my fourth time rereading this book now. It’s just one of those books that I can read over and over again and it only gets better each time I read it. There’s always things that I forget about that even though I know exactly how the book ends, there’s still something to catch me off guard.
This time around reading the book, I noticed how much Neil changes within the story. At the start, he’s this young innocent boy who loses his family in a car crash, him being the only one to survive. He goes to live with his grandparents, and things never return to normal for Neil.
The Plague hits and suddenly, Neil has to take responsibility for himself and mature at a rate that is shockingly fast. By the end of the book, Neil feels like another character. Nothing of his innocence is left; being scarred and tainted from the horrors that he’s seen in this terrifying post-apocalyptic world.
This book is such a short story, but a lot is packed into its 134 pages. It’s one of those rare timeless novels you scarcely find where you could read it 10 years from now and it’ll probably still be relevant and applicable to modern day life. It’s hard to believe that this book was written in the 70s, it feels so modern!
I will never get bored of this book and I’m sure it’ll continue to age like fine wine over time.

[Matthew Pullar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew up on John Christopher's teen dystopian fiction, a genre that it turns out he more or less invented. I read the Tripods books, The Sword of the Spirits trilogy and a few of his standalone novels. But, while I remember this one from school library book shelves, I never read it, until I thought of it recently - in light of the pandemic we're going through at the moment - and managed to track it down. It's a remarkably subtle book for the shocking nature of the storyline, and the resonances for our age are so strong I hope it manages to get a new readership in the post-COVID world. Brilliantly paced, taut, shocking and ultimately compelling, it has all the features of a masterpiece of its genre.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Augh, a completely frustrating read! A unique idea with a focused beginning and a tight plot until it all unraveled about two-thirds of the way in. The ending was a complete disaster.

[Natasha Hurley-Walker · Rating 1 out of 5]

Insufferable main character, dripping with sexism. Of its time.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m kinda on a post-apocalyptic kick right now !

written in a very concise simple style (bc it was written for a young audience) but that makes some of the awful things that happen in this book even more impactful

definitely weaker in its final third than in its first two, you can definitely tell this was written by a man fifty years ago, BUT on the whole extremely effective and atmospheric

[Vincent Desjardins · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book starts off with the main character, Neil, being orphaned when he is the only survivor of an automobile accident that kills the rest of his family. Shortly after going to live with his grandparents, they too die when a pandemic, that started in India, spreads to the United Kingdom. There is a lot of death in the first half of this young adult novel making it at times a rather brutal and sad read. There is also a disturbing suicide scene that although not graphically described, still packs a punch. The first two thirds of this novel are quite gripping and writing this review as the Covid-19 pandemic enters its second year, made some events in the book seem all too real. The plague in this book is much more devastating though than Covid-19, as this novel's plague ends up killing all adults and some children, leaving the surviving children behind in a now empty world. Reading about how Neil navigates this world and learns how to survive is the best part of the book. I would have rated this novel higher, but I felt it really fell apart in the last third when he encounters two young female survivors and ends up moving in with them. One of the female characters, Billie, turns out to be quite nasty and the whole story starts to revolve around the jealousies and conflicts between the three characters. What started out as a post-apocalyptic story turns into a young adult soap opera and turned the book into a bit of a disappointment.

[Nina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an easy and short read, and nevertheless I needed a moment to figure out what it is that makes Empty World somehow pretty disturbing. On the one hand it is the description of the consequences of a disaster that kills almost everybody but the protagonist -Neil- and a few others. The way he sees how his grandparents die, the streets become empty and civilization breaks down is pretty gloomy. Neil more or less comes to terms with all that, sometimes he is maybe accepting his fate too easily, but somehow he goes on adapting to a completely different life. When he finally meets others, new challenges come up, and the way John Christopher creates all this definitely makes the book worth reading. 5 out of 5 stars.

[Kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, that was horrifying. Glad I didn't read this as a child as it would have given me nightmares.

[Anoud · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 ✨️

[Jen Mo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my 13-yr-old’s favorite book and author. So I read it too. I was startled at first by the plague premise, hitting so freakishly close to home. I really enjoy the writing style which I would call “British Hemingway’ish.” Direct. Concise. Teenager-who-could-be-thirty-five and had already seen horrible tragedy. I finished it at 330am and found my also-insomniac son still up and we had a mini book club at 4am. I found the premise compelling and also frightening. Gave me the heebie jeebs in the middle of the night. I wondered why he loved it so much. But then, I also know I love stories about main characters in isolation, solving problems. Feels incredibly cathartic, and for teens/all people who often feel alone, I can see this book providing some comfort and hope in an empty-feeling but provision-filled world.

[Ashutosh Sahu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was blown away by this book when a teenager. There's something matter-of-fact in its starkness, huge events are happening but we see it through the very mundane lens of a high school student. On my first reading the setting seemed very exotic, I knew nothing about English culture or London's geography. I remember being particularly confused (very minor spoiler) about Neil and Billie's argument over how to pronounce 'books.' My parents couldn't explain it either ;)

[Gretchen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in 5th grade and it has haunted me ever since. I couldn’t remember the title or author and only recently found this after an exhaustive google search. It’s a quick read - and even more haunting in light of the current pandemic. I’m surprised that this was assigned reading considering how dark the subject matter. That being said, was thrilled to find and reread as an adult. The ending left me a bit disappointed, but overall a novel worth reading.

[Jay Rothermel · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Take no chances: that was the sensible principle for life in an empty world."

1. Life before the crisis
2. First news of plague virus from the other side of the world
3. It reaches England
4. Government measures ineffective
5. Personal measures
6. Last man?
7. Coping and logistics
8. An unreliable fellow survivor
9. Alone again. More logistics
10 Exploration
11. Meeting Billie and Lucy
12 Personality conflicts
13 Plan to leave London
14 Attempted murder

[Anya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being published before I was born (1977) this has aged quite well. Short but well developed it is not simply an apocaliptic story about the end of humanity but mostly an explorations of human's nature. And a very good one also.

[Aneets · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whenever I'm stuck on what to read next I raid the bookshelves of my kids. I enjoyed this, but it is definitely a novel of its time and the gender roles in it were quite dated. Frustrating ending too- things just started getting interesting and then it was over. 3 stars.

[J.E. Anckorn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great concept, ending so abrupt I thought it was a printing error, but typical of the era it was written in.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to re-read this 30 years later and during a pandemic. He got a lot of things right.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dystopian YA novel for our times! I really enjoyed this book about a teenage boy who thinks he may be the only person left in England, after a deadly plague sweeps through the world. It was written in the 1970s, but a lot of it still rings true. However, this was a time before smartphones and mass media and so there is less panic as the virus takes hold. Certainly, there is no stockpiling of loo roll mentioned in the book. Recommended lockdown reading.

[Patrick Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of isolation and tragedy kicked in early in the life of Neil a young teen gradually orphaned of family. The whole world is melting around him as the world population is overwhelmed by a plague. In real time of the winter 2020, the Covid pandemic provides a context.

I recommended this young adult fiction to one who is trying to increase her vocabulary. The story has elements that would appeal to youth. I found interesting the description of the shell of civilization suddenly bereft of most of the human race. The characters, however, were mostly flat.

The conscience decision at the end points to a better world.

[Grace Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

The beginning of this book feels very relevant to some of the things that have happened recently in the world. Accept, it takes it a step further and we get a glimpse of what could happen if only a handful of people were left on Earth. It was a great read and it kept me turning the pages - had it finished in a couple of hours. The copy of the book, which was salvaged by my sister, is a bashed up and well read copy from the late 1980s. The book is falling to pieces but completely adds to the story reading experience - a story where we see the world we know, change and fall apart. Go read it. It’s a good one.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm realising that post-apocalypse fiction is a guilty pleasure of mine. I just love it. I came across another one here.

In 1966, British sci-fi author John Christopher turned to sci-fi for adolescents. The most famous product of that decision was the Tripods trilogy, adapted for TV by the BBC in the 1980s. Empty World (1977), is just as good, a post-apocalyptic novel akin to Christopher's The Death of Grass (1956), but with children as the main characters.

For a book aimed at children, it's incredibly dark. It starts with a car accident that kills a boy's whole family and leaves him the only survivor, continues with his loneliness in living with his grandparents and then with almost everybody else in the world dying of a plague that kills all the adults and leaves only a very few children.

But it's his family's death that prepare Neil emotionally for what's to come. Another boy that Neil finds has gone mad. Another hangs himself. But Neil's strength sees him through and, finally, he shows compassion to another who has done him great wrong but who is weaker than himself.

I've found this novel as a 38-year-old but it would have blown me away as a child.

[Andy Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read at least a hundred 'end of the world' books and this one comes up time and time again when I've looked through lists of apocalyptic fiction, but I've only recently found a copy. I wasn't disappointed, other than in the length of the story (but I think it's aimed at the young adult audience so that's fairly typical). Every John Christopher book I've read was great so I was expecting a good story and I enjoyed this one too.

The story follows a teenage boy whose family is killed in a car accident at the beginning of the book. As he is recovering from this, living with his grandparents in a small English town, a plague spreads across the world. Old people are the first to die in an accelerated aging process, but gradually younger and younger people are affected. We follow's the boy's adventures as he seeks survivors in a vastly depopulated UK, but to say much more would spoil the story.

Thoroughly recommended.

[Janet Jay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really disappointing. Now I know that children-in-dystopian-future books have boomed since this book’s publication, but STILL. This seemed less like a book than... not quite a thought experiment but a story in the least flattering sense: a plot made up on the spot and stretched out until the kid goes to sleep. I didn’t feel this was a sculpted work with somewhere to go; it was just a mishmashof fairly cliche end-of-the-world-survival schtick. The beginning has little to do with the middle and neither have almost anything to do with the end.