Set many years after a devestating plague wiped out 99% of the Earth's population, the story follows one old man in his quest to bring back books for his village. I loved the way the book switched from present to past to present. You get to see the old man, Eric, dealt with the aftermath of losing both his parents to the plague and how he managed to survive. Excellent writing. James Van Pelt, I'm looking forward to your next novel.
Before reading my review further please beware there are spoilers. This is the story of Eric; you'll follow his life from a teenager to old man. When Eric is young a sickness hits our planet called the plague. As schools are being closed down and people start dieing his father decides it's time to take his family from their home in Littleton Colorado to the mountains. For quite some time his father has been stock piling a cave he's found for the family. After Eric's mother gets the sickness and dies, his father leaves telling Eric he's going for help to take mother back to town. However, he never comes back. Eric will then take off on his own. Before both his parents are gone they gave Eric a key to a drawer in their home and tells him to go back home in the event they are gone. So this is where Eric heads off to, hoping to find his lost father on the way. He'll meet Leda, the woman he spends his life with and has his own son. As this book progresses each chapter switches between young Eric and old Eric; the Now Times and the Gone Times. What I am still in the dark about is the Earth Dancer. How did she know who Eric was? How did she know about the noose that almost killed him if not for Leda? I don't think this was ever explained or I just plain missed it.

There are several heart felt moments in this book, particularly when Rabbit is killed. This was a very sad point and brought tears to my eyes. Following Eric's life I felt as though I really knew him. The ending was satisfying and again I cried. Another plus for me, it takes place here at home. Made it feel more real to me.

If you don't read any other book this year, you should read this book. It's a page turner full of emotion. I'd love to see a sequel to this.

I was perusing through amazon and came across this book again. I had read it a few years ago and remember it as one of the most touching and introspective post-apocalyptic books I've read. It reminds me a little of "Earth Abides" which is an excellent book and a masterpiece written decades ago.

While Summer is completely original (in fact VERY original and unique) and bears no resemblance to Earth Abides as far as storyline, it does share a thoughtfulness and exploration of characters who must deal with the end of modern society. It also shares a breadth of scope that spans many decades of the aftermath. While many post-apocalyptic books out there focus mainly on action, Summer does have all of that but goes much deeper.

This book centers around Eric at two points in his life: when he's fifteen during the beginning of the apocalypse, and sixty years later as an old man who carries memories of the "old world" but lives among the new generations who never knew it. It's a fascinating and haunting story of how Eric views the world at both points in his life. How's he's somewhat of a stranger... first as an ill-equipped teenager in a fallen world, and years later as a survivor in a new world that doesn't necessarily miss the old one. I don't mean that in a cliched science fiction way. I think summer paints a realistic picture of how a new society would evolve from a destroyed one. Eric is just part of both worlds.

The author did a masterful job of telling Eric's parallel stories at the same time. One, with the world falling apart and the other decades later. They are seamlessly told and brilliant in how they describe two different people who are really the same man, just separated by years annd experience. In this review, I hadn't even touched upon the father and son relationship with is beautifully told. There's so much to say about this book but I want to keep this review at a reasonable size. There are other reviews which will share that and more, much better than I could. After all, its been a few years since I've read Summer.

I loved this book and have thought back to it from time to time. It's a book that makes you think. Now that I'm writing this review, I think I'll pull it from my bookshelf and give it another read. :-) SPOILERS - Comments for those of you who have read it:

- Definitely an updated version of EARTH ABIDES (I know b/c it's the book I read just before this one). In both books, no one could get kids to read - huh? No one thought of going to schools to get school textbooks? I've homeschooled (7th grader) - it's fairly easy, folks.

- I, too, live in the Denver area and so the place names and streets where quite fascinating. However, they were not all "spot on" and that was disappointing. That said, why go all the way to BOULDER to that college library? How about DU or the Community College libraries in the Denver metro area? DU and Arapahoe CC are VERY close to where the "community" lived in Littleton.

- Why kill Rabbit? Senseless disposal of a resourceful, great young character who would have been SO valuable when the Littleton people move to the mountains.

- Yes, the typos bothered me, too.
- The end just went a weird way and I have to agree with another reviewer - why put the books on CD's when there are no home computers? You'd have to go to this "mausoleum" to spend a few hours reading and trek back there whenever you need to learn something. The ending purely sucked and I wondered if the author got a call from the publisher "Let's wrap it up, dude - we got a deadline!" I'm a big fan of apocalyptic novels, and have read nearly every title out there in the genre. Van Pelt's book is a quick read, and enjoyable in the sense that not all of the squares are filled in. Sure, there was a plague, but you're left wondering about the secondary damage that occurred in the aftermath. Nuclear? Conventional? Genocide?
Imagery is inconsistent but enjoyable. If you're into technical details, this isn't the book for you -- it's not a how-to guide for surviving TEOTWAWKI. Editing could have been much better; at times, the grammatical errors are detracting, but not enough in and of themselves to rate the book lower.
Overall, a fun 2-hour read for fans of the post-apocalyptic world genre.

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