James Nicoll Reviews

Never Be Alone

Z for Zachariah

By Robert C. O’Brien

28 Jan, 2024

**Because My Tears Are Delicious To You**

4 comments

Robert C. O’Brien’s 1974 Z for Zachariah¹ is a stand-alone post-apocalypse novel.

The war began in the spring. One week later it was over. The valley in which the Burden farm lay was spared by a quirk of geography and weather. Death lies beyond the hills bordering the valley.

Fifteen-year-old Ann Burden’s family never returned from their final attempt to find survivors outside the valley. After they vanished, Ann tended her farm alone save for the surviving animals. As far as she knows she is the last human on Earth.

One day, a strangely garbed stranger appears.

Have You Brought Me Hope

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

By Robert C. O’Brien

18 May, 2019

**Special Requests**

5 comments

Robert C. O’Brien’s 1971 Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH is a standalone children’s SF novel. O’Brien wrote no sequels.

Mrs. Frisby (a mouse) and her children (mice) have taken shelter in a cinder block near one of the fields owned by farmer Fitzgibbons. Winter is over and plowing season is approaching. The widow Frisby must move her children before a plow smashes into their home.

In previous years, Mrs. Frisby had no trouble relocating her family before plowing season. This year is different.