The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett
"The Long Tomorrow" is a post-apocalyptic science fiction narrative set in a world transformed by nuclear war, leading to significant societal changes, including strict population controls and the repression of technology. In this reimagined America, where cities are limited to small populations, religious fundamentalism dominates, and the remnants of pre-catastrophe technology are both cherished and feared. The story follows cousins Len and Esau Colter as they dream of a mythical place called Bartorstown, a location rumored to be working on reviving advanced technologies.
The cousins' journey is fraught with danger, including harsh punishments for their curiosity about Bartorstown. Their adventures lead them to a city called Refuge, where they encounter a businessman, Mike Dulinsky, whose ambitions to grow the town clash with federal laws, resulting in violence and tragedy. After escaping from a series of crises, they finally reach Bartorstown, only to find it is not the utopia they envisioned. The community is shrouded in secrecy and is struggling with its own technological challenges, including an unfulfilled promise of safety against nuclear catastrophe.
As Len navigates his relationships and the moral complexities of life in Bartorstown, he faces the painful realization that neither the past nor the future holds the answers he sought. The narrative explores themes of hope, disillusionment, and the struggle for identity in a radically altered world.
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The Long Tomorrow
First published: 1955
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Science fiction—post-holocaust
Time of work: The near future
Locale: Earth
The Plot
A nuclear war has changed the world. An amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits cities of more than one thousand people or two hundred buildings to the square mile, technology has been condemned, and religious fundamentalism holds sway. First cousins Len and Esau Colter dream of a place called Bartorstown, where men work to revive the cities and their precatastrophe technology. To speak of that place is dangerous; they see a man who did so killed.
Len and Esau acquire a radio, steal three books from a local teacher, get caught, are sentenced to a public birching, and decide to run away. They eventually reach Refuge, a city on the Ohio River, and go to work for a local businessman, Mike Dulinsky, whose expansion efforts violate federal laws and raise fears of a future holocaust. Dulinsky erects a new warehouse, violating the building restriction. When he tries to explain at a public rally why the town should grow, he is murdered by angry farmers, and Len nearly is hung for helping him. A trader named Hostetter appears and helps Len, Esau, and Amity Taylor, who is in love with Esau, to escape on a barge. He will take them to Bartorstown but warns them that it may not be what they have imagined.
After a long journey, they reach the mythical place, formerly a secret government project, buried deep in the Rocky Mountains. They are told that if they attempt to leave, they will be shot. Len is attracted to Joan Wepplo. Because Amity is pregnant, she and Esau are married.
Bartorstown houses an atomic reactor. The secret proj-ect was to create a force field to prevent an atomic reaction from occurring, but that has not yet been accomplished. Len falls in love with Joan, but she wants to leave Bartorstown. Pressed by Joan, fearful that the religious fundamentalists may be right, and depressed because the town’s most recent solution to the problem has failed, Len decides to leave. He and Joan marry, giving them a long holiday. They escape and evade capture for several weeks. During their trip, Joan becomes disillusioned with life outside, and Len realizes that he cannot return to his childhood. Hostetter finds them later and gives Len a chance to denounce him, but Len does not. He and Joan return to Bartorstown.