The Aftermath

who has been our corporate secretary and my invaluable assistant for many years.

Many friends and colleagues were generous with advice and suggestions. Those whose names I have written down in connection with particular references and correspondence are Wilson Binger, Alvin Converse, Ruth Greenstein, Lois and Jerry Lowenstein, M. Granger Morgan, Greg Pearson, Allan and Craig Rubin, and Anthony Viscusi. I thank them all, as well as the many others who, in passing, volunteered helpful ideas.

There came a time when (reluctantly) I declared the research complete, and started to write. Tom Dunne, who has been my editor, publisher, and good friend for twenty-five years, gave counsel and support—and then tactfully urged me to work on a second draft, and a third. Tom’s assistants, Emily Hopkins and Carin Siegfried, were cheerful and efficient coordinators of the many things that go on in a publisher’s office.

However, it wasn’t until Greg Tobin arrived on the scene that the “work in progress” developed into its final form. Greg resolved my difficulties with structure, and rescued me from narrative impasses. His contribution came first in the form of creative ideas, and later as words that I was happy to employ. His help was invaluable; and his consistent good cheer and unfailing faith in the project pro vided a sweet coating for his most radical critiques.

Finally, my wife, Judy, deserves a very big thank you. She spent many long hours working with the manuscript, from my earliest efforts on, and the prose is much crisper and cleaner than it would have been without her suggestions.

A number of people with whom I have discussed this work, and a few who read portions of the manuscript, think that, however gloomy its recipe for disaster, its view of human behavior is wildly optimistic. Worldwide catastrophe, so they say, would inevitably be followed by an era of chaos, discord, and brutality. Clearly I don’t share that pessimism.

Perhaps it is my five granddaughters, to whom the book is dedicated, who have given me this faith in the future.

Copyright

THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS.

An imprint of St. Martin's Press. T

he

aftermath: a novel of survival.

Copyright © 2001 by Samuel C. Florman.

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

For information, address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010. www.stmartins.com

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Florman, Samuel C.

The

aftermath:

a novel of survival / Samuel C. Florman.—1st ed. p.   

cm.

ISBN 0-312-26652-9

1. Comets—Collisions with Earth—Fiction. 2. Survival after airplane accidents, shipwrecks, etc.—Fiction. 3. Natal (South Africa)—Fiction. 4. Engineers—Fiction.

1. Title.

PS3606.1.6H A69 2001 813.54—dc21

First Edition: December 2001

2001041969

10 4876 5 4321

About the Author

Samuel C. Florman is a civil engineer and principal in a major New York-area construction company. In addition to having written scores of articles, Mr. Florman is the author of The Introspective Engineer, The Civilized Engineer, Blaming Technology, and his classic, The Existential Pleasures of Engineering. He lives in New York City.