The Sounds of Silence

Initially set in 1985 before the Reagan/Gorbachev summit could take place. The final conflict seemed like a far-fetched juxtaposition but its consequences spelt doomsday end game. A nuclear war is ignited by an unforeseen source leading to the superpowers exchanging H bomb punches like drunken boxers. Four free-wheelers are caught in the maelstrom but after holocaust night only two survive; soon it’s down to one. An avalanche contrast is present throughout the text between the normality of their pre-holocaust lives and the harsh inhuman aftermath. Out of an English population of 38.5 million only 120,000 survive; their numbers dropping daily. In this grave new world, scientist’s sperm is used to artificially inseminate surrogates with the aim of sustaining human life. It’s a desperate race to induct and educate the new born into taking over before all adult survivors expire on Maggie’s Farm.