The Pelbar Cycle

Way back in the mid-80s when I was stationed in Italy with a detached unit of the 82nd Airborne, I ran across a book called The Breaking of Northwall. It was a post-apocalyptic story set 1000 years in our future. I remember enjoying the book but otherwise don’t remember a whole lot about it.

Over the years, I ran across other books apparently part of a series. I didn’t pick them up as I passed on them for other things. However, last year, for some reason I ran across my old tattered copy of Northwall and decided I was going to track down the series and give the whole thing a new read; this time in its entirety.

I’ve finished the first and am onto the second now (there are seven in all) but they are fairly ‘short’ compared to most contemporary fantasy/sci-fi books, roughly 200-260 pages a book. The first one was very interesting. It was dry, almost like a text book, but also had a certain something that felt like telling stories around a camp fire. The author doesn’t over-write (as many of the current authors of fantasy and sci-fi can have a tendency to do.) Very Hemingway-esque in the ability to make you fill in the gaps on your own.

I liked it and am looking forward to finally seeing how this 25 year old series progresses. Stay tuned.