Through darkest America de Neal Barrett - 1986

Post Apocalypse America...

Bluevale was about all Howie had seen of the world. Even his Pa, who knew everything, didn't know much about the way it was before the war.
Scriptures said all of the unclean animals had been wiped out. Howie didn't know what that meant exactly. He'd seen horses. And stock of course. Stock looked like humans. 'Cept stock had no soul. That's why they was meat.

Howie had a good life for a boy. Then the soldiers came. And what they did to his folks made him grow up right quick. He got his revenge—'cept now the whole darn army was after him. But he had a huge country to run across… and lots of miles to stay alive.

First released in the paperback series "Asimov Presents," this novel, and it's sequel "Dawn's Uncertain Light," hold up beautifully decades after their first publication, because their message, and their world, speak to deeply disturbing elements of humanity itself, and that message is timeless.

"The romantic narrative skillfully moves from a well-told if familiar story of war and the western frontier to areas of ambiguity and uncertainty that readers are left to answer for themselves..." - Publisher's Weekly

"A... well-worked-out look at post apocalyptic America." - Tim Powers (Author of The Anubis Gate)