Title The Genocides Series --- Author Thomas M. Disch Cover Art Ron Logan Publisher Nelson Doubleday - 1980 First Printing 1965 Category Science Fiction Warnings Cannibalism Main Characters Anderson, Neil, Buddy, Orville Main Elements Post-Apocalypse, Alien Invasion

Anderson, a farmer, called them simply "the Plants." They were all identical - 600 feet tall at maturity, with smooth green trunks and huge leaves. Their spores had entered Earth's atmosphere seven years earlier, and within days the entire world was covered with a rich green carpet of seedlings. But the Plants were destroyers, using up the planet's soil and water, and giving nothing in return.

Anderson refused to yield to the bizarre invasion. Placing his faith in God, he resolved to beat the Plants at their own game. And sure enough, although small towns and big cities succumbed, Anderson and his clan continued to survive.

Yet it was an uphill struggle. For the Plants had help in their conquest of Earth - from the alien beings who had sown them.

An interesting idea, what if aliens use our planet as a giant farm, but don't give a damn about the existing ecology (sounds like us no?) so their crops take over the entire world, using up all the existing resources and forcing the native plants and animals...and us...into extinction.

Of course some people put up a better fight than others, usually the unpleasant ones that are ruthless, and cruel, and just too darn mean to give up and die. That's kind of what I don't like about post-apocalyptic tales, the nice people have been mainly weeded out and only the tough ones remain and they believe in taking what they want and defending their own. So this wasn't my kind of story to start with, one with almost no characters I could actually like.

There are some interesting twists and turns, a cautionary tale about how we are treating our own planet even though it is aliens in this case, but in the end, even though the idea of taking shelter inside the plants was an interesting one, and the fact that it doesn't actually have a happy ending, just wan't my cup of tea. I guess if there ever was a real apocalypse (and I'm not talking about something like Covid-19, which is bad, but come on, being forced to social distance is not the same as starving exposed in the streets attacked by roving gangs) I would hope I would die off in the first wave, since I just wouldn't want to live in these miserable ways. There's going back to simpler ways of life, and then there's eating nothing but corn and something that tastes like licorice...

Fortunately it was a freebie, a reject of a university book fair.

Note - the cover is from an omnibus edition which contains Echo Round His Bones, The Genocides, and The Puppies of Terra.