The Last American

The Last American is one of the Steven Burgauer post-apocalyptic SF novels from the mid-90s independent-SF press scene that produced a generation of overlooked work. The novel follows a survivor of a civilization-ending event across a North America that has been reverting to primitive conditions, and through Burgauer's slow careful working-out of what survival, community, and meaning look like once the contemporary support systems are gone.

Burgauer's strength in The Last American is the careful survival-procedural detail. The biological and engineering material is handled with the kind of attention the form rewards. Fans of David Brin's The Postman or Walter Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz will recognize the careful post-apoc literary tradition Burgauer is contributing to, though at a smaller scale than the canonical entries.

The book is uneven in places. The strongest sections hold their own.

Three stars. A small underread independent SF novel. Recommended for readers of post-apocalyptic fiction who want to see what the smaller-press end of the form was producing. The Last American Steven Burgauer novel is not essential but provides a useful evening's reading.