8 h 52 minAudiobook4 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 218 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 218 pagesAbout this book
What would you save from a fallen civilization—and what would you leave behind?
In The Doomsman, Van Tassel Sutphen imagines a world where civilization has crumbled. Scattered survivors live among fragments of the culture that came before them. A young hero stands between destruction and rebirth, caught between a harsh order and the hope of building something better.
This early science fiction adventure blends romance with questions about how people live together. What holds a society together when its machines, laws, and comforts disappear? Beyond the struggle to survive lies another challenge: deciding which values deserve to endure, and what kind of life can grow from the ruins.
What you’ll discover
- A world after collapse Enter a desolate landscape where scattered survivors face the loss of a shared civilization.
- A young hero's crossroads Follow a young figure caught between destruction and the dream of a better order.
- Adventure with thoughtful stakes Find romance and adventure alongside searching questions about what makes a society worth rebuilding.
- Fragments of the past Consider what remains of a culture when the structures that sustain it fall apart.
- The values that endure Ask what humanity must carry forward if survival is to become something more.
Who will love it
For readers who love early science fiction, tales of a broken world, and adventure stories with a thoughtful edge, with themes of courage, leadership and rebuilding civilization.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Stories of collapse ask what really lasts
- An older world shapes the new one
- Individual courage matters in a broken world
- Rebuilding is as much about ideas as things
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The Doomsman
by Van Tassel Sutphen · 1906
In a world rebuilt from ruins, survivors face what to save when civilization's machines, laws and comforts are gone.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 4
Stories of collapse ask what really lasts
Tales of a fallen civilization are older than the machine age. Writers have long imagined a day when cities empty, roads crumble and knowledge is scattered. The Doomsman belongs to this line of fiction, and it was written when many readers were just beginning to feel how fragile modern life might be.
Such stories work by taking away what we rely on. Without the usual order, people must decide what to trust, whom to follow and what to protect. Authors in this tradition use that bare ground to test ideas about power, loyalty and courage.
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Who wrote The Doomsman?
The Doomsman was written by Van Tassel Sutphen, an American author and editor who died in 1945. He wrote fiction in the early twentieth century, and this novel is his work most often mentioned by readers today.
What kind of book is The Doomsman?
It is a novel of a changed future, set in a society that has risen after an older civilization fell. It mixes early science fiction with the feel of adventure romance.
When was The Doomsman written?
It was written in the early years of the twentieth century, a time when adventure romances were popular and many writers were imagining how modern life might end or change. It is fiction, not a true story.
The author
Van Tassel Sutphen
1861–1945 · American novelist and golf writer
Van Tassel Sutphen was an American writer and magazine editor whose novel The Doomsman imagined a ruined, half-forgotten New York generations after a great catastrophe — an early landmark of post-apocalyptic fiction.
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