Form: Novel
Year: 1985
Publication history:
- 1985 : Tom O'Bedlam (hc) , Donald I Fine, 320 pp., ISBN 0-917657-31-4
- 1985 : Tom O'Bedlam (tpb) , QPB, 320 pp.
- 1986 : Tom O'Bedlam (hc) , Laffont (France), 356 pp., ISBN 2221049055, 97 (in French tr. Patrick Berthon)
- 1986 : Tom O'Bedlam (pb) , Warner, 374 pp., ISBN 0-446-34002-2
- 1986 : Tom O'Bedlam (hc) , Gollancz (UK), 320 pp., 03773-3
- 1987 : Tom O'Bedlam (pb) , Futura Orbit (UK), ISBN 0708833721
- 1987 : Tom OBedlam oder Der arme Tom von Bethlehem (pb) , Heyne (Germany), ISBN 345300969X (in German )
- 1989 : Tom O'Bedlam (pb) , Warner, 374 pp.
- 1991 : Tom O'Bedlam (pb) , J'ai lu (France), 384 pp., ISBN 2-277-23111-Y, 3111 (in French)
- 2000 : Tom O'Bedlam (pb) , Livre de Poche (France), 414 pp., ISBN 2253072222, 7222 (in French)
- 2000 : Tom O'Bedlam (ol) , E-reads
- 2001 : Tom O'Bedlam (ol) , Peanut Press
- 2001 : Tom O'Bedlam (tpb) , Olmstead, 260 pp., ISBN 1587541165
It is 2103 and Tom O'Bedlam, madman, prophet, and visionary, wanders through California, dwelling place of the last humans on a continent decimated by radioactive dust. Tom, caught up in a living vision of distant worlds ruled by godlike beings, is the herald of a new age, a herald no one wants to hear until others begin to dream of salvation beyond the stars. Yet while many dream, only Tom has the power to make the wondrous visions real, to give people the ultimate escape they desire. Across the universe they must go... if Tom is humanity's last hope-- and not its final destroyer.
A post-holocaust novel that really got to me as I remember. Quite emotional in ways that so little science fiction is. I'll need to re-read it, however to make more specific comments.