As soon as I'm well we'll go to Mars for a vacation again," Alice would say. But now she was dead, and the surgeons said she was not even human. In his misery, Hastings knew two things: he loved his wife; but they had never been off Earth!
Technological upheavals caused by inventions of our own are bad enough, but this was the ultimate depression, caused by the ultimate alien invention--which no Earthman ever saw!
Allan Stern and his secretary Beatrice Kendricks after they awake in New York City, one thousand years after an asteroid destroys most life on earth. In the third book, Allan marries Beatrice (they finally have sex after two years) and with the people of the Abyss set off to build a new civilization on the surface. Yes they run into a few problems along the way (mostly a tribe of semi-human flesh eaters), but Allan is always able to work things out, with Beatrice by his side.
One of the beautiful things about a delusion is that no matter how mad someone gets at it. he can't do it any harm. Therefore a delusion can be a fine thing for prodding angry belligerents....
The Committee had, unquestionably, made a mistake. There was no doubt that Edie had achieved the long-sought cancer cure. but awarding the Nobel Prize was, nonetheless, a mistake.
Mary might have learned a more ladylike trade, but one thing is certain: she had a shining faith in that space guy from Earth. Now, about that cake she baked.