Omega, or a good blast from the past

In a previous post, I mentioned that I had found a way to procure a copy of Omega, a novel that I first read 1981 as a high school freshman. I found it in the high school library where I had a study hall and that's where I read it. I remembered enough of it so that when a few weeks ago I got in an online discussion about books in which Great Britain collapses I was able to describe it well enough for somebody to tell me the title. I ordered the modern paperback reprint, wondering if it was as good as I remembered. It was.

I have to admit that I had completely forgotten about what caused the disaster, which was a scheme to harness the Earth's magnetic field for electrical power. Frankly, the only relevant bit of that was the attempt to cover it up by blaming everything on a resurgence of witchcraft in Britain. The real story is that of a coven of witches who are also ordinary middle-class Britons and how they deal with both being scapegoated by the Government then the catastrophe.

Much like the more-famous Stephen King novel The Stand, this is a sweeping book with a large cast of characters. I find Farrar's characters more realistic then King's, and although the novel covers a similarly broad scope, it enjoys a brisker pace then King's. Despite the overt witchcraft of the characters, I found the ending more plausible and less moralistic. Overall, I very good read which has held up well over time.