* ValuesDissonance: The book was written in [[TheSeventies 1977]], when both the United States and the world looked quite different. Partial list:
** The California is a Republican post-Vietnam California (historically 67% white, voted for Reagan over Carter 52-36). Hence the rock-ribbed conservative Senator Arthur Jellison and more focus on hippies than the Latino population.
** China is an afterthought that winds up being nuked by both the USSR and United States after an unprovoked nuclear attack on the former. The People's Republic of China was only ''diplomatically recognized'' by the US in 1979 and broadly distrusted by both the Soviets (who they had fought border skirmishes with) and Americans.
** With the exception of a (very big deal in-universe) black astronaut, most African-American characters talk JiveTurkey, are bad guys from the city, and are overtly racist. US racial politics and urban crime in the 1970s weren't exactly good...
** There are few named female characters and at best they rise to technical supporting roles and sleep with male characters.
** Environmentalists in general and anti-nuke activists in particular are roundly disparaged. The book predates Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, which ''radically'' changed American popular attitudes on nuclear power.
** The non-coastal US, being further from the impact and too far inland to be drowned by tsunamis, might be expected to have survived better. Instead, the Californian "heroes" still treat it as flyover country to be ignored.

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