The Renewal by JF Perkins is a post-apocalyptic tale of rebuilding American society. It is intentionally short and sets the stage for future installments. I was interested enough that I'll be reading the second.
China and the U.S. apparently let the nukes fly and absolutely nothing good comes of it; society has collapsed. 30-40 years later a young reclamation engineer is sent out on his first mission: survey some former housing with the idea of securing more arable land. He finds something else entirely.
