I am looking for a Science Fiction novel I read in grade school (late
80's).

Premise: There has been some sort of holocaust(could be nuclear) that
has forced everyone to move underground. They have created a city
underground. Stuff like simluated rain at the same time everyday.

The story revolves around one (or two) young boys who decide to go to
the surface. They are told about the horrors of the surface but when
they arrive they find (I Think) that nature has returned to normal.

Greetings!

I read a lot of science fiction in elementary school (late 70s - early
80s) and your description immediately brought to mind one of my
favorite authors from that time.

I believe the book you're looking for is "This Time of Darkness" by
H.M. Hoover. The book features a boy and a girl living in a
subterranean city, forbidden to go to the surface. The boy claims to
have come from the outside originally and this spurs them both to find
the way to the surface. My 20+ year old memory tells me that they do
make it to the surface and find that everything is safe and that
people are living on the surface. I believe that they also find that
people on the upper levels live much more comfortably then people on
the lower levels.

The summary that I've found on Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble is
"Although both know it is forbidden, Amy and Axel hope that by
following the countless ramps leading upward they can escape from
their filthy subterranean world."

The book is out of print, but listings of used copies are available
at:

ABEbooks.com
http://dogbert.abebooks.com/abe/BookDetails?bi=137656384

Alibris
http://www.alibris.com/search/detail.cfm?chunk=25&qwork=6672981&S=R&bid=8047957636&page=1&matches=3&qsort=r

Amazon.com 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0670500267/qid=1024080719/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/104-7269063-6827954

Barnes and Noble
http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/oopbooks/oopResultsTitle.asp?userid=6A4BBY6ZNP&mscssid=PSVW7AW9W2D88K2RLL64UCCWXJK78TX1&author=H%2E+M%2E+Hoover&title=This+Time+of+Darkness&rstart=1&WID=236782

I also suggest trying your local library. If they don't own it, they
could likely request it for you via interlibrary loan. The Library of
Congress does list the book in their catalog.

Library of Congress listing
http://catalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v3=2&ti=1,2&SEQ=20020614150514&Search_Arg=this+time+of+darkness&Search_Code=TALL&PID=18261&CNT=25&SID=1


I hope this is the book you were looking for!

Regards,

Gigi-ga

I can't believe used copies are this expensive!! thanks...!!

This definitely sounds like "City Underground" by Suzanne Martel.
Originally written in French and titled "Surréal 3000".

Could it perhaps be this one?:
"Abe Kobo. The Ark Sakura. (Originally Hakobune no Sakura. Tokyo:
Shinchosa, 1984.) Trans. Juliet Winters Carpenter. New York: Knopf,
1988.
An oddly-assorted group of people seeking shelter from the threat of
nuclear war in a huge underground complex talk and quarrel about their
situation and the invaders penetrating their stronghold. Their leader
gets his foot stuck in a giant toilet, which seems to symbolize death.
A huge dynamite explosion fools most of the people into believing a
nuclear war has occurred, and they set about the grim business of
surviving underground; but the fellow whose idea the ark was in the
first place struggles out to the surface to find the city around him
oddly transparent. It is not clear what this means, but perhaps a
nuclear war really has happened. There is a mention of EMP knocking
out computers. By the author of Woman of the Dunes and other
well-known fiction."

source:
http://www.spikemagazine.com/1298dond.htm

... I added a wrong link - here´s the right one:
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/nuclear/nh-supplement.html

Sorry, no specifics, but this description struck a chord. I remember
reading a book of children's-audience science fiction stories back
around 1980. One story had two kids (I thought both were boys)
deciding to try to see the "devistated" surface. They went through
some locked ceiling trapdoor and had to dig and dig. The end of the
story was breaking through to the surface, which was clean and healthy
(but no people, just grass and wind I think.)

Sorry about the vague recollection, it was 20 years ago.

The SAME book might have had another story about a man who went to an
"all you can eat" restaurant and kept eating and eating.. all the food
was teleported to his (starving) home planet. After 7 days of constant
eating he finally finished.. the punchline was that he didn't have the
$5 or whatever to pay for the meal.

Can anyone describe the cover?  I thought the story had two boys,
instead of a boy and a girl, but the name Axel seems familiar.  I
remember two bald kids walking up a hill, with a city scape in the
background.

--KTG

Can anyone describe the cover from the 1980 edition?  I am also
looking for (I think) the same book, but I could swear it was two
boys, and not a boy and a girl, though the name "Axel" sounds
familiar.  I think the cover had two bald kids walking up a hill, with
a cityscape in the background, all within a large cave.