Rating: 
Summary: A book that defines "I couldn't put the book down."
Review: Nevil Shute brings out the devastating truth of the victims of a nuclear war. The book is slow in the beginning, introducing characters and setting the plot, but less than half way throught the book I could not tear myself away. It is a clear picture presented to humanity about the devastion of a nuclear holocaust, and also brings in the thought of choosing one's own death.
Rating: 
Summary: Slow and rather predictable, but worth a quick read...
Review: If you want to read a decent anti-war novel and you don't have much else to do on a gray and rainy day, pick this one up. It's somewhat dated, but at the same it speaks some truth about human behavior when faced with the end of the world.The characters' behavior isvery predictable. And they are somewhat one-dimensional cut-outs from the 50's-60's era. However, the reader is still captivated by the submarine crew's search for life in North America.
Rating:
Summary: Complete and Utter Excellence! Absolutely Astounding!
Review: My mother first recommended this book to me not long after I had seen the movie "The Day After". I can rightly say that I have never been so emotionally gripped by a novel. I couldn't bear to ever put it down. Now, enough of my gushing, here's the real dirt on why this is one of the most phenomenal novels ever to tackle the subject of Nuclear War: It addresses the topic of a nuclear war not in the context of techno-thriller explosions, but in the context of the horror of is aftermath. Once all the political and military hotheads have finished blowing each other to pieces, all that is left to do is come to terms with the disaster and it implications (a topic made even more timely by the recent nuclear testings by India and Pakistan). The one aspect of "On the Beach" that had a profound emotional impact on me was how the last remaining survivors cope with reality of what has happened. Some panic, while others cling to the unrealistic hope that the disaster is not as bad as they thought. Soon, this all gives way to melancholy emotion of accepting the inevitable. While death is common in everyday life, it is tempered by the knowledge that life will go on. The saddest and most profound emotion Shute creates is the despair in knowing that after death, there will no longer be life.
Rating: 
Summary: Excitingly Scarey! It seems too Real!
Review: This book was a amazing read. This was book recommended to me by a PoliSci professor at the University of Alabama and I am so glad I read it. On The Beach presents a very gloomy and sad side to nuclear war. I felt so sorry for everyone in the world that had to survive the war and know that they were going to die either by radiation poisoning or by taking another way out. I think this book serves a good purpose and shows a great fictional lesson learned, about what happens when a war of that magnitude breaks out and the suffering that goes along with it. It never seemed like it occured to anyone that they were going to die until the moment came and everyone they loved dies around them. If only the world leaders with nuclear power could read this and see that nuclear war isn't the answer and should be avoided at all costs.
Rating: 
Summary: I very badly written book
Review: This is a horrible book. The characters are so preditable and the plot is so boring and uneventful. Nevil Shute has written a lot of good books, but this is definatly not one of them. If this page had a 0 star option, I would've given it that rating.
Rating:
Summary: A very good read!!!
Review: This is a ver y good book about the end of the world. The characters are very real and the book is so realistic! Nevil Shute really did it this time. I caught myself sometimes slipping into a daze trying to figure out what I would do in they're situation. I had to read this book for required reading class a few years back. I had never heard of it but it was one of the only books left that looked good. I was a little apprehensive at first, but after a while, I couldn't put the book down. I must say I'll have to recomend this book to everyone!
Rating:
Summary: As human and true as a book gets!
Review: I have read few books as touching, as moving, as thought-provoking, and as terrifying as "On The Beach". Needless to say, the message in this book will ring and resonate to everyone as long as we foolish, unwise humans have the power to destroy everything at our finger tips. Anyone that proclaims to be human must read this book. Although the scientific part is fairly incorrect, the human feeling of the book is as far-reaching as many other master pieces of literature have been. Absolutely magnificent!
Rating:
Summary: The quietest book every to grip your imagination.
Review: Unlike so many other science fiction authors, Nevil Shute brings the reader to a most horrifying point in mankind's history without shouting, and yet, after finishing the book, I found myself shouting in my own mind: "Fools!" A singularly powerful and timeless book.
Rating:
Summary: More fiction than science, but a decent read
Review: First off - the book is set in an alternate 1965 that didn't happen on our timeline. Then, the disaster mechanism is pretty messed up, even by what we knew about bomb effects in 1963. Global Thermonuclear War would not end up this way. It might be just as bleak, but not the way Shute describes. But...get past that, and look at it as a group of people facing slow, creeping, inexorable death and you get a gripping story. What would you do if you knew that you would die six months from now? That the only choices were to choose a slow,messy, painful death by radiation poisoning, or a faster death by some other means? Could you give your children poison to spare them a painful death? Would you live your life to the extreme, knowing that a flaming death in a race car was faster and more fun than the alternative? It's a grim story, with an unhappy ending, but it raises some good philosophical questions about how we live -- and how we die.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best
Review: I originally read this book some 16 years ago. I found it to be thought provoking to say the least. I highly recommend this book. I will be watching the movie for the first time and can only hope that I will not be disappointed.
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