Rating: 
Summary: Facing the End of the World
Review: Shute's 1957 best seller about the grim danger of nuclear war which stalks man's very existence will shake up the most complacent reader. Written during the Cold War, it is a stirring plea for sanity among governmental superpowers, for they alone have the dreaded capability to actually destroy the world. Yet the plot develops with sincere concern for the Human aspect of this horrific catastrophe. Starkly chilling the story chronicles the last six months of Life on our planet for the people living and stationed in Australia-the southernmost section, near Melbourne. By the time the novel opens, nuclear war has wiped out human life in the entire Northern Hemisphere; it is just a matter of time before global winds shift patterns to carry the radioactive cobalt particles into the Southern Hemisphere. Annihilation by gradual but inexorable Contamination, which is our own fault!.
How humanity copes with impending and inevitable death make a sobering tale; each character demonstrates his/her own foibles, suffers denial phases, and invents ways to deal with the end-not only of their own lives, but all human kind on the planet. Readers will mourn not just the character whom we come to care about, but also the needless and painful fate of man. The animals would survive longer, but eventually succumb to the poisoned air, water and vegetation. By the time Earth would again be habitable (20 years hence) there would be no humans alive to enjoy or revive it. Not because of an alien invasion or an act of God, but because of our own arrogant and bellicose stupidity.
Dwight Towers is the highest ranking US Naval officer, currently commanding one of the last two submarines; still considering himself married and a family man, he does everything by the book-Navy to the end. Australia has ordered native Peter Holmes to serve as Liaison Officer for Dwight as the ship explores, with great circumspection, the remains of the deserted US and other coastal area which have gone silent. Peter's wife, Mary, is concerned mainly about their little house in the country and their young baby. Her girlfriend, Moira, is invited to a party to help keep Dwight occupied; seems it's difficult for Northern Hemisphere types to keep their cool in Australia, where life still maintains some degree of normalcy. John Osborne is a scientist assigned to check the levels of radiation during the two-month recon cruise, though he would much prefer to enjoy his private pride--a Ferrari--while he sill can. One by one our friends succumb to death by radiation sickness--many opting to take a cyanide pill calmly in their favorite settings. One of which proves to be on the beach.
This terrifying cautionary tale reveals man's futile attempts to salvage the future which he unthinkingly destroyed;
the dark plot development focuses on the last efforts of humanity to preserve the dignity of the species and its once bright accomplishments.
Rating: 
Summary: This is the way the world ends...
Review: "On the Beach" was published in 1957 at the height of the Cold War. Set in the near future (the early 1960's), people in Australia are waiting with dignity for radioactive fallout to kill them. A nuclear war in the northern hemisphere has already destroyed everything there. In a few months the same will happen here.I read "On the Beach" in 1989. That same year I had seen "The Day After" and "Testament". For some reason I had a morbid fascination with the end of the world, and what might happen after. "On the Beach" might seem a bit dated now. The consequences of nuclear war have been speculated upon for several years. In 1983 scientists came up with the nuclear winter theory, where all the dust and fallout from the explosions would block out the sun and cause the world to freeze over. It sounds plausible enough. Once the winter was over the ozone layer would be damaged and the planet saturated with ultaviolet light from the sun. Others argue that people would survive somewhere, not everyone would die from radiation. Whatever the case, "On the Beach" is still a powerful book. It makes you wonder how you would feel, knowing how you were going to die and when. The Australians are fortunate in that they are offered suicide pills for when the pain becomes too much. People aren't so worried about nuclear war any more. But on the news this morning I saw Boris Yeltsin remind Bill Clinton that they still have a nuclear arsenal. This was after Clinton threatened Russia with sanctions if Russian forces attacked Grozny... But we've managed to avoid nuclear war up until now, so there's probably nothing to worry about. Is there?
Rating:
Summary: Great Book...VERY Depressing
Review: A great, simple book very well written and poignant. What's interesting about it is that as we enter the story, the nuclear war that will eventually doom the characters in the story has already occurred and is over. They are simply awaiting the lethal radioactive cloud to move down to the southern hemisphere and begin to kill everyone off. The people carry on their daily lives as if nothing has happened. But we see in several key scenes early in the book how painfully, heartbreakingly aware they really are. And that's the key power to the story. These people know they're doomed but what choice do they have except to continue on with their lives. The most painful scene I found in the book was how the young couple with the baby begin to plan out their garden for the next year knowing full well that they are not going to be around to see it. They're fooling themselves, obviously, but how else to cope with the inevitable. In the end, the book has the same effect as a movie called "Testament" with Jane Alexander. You'll be depressed and feeling a little scared and hopeless. This is not light reading.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book...VERY Depressing
Review: A great, simple book very well written and poignant. What's interesting about it is that as we enter the story, the nuclear war that will eventually doom the characters in the story has already occurred and is over. They are simply awaiting the lethal radioactive cloud to move down to the southern hemisphere and begin to kill everyone off. The people carry on their daily lives as if nothing has happened. But we see in several key scenes early in the book how painfully, heartbreakingly aware they really are. And that's the key power to the story. These people know they're doomed but what choice do they have except to continue on with their lives. The most painful scene I found in the book was how the young couple with the baby begin to plan out their garden for the next year knowing full well that they are not going to be around to see it. They're fooling themselves, obviously, but how else to cope with the inevitable. In the end, the book has the same effect as a movie called "Testament" with Jane Alexander. You'll be depressed and feeling a little scared and hopeless. This is not light reading.
Rating:
Summary: Chilling and moving
Review: After being forced to read this my junior year of high school in English class, one of my friends hated it so much that he wrote a song called "Nevil Shute Can Kiss My *#&." And my mother was so scarred after seeing the movie version as a young girl that she gets the creeps whenever she hears the song "Waltzing Matilda." Be that as it may, this remains one of my favorite books. Set in Australia, the book opens with a horrific situation--the rest of the world has been wiped out due to nuclear warfare, and Australians, who were completely innocent in the skirmish which touched off the world's destruction, are the last people alive in the last non-radioactive zone in the world. Unfortunately for them, the winds are slowly carrying radioactive particles further and further into the southern hemisphere, and the residents of the continent are simply waiting for the poison to bring certain death. Depressing? Sure. A chilling warning of what could happen to the human race if just one person pushes that proverbial red button? Absolutely. Nevil Shute does a great job developing the characters and making you identify with them, from a young married couple with a new baby and a lonely young single woman to an American officer who just happened to be in his submarine with his crew when the war broke out, thus saving their lives and forcing him and his crew to live with the knowledge that everyone they love is gone and their hometowns are uninhabitable. This story brings the reality of nuclear war home, and is as relevant in this day and age as it ever was.
Rating:
Summary: Chilling and moving
Review: After being forced to read this my junior year of high school in English class, one of my friends hated it so much that he wrote a song called "Nevil Shute Can Kiss My *#&." And my mother was so scarred after seeing the movie version as a young girl that she gets the creeps whenever she hears the song "Waltzing Matilda." Be that as it may, this remains one of my favorite books. Set in Australia, the book opens with a horrific situation--the rest of the world has been wiped out due to nuclear warfare, and Australians, who were completely innocent in the skirmish which touched off the world's destruction, are the last people alive in the last non-radioactive zone in the world. Unfortunately for them, the winds are slowly carrying radioactive particles further and further into the southern hemisphere, and the residents of the continent are simply waiting for the poison to bring certain death. Depressing? Sure. A chilling warning of what could happen to the human race if just one person pushes that proverbial red button? Absolutely. Nevil Shute does a great job developing the characters and making you identify with them, from a young married couple with a new baby and a lonely young single woman to an American officer who just happened to be in his submarine with his crew when the war broke out, thus saving their lives and forcing him and his crew to live with the knowledge that everyone they love is gone and their hometowns are uninhabitable. This story brings the reality of nuclear war home, and is as relevant in this day and age as it ever was.
Rating:
Summary: wkrc cpo clinton springs and US 42
Review: Bad air, end of homo.
Certain story of the coke bottle caught in the window shade on
a telegraph key.
Montauk CincinnatiÉ
Time Warner cable had some actor describing the organization of bins under a desk after talking about a playmate as a child who
disappeared in front of a tv.
krc... the park in 78É
the golf balls in É 87
paul pilder 90?
funny about montauk... the amount of money poured into
the technology
now.. electronic pods that attach to the mind and play back
automatically, thoughts
i would guess you have technology krc..
you've also manned the gimbels directing these pods
eventually, you step off into interdimensional travel as any person's
surveillant pods become your chattel once removed.
3 interdimenional posts on amazon deleted so far, maybe 4
dream on nacelle's whine
Rating:
Summary: Cold War Reality Check
Review: Despite its rather benign title, this novel will shock the reader with the opening chapter, outlining the causes and consequences of a global thermonuclear war. "Total War" is something that hardly crosses our mind as modern Americans these days, but in 1957 it was a very real fear, and a very real possibility. This novel is an extension of those fears and provides a warning as well. The story is set in Melbourne, Australia, and the basic premise is quite grim. The entire Northern hemisphere has been ultimately destroyed in a massive nuclear exchange. Great, well how does this affect the peaceful residents of Melbourne, the southernmost populous city on the continent? As a result of the war nuclear winds, massive storms laden with fallout haven begun to circle the earth and wind their way south. These storms will bring an inevitable end to all human life on earth, presumably all life period. The most touching aspect of this novel is that every character knows their demise is soon to come, but they accept the hand they were dealt (a rather shoddy one considering they had nothing to do with the war) with dignity and await their doom living out their daily lives in peace.
This story is a very grim reality check and certainly a worthwhile read. The dialogue has a tendency to be fairly formulaic and contrived at some points; however the climax of the story is quite suspenseful. Overall a very good read, anyone with an affinity for political or global thrillers would enjoy this peek into the absurdity of the of the cold war, as written by one who lived through it.
Rating:
Summary: Haunting....
Review: I have read this book twice now - with a space of 14 years in between - and I found I got a lot more out of it and remembered quite a lot from the first time. It was and remains the only book I've ever read that caused me to have tears streaming down my face at the end. The realism with which Shute presents his plot and its concept - the immediate after-math of an atomic/hydrogen war and the slow spreading of a radioactive envelope in the earth's atmosphere toward the Southern Hemisphere - is scary. With the approaching radioactivity comes the DOOM of the main characters of the story who live in Melbourne, Australia and who include among them a displaced U.S. submarine captain. What Shute offers us here is the ultimate "what-if". What if this REALLY happened? How would any human being react if he/she could literally see the End coming and could not stop it? Shute's characters are haunting in that they are so REAL themselves just in the way they lash out in anger and moral injustice or recoil in overwhelming despair or even just succumb to numbing apathy. It is the infinite care and love with which Shute creates and develops them and portrays them to us that makes this not a hysterical sermon but a human story. Then he leaves them to die. As a reader you are devastated because you are left with nothing. Each of the characters in the end has to find their own way to die and the very last one is the one who seemed to have the most life and the most promise and the most vitality. Do I recommend this book? YES. You will never forget it.
Rating:
Summary: Spooky, eminently readable book
Review: I'd heard about this book for years; finally got 'round to reading it. A year or so after a nuclear war, fought entirely in the Northern Hemisphere, folks on the southeast coast of Australia await their fate: a radioactive wind carried around the earth. Shute was not writing high art here: @times it sounds almost like reportage, but he manages to maintain a modicum of suspense throughout the novel by placing his characters in semi-routine situations that are always circumscribed by their finality: this is the last time we will ever... A bland scientist cuts loose in an annual auto race; a couple spends their last hours together fishing in the mountains; another couple landscapes their yard until they're too weak to stand. The exchange betw. the submarine captain & the escaped crewman Swain is frighteningly unbearable in its blandness: "I know how you feel, sailor," sighs CDR Towers, as Swain chugs across the sub's path in a motor boat, just off the coast of his deserted hometown in Washington State. On the Beach was a super-quick read: the messages were not hidden but revealed in conversations among the characters. If we had the chance, would we do anything differently? Has anybody recorded a history of this? The book end with the inevitable, the deaths of all the characters, & it just doesn't matter whether people survive in Tasmania or New Zealand, for their deaths won't be long in coming.
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