by Nevil Shute
|
| List Price: | $21.95 |
| Amazon Price: | $14.93 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. |
| You Save: | $7.02 (32%) |
| Average Rating: |  |
| Lowest New Price: | $14.18 |
| Availablitiy: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
|
 |
|
Product Description
"The most shocking fiction I have read in years. What is shocking about it is both the idea and the sheer imaginative brilliance with which Mr. Shute brings it off."
THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
They are the last generation, the innocent victims of an accidental war, living out their last days, making do with what they have, hoping for a miracle. As the deadly rain moves ever closer, the world as we know it winds toward an inevitable end....
Customers who bought this item also bought
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 The End of Days..., 2009-01-09
What would you do if you knew that, in 6 months, everyone you know would be dead? That every human being on this planet would be dead? That every animal on this planet would be dead?
Would you go to work? Plan on the birth of a child? Plant a tree that won't produce fruit for five years? Follow the fishing rules? Would you make sure your cows would be fed in the weeks following your death? Worry about marriage? Drink yourself into oblivion? Would your feelings toward religion or nationality change? Would you accept a check for a purchase? Would garbage be collected? Would you start college?
Would you decide to end life on your own terms?
In On The Beach, by Nevil Shute, these questions and others must be addressed. There was a war. It really doesn't mattered who started it, or why. The result is that many areas in the northern hemisphere were turned into radioactive wastelands, and a planet-wide plume of dangerous radioactive particles is slowing, but surely, covering every square inch of the planet.
There is no escape. The fatality rate is 100%. The plume will eventually reach 100% of the human population. As radio signals stop transmitting, survivors can predict the location of the deadly plume and its proximity to them. As certain as the sun rises and sets, the plume continues its journey.
This is the story of the humans left alive in one of the last places on Earth untouched by the radioactive plume: Melbourne, Australia. An American submarine captain, an Australian navy commander and his wife, a local woman living with her father on his farm, and a CSIRO scientist with a passion for fast cars have their lives, and deaths, intertwined.
This book was written in the 1950s, and the Cold War was in full bloom. Shute mixes the pessimism of any future with the nobility of the human spirit. You will be depressed, and your mind will be pleading for another ending, any kind of miracle, a technological advance, or a safe haven that will allow these kind people to live.
There is no escape. The deadly radioactive plume has no intelligence, no soul. No United Federation of Planets appears to save humanity from themselves.
Humbling, sobering, and haunting. How would I behave?
I hope I never have to know...
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 On the Beach, 2009-01-04
This is not well written. It is the slowest moving, one of the most boring post apocalyptic books I have ever read. Very disappointed and definitely will NOT recommend this book to anyone I like. Bought it on reviews found here. Will not trust THAT anymore!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A dull affair, 2008-12-24
This book was recommended after my disappointment with Cormac McCarthy's "The Road." I cannot say it was an improvement.
The characters in the novel are largely one-dimension with little contrast and their interactions are superficial and or stereotypical. John is the lifelong geek who finally gets a thrill. Moira falls for Dwight based on a few half-drunk interactions; this kind of quick connection is the kind of poorly-earned romance typically found in bad movies. Mary is the stereotypical housewife of the 50's whose denial of the reality of what faces her borders on stupidity (count how many times she asks if it's really going to happen to them). In fact, as a more enlightened 21st century reader, there's a lot of subtle sexism and chauvinism in the book that I found rather unpalatable. The men are pretty much all stoics and the women are the only ones showing much emotion. Dwight's by-the-book mentality, even right at the end, is a bit difficult to stomach. I also found his method of coping with grief to be a bit too much to buy -- maybe I would have if everyone else didn't have some measure of it as well.
On the whole, I found most of the book difficult to accept as genuine. The author wanted denial to be an evocative and reoccurring theme of the book, but I never feel he earned it with what he wrote. Plus, he never really goes into any deeper issues of what coping with the end of humanity would be like. It's mostly kept on a mundane level. Plus, where's the diversity of reaction? Are we really to believe everyone reacts in mostly the same way? The book was emotionally empty.
There was little of interest in the plot. I don't need action to keep me interested, but much of the plot seems extraneous in that it didn't really advance the story. A lot of the narration could have been excised without really losing anything.
The author's writing was very unimaginative and rote. He overuses words far too much (count how many times you see the word "presently" and then count how many times it was unnecessary (hint: the numbers will match)). The characters often talk in very formal, stilted language. There was one bit of dialogue, no more than a page's width, that had the word "ought" three times. Most all of the descriptions are very plain and to the point and never access anything higher. He often introduces knowledge he wants the reader to know (such as why the war started, why there's still electricity, etc) in a forced and obvious way via dialogue through his characters.
I definitely would not recommend it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 The End of the Humanity as Determined by Nevil Shute, 2008-12-11
Nevil Shute started out writing this novel working backwards, knowing what ending he would have, the end if humanity (which you know if read any of the other reviews here), then decided to emphasis that by making it as mournful and utterly morose as possible, then fit the events of the story to them, so it's almost laughable to consider that this is how reality could have played out when it's Shute pulling the puppet strings on the characters to achieve his desired ending the way he wanted to achieve it.
Written during the cold war of the 50's, this novel was supposed to highlight the futility of nuclear war. So this was supposed to let those that somehow didn't understand the power of nuclear weapons, that the Soviets, and others, now have the bomb (which they obtained from American citizen spies working with nuclear secrets) and that nuclear war was un-winnable. Now highlighting the horrors of nuclear war and the hideous death toll it would incur on people, let alone the threat to the human race is commendable, but it's the general philosophy of the book that, OK, there are two or three superpowers that have nuclear weapons, making them equal in cruelty, democracy, and liberty so that's it, no point in having a nuclear weapons and that absolutely nothing justifies their use in any way whatsoever. It sidesteps the reality that one of these superpowers, the Soviets, murdered 20 million people, put countless numbers into labor camps, and was an completely oppressive totalitarian society. Put it another way, consider if the novel had the Nazi's winning WWII, that the Nazi's had nuclear weapons and were continuing the huge murders of people, sending people into labor camps, and repressing democracy, would you then have such qualms on the US having a stockpile of nuclear weapons as a deterrant? Would you then think, as the characters in this novel do, that ah well, we all did this to ourselves and thus deserve this outcome? If you answer differently they maybe you should brush up on history. Sure enough one totalitarian society is marketed as more evil by popular culture, but that doesn't change the history books documentation of the horrors by both the Soviets and the Nazi's. One questions if the author would have written the ending different if it had been a nuclear war with the Nazi's as the survivors "remarkably" fighting for humanity and for the future of mankind rather than accepting going out with a whimper.
From reading the other reviews there are two types of basic readers that would find this novel of interest: those that would use it as a political manuscript of how humanity ended (although we're still here) and those that have gone through some traumatic experience in their life. For everyone else, sure you can find something appealing in the story, but it's dated, just reading the first page of the poem by T.S. Eliot gives you the theme, and in this day and age it's just average. If you're an average working person you have a job, busy, have friends, maybe family, and have to parcel your time that you invest in reading a book. You don't have to read this. End of the world novel's are quite compelling, and there's many of them, and more to date, out there. If you want an end of the world novel written around the same time, George R. Stewart's end of the world Earth Abides was a more interesting read, and I would recommend that over this novel.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Bleak, gloomy...the end of the world if we're not careful, 2008-11-11
The transition from night to day begins each morning with a gentle sunrise insidiously piercing through the unwilling blanket of darkness. Eventually the colossal battle becomes fruitless and night gives in to the increasingly unrelenting pressure of sunshine. In relatively little time the seemingly insignificant temperature rise becomes substantial, creeping its way into life, permeating throughout all that doesn't wilt before the sun's potency. The changes are both irrevocable an inevitable.
The atrocities and horrors of war, specifically the aftermath, are just as apparent as that sunrise. Similarly, the nuclear fallout and resulting widespread death is agonizingly slow.
On the Beach is a tale of the realistic horror that could eventually destroy our planet. For those near the epicenters of full scale nuclear war, death is painless and instant. Those not fortunate enough to suffer a sweet, immediate death, face the realization that death approaches at a snail's pace. As the poison of radiation drifts across the ocean southward towards Australia, a U.S. submarine commander named Dwight Towers has to carry on with his mission, and make sense of the world's military actions.
Dwight meets Moira Davidson, a frisky Australian girl with a wild streak, and along with their married friends Peter and Mary, they go about the gut-wrenching final days of their lives. Dwight holds on to the memory of his life, seeking solace in moderate denial, buying gifts for his wife and children who have no doubt already succumbed to the poisonous radiation. Similarly, Peter and Mary plan a garden for future seasons they will never see. Meanwhile, Moira faces death with a slight chip on her shoulder, and a scowl at what could have been. Eventually the four find a dichotomous comfort in knowing that they have no recourse for survival, living their final days with as much vigor, generosity, and soft smiles as possible.
The real strength of this novel is the character development. By learning about the characters' lives and insecurities, strengths and flaws, as well as their likes and dislikes, a great deal of empathy is elicited. Following their depressingly mundane last days during humanity's failing health and infrastructure sheds light on that which we all take for granted, like the simple pleasures and beauty that can be gained from a good drink, an exhilarating race, or a relaxing day fishing.
Humanity should hope that nothing remotely similar to this novel actually occurs. And, even though I'm sure there would be considerably more chaos than represented in the characters' dignified approach, the slow, somber story development accentuates the truly dreary prospect of a slow helpless death.
Price is accurate as of the date/time indicated. Prices and product availability are subject to change. Any price displayed on the Amazon website at the time of purchase will govern the sale of this product.
|
Store Categories
|