Rating: 
Summary: Oh So Good
Review: "On the Beach" is one of those books that you read for the concept and the story, but not for the quality of the writing. The plot centers around the lives of a few remaining survivors of a nuclear war who live in Australia. Since the was has taken place in the northern hemisphere, Australia has largely escaped unscathed--for the moment. But as prevailing winds approach Australia, they carry lethal doses of radiation with them. The implication of this is that all of the characters in the book--in fact everyone in the world--will inevitably be extinguished. "On the Beach" has a profound psychological impact because it is devoid of the intense action that usually accompanies nuclear apocolypse films. The destruction has already occurred elsewhere and the citizens of Australia are largely going about their business knowing they will soon die. The fact that their infrastructure has not been destroyed and that all of their social aparatus is still intact makes their fate all the more sad and earie. Although this book is set in the Cold War it's outcome is still relevant and feasible today. The nuclear warheads generated by the arms race haven't gone away. The former Soviet Union is a desparate, chaotic place, and as several reviewers pointed out, more small countries are joining the nuclear club. One could say that Nuclear madness has merely transformed itself, but its danger certainly hasn't disappeared. I think everyone should read this book to be reminded of the possible future we all face. 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: A trult memorable reading experience
Review: Nevil Shute wrote "On the Beach" at a time when the world's two superpowers--both in the northern hemisphere--were glaring at each other pugnaciously, waving their "city killer" bombs, and bragging about "Mutually Assured Destruction" as their best insurance against nuclear war. Nevil Shute simply picked up that ball and ran with it. He assumed that the strategy had failed, and that the war had been waged, and the northern hemisphere had been destroyed by a combination of atomic blast and the nuclear clouds that emanated from those blasts. Australia, though, in the southern hemisphere--being a non-combatant--had come out unscathed in the war, and because of Coriolis force, was thus far not affected by the nuclear clouds of death. Coriolis force is that force which is created by the revolution of the earth on its axis which causes water draining in northern hemisphere sinks to circulate clockwise, while that in the southern hemisphere does so counter-clockwise. However, since there is a co-mingling of winds at the equator, the southern hemisphere was predictably doomed, and the folks who lived there knew it. The story is about the reaction of the doomed people in Australia, and their reaction to the awful knowledge of their impending deaths, and how they handled it. The protagonist, Dwight Towers, is a U.S. nuclear submarine commander who, with his crew and boat, are in Australia. There he meets Moira Davidson and they fall in love. Some of the throat-catching moments are when the American sub travels to the United States, and the silent streets on San Francisco are described. In the movie version, it was Seattle, and one of the sailors--a former resident of the Seattle area--leaves the ship to go home, a futile gesture, of course. The story describes the various emotions of those facing certain death from nuclear radiation. The death of the entire human race; inescapable, inexorable death, and how they handled it. Bitterness, of course, and recklessness (What can they do, kill me?) as well as foolhardy acts of courage (What? I might be killed?). This is a thought-provoking book. Only the shallow will describe it as "out of date." One of the truly memorable reading experiences of my life. The movie is also fascinating. Joseph Pierre, USN (Ret)
Rating:
Summary: Powerful!
Review: "On the Beach", in my mind, ranks with "Lord of the Flies" and 1984" as one of the truly great novels of the 20th century. Yes, it is a little dated; but world politics aside, this book has a power that is just astounding. I have never felt such empathy for characters in a book, as I do for the poor souls in Shute's Australia.
The emotions in this book take my breath away. I could never do it justice here; suffice it to say, "On the Beach" may be the most incredible, powerful, moving book I have ever read.
Rating: 
Summary: So boring! Tasteless novel written a few decades ago.
Review: This book is such a bore! I took the book on a 5-hour flight, looking forward to be entertained. I threw it in the trash on arrival, after painstakingly reading my way through it... since I had only one book! It has been written a few decades ago and it really shows. Most of the book is spent describing the nascent love between a submarine captain and a young Australian sassy airhead drunkard, through frivolous 2-cents dialogs they have in bars and parties. Half of the rest describes Australian social life. The other half recounts how the war happenned. No adventure, no action, no thrill, no discovery, no exploration, no mystery... Nothing... Certainly not the book I ll take on desert island or in an anti-atomic shelter!
Rating:
Summary: Totally engrossing
Review: I give this book 5 stars even though the writing style is fairly poor and the scientific theory is questionable. That is because the subject matter, and the way the author handled it, was stunning. First of all, writing as he was in a time when everyone thought one of the superpowers would push the button, he was uncannily accurate in his hypothesis that if total destruction ever happens, it will be caused by renegade smaller countries. More importantly, his variation on the theme of everyone living lives of quiet desperation, but here with a terribly fixed time limit, was bone-chilling. And it was the simplicity of the characters that made this book so poignant and thought provoking. One of the top 10 books I've ever read.
Rating:
Summary: totally engrossing
Review: i gave this book 5 stars even though the actual writing style left something to be desired. The subject matter of the book, and the way it is treated, however, make this one of the best books i've ever read. His vision of how the world might end seems uncannily prophetic, since he posits a situation where it was renegade groups in small countries that caused the whole thing, which is what would probably happen if there ever was world destruction. Also, the notion of a whole country going on with life as usual, but knowing its days are numbered and there is nothing that can be done was quite compelling. An unforgettable read.
Rating:
Summary: Cold war fiction at its best.
Review: On The Beach is the story of the results of a nuclear war and the last days left for those that survived it. The war pretty much has annihilated the Northern Hemisphere, with the remaining population living mostly in Austrailia, where most of the story takes place. We watch as these people, knowing that their time is limited due to the "nuclear cloud" that is slowly drifting towards the southern hemisphere, live their last months to their fullest. We have the Navy, headed by the Austrailians and one American, sailing to the north in search of survivors of this war. We have people like you and I, living in Austrailia, going about their every day lives, living as if there IS a tomorrow, as if there IS a next year. The tension increases as the story heads towards the end, and the reader knows there is no mistaking what that end would be. There is no blood or gore in this post-nuclear war story. If you want that, rent MAD MAX. This book is about people living every day,knowing that their lives are about to be cut short. It's about people dying with dignity. And it's about the devastation of war, and the stupidity that can cause a nuclear war in our own futures. Nevil Shute's ON THE BEACH is a classic. If you want to read a great nuclear war/end of the world book written before the end of the Cold War, this is it.
Rating:
Summary: Simple yet scary
Review: Nevil Shute uses no big scare tactics to try to make us wake up to the impending doom of nucuelar warfare in "On the Beach". Instead he uses quiet characters doing their best to live the life they've always wanted. Most of the characters in this book do not face the reality of impending death which makes it all the more sad when it does come. A fantastic book that should continue to be read even though the cold war is over.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Maybe I'm just of Gen X and need a little more excitement, but I picked up this book expecting great things since everyone calls it 'The best book about the end of the world ever', but I found it extremely dull. Maybe I went into it with the wrong expectations, but this is just a boring story about boring people who happen to be facing the end of the world. This would be a perfect book for the Oprah book club, because all those stories deal with boring people as well. I personally would have liked to have heard more about the submarine trips and have them gone onto shore and delved into that a bit more. Instead, I got stories about an alcoholic woman, a garden, a playpen, a car race, etc. The only reason this got 3 stars is because I liked the suicide pills, I liked the way everyone kept going on with their lives, like they weren't going to die. That aspect of things was interesting, but nothing about this book was compelling to me, not the writing, nor any of the characters. I found it hard to relate to any of them. Since I seem to be on the opposite end of the spectrum of everyone else, maybe I'm just missing something, so you should probably read it and see for yourself, but I'm sorry, there are many other better books out there about the end of the world (i.e. The Stand, Lucifer's Hammer, etc.)
Rating:
Summary: Amazing! Not your average end-of-the-world book!
Review: What I liked so much about this book was that it is not about saving the earth, by blowing up a comet or defeating aliens, but rather about the hopeless struggle to just hold on, and about the human reactions to this grim situation. Very stunning!
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