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 Only the shallow will describe it as "out of date."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!
Rating:
Summary: this is a review of the Casette.
Review: Yes the book was written in the Cold War Era environment. However I believe it is timeless. Someone else must think so or they would not have made an updated version for our no too distant future. Yet some characters are predictable. Even those character that change easily through some sort of epiphany can be predictable. The basic story is that Albania sends a plan with a major country's markings and we retaliate. However this is not a pacifist (don't build bombs book). This is not a si-fi book. It could be a speculative fiction or just speculative. The book On the Beach ISBN: 0345311485 as most books is more complete in the characterization and description of the story. One the people is a cross of characters. The captain, Dwight Towers, is well trained and loyal to the U.S. to the end. He takes the sub out to international waters, as Australia is an ally, but not the U.S. Moira Davidson realizes that Dwight is married and helps him buy a pogo stick for the kid. She also decides to make something of herself by going to secretarial school. Others plan for next year. The Audio Cassette ISBN: 0745162819 is unabridged and has the full impact of the book. The only drawback is if you listen to it on the way to work, everyone will notice that you are depressed. The movie On the Beach (1959) ASIN: 6304111398 Stays fairly loyal to the feel, with a few minor changes. Some of the changes were necessary due to the difference in media. However others were a little distracting. They used major stars that overshadowed the character that they were playing. Ava Gardner was just a tad old for the part of Moira Davidson. However the movie still let the characters be real and predictable.
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