I like to read these post-apocalyptic novels because I like depressing things. This one was different from any that I'd read. It was a satire of sorts, along with a strange kind of fantasy, a legal drama, and a little of the depressing stuff thrown in for good measure.It follows tombstone engraver George Paxton, who is pretty happy with his life. He's satisfied with his marriage, his job, and dotes on his young daughter, Holly. The world he lives in seems to be on the brink of nuclear war, but that's OK too because everyone is getting these high-tech SCOPAS suits that will enable a person to survive in a post-nuclear environment. More than anything, he wants one of these suits for his daughter. When a mysterious customer offers him a free SCOPAS suit in exchange for his help writing an inscription for a tombstone...and his signature on a document signifying his complicity in the arms race. George completes this work, but unfortunately Soviet weapons annihilate George's town before he can get the suit home to Holly.What follows is odd to say the least. George survives, and is picked up by a submarine that also holds a bunch of people who really do work in the military-industrial complex. The submarine is headed to Antarctica, where they are the defendants in a tribunal staged by the descendents of the human race that never got to be born. The Unadmitted, as they call themselves, blame this group of men for the fact that they never got to have lives, and want justice...or maybe just revenge.Yeah. This was strange. The courtroom proceedings took up a large portion of the book, and I didn't understand 100% of that. I might be more up on some of the terminology if we were still in the cold war. Still, though. I'd never read anything like it and I'll probably want to read it again at some point.
I bought a remaindered copy of This Is the Way the World Ends sometime last year & picked it off Mount ToBeRead earlier this week.George Paxton wants to buy a scopas survival suit for his daughter for Christmas, but can't afford one, as he works on commission as a tombstone carver. A mysterious old woman sends him to a remarkable shop, where he signs a contract admitting complicity in the nuclear arms race in return for a suit. World War Three erupts; as nasty and brutal as everyone expects. A handful of men, including George, are saved and brought to Antarctica for the purpose of being put on trial by a surprising, yet logical group of people.Published in 1986, in the middle of Reagan's second term and four years before the Soviet Empire crumbled, this novel depicts an all-too-possible future for that time. The chapter describing the results of the nuclear strike is poetically gruesome; I'm somewhat surprised I didn't have nightmares.More magical realism than science fiction; the plot is paced well, with some interesting twists. The Alice in Wonderland theme was almost too clever for its own good, and I was kept guessing as to who a couple of the characters represented. The legal trial got a bit tedious; however, it wasn't as turgid as the trial in Blameless in Abbadon, another of Morrow's novels.Recommended to survivors of the Cold War who are still haunted by [b]The Day After[/b].
Do You like book This Is The Way The World Ends (1995)?
the back cover says: Picks up where Dr. Strangelove leaves off. i must have read that when i picked the book out of the bargain bin, so i must have known it wasn't your usual (serious) dramatic end-of-the- world-as-we-know-it story. still i'm surprised when i start it to find the dark humour, the satire, the irony, the absurd fantastical elements. i don't usually think of humour and post apocalyptic themes going together. well, except for Dr. Strangelove. i'm about halfway through and while there was a rough bit where the story started to lose me, i pushed through and am quite enjoying the story. our accidental hero is a most sympathetic character and his humanity balances out the absurdity of both the military and the alien forces. so a little further in, and there is a definite shift. the argument regarding deterrence - definitely still absurd and smart and clever - is also insightful and well presented. the story has a strong intellectual bend the earlier chapters didn't. and then ....another sharp shift. the tragic element has been building, but towards the end the tragedy becomes personal ... and, the story becomes emotional. it seems it is our way to be impacted more by the suffering of a single individual we have connected with, than for the millions who suffered as much if not more than that one indidivual. and so it is with This Is The Way the World Ends. it is the fate of our unlikely hero that sets me reeling ... not the fate of the world.
—Sooz
The great fear of our generation: nuclear war resulting in the extinction of all living creatures. Yeah, not exactly an uplifting book. But very well-written, as I've come to expect from Morrow. The concepts are straight-forward, aimed at the blunders often involved with arms races, but also with a sensitivity and compassion for even the biggest idiots. I do recommend this book, but only if you're in the mood for something as light and fluffy as a mushroom cloud. (I will add that the exquisite description of the moment of total destruction is almost worth the read of the book - or at least the first few chapters!)Tragic and beautiful.
—Ravena
The first 100 pages of this book were one of the best 100 pages I've ever read. It sparkled an incredibly great amount of interest in me. The narrative was fluid, captivating, itriguing and geniune.But, after page 120, you start to loose interest, It's as if the author had gone crazy in while writing the novel. The story becomes convuluted and the plot all over the place. The author begins to preach his ideals onto paper, and that's when I usually start to hate the book. I didn't really hate this book per say, because of that inicial contact with it. People use to say that the first impression is always the one that stays, and this was the case.Conclusion: Interesting premise, wonderfully written until page 100. After that, it's a dull fest of nothingness.
—Daniel Gonçalves
