headermask image

This site covers the end of the world, including:

  • fictional stories in books and movies
  • real events and scientific results that changes are happening leading towards the end of the world
  • speculative ideas tied to spiritual concepts, religious ideas, ancient civilisations, etc

We are happy to take serious and humorous looks at all these areas.

Down to a Sunless Sea

Down to a Sunless Sea
By David Graham
Pan MacMillan, 1979
ISBN 0 330 26184 3
Re-released Simon & Schuster 2007
ISBN 1416567666

This is an excellent book and I am pleased to see it re-released by Simon & Schuster as it is as timely as it was when originally released in the late 1970’s. The book is a first person narrative by the pilot of a trans-Atlantic flight. It starts on the flight into New York, spends an interesting scene setting time in New York and then gets into the main topic of the book, nuclear war and how one group deals with it.

The book is set in a post US collapse world where the US economy has fallen apart because of oil and America is a shadow of its former self. The first part of the book deals with this aspect and does a good job of exploring such as collapse, both on the macro and micro level. It is a scarily realistic scenario, especially in present circumstances.

Then the flight back to London begins and the world goes to hell in a hand basket following the Israeli nuking of surrounding Arab capitals in apparent retaliation for the poisoning of the water supply killing many Israelis. The predictable response of Russia and China leads to a full exchange. The unfolding of this and then the attempts of the people on the plane to survive forms the bulk of the book.

The book becomes suitably claustrophobic as the plane’s options dwindle and even when hope rises there is plenty of tension to the story. I won’t give the plot away further but there appear to be two endings of this book in circulation in different printings. My copy, a UK Pan paperback, has a sad ending. A couple of page shorter version with a positive ending also exists.

The book is as relevant today as when first published, maybe more so. The current huge debt America carries along with the arrive of peak oil makes the opening scenario even more possible, as does a resurgently aggressive Russia and the rise of China and the ongoing failure to sort out the Middle East make the scenario of the rest of the book likely.

It is a sad but stirring read. There is enough heroism to counteract the generally bleak outlook and the characterization is well done, even if a couple of the main characters are a bit clichéd. I would highly recommend this book and would not be surprised if the reason it has been re-released is that it has been optioned for a movie. It would make a good one though probably not with massive appeal.

This is an excellent read.

If you liked my post, feel free to subscribe to my rss feeds

Post meta

This entry was written by Wayne and posted on June 4, 2008 at 11:00 pm and filed under Book, Fiction. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment(Latest is displayed first) or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

Share with others

Post Down to a Sunless Sea to digg. Post Down to a Sunless Sea to Reddit add to stumbleupon Google Bookmark myweb bookmark on del.cio.us newsvine Tailrank magnolia Furl co.mments shadows simpy blinklist

10 Comments so far (Add 1 more)

  1. Hey, thanks for doing the legwork.

    I have only read the sad ending version. But once I started thinking about the happy ending version I have to say I feel the book seems like it would be better with the sad ending. My reasoning for this is that the book is very believable. To me that is its strength. Now with the atmospheric mixing the way it is I was finding it hard to believe that the fall out would stay away from the antarctic and indeed was expecting it to arrive as I read the book. So I felt when it came it made sense. To work a happy ending I feel he would have to work in enough information about delayed arrival of the fallout so that much of the radiation had already dropped out of the air and the nasty shorter lived isotopes had decayed enough so the dosage was tolerable. Now he may have done this. Now I have to go lookign for the happy ending version to see :).

    1. Wayne on February 19th, 2009 at 10:21 pm

  2. Okay, gathering together various clues from across the net, I’ve learned about the different versions of this book.
    I learned that when Graham’s novel was first published in the States, the publishers required that he put in a “happy ending.” You know, the one where the survivors get to live in peace. The first U.S. publisher to get their hands on this book was Fawcett Crest. Therefore, the most obvious canidate for the happy ending is the Fawcett Crest version.
    Oh, and sorry if I sound like such a gadfly about this.

    2. Jake Stuckey on February 19th, 2009 at 10:05 pm

  3. I really don’t know. My understanding is that the happy ending version just ends off a little earlier. This latest is much longer than mine in pages, and that’s the trouble with judging it this way, differences in size and production layout changes the length substantially.

    3. Wayne J. Cosshall on February 17th, 2009 at 5:16 am

  4. The most recent edition, the Simon & Shuster edition of 2007, has 352 pages. Do you think it’s the “happy ending” version? If it is, then I’m making a purchase on Amazon.

    4. Jake Stuckey on February 16th, 2009 at 11:37 pm

  5. And yes, the book does seem as relevant today as it was when written.

    5. Wayne on February 14th, 2009 at 5:14 am

  6. Sorry, I was not being stupid, it is just not a simple question to answer as the page length often varies by edition. My copy is the Pan paperback edition, 1980, with the sad ending and 317 pages.

    6. Wayne on February 14th, 2009 at 5:11 am

  7. Eh, “two pages shorter” is somewhat helpful, but just how many pages does that make? I’m looking for book with the happy ending on Amazon, and I need to know the number of pages.

    7. Jacob Stuckey on February 14th, 2009 at 3:06 am

  8. I believe the happy ending book is two pages shorter. It is a great book.

    8. Wayne on February 13th, 2009 at 5:28 am

  9. I just finished reading the 1979 Pan MacMillan version of this book and was blown away by how relevent it still is, maybe even more so in todays unstable climate. I can really see this happening one day. The book is now firmly listed in my top 10 sci-fi books!

    9. Hakgirl on February 13th, 2009 at 4:53 am

  10. How many pages long is the “happy ending” version?

    10. Jake Stuckey on February 10th, 2009 at 11:25 pm

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *

*
*