Is it shit?

Well?

No it's quite good, tense, cool and saddening.

>>7576294
Does it get any better after the first few chapters? It's shit so far.

>>7576474
No not really, it continues in the same general way.

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>>7576232
It could have had about fifty pages chopped out of it. He relies too much on the shock value of what nuclear Armageddon would look like. Mostly because, when he was writing, that was enough to carry the whole novel. There's an amazing chapter or two when they go to see who is broadcasting a signal from within the radiated zone. That's worth it. But outside of that small window, there is far too much sailing.

It also seems like his imagination hit a dead end on the whole, "What would everyone do if they knew they were going to die in a couple weeks." Because as far as he got was 'drink a lot'. Which is fine, but part of the appeal of these post apocalypse books is the voyeurism of 'no morals' and collapse porn.

What he does get right is the overly optimistic temptation that the media and leaders would have to take on in order to keep people going.

Anyway, it was a slog in places. Good ideas, very average execution, big 'moral tale' ending. I won't read anything else by Shute (in case that's some an indicator).

>>7576232
It never impressed me that much. I like the ending cuz it's dark as fuck but other than that he's just not that good of a writer.

>>7576565
On this line of though, Day of the Triphids is a pretty big post-apoc recommendation.

i saw assange reading it once so i guess it is shit

One of the better apocalyptic books.

>>7576565

To be honest I think he was pretty close with having people just drink a lot. I'd say your average person isn't going to do much after the initial freak out (which is alluded to in the book).

I doubt most of them are going to undo decades of social conditioning due to the knowledge that it will end soon. The book drives home the normality of their situation despite the incoming cloud.