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Chain Reaction
Our way of life has been contaminated…
‘Both humanly and scientifically plausible. Read and be scared’ The Sun
John and Julia Cartwright are deeply disturbed when they notice a drastic change in their daughter Maureen. She has become strangely lethargic and suffers from unexplained nausea. A sinister possibility occurs to John when he discovers evidence of contamination from a tin of baked beans.
Adding fuel to the fire, photographic paper he has stored at home has clearly been damaged by something.
A chilling possibility emerges … radioactive contamination.
The same occurrences are soon reported in homes, schools and organisations across the country.
A glass of water – a cigarette – a stash of pills…
Everything has the potential to be lethal.
But nobody is able to answer the key questions: how, and since when?
Where has it come from?
Someone, somewhere, has failed and the consequences are horrific. A disaster is unfolding and the Atomic Development Commission set out to investigate.
The task is complex but one fact remains throughout all lines of enquiry: no one is immune to the force of contamination…
Chain Reaction is a gripping science fiction thriller, in which the very-real threat of radioactive devastation is brought to terrifying reality.
Praise for Christopher Hodder-Williams:
‘Only too horrifyingly plausible. Mr. Hodder Williams’ book is a first class mushroom cloud thriller’ Julian Symons, Sunday Times
‘A plausible story […] even the manufacture of baked beans is made exciting.’ DAILY TELEGRAPH
‘Very good indeed: an original, realistic, only too possible account […] combining the elements of science fiction, the straight novel and the thriller.’ MANCHESTER GUARDIAN
‘May scare the wits out of a good many readers.’ BELFAST TELEGRAPH
‘Utterly credible.’ DAILY EXPRESS
‘Secures for its author a comfortable place among the best catastrophe writers — Verne, Wyndham and Wells.’ – Times Literary Supplement
‘Well told and thrilling and — what is rare in tales of this kind — the end is entirely satisfactory.’ – Kingsley Amis, Daily Mail
‘Both humanly and scientifically plausible. Read and be scared’ The Sun
‘Horrible plausibility.’ – Punch
‘Mr. Hodder-Williams handles this way-out material most expertly’ Glasgow Herald
Christopher Hodder-Williams was an English writer, mainly of science fiction, but he wrote novels about aviation and espionage as well. Before his career in writing, Hodder-Williams joined the army in 1944, and served in the Middle East and lived in Kenya and New York, later settling in the UK. Many of his books are early examples of what would later be called techno-thrillers. He also worked as a composer and lyricist, and wrote numerous plays for television.
Venture Press is a science fiction and fantasy imprint of Endeavour Press, the UK’s leading independent digital publisher. We are committed to the discovery and rediscovery of immensely talented authors in the SFF genre, and continue to push boundaries in search of great literature. Join us as we venture across universes and unknown landscapes – past, present and future.
Sign up to our newsletter: http://bit.ly/1LUVI4n
Follow us on Twitter @venture_press
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1NnFow7
‘Both humanly and scientifically plausible. Read and be scared’ The Sun
John and Julia Cartwright are deeply disturbed when they notice a drastic change in their daughter Maureen. She has become strangely lethargic and suffers from unexplained nausea. A sinister possibility occurs to John when he discovers evidence of contamination from a tin of baked beans.
Adding fuel to the fire, photographic paper he has stored at home has clearly been damaged by something.
A chilling possibility emerges … radioactive contamination.
The same occurrences are soon reported in homes, schools and organisations across the country.
A glass of water – a cigarette – a stash of pills…
Everything has the potential to be lethal.
But nobody is able to answer the key questions: how, and since when?
Where has it come from?
Someone, somewhere, has failed and the consequences are horrific. A disaster is unfolding and the Atomic Development Commission set out to investigate.
The task is complex but one fact remains throughout all lines of enquiry: no one is immune to the force of contamination…
Chain Reaction is a gripping science fiction thriller, in which the very-real threat of radioactive devastation is brought to terrifying reality.
Praise for Christopher Hodder-Williams:
‘Only too horrifyingly plausible. Mr. Hodder Williams’ book is a first class mushroom cloud thriller’ Julian Symons, Sunday Times
‘A plausible story […] even the manufacture of baked beans is made exciting.’ DAILY TELEGRAPH
‘Very good indeed: an original, realistic, only too possible account […] combining the elements of science fiction, the straight novel and the thriller.’ MANCHESTER GUARDIAN
‘May scare the wits out of a good many readers.’ BELFAST TELEGRAPH
‘Utterly credible.’ DAILY EXPRESS
‘Secures for its author a comfortable place among the best catastrophe writers — Verne, Wyndham and Wells.’ – Times Literary Supplement
‘Well told and thrilling and — what is rare in tales of this kind — the end is entirely satisfactory.’ – Kingsley Amis, Daily Mail
‘Both humanly and scientifically plausible. Read and be scared’ The Sun
‘Horrible plausibility.’ – Punch
‘Mr. Hodder-Williams handles this way-out material most expertly’ Glasgow Herald
Christopher Hodder-Williams was an English writer, mainly of science fiction, but he wrote novels about aviation and espionage as well. Before his career in writing, Hodder-Williams joined the army in 1944, and served in the Middle East and lived in Kenya and New York, later settling in the UK. Many of his books are early examples of what would later be called techno-thrillers. He also worked as a composer and lyricist, and wrote numerous plays for television.
Venture Press is a science fiction and fantasy imprint of Endeavour Press, the UK’s leading independent digital publisher. We are committed to the discovery and rediscovery of immensely talented authors in the SFF genre, and continue to push boundaries in search of great literature. Join us as we venture across universes and unknown landscapes – past, present and future.
Sign up to our newsletter: http://bit.ly/1LUVI4n
Follow us on Twitter @venture_press
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1NnFow7
- GenresScience FictionThriller
248 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1959
5 people are currently reading
42 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Hodder-Williams
24 books5 followersChristopher Hodder-Williams was an English writer, mainly of science fiction, but he wrote novels about aviation and espionage as well. Before his career in writing, Hodder-Williams joined the army in 1944, and served in the Middle East and lived in Kenya and New York, later settling in the UK. Many of his books are early examples of what would later be called techno-thrillers. He also worked as a composer and lyricist, and wrote numerous plays for television.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 30, 2020
Chain Reaction was written in 1959, 2 years after the Windscale nuclear disaster.
It's a nice piece of speculative fiction about the race to find the source of nuclear contamination of food in the United Kingdom, which is accidentally uncovered by a main who stores his photography paper in his wife's kitchen pantry. It just so happens that tins of baked beans were stacked on top of the paper - then when he went to use the paper he found exposure marks the exact size of the tins.
As the story unfolds the fictional Atomic Development Commission attempts to trace contamination and establish its source, and in doing so uncovers a large scale nuclear accident.
This was a good story written in the aftermath of Windscale when nuclear concerns about both civilian power, experimentation & atomic war were reaching their peak. It's certainly thought provoking in terms of the scale of problem that can unfold from a momentary straight forward error.
It's a nice piece of speculative fiction about the race to find the source of nuclear contamination of food in the United Kingdom, which is accidentally uncovered by a main who stores his photography paper in his wife's kitchen pantry. It just so happens that tins of baked beans were stacked on top of the paper - then when he went to use the paper he found exposure marks the exact size of the tins.
As the story unfolds the fictional Atomic Development Commission attempts to trace contamination and establish its source, and in doing so uncovers a large scale nuclear accident.
This was a good story written in the aftermath of Windscale when nuclear concerns about both civilian power, experimentation & atomic war were reaching their peak. It's certainly thought provoking in terms of the scale of problem that can unfold from a momentary straight forward error.
December 2, 2022
i would say this is a really good book, if you are into science and radioactivity. it’s well written and gripping with a bunch of characters that get very confusing, but it has a lot of science in it. science terms, science talk, and i wasnt really aware of it until i started reading and it was too late. good read and interesting, but not the best book ever.
June 3, 2019
Excellent novel
What a cracking story, well written and believable characters.
Nice to get a novel that has a story that is unique, and riveting.
What a cracking story, well written and believable characters.
Nice to get a novel that has a story that is unique, and riveting.
April 12, 2016
Stumbled upon Christopher Hodder-Williams by accident and decided to buy a few of his novels, all out of print some time ago, via eBay (I realise that some are now available as ebooks but I don't do ebooks. It doesn't feel right).
Chain Reaction was the first to arrive and I wasted no time. A bit stilted but to be expected as it was written in 1959. Very reminiscent of John Wyndham. A speculative novel about radiation getting into the food chain. Chernobyl is all I will say. I was living and working in the Lake District in 1986. Restrictions were only fully lifted in the Lake District, parts of Scotland and Wales, four years ago.
Enjoyable read and looking forward to reading more of his output. I love discovering authors who fell out of favour many moons ago.
Ray Smillie
Chain Reaction was the first to arrive and I wasted no time. A bit stilted but to be expected as it was written in 1959. Very reminiscent of John Wyndham. A speculative novel about radiation getting into the food chain. Chernobyl is all I will say. I was living and working in the Lake District in 1986. Restrictions were only fully lifted in the Lake District, parts of Scotland and Wales, four years ago.
Enjoyable read and looking forward to reading more of his output. I love discovering authors who fell out of favour many moons ago.
Ray Smillie
January 19, 2017
John and Julia Cartwright's daughter hasn't been feeling well for some time. She's been fatigued, nauseous, and overall just "off." One morning, John goes to grab a can of beans from the pantry and he notices that it has left a mark on his photography paper. Suddenly, his daughter's illness makes sense; except how did it happen? Soon radiation is found in a candy bar, cigarettes, wine... and it's up to the Atomic Commission to figure out what happened and act fast.
The biggest problem is in the glossary. Many of the terms, in the author's attempt to simplify an explanation (unless they were pulled straight from a dictionary), were incorrect when trying to explain nuclear/atomic science.
The biggest problem is in the glossary. Many of the terms, in the author's attempt to simplify an explanation (unless they were pulled straight from a dictionary), were incorrect when trying to explain nuclear/atomic science.
January 10, 2016
Chain Reaction
A wonderful and detailed look into a nuclear disaster. This book was originally published in 1959, but is still relative today because it is plausible to occur still and maybe with worse outcomes. A great book to read.
A wonderful and detailed look into a nuclear disaster. This book was originally published in 1959, but is still relative today because it is plausible to occur still and maybe with worse outcomes. A great book to read.
December 14, 2015
This book is published by Venture Press.
February 8, 2016
a good story with a slightly too British delivery. very dry and self-depricating.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews