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Nature's End
The year is 2025. Immense numbers of people swarm the globe. In countless, astonishing ways, technology has triumphed—but at a staggering cost. Starvation is rampant. City dwellers gasp for breath under blackened skies. And tottering on the brink of environmental collapse, the world may be ending … It is a future that could well be ours. In their second shocking and fascinating portrait of America's possible destiny, Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka have again written a breathless thriller, a book that gives us an important warning and ultimately a message of hope.
367 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 1, 1986
91 people are currently reading
1005 people want to read
About the author
Whitley Strieber
152 books1,253 followersAmerican writer best known for his novels The Wolfen,The Hunger and Warday and for Communion, a non-fiction description of his experiences with apparent alien contact. He has recently made significant advances in understanding this phenomenon, and has published his new discoveries in Solving the Communion Enigma.
Strieber also co-authored The Coming Global Superstorm with Art Bell, which inspired the blockbuster film about sudden climate change, The Day After Tomorrow.
His book The Afterlife Revolution written with his deceased wife Anne, is a record of what is considered to be one of the most powerful instances of afterlife communication ever recorded.
Strieber also co-authored The Coming Global Superstorm with Art Bell, which inspired the blockbuster film about sudden climate change, The Day After Tomorrow.
His book The Afterlife Revolution written with his deceased wife Anne, is a record of what is considered to be one of the most powerful instances of afterlife communication ever recorded.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews
June 17, 2013
I read this book when it first came out and it seemed so 'sci-fi'/futuristic back then. Now many of the technologies 'predicted' in the story are in fact available to us - cell phones that can communicate with our home pcs, digital medical records...for what was amazing back-in-the-day, we now have at our fingertips; including global warming, air and water pollution. This was a good read then and is even more meaningful 25 years after publication.
Favorite quote, "Maybe if our grandparents (that would be this generation) had been willing to face the fact that they were destroying the planet we wouldn't be suffering now. But they weren't willing. Every generation is the victim of its history." (page 81)
Favorite quote, "Maybe if our grandparents (that would be this generation) had been willing to face the fact that they were destroying the planet we wouldn't be suffering now. But they weren't willing. Every generation is the victim of its history." (page 81)
May 27, 2012
Chilling and eye-opening at the same time. It seems to have a small taste of George Orwell's 1984 in it, and the world built by Strieber and Kunetka is so intricate and well-described that it seems like an all-too-possible future - Perhaps not by 2025 as described, but 2125... A few segments are a bit slow to get through and certainly the first few chapters are not for the faint of heart, but if you're looking for an intense dystopia with a crazed and sadistic 'saint' on the rise and a tiny glimmer of hope on the horizon, Nature's End is well worth the read.
February 22, 2018
I really loved this book and want to read it again. This is science fiction and a commentary on environmental collapse, political corruption, journalistic oppression along with some cyberpunk details. I read it a long time ago, forgot the title and author and blindly searched around for it again at the library (they no longer keep title or borrow lists of patrons since GWBush) and found this at the thrift store (Salvation Army) some years later. I have a long reading list so I am going to wait to reread it once I am caught up.
April 9, 2015
A ridiculous book but I chose to persevere for two reasons: to see what happened and to try and work out what made this book so bad. The premise and plot had definite potential. For an apocalyptic novel it was way out there when it was published in 1986. The authors leveraged what was happening in the climate change movement to put forward a vision of planet earth that was believable, in 1986. Corporations and the elite have taken over the world - what's new? However, it wasn't far enough into the future in the book to account for the extremes impacting on society - pollution, age-inhibiting drugs, human-generated nutrition, and an array of cities even in the minority world steeped in poverty and homelessness apart from a few 'luck' elite.
This book needs at least four more drafts and a damn good edit. The story does not flow - it is disjointed and chaotic but not in a good way. It took until about page 200 before anything really interesting took off, and then only a few short chapters gave the story the boost it needed. The writing missed out important descriptions and actions in the really interesting scenes - e.g., when the heroes were reached an illegal community, and it lacked feasible story lines and links to accepted philosophical and theoretical thinking. The characters were shallow and the chapters of dialogue were more like lectures than interviews. I wonder who wrote the three or four good chapters with interesting dialogue? The ending was a major disappointment and did not lend credibility at all. Suggestion - take one plot and a couple of themes and run with them and describe them well rather than trying to fit in multiple themes. Perhaps it would have hung together in its complexity if the writing had been better?
Even if a plot is crazy the story within needs to be believable with regard to how long things take or how characters might react. I learned a lot from this book about how not to write a novel, and also how very important it is that the story flows and undergoes many drafts to polish the writing. Have they made a film out of it I wonder?
This book needs at least four more drafts and a damn good edit. The story does not flow - it is disjointed and chaotic but not in a good way. It took until about page 200 before anything really interesting took off, and then only a few short chapters gave the story the boost it needed. The writing missed out important descriptions and actions in the really interesting scenes - e.g., when the heroes were reached an illegal community, and it lacked feasible story lines and links to accepted philosophical and theoretical thinking. The characters were shallow and the chapters of dialogue were more like lectures than interviews. I wonder who wrote the three or four good chapters with interesting dialogue? The ending was a major disappointment and did not lend credibility at all. Suggestion - take one plot and a couple of themes and run with them and describe them well rather than trying to fit in multiple themes. Perhaps it would have hung together in its complexity if the writing had been better?
Even if a plot is crazy the story within needs to be believable with regard to how long things take or how characters might react. I learned a lot from this book about how not to write a novel, and also how very important it is that the story flows and undergoes many drafts to polish the writing. Have they made a film out of it I wonder?
November 28, 2018
Loved it. One of my all time favorites in how it creates such a compelling picture of a dystopian future. This book has it all, with amazing world building, captivating characters and thrilling action scenes. Highly recommended. I've read this book several times over the past 25 years, and i'm always able to find something new and interesting to be inspired about.
November 30, 2019
I really enjoyed this. It was well written, although I did have to take emotion breaks when the prognosis got too bad. I accidentally read a chapter about a massive forest fire while watching a documentary about a massive forest fire, and fell a bit to pieces.
This book is classified as fiction, but is actually a pretty convincing near future history. I now need to find something light and fluffy to read.
This book is classified as fiction, but is actually a pretty convincing near future history. I now need to find something light and fluffy to read.
January 14, 2019
Still Relevant
I first read this book back in 1992 in my Senior year of high school. Here we are 27 years later and while many of the things covered haven't come to pass this book it's still relevant today as it was break then. It's themes are universal and always will be.
I first read this book back in 1992 in my Senior year of high school. Here we are 27 years later and while many of the things covered haven't come to pass this book it's still relevant today as it was break then. It's themes are universal and always will be.
February 13, 2011
Excellent story. I do enjoy a story about the dangers of the future, especially when there is hope at the end.
January 24, 2013
No way near as good as Warday but still a good read.
July 6, 2010
A powerful vision of the near future. While the book was written back in the 1980s, many facets of the book's predictions have either become or are in the process of becoming true. The book's storyline starts out with a powerful scene of the loss of a son by a father during a environmental disaster in Denver in 2024. The storyline evolves around the actions of the son while he was alive and how his actions would ultimately affect the main characters throughout the book.
Perhaps the one element that was proven incorrect was the brief mentioning of an ongoing cold war between the US and the Soviet Union. However, this false prediction does not detract from the book's characters or storyline.
Please note that the book is out of print but can often be found at used bookstores or online.
Perhaps the one element that was proven incorrect was the brief mentioning of an ongoing cold war between the US and the Soviet Union. However, this false prediction does not detract from the book's characters or storyline.
Please note that the book is out of print but can often be found at used bookstores or online.
January 7, 2009
Nature's End came to me about the same time I began delving into environmental issues in college. I was truly amazed by how Whitley Strieber's and James KUNETKA's (actual last name: for more accurate searches) "non-fictional fiction" drives home the consequences of our own irresponsible actions on this planet, and in such a frightening, yet entertaining way. The plot has stayed with (in) me. I've lost track of my rereads, as the predictions are disturbingly 'not all that' far-fetched. I believe it has held up so well over the years, as I continually cling to its final message: being one of hope for nature's future.
February 3, 2022
Disturbingly prescient in its projection of the effects of the Anthropocene on our planet, though perhaps more focused on the immediate dangers of pollution rather than the longer-term shifts in climate. Where Rachel Carson's Silent Spring looked at the dangers to animals, this novel focuses on the dangers to humanity. Probably deserves to have been more widely read. A good example of how SF can serve as the canary in the coal mine, showing us where we're headed if we don't take action.
March 30, 2008
This book is really fascinating right now because we're a little more than halfway between when the book was written and when it is set. Great time to see how much of it is coming true. The title is deceptive. Although it involves all sorts of environmental catastrophes nature is not actually dying in the book. Human society is on the breaking point and the possible extinction of humans is a strong theme. The book strives for realism, and does a better job of that than most future stories. A few of the events which were speculation when it was written have now happened, and are fact.
November 10, 2009
Utterly fantastic. Though written in 1986, it manages to not once feel dated, which is apparently a big feat in sci-fi. The book follows people trying to survive in the pollution-decimated future, but the plot is so complex that the devastated future is only a backdrop. The political intrigue and fugitive-driven plot lend a feel of a thriller novel, and makes for a fast read. The myriad of inventive futuristic ideas all captivate. It's been a while since I got this into a book, and have tried to force it on so many friends. I eagerly await picking anything else this pair has written.
June 14, 2008
Good read! I enjoyed it. I found it interesting that the authors published the book in 1986 but had their fictional history in the book going back to the early 1980's. Most authors choose an arbitrary date in the future and remain ahead of that so that they don't have to try and be accurate. This book is obviously not meant to be a prediction of our world, but to get you thinking about our world's problems. And indeed, I find interesting parallels to Gupta Singh and modern politicians.
February 12, 2020
I recently finished reading Nature's End and to say I remain stunned by Whitley Streiber's eerie ability to predict the state of the Earth's environment would be an extreme understatement. Although the book was written 25 years ago, Streiber's description of the demise of the natural world is nothing short of amazing.
I'm curious, albeit frightened, to know Mr. Streiber's long-term ecological outlook.
I'm curious, albeit frightened, to know Mr. Streiber's long-term ecological outlook.
November 13, 2020
7.8 billion population in 2020
Nature's end is a book that almost reads like a nonfiction. I found myself looking up places on Google maps, when speaking about a fire in the Santa Monica mountains. Supposedly it takes place in 2035, when the population is at 7 billion. John Sinclair is a journalist who has developed a program called Delta doctor. Given enough data, it becomes so like the person that is being convicted, that anyone can ask questions of it, and it will tell the truth.
For example, Gupta Singh is the leader of a movement of Depopulationists -- a movement that wants to kill one third of the Earth's population.
At a time to be set, every single person on the planet will take a pill. nobody supposedly will know who has the placebo and who has the poison. In this way, they hope the Earth will be saved.
They already have members in congress, who have introduced the bill to implement the Depopulation Manifesto. Now that John SinClair is building a conviction against him, Gupta Singh is taking steps to kill him.
Hardback 1986
P.31:
"historically, the passivity that now freezes mankind existed in a milder form back in the last century, when the terrible significance of things like pollution pathways and atmospheric degradation was unrealized. in those days effective action would have been cheap compared to what we must pay now. but there were still trees in 1950, and sunny days in 1990, and it was easy to pretend that the future would never really arrive.
now that the death of the earth is far advanced, we are really in a panic. just like Bell says, we are Frozen with fear – we've gone passive."
John and his family travel to Calcutta, to interview Dr singh, one of the first steps in building a conviction against him. Dr Singh dare not deny him.
P.42:
"most of the passengers went on electrosleep, but I was afraid to because it might upset something in my gerontology program. when you're 72 you think very carefully about doing things that aren't on your list. for all I knew, the electrosleep process might cause my free radical suppressors to neutralize. Then I'd age, possibly years, in an hour. I look 45, and I want to stay that way. Agedness disgusts me, frankly. . ."
"sometimes, as youthful and strong as I am, I feel that I have become separated from my own self. I am a young body, a vital mind, but deep in me, in the places I don't usually go, there is a shadowy old man, confused, meeting the world with the same dim eyes as the tavway attendant."
Dr. Singh:
P.55:
"even compulsory birth control has not been an effective means of solving the problem. Although the planetary population is now stable and shows signs of a slight decline, the presence of over 7 billion human beings on Earth is simply too much, and there is not enough time for natural attrition to save the situation period with natural attrition alone, the needed reduction of 1/3 will not be accomplished until 2077, far too late."
Furious with John sinclair, Gupta singh carries out a vicious attack against john. John and his wife are registered in a gerontology corporation, which controls their aging. Gupta Singh wipes out John's account in their database, so when John goes in for his next anti-aging appointment, he is refused treatment. Frantic at the thought of aging, he goes to an independent gerontologist for a consultation . The news is not good.
P.118:
" 'you'll age at first. rapidly. I think you'd go down to maybe a 5-year spread before you stabled out. I'd expect a good gerontologist could hold you to about 65 or so.'
He was saying that I was going to age 20 years. 'how long will it take?'
'that's the problem. because your clinical age is so great the bioclock will be very aggressive. We'll be dealing with all kinds of problems. Mainly oxidation and high production of aging factor. At least you're not cancer suppressed.'
'at least.'
it was only then, as I heard those acid words come out of my own mouth, that the full impact of my problem hit me. I slapped my AmEx card down on his reader and got out of there. My heart was pounding, tears were blurring my vision and all of a sudden I was running down Sunset, past elegant clothing shops and expensive mood mixing boutiques I was totally unprepared to cope with old age, and coming so damn fast!
I thought of the people I saw in Calcutta – bent legs, sunken eyes, withered skin, shaking, claw-like hands, white hair. I was confused, frightened,...."
The Delta doctor now has enough data to answer some of John's questions of Gupta singh.
P.218:
"...'man is not easy to love. as a doctor, I have an interest in the body of man. But man's great obligation has been to live in harmony with the planet. Everything is in disharmony. sometimes I think that the life of a gopher is worth more than that of a saint, so rare have animals become, and so common are saints, at least in the streets of calcutta! Man has not evolved properly, and cannot do so. Look at the effects of intelligence enhancement. those children are terrifying. they're dangerous and they cannot be controlled. They are what the species itself will become in another 200,000 years, and they are hideous failures.'
– does it matter if the species is destroyed?
'the species, the species. I am tired of hearing that word. no, it does not matter. The species is a failure. the danger is not that the species will be destroyed, but that it won't. we have the Depopulation – we at the highest levels – know that, added to natural attrition, our program will trigger Extinction. we welcome this. before God and nature, it is very much needed and even overdue.'
– what makes you despise mankind?
'human beings in their natural state are simply machines that process valuable Earth resources. The world is driving me mad, it is so jammed with pointless, aimless people. Why should the whole planet be destroyed just so these idiotic lives can be lived out?' "
Imagine that this book was published in 1985. Here we are in 2020, and wildfire events are out of control, hurricanes are at the highest velocity that has ever been recorded. The Arctic and the Antarctic are melting at fantastic rates. And yet, do we see our government doing anything about it? Do we see human beings themselves demanding change, demanding protection of the only planet we have? No. People go on dumbly, even electing Joe biden, thinking that he's going to be their savior. capitalism is out of control--it's eating up our planet. people continue to pop out babies like we have a healthy planet to live on . Like there won't be water wars within 10 years. Like there will be air to breathe. JFC.
Nature's end is a book that almost reads like a nonfiction. I found myself looking up places on Google maps, when speaking about a fire in the Santa Monica mountains. Supposedly it takes place in 2035, when the population is at 7 billion. John Sinclair is a journalist who has developed a program called Delta doctor. Given enough data, it becomes so like the person that is being convicted, that anyone can ask questions of it, and it will tell the truth.
For example, Gupta Singh is the leader of a movement of Depopulationists -- a movement that wants to kill one third of the Earth's population.
At a time to be set, every single person on the planet will take a pill. nobody supposedly will know who has the placebo and who has the poison. In this way, they hope the Earth will be saved.
They already have members in congress, who have introduced the bill to implement the Depopulation Manifesto. Now that John SinClair is building a conviction against him, Gupta Singh is taking steps to kill him.
Hardback 1986
P.31:
"historically, the passivity that now freezes mankind existed in a milder form back in the last century, when the terrible significance of things like pollution pathways and atmospheric degradation was unrealized. in those days effective action would have been cheap compared to what we must pay now. but there were still trees in 1950, and sunny days in 1990, and it was easy to pretend that the future would never really arrive.
now that the death of the earth is far advanced, we are really in a panic. just like Bell says, we are Frozen with fear – we've gone passive."
John and his family travel to Calcutta, to interview Dr singh, one of the first steps in building a conviction against him. Dr Singh dare not deny him.
P.42:
"most of the passengers went on electrosleep, but I was afraid to because it might upset something in my gerontology program. when you're 72 you think very carefully about doing things that aren't on your list. for all I knew, the electrosleep process might cause my free radical suppressors to neutralize. Then I'd age, possibly years, in an hour. I look 45, and I want to stay that way. Agedness disgusts me, frankly. . ."
"sometimes, as youthful and strong as I am, I feel that I have become separated from my own self. I am a young body, a vital mind, but deep in me, in the places I don't usually go, there is a shadowy old man, confused, meeting the world with the same dim eyes as the tavway attendant."
Dr. Singh:
P.55:
"even compulsory birth control has not been an effective means of solving the problem. Although the planetary population is now stable and shows signs of a slight decline, the presence of over 7 billion human beings on Earth is simply too much, and there is not enough time for natural attrition to save the situation period with natural attrition alone, the needed reduction of 1/3 will not be accomplished until 2077, far too late."
Furious with John sinclair, Gupta singh carries out a vicious attack against john. John and his wife are registered in a gerontology corporation, which controls their aging. Gupta Singh wipes out John's account in their database, so when John goes in for his next anti-aging appointment, he is refused treatment. Frantic at the thought of aging, he goes to an independent gerontologist for a consultation . The news is not good.
P.118:
" 'you'll age at first. rapidly. I think you'd go down to maybe a 5-year spread before you stabled out. I'd expect a good gerontologist could hold you to about 65 or so.'
He was saying that I was going to age 20 years. 'how long will it take?'
'that's the problem. because your clinical age is so great the bioclock will be very aggressive. We'll be dealing with all kinds of problems. Mainly oxidation and high production of aging factor. At least you're not cancer suppressed.'
'at least.'
it was only then, as I heard those acid words come out of my own mouth, that the full impact of my problem hit me. I slapped my AmEx card down on his reader and got out of there. My heart was pounding, tears were blurring my vision and all of a sudden I was running down Sunset, past elegant clothing shops and expensive mood mixing boutiques I was totally unprepared to cope with old age, and coming so damn fast!
I thought of the people I saw in Calcutta – bent legs, sunken eyes, withered skin, shaking, claw-like hands, white hair. I was confused, frightened,...."
The Delta doctor now has enough data to answer some of John's questions of Gupta singh.
P.218:
"...'man is not easy to love. as a doctor, I have an interest in the body of man. But man's great obligation has been to live in harmony with the planet. Everything is in disharmony. sometimes I think that the life of a gopher is worth more than that of a saint, so rare have animals become, and so common are saints, at least in the streets of calcutta! Man has not evolved properly, and cannot do so. Look at the effects of intelligence enhancement. those children are terrifying. they're dangerous and they cannot be controlled. They are what the species itself will become in another 200,000 years, and they are hideous failures.'
– does it matter if the species is destroyed?
'the species, the species. I am tired of hearing that word. no, it does not matter. The species is a failure. the danger is not that the species will be destroyed, but that it won't. we have the Depopulation – we at the highest levels – know that, added to natural attrition, our program will trigger Extinction. we welcome this. before God and nature, it is very much needed and even overdue.'
– what makes you despise mankind?
'human beings in their natural state are simply machines that process valuable Earth resources. The world is driving me mad, it is so jammed with pointless, aimless people. Why should the whole planet be destroyed just so these idiotic lives can be lived out?' "
Imagine that this book was published in 1985. Here we are in 2020, and wildfire events are out of control, hurricanes are at the highest velocity that has ever been recorded. The Arctic and the Antarctic are melting at fantastic rates. And yet, do we see our government doing anything about it? Do we see human beings themselves demanding change, demanding protection of the only planet we have? No. People go on dumbly, even electing Joe biden, thinking that he's going to be their savior. capitalism is out of control--it's eating up our planet. people continue to pop out babies like we have a healthy planet to live on . Like there won't be water wars within 10 years. Like there will be air to breathe. JFC.
February 6, 2013
Slow, barely plausible start, but it got better. I actually rate this one 3.5 stars because the story is regularly interrupted by fake news stories and pages of fake "recovered" data about climate change. At about the half-way point I started skipping that stuff and just reading the meat of the story. The meat deserves a 5, but that other stuff is super distracting so I compromised on the 4 star rating.
Our protagonists are trying to create a computer program that replicates the consciousness of the leader if the Depopulation Movement so that people can understand his true motives. He presents himself as wanting to randomly kill 1/3 of the world so that the rest can go on... a move that seems sensible to many. He's hiding the fact that this move will NOT be random and that it will result in the extinction of the species. Our protagonists and the subject of their conviction play a cat and mouse game throughout the book that results in a discovery that may save mankind .... and a backup plan in case it doesn't.
As a novel, glossing over the fake stats and bad science, this is an interesting thriller. As a "prophetic view of the future of mankind" as others have called it, it's bunk. As a representative of the pseudo-scientific end-of-the-world-is-neigh genre, it's good. It is an important read for completists of the genre like me.
Our protagonists are trying to create a computer program that replicates the consciousness of the leader if the Depopulation Movement so that people can understand his true motives. He presents himself as wanting to randomly kill 1/3 of the world so that the rest can go on... a move that seems sensible to many. He's hiding the fact that this move will NOT be random and that it will result in the extinction of the species. Our protagonists and the subject of their conviction play a cat and mouse game throughout the book that results in a discovery that may save mankind .... and a backup plan in case it doesn't.
As a novel, glossing over the fake stats and bad science, this is an interesting thriller. As a "prophetic view of the future of mankind" as others have called it, it's bunk. As a representative of the pseudo-scientific end-of-the-world-is-neigh genre, it's good. It is an important read for completists of the genre like me.
July 24, 2021
April 5, 2012: Brief review: Biospheric apocalypse ... caused by humans. I read this in the late 1980s and it scared the daylights out of me.
July 24, 2021: Suddenly feel a screaming need to read this again. (Yes, "screaming." It insists on being there.
I'm not a screamer. A conversation I was part of this evening, mostly as one who listened, brought Nature's End to mind. Like a scream.
This summer
screams.)
~ From the Online Etymology Dictionary:
scream (v.)
late 12c., scræmen, of uncertain origin, similar to words in Scandinavian, Dutch, German, and Flemish (such as Old Norse skræma "to terrify, scare," Swedish scrana "to scream," Dutch schreijen "cry aloud, shriek," Old High German scrian, German schreien "to cry").
July 24, 2021: Suddenly feel a screaming need to read this again. (Yes, "screaming." It insists on being there.
I'm not a screamer. A conversation I was part of this evening, mostly as one who listened, brought Nature's End to mind. Like a scream.
This summer
screams.)
~ From the Online Etymology Dictionary:
scream (v.)
late 12c., scræmen, of uncertain origin, similar to words in Scandinavian, Dutch, German, and Flemish (such as Old Norse skræma "to terrify, scare," Swedish scrana "to scream," Dutch schreijen "cry aloud, shriek," Old High German scrian, German schreien "to cry").
January 10, 2010
I've always enjoyed novels about the end of civilization. They are my preferred form of "horror" fiction, other forms involving aliens, monsters and the supernatural generally leaving me cold. The reason, I suppose, is that the better end-of-the-world fiction is entirely plausible and the very probabilty of something disastrous happening has been a part of my and our culture's consciousness since the Cold War began in the years before my birth. Both of this novels coauthored by Streiber and Kunetka, this one and Warday, do an effective job of making one nervous and, hopefully, more careful about the real threats facing us which we should actively be ware of.
May 22, 2018
A horrifying vision of the future. If we continue to consume and destroy as we have in the 20th century, we may face the hell that Strieber and Kunetka describe in the 21st in Nature's End. The depictions of everyday life in the 2020s with the terrifying consequences of over 100 years of environmental degradation that both enthrall and alarm.
This book should be made into a movie. An amazing and shocking vision of what may await us all in a few decades, many of the predictions of events in this book (written in the 80s) have come to pass with alarming accuracy. A great read but scary and sad if this is indeed our future.
This book should be made into a movie. An amazing and shocking vision of what may await us all in a few decades, many of the predictions of events in this book (written in the 80s) have come to pass with alarming accuracy. A great read but scary and sad if this is indeed our future.
January 12, 2009
I am currently over half way through this docu-fiction (OK so I made the term up but it fits right?). It is an interesting look into the future that is all too probable. Think about the year it was written and the technologies it speaks of that were not so prevalent in 1986. One prime example would be the internet, as well as advanced cosmetic surgerys.
This book is more compelling for the case of environmentalists (spell check please?) than any crap that has come out of Al Gores mouth. A good read for anyone who lieks a little realisim in their fiction.
This book is more compelling for the case of environmentalists (spell check please?) than any crap that has come out of Al Gores mouth. A good read for anyone who lieks a little realisim in their fiction.
March 30, 2011
Rather dull book. I'm still not entirely sure if it's a satire or not. The main characters are a bunch of white, Christian Americans who jet set around the world constantly, have extensive anti-ageing treatments and every gadget under the sun in a world were people die in their thousands due to pollution and overcrowding. They're trying to take down a political activist in India who suggests that most of Earth's severe environmental problems could be helped if there were just less people around. I'm kinda siding with the 'bad guy' here.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 29, 2025
A prescient and compelling story to read in the decade in which it is set, 40 years after it was written. It is a particularly fascinating read when one considers the recent real-world revolution in generative AI, the perpetually concerning state of Earth’s climate, and the technology predictions that the author gets “wrong.”
January 16, 2008
Not as wacky as Streiber's later work, but more believeable and chilling. An eco-thriller where a run-down world is reaching its global carrying capacity and people begin thinking that maybe eugenics and euthanasia are the answer.
November 22, 2011
This book changed my life - it was my first Streiber book. It is one book that was written as fiction that actually came to be reality. I highly recommend it. I had borrowed it in Seattle and eventually bought my own copy on the Oregon coast and it is one of my most prized paperbacks.
February 22, 2012
This is an apocalyptical story; one which you hope will never come true but it written in a manner that is foretelling on times ahead. Having read this book in my twenties, I hate to acknowledge that it appears to be a truthful unfolding of our future todate.
July 31, 2016
I didn't encounter a single believable human being in the entire book. It felt as if the authors' had a set-up, a plot and a conclusion and they just pushed and shoved people, cities, nations and cultures around to fit into the necessary slots.
September 11, 2008
Eerie depiction of the not-so-near future. Look up desertification to see what I mean.
January 7, 2010
Slightly absurdist in some of the societal freakshow scenes, but strongly written. I do not want to live in that world.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews