Population Doomsday

by Don Pendleton

Through the horrors of pollution we are watching ourselves die slowly. This frightening novel offers some realistic projections about our tomorrow. - from the book cover

Originally published under title "1989: Population Doomsday"

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Don Pendleton was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, December 12, 1927 and died October 23, 1995 in Arizona.

He wrote mystery, action/adventure, science-fiction, crime fiction, suspense, short stories, nonfiction, and was a comic scriptwriter, poet, screenwriter, essayist, and metaphysical scholar. He published more than 125 books in his long career, and his books have been published in more than 25 foreign languages with close to two hundred million copies in print throughout the world.

After producing a number of science-fiction and mystery novels, Don launched in 1969 the phenomenal Mack Bolan: The Executioner, which quickly emerged as the original, definitive Action/Adventure series. His successful paperback books inspired a new particularly American literary genre during the early 1970's, and Don became known as "the father of action/adventure."

"Although The Executioner Series is far and away my most significant contribution to world literature, I still do not perceive myself as 'belonging' to any particular literary niche. I am simply a storyteller, an entertainer who hopes to enthrall with visions of the reader's own incipient greatness."

Don Pendleton's original Executioner Series are now in ebooks, published by Open Road Media. 37 of the original novels.

Wikipedia: Don Pendleton

Reviews

[Marc *Dark Reader with a Thousand Young! Iä!*]

I read this in the early 1990's under the original title, "1989: Population Doomsday". Clearly the predicted timeline had not come to pass, but I was impressed by the forecasting at the time. It was a worn paperback copy that came into my sister's possession somehow, possibly it came from a garage sale.

Written in 1970, this book posits a then-future where virtually the entire earth was choked by severe air pollution. People could not go outdoors without gas masks. Populations were so dense that a system of moving sidewalks was necessary in cities to get around on foot. Pollution was so bad that airborne chemicals started to create toxic weather events, killing the unlucky who were caught in these "pollution storms".

Into this setting, a new U.S. president was elected on a platform of willingness to take extreme measures to combat these problems. Even so, the new president met with plenty of resistance as he severely curtailed vehicular traffic and instituted other restrictions on people's accustomed lifestyles.

Ultimately the swirl of toxic gases was transforming into a global deadly phenomenon, and the only solution was to set off nukes all around the equator, creating some kind of vacuum that sucked all of the poisonous gases into space before all humankind was destroyed.

That is everything that I remember about this book.

[Jessiellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Torturing. Loved it.

[Bronze · Rating 2 out of 5]

Found this in an antique store and love the pulpy sounding titles from that era, so had to pick it up.

This novel is interesting from the perspective of seeing what people in the 60's and 70's were afraid of in the future - overpopulation. From their timeline, they kept seeing population increasing at an ever faster rate with no curbing in site. From the perspective of plot, it is extremely similar to 'Make Room! Make Room!' (the book that is the basis of the movie Soylent Green).

But it's much worse than 'Make Room! Make Room!' for two primary reasons. One, the plot of '1989: Population Doomsday' is from the perspective of people of power - the president and people in his employ. They can see the ongoing disasters but are able to insulate themselves to a large extent. It takes a psychological toll on them to deal with the ongoing climate-based disasters, but you are being told instead of shown. The second, is that the characters themselves are cardboard cutouts. They have no real personality beyond 'doing the best thing' whatever that is for each of them. Each of the president's cabinet members could be interchanged with each other; I know I couldn't keep it straight what each of their roles were.

It was an easy read, but that's the only thing it really has going for it. There wasn't new anything that I haven't seen done better in many other books. If you're interested in this concept, read 'Make Room! Make Room!' instead.

[Patrik Sahlstrøm · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting subject of how overpopulation is threathening the world as we know it (and written in 1970). Sadly the writing skills of Pendleton leaves a lot to be desired, and the characters are downright cringeworthy. Even if you happen to agree with Pendletons message, stay awy. Life is to short to waste on reading this book

[Daisyday · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think it's so interesting and knowing about story that wasn't know

[Michael Pilgaard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read the Danish edition. Not an outstanding book, but I found it entertaining and well worth reading.