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The Tide Went Out
When London journalist Philip Wade learns that his article on nuclear weapons testing has been censored by the British government, his interest turns to the attempted cover-up. Wade's investigation leads to a mysterious job offer in a newly-formed government department, and here the truth of the oncoming catastrophe is revealed. The country is rife with uncertainty and distrust - then the water levels start to drop.
Originally published in 1958, this gripping apocalyptic novel poses pertinent questions about censorship and the potential for violence in the face of dwindling resources. How much of the truth is too much? Who can you really trust? And what happens when the water runs out?
Charles Eric Maine was the pseudonym of David McIlwain (1921-1981), a prolific writer of science fiction novels in the 1950s and 1960s. Maine was renowned for fast-paced thriller plotlines, which explored the unintended consequences of scientific progress.
Originally published in 1958, this gripping apocalyptic novel poses pertinent questions about censorship and the potential for violence in the face of dwindling resources. How much of the truth is too much? Who can you really trust? And what happens when the water runs out?
Charles Eric Maine was the pseudonym of David McIlwain (1921-1981), a prolific writer of science fiction novels in the 1950s and 1960s. Maine was renowned for fast-paced thriller plotlines, which explored the unintended consequences of scientific progress.
236 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1958
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232 people want to read
About the author
Charles Eric Maine
59 books12 followersCharles Eric Maine (pseudonym of David McIlwain; 21 January 1921 – 30 November 1981) was an English science fiction writer whose most prominent works were published in the 1950s and 1960s. His stories were thrillers that dealt with new scientific technology
Biography
McIlwain was born in Liverpool.
He published three issues of a science fiction magazine called The Satellite which he co-edited along with J. F. Burke. From 1940 to 1941, he published his own magazine called Gargoyle.
During World War II, he was in the Royal Air Force and served in Northern Africa in 1943.
After the war, he worked in TV engineering, and became involved in editorial work with radio and TV. During 1952, he sold his first radio play, Spaceways, to the BBC. Due to its popularity, it became a novel as well as a movie.
One of his best known stories, Timeliner, was about a scientist who experiments with a time machine, only to be maliciously thrust into the future by a fellow scientist who was having an affair with his wife. It was originally written as a radio play known as The Einstein Highway.
He died in London in 1981.
Bibliography
Spaceways (1953) (Variant Title: Spaceways Satellite)
Timeliner (1955)
Escapement (1956) (Variant Title: The Man Who Couldn't Sleep)
High Vacuum (1956)
The Tide Went Out (1958) (Revised in 1997 with Variant Title: Thirst!)
World Without Men (1958) (Revised in 1972 with Variant Title: Alph)
Count-Down (1959) (Variant Title: Fire Past the Future)
Crisis 2000 (1959)
Subterfuge (1959)
Calculated Risk (1960)
He Owned the World (1960) (Variant Title: The Man Who Owned the World)
The Mind of Mr. Soames (1961)
The Darkest of Nights (1962) (Variant Title: Survival Margin)
B.E.A.S.T. (1966)
Alph (1972)
Biography
McIlwain was born in Liverpool.
He published three issues of a science fiction magazine called The Satellite which he co-edited along with J. F. Burke. From 1940 to 1941, he published his own magazine called Gargoyle.
During World War II, he was in the Royal Air Force and served in Northern Africa in 1943.
After the war, he worked in TV engineering, and became involved in editorial work with radio and TV. During 1952, he sold his first radio play, Spaceways, to the BBC. Due to its popularity, it became a novel as well as a movie.
One of his best known stories, Timeliner, was about a scientist who experiments with a time machine, only to be maliciously thrust into the future by a fellow scientist who was having an affair with his wife. It was originally written as a radio play known as The Einstein Highway.
He died in London in 1981.
Bibliography
Spaceways (1953) (Variant Title: Spaceways Satellite)
Timeliner (1955)
Escapement (1956) (Variant Title: The Man Who Couldn't Sleep)
High Vacuum (1956)
The Tide Went Out (1958) (Revised in 1997 with Variant Title: Thirst!)
World Without Men (1958) (Revised in 1972 with Variant Title: Alph)
Count-Down (1959) (Variant Title: Fire Past the Future)
Crisis 2000 (1959)
Subterfuge (1959)
Calculated Risk (1960)
He Owned the World (1960) (Variant Title: The Man Who Owned the World)
The Mind of Mr. Soames (1961)
The Darkest of Nights (1962) (Variant Title: Survival Margin)
B.E.A.S.T. (1966)
Alph (1972)
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July 1, 2019
Well this is my first exploration of the British Library Science Fiction Classics series - it appears to be relatively new or at least not as established in its printing production as the crime series and I must admit that I am impressed.
Now the first thing to say is that my first love is reading science fiction - its what I started on all those years ago and I still hold a place in my heart (and my book shelves) for it. However, and this is the second thing to say is that I know I am only scratching the surface of what is out there, both modern and classic.
So it was with trepidation that I picked up "The tide went out" however I found it enthralling from the first page and devoured it at a rate I have not felt in a long time - so that in its own right was impressive.
What is more and I can say this without of fear of ruining spoilers since it pretty much says so on the cover the story very much reminds me of the film when the earth caught fire. There are a number of similarities however the books also have some impressive differences. I think you could call it one of those books Brian Aldiss so affectionately called the "cosy catastrophe".
However there is a hard edge to this book - it does not pull any punches and has some pretty heavy messages to get across and for that I am doubly impressed. You see sometimes I think that a strong message can be over looked for action and pace - and yet here the author has found the right balance of both.
Now this is not the book for everyone but I must admit for a total change in direction this certainly scored high. So lets see what the rest of the series has to offer!
Now the first thing to say is that my first love is reading science fiction - its what I started on all those years ago and I still hold a place in my heart (and my book shelves) for it. However, and this is the second thing to say is that I know I am only scratching the surface of what is out there, both modern and classic.
So it was with trepidation that I picked up "The tide went out" however I found it enthralling from the first page and devoured it at a rate I have not felt in a long time - so that in its own right was impressive.
What is more and I can say this without of fear of ruining spoilers since it pretty much says so on the cover the story very much reminds me of the film when the earth caught fire. There are a number of similarities however the books also have some impressive differences. I think you could call it one of those books Brian Aldiss so affectionately called the "cosy catastrophe".
However there is a hard edge to this book - it does not pull any punches and has some pretty heavy messages to get across and for that I am doubly impressed. You see sometimes I think that a strong message can be over looked for action and pace - and yet here the author has found the right balance of both.
Now this is not the book for everyone but I must admit for a total change in direction this certainly scored high. So lets see what the rest of the series has to offer!
July 14, 2012
A very British 1958 end-of-the-world novel by a now mostly forgotten (at least as I type this) writer. It bears a superficial similarity to J.G. Ballard's short story "Deep End", which also features a completely waterless, oceanless Earth, although Maine's explanation for getting rid of the water is much simpler and dumber than Ballard's: a nuclear bomb opens up a giant crack in the Earth's crust, and in about a year's time, all the water drains into the Earth's mantle, where it just sits there inaccessible. (Apparently the mantle doesn't contain vast subterranean oceans like in Stephen Baxter's "Flood.")
As another reviewer pointed out, the book is basically a character study of a flawed and unlikeable character, in whose head we're stuck for the whole thing. It's difficult to tell to what degree Maine sympathizes with his 'hero', since the government is totally ruthless as well and prepared to sacrifice most of its citizens so that a few can live -- leading to lots of boring "you have to be tough to survive" moral justification speeches. I generally don't get the point of these sequences, which are so common in '50s British disaster novels -- is the author just trying to prove what a Hard Man he is or something? How logical he is? Are we supposed to nod gravely and say "Yes, yes, the author is right, the government would have to deceive and kill 90% of its citizens"? This is surviving?
The prose is flat and the gradual dessication of the Earth is kept at a distance and only described vaguely, at least until the final chapters when the main character is forced to struggle for survival in the wasteland. The book does chart a character journey, but by the end of the story that character becomes so unsympathetic it's difficult to care what happens to him.
Ultimately, perhaps the biggest curiosity and problem with this book -- probably a result of the time is was written -- is its total lack of environmental/ecological awareness. Early on, the main character asks another character "If the seas dry up, what do you imagine will happen?" The other character answers "Umm... I imagine it'll interfere with shipping". Then the first character has to point out the obvious, that without the ocean, there will be no rain and all life on Earth will end. Duh. In keeping with this total disinterest in environmental cause-and-effect, Maine has zero interest in the ravages of the planet, and zero mourning over the death of all living things apart from humans. It's hard to believe that in just four years J.G. Ballard would be writing such vastly superior disaster novels with such a powerful environmental sensibility, such as 1964's "The Burning World", which describes the dead landscape of endless sand and dry riverbeds with pathos and poetry -- elements which are totally absent in this dull novel.
As another reviewer pointed out, the book is basically a character study of a flawed and unlikeable character, in whose head we're stuck for the whole thing. It's difficult to tell to what degree Maine sympathizes with his 'hero', since the government is totally ruthless as well and prepared to sacrifice most of its citizens so that a few can live -- leading to lots of boring "you have to be tough to survive" moral justification speeches. I generally don't get the point of these sequences, which are so common in '50s British disaster novels -- is the author just trying to prove what a Hard Man he is or something? How logical he is? Are we supposed to nod gravely and say "Yes, yes, the author is right, the government would have to deceive and kill 90% of its citizens"? This is surviving?
The prose is flat and the gradual dessication of the Earth is kept at a distance and only described vaguely, at least until the final chapters when the main character is forced to struggle for survival in the wasteland. The book does chart a character journey, but by the end of the story that character becomes so unsympathetic it's difficult to care what happens to him.
Ultimately, perhaps the biggest curiosity and problem with this book -- probably a result of the time is was written -- is its total lack of environmental/ecological awareness. Early on, the main character asks another character "If the seas dry up, what do you imagine will happen?" The other character answers "Umm... I imagine it'll interfere with shipping". Then the first character has to point out the obvious, that without the ocean, there will be no rain and all life on Earth will end. Duh. In keeping with this total disinterest in environmental cause-and-effect, Maine has zero interest in the ravages of the planet, and zero mourning over the death of all living things apart from humans. It's hard to believe that in just four years J.G. Ballard would be writing such vastly superior disaster novels with such a powerful environmental sensibility, such as 1964's "The Burning World", which describes the dead landscape of endless sand and dry riverbeds with pathos and poetry -- elements which are totally absent in this dull novel.
October 23, 2022
The Tide Went Out by Charles Eric Maine
Continuing my investigation of science fiction works by Charles Eric Maine, here is a brief review of The Tide Went Out, which I just finished last night.
This title was first published in 1959, and tells the story of Philip Wade, a journalist who stumbles on the truth of the consequences of an H-bomb test under the Pacific Ocean. The gigantic atomic explosion unexpectedly blasts a hole through the seabed, allowing the seas of the entire Earth to drain into cavities around its core. No seas, of course, means no rain, and no rain leads to a planet almost devoid of water. For a reason that he cannot fathom and which never becomes completely apparent, Wade is selected to work in the intelligence and propaganda department of the British Government and is tasked with responsibility for disseminating misinformation designed to placate the doomed public. His position should ensure his survival when his team eventually evacuates to the Arctic which, along with the Antarctic, has the only remaining source of fresh water (or any water at all for that matter) on the planet.
The science is admittedly a bit off-beam, but that is not the point of the book. The story is partly a warning against overconfidence in scientific progress (an attitude which was less common in the 1950s than it is today), and partly a character study of a flawed protagonist and how his rationality and gut reactions alter, vacillate, and develop during the unprecedented catastrophe. In a world where morality and ethics have ceased to matter, a man is forced to become inhuman in thought and action. Or is he?
The 2019 British Library Science Fiction Classics edition has an excellent introduction by Mike Ashley which explains the background of this work in comparison to similar novels by other authors of the same era.
Listed below are some noteworthy quotes from the text of the book:
“Operation Nutcracker took place on June the seventh. Three hydrogen bombs were exploded in the Kaluiki group of islands in the South Pacific. The first was at an altitude of about five thousand feet. The second—sea level. And the third was the daddy of them all…”
Funny how your standards change in twelve years, Wade thought. As a reporter on a local paper in North London he’d been full of the integrity of true journalism, obsessed with the ideal of objective reporting. But somehow the writers with the gimmicks, who found the unusual angles or sometimes manufactured them, always seemed to get the bylines and the promotion. Imagination seemed to be more important than observation.
The earthquake had been severe and had probably done incalculable damage. His brain was too numbed and fatigued to attempt to add it up. Something was wrong somewhere. This kind of thing just didn’t happen in England.
“Funny thing,” said Wade. “There was no feeling of fear. Just a kind of blank tenseness—like in the war during the air raids. You waited and waited—desensitised.” “The general adaptation syndrome,” Shirley remarked casually…Given a long-term emergency, people stop thinking for a long time. They act instinctively, emotionally. The intellect tends to become paralysed. Their behaviour is dominated by a survival drive.”
The only disquieting note, from Wade’s point of view, was the manner in which the facility for survival was being shared among the human race as a whole. It seemed to him that a ruthless form of selection had been adopted. The inhabitants of the polar evacuation camps were, so far as he could determine, government employees, or the families of government employees, and people of direct importance to the survival drive, such as scientists and technicians and chemists and doctors. The rest of the human race didn’t seem to matter. He supposed that in a situation of this type one had to be ruthless; there had to be the governing class which knew the truth, and the outsiders who were fed with reassuring propaganda to sustain them to the terrible end.
“So you are a lucky man, Mr. Wade. No relatives or friends in important government circles, and yet you are chosen to survive.” A pause, followed by an inscrutable narrowing of the eyes. “Unless, of course, your wife…?” Wade shook his head. “No important relatives whatever.” “Influential friends, perhaps?” “No.” “Oh, well…”
She averted her eyes. “Pornography, I’m afraid—or something pretty near to it. In the papers and on television. You’d be surprised how the circulation of the National Express has grown during the last few days. And last night’s television audience was estimated to be in the thirty million region.” “For what purpose?” Wade asked. “A form of brainwashing—something to distract the mind of the average man from the horrors of everyday life…” “And women?” “Apparently the women don’t matter. The men are the trouble-makers, and the whole propaganda machine is getting to work on the male sex.” “I see,” said Wade. “I suppose a little pornography on the television screen keeps the men off the streets at night…”
But there were subtle changes too on the psychological level. The churches, for instance, were recording a considerable revitalisation of religious worship. In all countries people were entering the House of God in increasing numbers to pray for deliverance.
…the world seemed fantastic and dreamlike. Economics had gone haywire. Money had no value, but nevertheless the privileged ones could get what they wanted without money, could live in the Waldorf, could eat and drink and erect barricades to keep out the unprivileged and violent mob outside. It was a stark division of the world into two classes—the survivors and the non-survivors.
Wade was a changed man in several ways. For one thing he had learned the art of self-control to such an extent that smoking and drinking had ceased to be habitual.
“We are seeing the world destroyed, slowly and inevitably, at the whim of the scientists and politicians.”
“What frightens me, Wade, is that Carey may have been right. I’ve never felt so confused before. Somehow the outside world hasn’t seemed real to us. I never thought of the people out there as human beings—just statistics on paper. I can’t help thinking…” “Why not stop thinking,” Wade suggested, “then you won’t be so confused.”
“Maybe Carey had a conscience,” Wade said. “Maybe he regarded life as something sacred, beyond all policies and politics. And maybe, in the scheme of things, he didn’t consider his own life more important than his principles.”
Your codes of behaviour have to be flexible enough to adapt themselves to changing conditions in the world. You can no more apply the moral code of last year than you could use the standards of, say, a Stone Age man.” Patten wasn’t convinced. “If that’s true, then it applies to Carey as well.” “Yes—except that Carey’s code wasn’t flexible enough. He couldn’t adapt himself, and now he’s dead. Evolution works on that kind of principle.”
“In the meantime I think it will be advisable to destroy all documents and code and cypher records and equipment. Superficially there would appear to be no need, but one can never quite foresee the future, and it is wise to leave no evidence behind.” “Evidence?” “I mean evidence that could be used to show that the government had acted irresponsibly in this crisis.”
In a decaying world there was nothing but decay. But here and now there was still a spark of humanity to illuminate the spiritual darkness.
Brindle was right. Once you’ve been touched by violence you lose something for ever. But for ever is an overstatement. You can only lose something for a lifetime, and you can tolerate a loss for a lifetime.
Continuing my investigation of science fiction works by Charles Eric Maine, here is a brief review of The Tide Went Out, which I just finished last night.
This title was first published in 1959, and tells the story of Philip Wade, a journalist who stumbles on the truth of the consequences of an H-bomb test under the Pacific Ocean. The gigantic atomic explosion unexpectedly blasts a hole through the seabed, allowing the seas of the entire Earth to drain into cavities around its core. No seas, of course, means no rain, and no rain leads to a planet almost devoid of water. For a reason that he cannot fathom and which never becomes completely apparent, Wade is selected to work in the intelligence and propaganda department of the British Government and is tasked with responsibility for disseminating misinformation designed to placate the doomed public. His position should ensure his survival when his team eventually evacuates to the Arctic which, along with the Antarctic, has the only remaining source of fresh water (or any water at all for that matter) on the planet.
The science is admittedly a bit off-beam, but that is not the point of the book. The story is partly a warning against overconfidence in scientific progress (an attitude which was less common in the 1950s than it is today), and partly a character study of a flawed protagonist and how his rationality and gut reactions alter, vacillate, and develop during the unprecedented catastrophe. In a world where morality and ethics have ceased to matter, a man is forced to become inhuman in thought and action. Or is he?
The 2019 British Library Science Fiction Classics edition has an excellent introduction by Mike Ashley which explains the background of this work in comparison to similar novels by other authors of the same era.
Listed below are some noteworthy quotes from the text of the book:
“Operation Nutcracker took place on June the seventh. Three hydrogen bombs were exploded in the Kaluiki group of islands in the South Pacific. The first was at an altitude of about five thousand feet. The second—sea level. And the third was the daddy of them all…”
Funny how your standards change in twelve years, Wade thought. As a reporter on a local paper in North London he’d been full of the integrity of true journalism, obsessed with the ideal of objective reporting. But somehow the writers with the gimmicks, who found the unusual angles or sometimes manufactured them, always seemed to get the bylines and the promotion. Imagination seemed to be more important than observation.
The earthquake had been severe and had probably done incalculable damage. His brain was too numbed and fatigued to attempt to add it up. Something was wrong somewhere. This kind of thing just didn’t happen in England.
“Funny thing,” said Wade. “There was no feeling of fear. Just a kind of blank tenseness—like in the war during the air raids. You waited and waited—desensitised.” “The general adaptation syndrome,” Shirley remarked casually…Given a long-term emergency, people stop thinking for a long time. They act instinctively, emotionally. The intellect tends to become paralysed. Their behaviour is dominated by a survival drive.”
The only disquieting note, from Wade’s point of view, was the manner in which the facility for survival was being shared among the human race as a whole. It seemed to him that a ruthless form of selection had been adopted. The inhabitants of the polar evacuation camps were, so far as he could determine, government employees, or the families of government employees, and people of direct importance to the survival drive, such as scientists and technicians and chemists and doctors. The rest of the human race didn’t seem to matter. He supposed that in a situation of this type one had to be ruthless; there had to be the governing class which knew the truth, and the outsiders who were fed with reassuring propaganda to sustain them to the terrible end.
“So you are a lucky man, Mr. Wade. No relatives or friends in important government circles, and yet you are chosen to survive.” A pause, followed by an inscrutable narrowing of the eyes. “Unless, of course, your wife…?” Wade shook his head. “No important relatives whatever.” “Influential friends, perhaps?” “No.” “Oh, well…”
She averted her eyes. “Pornography, I’m afraid—or something pretty near to it. In the papers and on television. You’d be surprised how the circulation of the National Express has grown during the last few days. And last night’s television audience was estimated to be in the thirty million region.” “For what purpose?” Wade asked. “A form of brainwashing—something to distract the mind of the average man from the horrors of everyday life…” “And women?” “Apparently the women don’t matter. The men are the trouble-makers, and the whole propaganda machine is getting to work on the male sex.” “I see,” said Wade. “I suppose a little pornography on the television screen keeps the men off the streets at night…”
But there were subtle changes too on the psychological level. The churches, for instance, were recording a considerable revitalisation of religious worship. In all countries people were entering the House of God in increasing numbers to pray for deliverance.
…the world seemed fantastic and dreamlike. Economics had gone haywire. Money had no value, but nevertheless the privileged ones could get what they wanted without money, could live in the Waldorf, could eat and drink and erect barricades to keep out the unprivileged and violent mob outside. It was a stark division of the world into two classes—the survivors and the non-survivors.
Wade was a changed man in several ways. For one thing he had learned the art of self-control to such an extent that smoking and drinking had ceased to be habitual.
“We are seeing the world destroyed, slowly and inevitably, at the whim of the scientists and politicians.”
“What frightens me, Wade, is that Carey may have been right. I’ve never felt so confused before. Somehow the outside world hasn’t seemed real to us. I never thought of the people out there as human beings—just statistics on paper. I can’t help thinking…” “Why not stop thinking,” Wade suggested, “then you won’t be so confused.”
“Maybe Carey had a conscience,” Wade said. “Maybe he regarded life as something sacred, beyond all policies and politics. And maybe, in the scheme of things, he didn’t consider his own life more important than his principles.”
Your codes of behaviour have to be flexible enough to adapt themselves to changing conditions in the world. You can no more apply the moral code of last year than you could use the standards of, say, a Stone Age man.” Patten wasn’t convinced. “If that’s true, then it applies to Carey as well.” “Yes—except that Carey’s code wasn’t flexible enough. He couldn’t adapt himself, and now he’s dead. Evolution works on that kind of principle.”
“In the meantime I think it will be advisable to destroy all documents and code and cypher records and equipment. Superficially there would appear to be no need, but one can never quite foresee the future, and it is wise to leave no evidence behind.” “Evidence?” “I mean evidence that could be used to show that the government had acted irresponsibly in this crisis.”
In a decaying world there was nothing but decay. But here and now there was still a spark of humanity to illuminate the spiritual darkness.
Brindle was right. Once you’ve been touched by violence you lose something for ever. But for ever is an overstatement. You can only lose something for a lifetime, and you can tolerate a loss for a lifetime.
December 5, 2023
Afte a series of nuclear tests (that reminds me of
The Day the Earth Caught Fire
) all the earth's oceans are sinking through rifts in the crust into the mantle. The tide is going out and staying out. The resultant steam causes earthquakes and, of course, reduced ocean area reduces precipitation, and everyone is going to die of thirst.
Like The Death of Grass, the disaster as described is basically going to end all human life and there's no way around it. Therefore, Charles Eric Maine concentrates on one man and his family, and in the end the protagonist faces a crisis wherein his English manners and character are tested and the underlying brutality (covered more neatly in Lord of the Flies) is now exposed, and this leads to a downbeat ending which will leave you slightly more thoughtful than usual for a brief time.
The British Library SF series is for the purists, or the completists, with a very knowledgeable editor (and I wish I could find a complete listing of it from the British Library) so it's worthwhile, but this particular item in the series is not exaclty a classic.
Like The Death of Grass, the disaster as described is basically going to end all human life and there's no way around it. Therefore, Charles Eric Maine concentrates on one man and his family, and in the end the protagonist faces a crisis wherein his English manners and character are tested and the underlying brutality (covered more neatly in Lord of the Flies) is now exposed, and this leads to a downbeat ending which will leave you slightly more thoughtful than usual for a brief time.
The British Library SF series is for the purists, or the completists, with a very knowledgeable editor (and I wish I could find a complete listing of it from the British Library) so it's worthwhile, but this particular item in the series is not exaclty a classic.
November 5, 2024
An increasingly bleak apocalyptic novel of the 1950s born out of all the nuclear terror. It did get rather scary at times in what felt like a realistic portrayal of the disintegration of society, the way the governments handled the situation and the way most of us are disposable collateral damage. What I always find laughable is that politicians aren't in these scenarios, and yet at the end of the world you want hands on, practical people, not hot air windbags.
This tale follows Philip Wade - and interesting choice of surname given the scenario - who is an alcoholic journalist in a bit of a loveless marriage. He has written an article, from tying together various scientific reports, to come up with the imaginative tale that recent nuclear bomb tests have cracked open the bottom of the oceans and the seawater is pouring away under the earth's crust. Wade doesn't get some basic science as he tells himself they will be ok as there are still rivers and lakes and rain (where do you think rain comes from?!)... but thankfully that was just Wades opinion and not part of the plot. Wades story is pulled from the papers by the government, who then offer him a job in their new machinery designed to keep control and misinformation over the country for as long as possible. In the meantime, the chosen and essential people are jetted off to the arctic where they will be unaffected by the lack of water. In this imagining of dry oceans, cloudless skies and increasing temperatures, apparently ice doesn't melt. There are a few question marks over his environmental disaster and how it would be, but never mind, just suspend your disbelief and come along for the ride.
This tale follows Philip Wade - and interesting choice of surname given the scenario - who is an alcoholic journalist in a bit of a loveless marriage. He has written an article, from tying together various scientific reports, to come up with the imaginative tale that recent nuclear bomb tests have cracked open the bottom of the oceans and the seawater is pouring away under the earth's crust. Wade doesn't get some basic science as he tells himself they will be ok as there are still rivers and lakes and rain (where do you think rain comes from?!)... but thankfully that was just Wades opinion and not part of the plot. Wades story is pulled from the papers by the government, who then offer him a job in their new machinery designed to keep control and misinformation over the country for as long as possible. In the meantime, the chosen and essential people are jetted off to the arctic where they will be unaffected by the lack of water. In this imagining of dry oceans, cloudless skies and increasing temperatures, apparently ice doesn't melt. There are a few question marks over his environmental disaster and how it would be, but never mind, just suspend your disbelief and come along for the ride.
October 5, 2024
Very decent, of its time thriller with some great nuclear anxiety. I think the characterisation is a bit basic at times and a female character is very one dimensional and discarded pretty much as quickly as she’s given importance. A very interesting and genuinely scary concept of the water running out, making your throat parch as you read, and the degeneration of society. I think it’s a very ‘realistic depiction’ of such an event and how the government would deal with it.
“Meanwhile, don’t be deceived by the normal appearance of the everyday world around you. It is a veneer that will soon be stripped off”
“Meanwhile, don’t be deceived by the normal appearance of the everyday world around you. It is a veneer that will soon be stripped off”
December 7, 2022
This is a tough vision of the apocalypse. Satisfyingly bleak.
It lingers a bit too much on soap opera elements of the central character's sex life. And it takes a while to get started generally. But when the end begins it balloons out of control in very scary manner It ends with a punch to the gut.
This was my first Maine. I look forward to more.
It lingers a bit too much on soap opera elements of the central character's sex life. And it takes a while to get started generally. But when the end begins it balloons out of control in very scary manner It ends with a punch to the gut.
This was my first Maine. I look forward to more.
August 5, 2023
A minor masterpiece of British dystopian science fiction, this has all the barely repressed trauma of the Second World War returning as utter cynicism about human goodness under extreme conditions. The good exists but it cannot long survive a final struggle for survival.
It is a work of the atomic age. An Anglo-American H-Bomb test (the book at least has the good grace not to blame the Soviets) splits open the Pacific Ocean. The seas drain away into cavities below. Violent responses in the crust cause a similar breach in the Atlantic. Water disappears in stages.
This is just about all there is to the science in the fiction (and, of course, it is not in itself credible) but that is not the point. The point is to create a world where there is no hope, a few people know there is no hope for most and those few try to manage the rest of humanity long enough to save themselves.
The protagonist of the novel, Philip Wade, is a hard drinking journalist who is recruited under somewhat ambiguous conditions into government service as a propagandist. The story is not only about humanity under conditions of apocalypse but about elite manipulation of the mass.
It becomes increasingly clear as society crumbles (trade cannot reach island Britain, food, water and energy become scarce, society collapses into violence and criminality, even the military start to become bandits) that the few are collaborating internationally to create a safe haven in the icy Arctic.
We never see things directly from the point of view of the bureaucratic elite. This just gives the orders and manipulates. The author, Charles Eric Maine, concentrates on their agent, his weaknesses, his morality, his laziness, his cynicism and what he will do to save himself and his family.
Maine has taken the oppressions of the wartime State (which extended themselves well into the Cold War era), what was observable in human behaviour during the war and a natural and very modern distrust of the good will of authority in order to create a true existential nightmare.
I will not do spoilers but let us say that the breakdown of society is relentless. Maine spares his reader nothing. Human relationships are permitted no room for any idealism because the moment an ideal enters a man's mind, that man is lost in survival terms.
Sexual behaviour is treated with remarkable honesty. We understand how women becomed forced into a loss of all conventional moral standards and how men become callous and brutal as food and water become scarce. Life itself becomes cheap.
When forced into survival mode, the elite considers the survival of humanity to be merely the survival of itself. 'Who you know', 'a word in the ear' and 'usefulness' to the elite's own organised plan of survival will indicate whether you are to be saved or left to rot.
Elites (much as in the real world today) have more in common with each other across the world than any have with their doomed populations. A lot of the tragedy here is that the elite may be right. There are only mechanisms and resources to save the 'few', so why not those who are most organised?
This is a dark book but it is not telling an untruth. Cormac Macarthy perhaps is only more unrelenting in his account of social collapse. Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo's 'It Happened Here' (1964) alone equals it in describing the moral complexity of being caught in an untenable political situation.
As an insight into the human condition at its very core, I find it superior to the efforts of George Orwell (who was merely making a rather simplistic political point in '1984') or Aldous Huxley (whose fears are intellectual and abstract in 'Brave New World').
Maine writes well and this should be considered a science thriller in which the science is just the trigger for a tale of socio-political horror. What it says is all the more disturbing for being true - when things really fall apart, those with resources will clamber over the rest to survive.
Above all, it is one of a sequence of dystopian science fiction novels that appeared throughout the 1950s. They marked the sinking mood of Britain after loss of empire in contrast to the generally techno-utopian approach of American science fiction.
This is the British Library addition which has a useful short introduction by Mike Ashley contextualising the novel within that dystopian tradition. Re-published just before the nation entered another low point, it bears re-visiting as essentially British.
November 21, 2024
A Hydrogen Bomb test results in the seabed cracking, and since it cannot be stopped, the global oceans begin spewing into the crevasses of the Earth. Soon the planet will be without oceans, international trade and imports/exports end and society begins to completely break down.
Such are the consequences of Operation Nutcracker as derailed by journalist Philip Wade, a man far from perfect, connoisseur of whiskey and unfaithful in his marriage to his wife Janet. Though this book could be deemed a kind of slow burn to start with, when things get bad they become downright horrendous.
The Tide Went Out is a full scale end of the world story as shown from the city of London as Wade finds himself positioned to interpret the escalating, and soon diminishing, state of the world in the grips of this ordeal.
While I took my time with the first 100 pages of this book, becoming used to the characters, the surprisingly complex characterisation of Philip Wade and the numerous themes the story was presenting, I was absolutely unable to put this book down for the rest of its duration.
The Tide Went Out is one of the few apocalyptic novels I’ve read that actually depicts how conventional, everyday people, good at heart, can quickly transform into something brutal, ruthless, something savagely hellbent on survival alone.
Author Charles Eric Maine did a great job at laying the foundations early on with what he dubbed the “General Adaptation Syndrome” and how human beings will adapt frighteningly quickly to changing circumstances.
It’s also an extremely layered book considering its subject matter, considering when it was written, Philip Wade is a psychologically complex and developed character by the time his book ends and there are several nuanced levels to the story as threads weave in and out.
For a book written in the late 50s right at the height of the Cold War, The Tide Went Out has aged remarkably well and it’s because it doesn’t rely too hard on the geopolitical climate the late 50s was rife with in its day.
Thoroughly enjoyed. Great to see an obscure work of fiction brought to the light via the British Library.
4/5
Such are the consequences of Operation Nutcracker as derailed by journalist Philip Wade, a man far from perfect, connoisseur of whiskey and unfaithful in his marriage to his wife Janet. Though this book could be deemed a kind of slow burn to start with, when things get bad they become downright horrendous.
The Tide Went Out is a full scale end of the world story as shown from the city of London as Wade finds himself positioned to interpret the escalating, and soon diminishing, state of the world in the grips of this ordeal.
While I took my time with the first 100 pages of this book, becoming used to the characters, the surprisingly complex characterisation of Philip Wade and the numerous themes the story was presenting, I was absolutely unable to put this book down for the rest of its duration.
The Tide Went Out is one of the few apocalyptic novels I’ve read that actually depicts how conventional, everyday people, good at heart, can quickly transform into something brutal, ruthless, something savagely hellbent on survival alone.
Author Charles Eric Maine did a great job at laying the foundations early on with what he dubbed the “General Adaptation Syndrome” and how human beings will adapt frighteningly quickly to changing circumstances.
It’s also an extremely layered book considering its subject matter, considering when it was written, Philip Wade is a psychologically complex and developed character by the time his book ends and there are several nuanced levels to the story as threads weave in and out.
For a book written in the late 50s right at the height of the Cold War, The Tide Went Out has aged remarkably well and it’s because it doesn’t rely too hard on the geopolitical climate the late 50s was rife with in its day.
Thoroughly enjoyed. Great to see an obscure work of fiction brought to the light via the British Library.
4/5
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 24, 2025
I have finished reading “The Tide Went Out” by Charles Eric Maine.
This is a British end of the world novel written during the 1950s.
The story follows Phillip Wade, an editor for a news magazine who comes to realise that the oceans of the world are draining due to a huge fracture in the Earth caused by Hydrogen Bomb tests. This essentially starts the countdown for all of the oceans draining out of existence and all water ultimately becoming very scarce.
Wade is a flawed character. A high functioning alcoholic who is habitually unfaithful to his wife. Yet he is selected to help run the propaganda efforts of the British Government as it attempts to manage the crisis. In many ways this is a sinister echo of his day job, as he helps conjures up propaganda to help distract the public from the end of the world, and the governments efforts to evacuate a select few to a prepared Arctic Base.
There are two words that spring to mind when describing how it depicts the end of the world “creepy” and “bleak”. Society doesn’t dramatically explode into Mad Max violence, so much as decay with the addition of outbreaks of mob violence. We see this happen normally through the matter of fact government reports Wade receives as a government employee. But since we don’t see most of it, like him we are almost desensitised by the full horror of it.
Much of Wade’s thought process seems to centre around about how he should feel being a chosen survivor. One of his female bedfellows seems to unsettle him with being seemingly at peace with being an opportunist, since this to her seems like a natural choice given that the circumstance is the end of the world.
In the end Wade’s chosen survivor status is threatened and he shocks himself in the actions that he takes in order to cling on to a slim chance of surviving at all.
This is a chilling but very absorbing read.
This is a British end of the world novel written during the 1950s.
The story follows Phillip Wade, an editor for a news magazine who comes to realise that the oceans of the world are draining due to a huge fracture in the Earth caused by Hydrogen Bomb tests. This essentially starts the countdown for all of the oceans draining out of existence and all water ultimately becoming very scarce.
Wade is a flawed character. A high functioning alcoholic who is habitually unfaithful to his wife. Yet he is selected to help run the propaganda efforts of the British Government as it attempts to manage the crisis. In many ways this is a sinister echo of his day job, as he helps conjures up propaganda to help distract the public from the end of the world, and the governments efforts to evacuate a select few to a prepared Arctic Base.
There are two words that spring to mind when describing how it depicts the end of the world “creepy” and “bleak”. Society doesn’t dramatically explode into Mad Max violence, so much as decay with the addition of outbreaks of mob violence. We see this happen normally through the matter of fact government reports Wade receives as a government employee. But since we don’t see most of it, like him we are almost desensitised by the full horror of it.
Much of Wade’s thought process seems to centre around about how he should feel being a chosen survivor. One of his female bedfellows seems to unsettle him with being seemingly at peace with being an opportunist, since this to her seems like a natural choice given that the circumstance is the end of the world.
In the end Wade’s chosen survivor status is threatened and he shocks himself in the actions that he takes in order to cling on to a slim chance of surviving at all.
This is a chilling but very absorbing read.
April 26, 2020
The Tide Went Out is a 1958 science fiction disaster novel, the setting of the novel is England in the aftermath of a huge hydrogen bomb that has been detonated in the ocean. This leads to the sea floor being ruptured and the water draining into cavities within the earth's mantle, which further cools the earth, thereby expanding the cavities further allowing more water to enter. This process snowballs until the worlds oceans are drained, which in turn leads to rainfall ceasing and agriculture/food production ceasing.
The primary focus of the novel is the adaptation of the British public to the wide scale disaster and the tension between the haves (government employees who are provided for) and the have-nots (members of society in general). With the disappearance of the oceans all shipping stops, leading to the collapse of maritime occupations and mass unemployment. The lack of rainfall sees all land dry up and all crops and meat production failing which results in skyrocketing prices and rationing of everything.
The main character is Philip Wade, a man who adapts to the crisis by looking after himself whilst making rudimentary efforts to help others, but ultimately only as much as said help benefits his own goals.
The ending is well orchestrated and sketches out what happens when such a person puts himself first before everyone else. I enjoyed the book and will be keeping my eye out for Charles Eric Maine's other novels (there's at least 7 others; Spaceways, Timeliner, Crisis 2000, Escapement, The Isotope Man, High Vacuum, Countdown).
The primary focus of the novel is the adaptation of the British public to the wide scale disaster and the tension between the haves (government employees who are provided for) and the have-nots (members of society in general). With the disappearance of the oceans all shipping stops, leading to the collapse of maritime occupations and mass unemployment. The lack of rainfall sees all land dry up and all crops and meat production failing which results in skyrocketing prices and rationing of everything.
The main character is Philip Wade, a man who adapts to the crisis by looking after himself whilst making rudimentary efforts to help others, but ultimately only as much as said help benefits his own goals.
The ending is well orchestrated and sketches out what happens when such a person puts himself first before everyone else. I enjoyed the book and will be keeping my eye out for Charles Eric Maine's other novels (there's at least 7 others; Spaceways, Timeliner, Crisis 2000, Escapement, The Isotope Man, High Vacuum, Countdown).
October 6, 2019
I found this old classic whilst browsing in Waterstones (this kind of adventitous find is why I hope we continue to have high-street bookshops). What surprises me is that I had never heard of it. It was written about the same time as The Day of the Triffids. Like that book, it presupposes a global disaster that is on the face of it absurd--I won't say more, to avoid spoilers.
That said, we read apocalyptic tales to see how our familiar world of order and routine disintegrates before an overwhelming circumstance (even an absurd one). To begin with, I thought Maine was doing a rather poor job of it. The protagonist appeared to show a remarkable lack of curiosity in dramatic changes to the natural environment. Even the most indifferent metropolitan should have gone to the sea side to see it for himself. However, as the drama heats up, Maine's vision becomes bleaker and grittier, with few concessions to dramatic mercy: close friends, colleagues and lovers die in the last days of violence. The final escape of the protagonist was I felt rather unconvincing.
I give the book 4 stars for being a right good read. It kept me absorbed to the very end, despits its shortcomings of credibility. Maine dealt with his collapsing world more credibly than Wyndham did in any of his books, in my view (which is why I'm amazed Wyndham is so well known while Maine is largely forgotten).
That said, we read apocalyptic tales to see how our familiar world of order and routine disintegrates before an overwhelming circumstance (even an absurd one). To begin with, I thought Maine was doing a rather poor job of it. The protagonist appeared to show a remarkable lack of curiosity in dramatic changes to the natural environment. Even the most indifferent metropolitan should have gone to the sea side to see it for himself. However, as the drama heats up, Maine's vision becomes bleaker and grittier, with few concessions to dramatic mercy: close friends, colleagues and lovers die in the last days of violence. The final escape of the protagonist was I felt rather unconvincing.
I give the book 4 stars for being a right good read. It kept me absorbed to the very end, despits its shortcomings of credibility. Maine dealt with his collapsing world more credibly than Wyndham did in any of his books, in my view (which is why I'm amazed Wyndham is so well known while Maine is largely forgotten).
February 24, 2023
You always hope the "classics" pitch will root out things that you missed but it seems that 98 times out of 100 posterity got it right. This is an end of the world novel in the company of The Kraken Wakes and The Death of Grass. The plot idea is an interesting one but I suspect the underlying science is for the birds. The writing (particularly dialogue) is often awkward though the propulsion of the plot helps you on a bit. To its credit (without giving the story away) this is much darker than much of what Aldiss dubbed "cosy catastrophe" in that era and it deserves some kudos for that. I enjoyed reading it and it is pretty good overall but hardly a classic. If only the plot had been given to John Wyndham (who could have sorted out the dialogue and character motivations and either got the science right or tucked it out of sight where it wouldn't grate) and he had been disposed to write something with such a chilling premise, _that_ would be a classic.
May 28, 2025
It's a British Library science fiction classic, apparently, but I didn't find it very engaging. The disaster is fairly simple (hydrogen bombs knock a hole in the bottom of the Pacific and the oceans drain away) and then there's a lot of scenes with people talking about it. At least it isn't a cosy catastrophe -- civilized behaviour breaks down quickly and almost universally, and the author doesn't soft-soap the way soldiers (or anyone with weapons) treat civilians once discipline has gone. But the main character has very little to make him interesting apart from alcoholism and a string of affairs (unhappy marriages being the go-to for thriller authors of the '50s and '60s; think of Le Carré and Deighton) and in the end it felt more like a TV novelization than a novel, so I skimmed through and gave up.
March 23, 2025
After reading Everything Must Go I decided to read some of the novels mentioned in the book. Starting with The Tide Went Out was a great choice. This book is filled with creeping dread as life continues along in the face of mass tragedy- until it doesn’t. The book is very believable in how government would respond to a crisis- saving themselves while abandoning the masses- and builds a searing narrative of society as it folds in onto itself. My only critique is that the last part of the book was ridiculous, and seemed like he just wanted to be done with the story and wrapped it up in the quickest way possible.
I like sci fi and I like apocalypse narratives so I enjoyed this story. YMMV
I like sci fi and I like apocalypse narratives so I enjoyed this story. YMMV
Want to read
November 2, 2021When London journalist Philip Wade learns that his article on nuclear weapons testing has been censored by the British government, his interest turns to the attempted cover-up. Wade's investigation leads to a mysterious job offer in a newly-formed government department, and here the truth of the oncoming catastrophe is revealed.
August 2, 2023
It wasn't necessarily bad for what it was, but rather just a bit lacking. As a character study, it was by and large interesting, but there was so much unexplored potential in the (admittedly fascinating) premise and its consequences that it just felt a bit incomplete.
March 4, 2019
A great book about the humanity of survival int he face of wicked problems.
Prescient of future problems?
Prescient of future problems?
September 16, 2019
I read the 1977 “revised” version, so I’m not sure how prescient this 1958 story is. Guessing he added in the mention of “global warming” and ramped up the sexual violence in the last chapter.
June 15, 2022
Most of the book is a bit boring, but it really picks up near the end.
May 5, 2023
Apocalittico scritto nel 1958. Tuttora leggibile. La scrittura è molto scorrevole ed avvincente.
January 14, 2024
Like if Andy weir was less good and more of a misogynist. Fun sci fi but not really that fun. Readable not re-readable. Can’t all be winners
October 8, 2025
All apocalyptic books have a tendency towards bleak, but this one really goes for it right at the end
October 19, 2025
For its time not a bad speculative fiction novel on the consequences of the hydrogen bomb, but its very slow moving and more of a romance novel for the first two thirds.
September 13, 2023
Finished the book in two days. Novel concept of the destruction of earth that was deeply steeped in the era that the book was published. Vivid imagination and description of the Earth's fate as it slowly inched towards the apocalypse.
However, there wasn't much I actually learned conceptually (i.e. it wasn't really that deep). Some sweeping characterisations of women and races that unfortunately were a product of their time. The characterisation of humanity as going into anarchy and exhibiting animalistic behaviour was predictable and ultimately clichéd.
However, there wasn't much I actually learned conceptually (i.e. it wasn't really that deep). Some sweeping characterisations of women and races that unfortunately were a product of their time. The characterisation of humanity as going into anarchy and exhibiting animalistic behaviour was predictable and ultimately clichéd.
October 26, 2019
I'm a sucker for the "cosy catastrophe" and very much enjoy most of what Wyndham has published as well as Christopher's "The Death of Grass." I didn't think this was quite as good as Wyndham's best (perhaps this is more of a 3.5 stars?) but nevertheless I was thoroughly entertained and appreciated the fast pace and satisfying conclusion. I will keep my eye out for "The Darkest of Nights" - included in this series of "British Library" Science Fiction Classics), and keep my fingers crossed for perhaps another excellent introduction by Mike Ashley.
December 12, 2014
I was going to give this book away but thought I'd take a look at it. Wrong premise: Giant hydrogen bomb test punches a hole in the Pacific Ocean. But very good depiction of how England reacts to the disaster. There's the moral tension between the privileged elites and the Salvation Army style do gooders. And there's the well thought out results when an extreme drought hits the planet. No shipping. No agriculture. Disease spreads. Excellent distopian Sci-fi.
July 4, 2008
Part of my English disaster fiction collection, though that wasn't why I bought it originally.
The whole feeling is of a character study, only the character is so damn flawed—not that it matters, as the world is drying up. Terribly terrible third act that is sad and fulfilling at the same time.
Don't get me wrong, it's a bit pulp for sure, but I likes it.
The whole feeling is of a character study, only the character is so damn flawed—not that it matters, as the world is drying up. Terribly terrible third act that is sad and fulfilling at the same time.
Don't get me wrong, it's a bit pulp for sure, but I likes it.
September 12, 2019
An impulse buy as the premise of the novel sounded interesting and so it proved. A typical English 50s sci-fi story, bringing to mind John Wyndham. The world is breaking down as the water levels decrease and the description of the collapse of society is just as relevant as now as a potential future. Bleakness rules.
Ray Smillie
Ray Smillie
June 7, 2025
5.5/10 Pretty mid overall, not notably bad (excluding a few huge plot holes) or good - slightly better towards the end.
Excessive use of 'sardonically'
Excessive use of 'sardonically'
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