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angus_mckeogh's review
2.0
I read an interview with Ballard where he stated this book was out-of-print for a reason. He basically said it was a cash cow thriller he wrote on contract early in his career and it wasn’t his best. Agreed. It’s just sort of a nonsensical action vignette based around the Earth’s wind steadily increasing. And that’s it. Nothing is explained. There’s very little resolution and it lacks the usual underlying intellect which is a hallmark of Ballard’s work.
deborahwithanoh's review
Short, sweet, and simple. Reminded me of Die Hard, Deathworld, Machine Gun McCain with its resourceful leading man, women who serve primarily as love interests, illustrative action sequences. The enemy (at least, the main enemy) is simple and clear. Really does make you think about how quickly life as we know it would crumble with a few weeks of high winds. My lingering question is, where did the wind come from and where did it go? Amazing to me that a book which starts with a wind of uncertain origin randomly appearing and ends with it starting to abate fails to answer either of these questions. But then again, how much can we really presume to know about the mysterious workings of Nature?
beyonator's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
dajna's review
2.0
Oh god, how boring this is!
Wind and the army, soldiers and wind. Oh, and a semi-crazy billionaire in the end. Connections in the plot or between characters are quite loose. It's a pity, because the idea is good and the premises are quite interesting.
Wind and the army, soldiers and wind. Oh, and a semi-crazy billionaire in the end. Connections in the plot or between characters are quite loose. It's a pity, because the idea is good and the premises are quite interesting.
martrj's review
3.0
I thought this would be a fun pulpy read (given that Ballard rejected it later), but it was actually very grim and claustrophobic.
jgwc54e5's review
3.0
This is JG Ballard’s first novel and while it has some of the features of Ballardian fiction it’s a bit of a disappointing read. The author himself dismissed it as “a piece of hack work.” It’s a disaster movie with even a crazy rich megalomaniac. A wind is felt all round the earth in the one direction, slightly stronger at the equator than as you get closer to the poles. A few characters are followed as the disaster increases and they’re ordinary people reacting in ordinary ways to the extreme events happening around them. It was a fast read but I won’t be spending days thinking about it like with so much of his other work.
rebus's review against another edition
1.25
Easily the silliest and stupidest of his apocalyptic series from the early 60s. It's just too implausible to believe any aspect of it, and, as usual, his characters are flat caricatures of real people (one wonders if Ballard wasn't on the spectrum, as he had no understanding of human beings at all).