jjmann3's review against another edition
3.0
I found it hard to put down Chernobyl: History of Nuclear Catastrophe. I enjoyed the book's take on the role of state and party leadership, the decision-making capabilities and consequences of individuals and councils, as well as how the disaster factored into the budding Unkrainian independence movement. The intrepid spirit of the first responders and how the Soviets addressed this crisis overall was really interesting.
newishpuritan's review against another edition
3.0
This is clearly the result of a lot of work. Not only extensive and meticulous research, but the effort required to synthesise all this into a coherent narrative, with much attention paid to the scientific and political culture of the time. It also considers the long-term fallout of the disaster in the break-up of the Soviet Union and the formation of Ukraine as an independent state. If I was reviewing this for an academic journal I might give it a higher rating. But as a general reader, this was a little too dry in its tone and Olympian in its perspective. It starts off with a lengthy account of the 1986 Communist Party Congress, a couple of months before the disaster, and that seems symptomatic. There are lots of interesting individuals in the story of Chernobyl, but all of them struggle to impress themselves on the reader's imagination in this account.
captaincocanutty's review against another edition
5.0
Extremely well written and engaging account of Chernobyl. I was reaching for it daily, which is pretty difficult for a nonfiction book to do. As a bonus I retained a lot of what I read without requiring rereading, and was able to keep the various names and bureaucracies straight.
minnie_ken435's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.0
mcrammal's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
Very informative, one of the more in depth novels about Chernobyl I’ve read so far. Plokhy gives you a very in depth picture of what Soviet culture looked like and why people were influenced to make the decisions that they did. He also went into how the disaster influenced the dissolution of the USSR and how it’s impact can still be felt today.
linguisticali's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
4.5
Really interesting. I felt like I got some good insight into the politics and bureaucracy around the disaster but less so its impact on people. I also found the epilogue to be a bit alarmist about population growth in Africa and Asia and the use of nuclear power by developing countries.