The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 30 May 2014
by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer
In the first decade and a half of the 21st century, the planet has experienced some major disasters both natural and man-made (sometimes, as at Fukushima, a mixture of the two). It is understandable if one might have a heightened sensitivity to end-of-the-world scenarios, especially as the disastrous effects of climate disruption continue to become more evident. But, we have a long history of doomsday thinking, especially during the Cold War. We are endlessly fascinated by the end of the world. T.S. Eliot said it would end not with a bang, but a whimper. In this classic science fiction novel, the authors settle difinitively on the bang. First published in 1932, the book opens, abruptly, with the dramatic discovery of two rogue planets plunging together into the Solar System, on a definite and inevitible collision course with Earth. The news spreads quickly. The World is facing its doom. (Though, predictably and presciently, the authors depict those people who deny the evidence of science, so sure they are that we can never predict such a phenomenal disaster. A few paragraphs read like a global warming deniers' handbook.) This story focuses on the lives of a few lucky and brilliant scientists who try to find a way to perpetuate the human species. Their hope lies on one of the invading planets, so earthlike in its aspect as to invite the arrival of a Noah's ark in space. Our heroes, featuring stock broker Tony Drake and astronomer Cole Hendron and his lovely daughter Eve, retreat to a plateau in Michigan to contemplate saving the human race. In the meantime, the rogue planets make a close approach, bringing a global tidal disaster that wipes out most of humanity with giant tsunamis and volcanoes. Of course, it brings an invasion of savage and desperate disaster survivors, as well. The litany of epic catastrophe grows somewhat tiring in the telling, but we're still awaiting what will happen when the real collision occurs. The book is shot through with the gloomy darkness of inevitible doom. Everyone faces extinction, and there is just the tiniest hope of survival. The authors place much of the disaster off-stage, though what they tell is epic enough in its scale. Would a tidal encounter cause much of Africa to sink into the ocean? Hard to say. There is enough scientific language here to make the story plausible, though there are inconsistencies and unfortunate assumptions. Still, what was the state of rocket science and atomic physics in 1932? The end, of course, is ordained. The drama lies in whether Tony will get Eve, or will she pair with the dashing young South African pilot. In the brave new future on an alien world, the authors argue, social expectations must needs be overturned in order to guarantee the survival of the species. The fantastical alien settlement might end up looking like a rural hippie commune. But not here. Much of the social stance of the book is very much a product of its time. We have the social, political and cultural prejudices of the 1930s, so that the greatest hopes for the world come from the intellectual elite of its more democratic societies, Canada, Australia, America. Recall that European countries were starting to dabble in fascism and communism at the time. Watch as they are inundated by the tidal catastrophe to come. In the end, this is a small book that encapsulates the greatest disasters. It is an adventure of global destruction and the triumph of human ingenuity and determination. While its tropes seem tired today, it is still a rather significant classic of its genre.
(While this is a classic story, it is perhaps more famous for the 1951 George Pal movie adaptation of the same name, which has significant differences from the book.)