Items related to This is the Way the World Ends
A lacerating Swiftian satire on nuclear war.
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Review:
James Morrow had published SF novels before, but This Is the Way the World Ends (1986) reached a new level of intensity, tackling World War III horrors with ultra-black magic realism plus a touch of Lewis Carroll. Like George Orwell's 1984, it still packs a grim punch although history took another course.
Book Description:
As the Cold War heats up, Americans frantically buy "scopas suits"(Self-COntained Post-Attack Survival) as protection against nukes. Tombstone engraver George Paxton can't afford one for his young daughter, until a strange old woman commissions epitaphs for her "parents" and pays by directing him to a magic shop where the scopas suit costs only his signature--acknowledging responsibility for any nuclear war. Soon we realise George's improvised epitaphs are for Eve, Adam and everyone:
She was better than she knew. He never found out what he was doing here.
Whimsy and social satire give way to nightmare as the missiles fall, scopas suits prove useless, and post-nuclear hell is painted in stomach-churning detail: flashburns, melted eyes, shattered people begging for death.
George, though, is rescued. As one of six who signed the McMurdo Sound Agreement, he must stand trial in Antarctica for complicity in murdering humanity. Prosecution, defenders, judges and police are the "unadmitted", unborn future generations now denied real life, whose sheer rage has won them temporary existence. Old disarmament and deterrence arguments, wittily rehashed in the Nuremberg-like court, seem all too different after the worst has happened. This queasy tragicomedy isn't easily forgotten. --David Langford
A lacerating Swiftian satire on nuclear war, as relevant now as when it was first published
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- PublisherLegend paperbacks
- Publication date1989
- ISBN 10 0099630702
- ISBN 13 9780099630708
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages336
- Rating
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This is the Way the World Ends
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Legend paperbacks
(1989)
ISBN 10: 0099630702
ISBN 13: 9780099630708
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR004063422
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This is the Way the World Ends
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Fair. A readable copy of the book which may include some defects such as highlighting and notes. Cover and pages may be creased and show discolouration. Seller Inventory # GOR003672778
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This Is the Way the World Ends
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Book Description Condition: Good. This is an ex-library book and may have the usual library/used-book markings inside.This book has soft covers. In good all round condition. Please note the Image in this listing is a stock photo and may not match the covers of the actual item,250grams, ISBN:9780099630708. Seller Inventory # 9074210
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THIS IS THE WAY THE WORLD ENDS
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: fine paperback, 1st printing. It is 1995. Everyman is George Paxton, Unitarian and tombstone-engraver, who wants an anti-nuclear suit to protect his daughter. To get it he sells his soul and signs a piece of paper admitting his share of nuclear guilt. Seller Inventory # FF19.222
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This Is the Way the World Ends
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Arrow Legend, London
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Good. Reprint. 319 pp. Light general and edgewear to covers. Faint yellowing to edges of text block and outer page margins. Very small dent including tiny tears to last 8 or so pages. Internally clean, bright, solidly bound. "This is one of the rare works of passion that occasionally irradiate science fiction." -- The Guardian Size: 12mo. Seller Inventory # 007741
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