The Wind From Nowhere - J.G. Ballard Book Review

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"The Wind From Nowhere"
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Review Summaries

"Researcher Donald Maitland is separating from his wife Susan and preparing to leave London for a job in Vancouver when he finds himself grounded like everyone else because windspeed has been climbing around the world. The wind picks up roughly 5 mph a day, reaching 55 mph, then 90 mph, then 180 mph and far beyond, and turning the skies black with loosened topsoil and debris. Cities collapse, millions seek refuge in subways, sewers, military bunkers, caves. Maitland joins the British government's team to maintain order, while American sub commander Lanyon makes his way across the Italian and French riviera on a mission to retrieve a general's body, then save his sub (accompanied by NBC news reporter Patricia Olsen). The cast ends up prisoners in the bunker complex and pyramid of megalomaniacal British millionaire Hardoon, who is determined to face down the elements and pick up the pieces of society if the wind ever subsides. This 1962 book is in many ways the most conventional of Ballard's quartet of planetary disaster novels, with predictable characterizations and familiar action thriller scenes (and its dating shows in Tokyo's early demise as a "cardboard jungle"), but as always, his visualization of an entire world gone haywire is richly realized."
David Loftus, Resident J.G. Ballard Scholar

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Overall Review

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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
Descript. of chases or violence - 30%
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 20%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 10%
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 40%

Tone of book - suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - science fiction story
Explore/1st contact/ enviro story Yes
Plotlets: - surviving a post environmental/nuclear disaster - surviving natural elements on planet
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status: - scientist
Age: - 40's-50's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
How sensitive is this character? - middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - average physique

Main Adversary
Identity: - natural phenomena
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - throughout most of the book.

Setting
Terrain - Water - Mountains - Domed/Underground City
Earth setting: - 20th century
Takes place on Earth? Yes

Style
Person? - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths
scientific jargon? (SF only) - a moderate amount of scientific explanation
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - vague references only
How much dialogue? - significantly more descript than dialog

Most similar books by Gordonator ranking
Thinning the Herd by David L. Fraley
The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard
The Drought by J.G. Ballard
Snowfall by Mitchell Smith
In Search Of The Kee by Gloria Jean Hartman

Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).

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