Customer Reviews

Downwinders : An Atomic Tale

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If one enjoys being transported in time, to a rarely heard about place of unbelievable actions, deeds beyond reason, the incredible actual events of fifty years ago, then this book is a "must read"! Over 1000 Atomic Bombs were detonated in the name of the Cold War and National Security in the supposedly "uninhabited" area of the Nevada desert. These events, are central to the storyline of this book. The people who's lives were changed, forever, affected by these historic events, call themselfs Downwinders.... The story claims to be fiction, but the honesty and factuality of the description of events, which indeed happened as described, leaves the reader fascinated. It is a mystery plot, taking place in an around Las Vegas, Nevada. A murder triggers the events described and takes the reader on a journey where past and present events meet. The story is intriguing, active and very absorbing. A rancher and his niece, an attorney, a scientist, and various colorful charters make this a truly enjoyable and easy to follow book. Each character is pictured realistically, human in every sense, their actions are not contrived. The descriptions show a clear and deep understanding of the feelings and thoughts of the people who settled in the beautiful deserts of Utah and Nevada. The tale takes us litterally on a journey to Canyons of despair reminescent of the past, to the winding road of the present, and to the hope-filled halls of justice in the future. Given that this historical subject is still mostly hidden from the American public the writers should be highly commended for tackling it in such a truly enjoyable fashion.

Wow! Downwinders: An Atomic Tale, is really a tale. This is a thriller that easily could be a movie rivaling something like The Da Vinci Code. It has intrigue, bad guys, history, and great characters. It is also a sobering reminder of a dark page of American history... the above-ground testing of nuclear weapons in Nevada, the clans of one-breasted women, and the Cold War and its relics. For those from or knowledgeable about southern Utah, you will recognize life in the Mormon Belt.

Curtis Oberhansly and Dianne Nelson Oberhansly write well (you never know who wrote what... always an interesting twist of coauthored books). Catch this description:

"Trevor Mallory, a slight man standing five and a half feet, was in his mid-fifties, but he still had the energy of three. His astute gray eyes were shot through with flecks of black. They danced with curiosity and matched the color of his long hair bundled tight at the nape and running loosely past his shoulders" (p. 127). And this is a very minor character!

The story is great... exciting, intriguing, and unpredictable. It deserves a much wider readership. Rated PG-13, for adult themes.

As an ACTUAL "Downwinder", I found this book both chilling and thrilling. Obviously (or not), this is a work of fiction but having grown up in the area downwind of multiple nuclear tests in the 50's & 60's, this work is not only "close to home" with familiar character development, but an intriguing "who-dun-it". As a cancer survivor with many, many friends & family who have also been stricken DOWNWIND, I found this book to be well written, thought provoking and memorable.

The novel tells a story that one wishes was completely fictitious. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Very well grounded in the history of atomic tests detonated by the U.S. military under the direction of the Atomic Energy Commission at the Nevada Test Site througout the 1950s, the novel offers a penetrating, riveting, and deeply disturbing look at the horrors inflicted upon the people of the Southwest (especially the area near St. George, Utah, where part of the story is set). Eastern Nevada and southwestern Utah was a region described by the Atomic Energy Commission as a "great place to dump razor blades" whose people were a "low-use segment of the population". "Tragic" and "ironic" do not adequately capture the horrific fact that the only people injured and killed (besides the Japanese at Hiroshima and Nagasaki) by the U.S. nuclear weapons complex were our own citizens. One walks away from this fascinating and well written novel wondering what else the government lied about during this era when they were so obsessed with secrecy and proved capable of manipulating the phrase "national security" to do just about anything.

This is a well researched fictional thriller about people living in Arizona, Utah and some neighbouring states during the 1950-1960 atomic bomb testing in Nevada. If you know any person living then in those areas, read this expose' concerning radiation fall-out and the connection to cancer patients. There is a government compensation fund that pay those affected. Address is Radiation Exposure Compensation Program, U.S. Department of Justice, P.O. Box 146, Ben Franklin Station, Washington, DC 20044-146. [...]

The basis of the book is fascinating, but for the reader (or at least this reader) the execution is lacking anything more than a little hope that eventually the book will get good. The factual information presented is intriguing but it gets lost amidst a cliche love story that reads a little too much like a cheap romance novel. Ultimately the message the authors were trying to present would have been better played out through non-fiction -- they seem to write that well -- or with the help of a stronger editor.