Earthsound [Paperback]

Arthur Herzog (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 7, 1976

Your name is Harry Vail and you alone know the terrifying truthor do you?You are an expert on earthquakes and you fear their awesome power to the point of insanity. Now you are sure that an earthquake is building below your very feet. Your house, your family, your friends, your town, are about to be destroyed.The cracks appearing in the wallsthe "accidental" deaths of local peoplethe strange movements of inanimate objectsall increase the certainty of your belief and the urgency of your warnings to those around you. The trouble is, there are others who have another, even more frightening explanation for what is happeningand God help you all if they are right"A piercing shriek of fear and panic from page one to the shaking end!"Cleveland PressEerie suspenseArthur Herzog's The Swarm was mighty scary, but Earthsound is even more so!"Publishers Weekly

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Arthur Herzog is an award-winning novelist, non-fiction writer and journalist, renowned for his best-selling novels The Swarm, Orca (both made into popular movies), Make Us Happy, Heat and IQ 83, hailed by the British press as one of the best science fiction works ever written.His non-fiction best sellers include Vesco, which Publishers Weekly hailed as "A brilliantly researched storyone of the years remarkable biographies" and The Woodchipper Murder. A New Yorker, avid reader, and world traveler, Herzog continues to write fiction and non-fiction books. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Signet (December 7, 1976)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451072553
• ISBN-13: 978-0451072559
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,637,774 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Earthsound: Terra-fying!!!, March 31, 2004

By 

Jaime Franklin (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Earthsound (Paperback)

Originally published in 1975, Earthsound is an almost impossibly good short read in the same vein as the kind of thriller written by writers like Michael Crichton and Peter Benchley, but is ultimately more realistic and infinitely less Hollywood-sy than those books. That said, it comes across as informed and particularly well-researched novel, which ratchets up the suspense of its narrative with every expression of the author's keen ear for everyday detail, making a truly scary story in the end because it all seems so real. Earthsound is the story of one lone man attuned to an increasingly perceptible rumbling from the tectonic plates below, and in typical heroic fashion, persists in his belief of an immanent disaster, despite the chuckles of his peers who believe he is losing his mind. Harry Vail is veteran geologist who has purposely chosen to build a home in a peaceful and austerely populated Rhode Island town chosen also for its lack of seismic faultlines. Soon Harry falls off his rocker, literally (a ladder actually), and his resultant concussion aligns his senses with the first tremors that are otherwise undetectable and unnoticed by everybody else. His wife, who displays a prescient and uncanny intuition during a droll parlor game thinks that archetypical and malevolent supernatural forces are causing the strange occurrences which Harry link to the earthsounds he hears. The signs become somewhat inescapable that a major event is underway. People and animals die mysterious deaths, windows shatter, foundation walls crack slowly, and other well-placed events lead the reader blindly down a cryptic and suspenseful path. The small town sleepiness is burst by a rapid-fire burst of unthinkable events that drive the novel to its conclusion. While the premise and idea of Earthsound sounds a bit like a movie you may have seen, Herzog's terse writing and reluctance to depict scenes of unrelentingly saccharine drama make this a great read. I have recently discovered Arthur Herzog's novels, and find that his ideas are ahead of their time. He uses meticulous research that he apparently undertakes himself, and he manages to identify the unintended occasional flipsides of human nature. In doing this he writes novels with perceptive plots and wholly believable characters- a real rarity in both science and popular fiction.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Herzog thriller won't shake you up too badly., March 14, 2002

By 

Chadwick H. Saxelid "Bookworm" (Concord, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Earthsound (Paperback)

A scientist in New England becomes convinced that an earthquake in the area is imminent. No one believes him of course, but fans of the disaster genre should know that that is one bad call to make. A fun read, but nothing special.