Last Gasp [Paperback]

T. Hoyle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1985

Book

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Zebra (March 1, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0821715089
• ISBN-13: 978-0821715086
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,692,783 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Probably the best doomsday book I've read so far, March 8, 2007

By 

Shane Phillips "Shanno" (Sydney, AUST) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

My mother came home one day with a skanky old book (Hey come on, it WAS a first edition, 1983 people, the new cover looks much better) she had got from a garage sale for 50c, titled "The Last Gasp" That being said, when i eventually got around to reaing it, i couldn't tear myself away from it untill I had finished.

This book differs much from other titles in the Doomsday genre, being its not about the apocalypse or nuclear war, this book follows the actions of a marine biologist who realises that the dioxin levels in the earths oceans are reaching dangerous levels, leaching critical oxygens from the water, and the subsequent rise of of an insane individual inadvertantley speeds up the process; This then gives rise to a hellish new eco system and its heavilly mutated inhabitants, that thrives on the pollutants now rampant in the world.

The feel of this book feels very much like the movie "The Day After Tomorrow" granted, it would be great if a movie based on this came out, It shows a not to unlikely future of exreme pollution, and will certainly get you thinking,

I hope you enjoyed my first ever review, I felt a book of such character didnt deserve not to have a review put to it, so here it is.

BUY THIS BOOK!!

Shanno

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a life-changing read! (at least for me), June 4, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Last Gasp (Paperback)

I first read this book almost 20 years ago, and every time I think about it, I get the chills. So many of the issues Mr. Hoyle addressed (even though fictionalised) have come to pass. I have seen in my life time the world change -- climate wise, geographically, etc. This book made me aware of the environment, and brought home to me just how destructive and selfish mankind can be in its blind pursuit of progress and exploitation of natural resources. Any one who reads this will go to bed every night with a sinking feeling in the pit of their stomach. Why? Because the fiction in the book is becoming fact in our lifetime today...

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Book: Lousy Science, January 10, 2012

By 

Richard Horton - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Last Gasp (Mass Market Paperback)

Like a lot of the reviewers here, I first read this book back in the 1980's. Like other reviewers, the book has stayed with me ever since then. (A scene where someone climbs into an old enclosed arcade game and gets a surprise still gives me the shivers!) However, when it comes to the scenario painted by the author there is nothing prophetic about this book.

The book's premise is based upon the then current worry about the ozone layer. The world is threatened when microscopic marine life is choked off by a pollutant fed pathogen. The upshot is less oxygen is produced, resulting in the a general depletion of the ozone layer protecting the world from solar radiation. Thus the mayhem is unleshed!

It is at this point you should be reading the book as a fun/chilling page turner, and not a scientific look at the future. For example, the book posits ozone depletion happening along the equator. We discovered in the years after the book came out that it is actually at the poles where ozone depletion would occur. Additionally the reaction of living organisms to radiation is portrayed more along the lines of "being bitten by an atomic spider turns you into a human/spider hybrid" comic book, rather than in a realistic fashion.

The most effective part of the book is when it shows how when people begin to claim they need to kill some people in order to "save the world" the end effect is counter productive. It is the political questions the book asks that are most important in the end.

My recomendation is to read this book because it is wildly entertaining, not because it offers a view of our future. It doesn't.