Customer Reviews

The Poseidon Adventure

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Although one of the best known disaster movies of the 70's came from this novel, this book is far from a mere adventure story and the focus is not on the disaster itself.

This novel is a study of people and human nature. What the author has done is assemble a collection of characters (a few more than in the movie), a number of whom do not like one another--especially antogonist/protagonist Mike Rogo and Rev. Scott, respectively. They are placed in a life and death situation in which they are forced to interact on more than a social level--they are forced to rely on one another.

As the story unfolds, so does the psyche of each character and there is not a one who's personal history is not explored. As the struggle to survive becomes increasingly more demanding and life threatening, we see relationships unravel as each character's demons and vulnerabilities are exposed.

Tensions, resentments and bitterness bubbling just beneath the surface of the characters prior to the capsizing come welling forth, sometimes violently, throughout the course of the story. For better or for worse, all are changed forever by the end.

Most notably, we see a the facade of the "nuclear family" torn down for good as the Shelby family is ripped brutally apart. Unlike the cardboard characters of Susan and Robin in the movie, the two are more developed in this book, along with parents, Richard and Jane. Susan suffers a violent encounter with a crew member and Robin is lost forever, while simultaneously the marriage of their parents Richard and Jane fall to pieces before the eyes of all.

All of this takes place against a backdrop of danger and mayhem as the striken liner continues it's slow tortureous plunge. The characters witness death at its most brutal form and literally stare into the face of Hell, watching dozens, including members of their own survivalist party meet their doom.

And in the end, when the ship finally goes down, the former life of each survivor goes down with her.

Although a huge fan of the movie, I loved this book for completely different reasons. This is a powerful story and an engrossing read. In the end, I found myself asking myself one simple question: What would I do if faced with the same circumstances?

Granted the film adaptation by Irwin Allen is a classic of its kind, but Paul Gallico's source novel is so, so much more than a mere adventure novel. The Poseidon Adventure is also a dark psychological novel about the human will and the human character, how it constantly shifts and changes, yet remains the same at its very core. Don't be fooled by the swift pace and high adventure, careful reading of this excellent piece of entertainment will be a richly rewarding experience for you. Highly recommended.

This book was well written and a very enjoyable read. I also recommend seeing the movie. Both were fantastic =-)

I'm only fourteen and when i saw the movie The Poseidon Adventure i had to read the book. When i first picked up the book i thought this is to long but as soon as i started to read it i couldn't stop. The novel is about an ocean liner called the S.S. Poseidon and it is on its last crouse before it goes to the scrap yard. All the passengers are eating dinner when an under sea earthquake sends a 90 foot tidal wave right towards them. The wave hits the boat and capsizes it. After the shock of being turned upside down the passengers which survived struggle and fight there way though the upside down ship to the haul.

The book lets you get to know all the characters and then one by one they die ( example the little boy Robin goes to the batroom and when the lights go out he is never seen again.) This book makes you feel for all the survivors as they struggle to freedom, and when some die you just sit back and say "WOW."

I recommend this book to anyone who loves the movie and to anyone who hasn't seen the movie. It is just a great book and i think everyone should read it.

I saw the film when it first came out and have seen it several times since over the years. I never thought about the novel. Someone gave it to me recently and I have to say I was surprised at how well written it is. The gentleman certainly knows ships and gives detailed descriptions of parts of a ship before it capsizes and after which is very important. He knows what would happen to certain parts of the ship and what it would be like to try walking on a ship's ceiling and through kitchens, boiler rooms and engine rooms with uprooted equipment and personal and crew belongings strewn everywhere. In other words, you are there!
However, there are times when I found myself becoming impatient with some of the settings. His descriptions along with the dialog taking place in the current setting go on a bit too long and it became tiring.
All in all a good read though. I think most people will recognize the characters but also be glad that they were changed for the film. The characters are much more lovable in the film.

For those expecting this to be like an over the top, action adventure flick where the cute and clever kids save the day, and the plucky square jawed hero pulls everyone through... forget it. Author Paul Gallico has created a dark masterpiece where he uses the disaster as a metaphor for the turning of people's seemingly ordinary lives literally upside down and stripping them of their quaint civilized comforts. Reverend Frank "Buzz" Scott leads a rag tag group of people from the dining room to hoped for salvation in the ship's engine rooms and the keel and rescue.

But the journey is far from easy, facing the perils of a capsized vessel, with obstacles like upside-down stairways, flooding passages, deep booming explosions rocking the ship, failing emergency lights, and machinary and boilers falling from their mountings. They also face their own inner demons as well. Scott ferverently believing that the only way to reach safety is via the engine rooms and await rescue in the propeller shaft wings, while ignoring other possible, safer routes to the ship's former bottom.

Others in the group as well as those they meet along the way provide for drama and an examination of the human condition when placed in mortal danger. The failure of the lights results in a stampede by fear-driven crew running down a main corridor like lemmings to their deaths they are trampled, or killed by falling over stairway openings or into a large pit where a boiler tore through several decks of the upturned ship, the young girl of the group Susan is raped.

The young boy Robin, brother of Susan is lost in the blackout and crew stampe, never to be found again, and his exact fate is chillingly never revealed to the reader.

This book simply pulls no punches, though it does show the other side of the human equation as people help the eldery Rosens through the ship's twisted and inverted bowels, and Belle Rosen saving everyone with her suprise feat of swimming through a flooded corrider, though it later costs her life when she dies of a heart attack mere minutes from rescue.

When Rev. Scott dies, James Martin, a proprietor of a haberdashery, gallantly takes charge and sees everyone through the rest of the way. The ending is not easy, either. Not only is Robin never found and Mrs Rosen as well as several others die along the way, but the survivors of Scott's intrepid band must deal with the biting sting that other survivors, some left behind in the dinning room, had a much easier time in going the other route to the ship's cargo hold. The route Scott insisted they not go. But ultimately they are alive when so many others have died, either succumbing to their baser natures as the crew did during the blackout, or passively staying put, hoping for someone to come to them.

For those used to the 1973 adapation of the movie, this book will be just a wee bit of a downer with the boy dying and his sister being raped as well as more gruesome ends for people, but the characters as other reviewers have pointed out, are far more interesting and multi-dimensional, even Susan's rapist is shown to be nothing more than a fightened young boy, who realizes the terrible thing he has done to her and runs off to his death, driven by guilt. So this is not for the faint of heart, but it is ultimately a rewarding look at the human heart in the face of disaster.

If what you are seeking is one of the movies or the mini-series written out in the form of a book, save your energy and watch the movie again. This novel is not a spectacular special effects experience for those with short attention spans. It instead is a very deep and moving story throwing complex characters together in a disaster situation.

The capsize of the ship becomes a metaphor for all the characters as their lives are turned upside down by what they experience during their climb to the ship's hull. As they move further away from the civilized aspects of the ship to which they are accustomed and into blown away and unfamiliar settings, they are forced (both physically and emotionally) to shed the outer facades of their humanity and behaviors to face and rely upon the raw, inner base persona that all humans learn to hide from the civilized world. All aspects of the characters' respective lives are turned as upside down as the ship they are in until it is only their singular drive to live that keeps them going.

Gallico is expert in keeping some characters shrouded in mystery while slowly revealing the inner personalities and thoughts of other characters to allow the reader to feel emotions and experiences from those characters' unique perspectives. This is far more a human drama than a simple disaster/escape story.

They say books are better than the movie, some are true.
This is one.

"Upside down, in the biggest transatlantic liner ever built, 81,000 tons of metal hanging between heaven and the bottom of the sea."
-Chapter 5 of "The Poseidon Adventure."

During a 1937 North Atlantic crossing aboard the infamous Queen Mary, author Paul Gallico had quite the scare when, out of nowhere, an 80-foot rogue wave struck the liner, causing her to keel over - almost on her side. Thirty years later this event would serve as the inspiration for his 1969 best-seller, "The Poseidon Adventure."

The story concerns the efforts of a small group of passengers attempting to escape a cruise ship after it is capsized by a massive wave. Gallico tells his story with a strong sense of suspense and a richly detailed group of diverse characters.

And those characters are the most fascinating aspect of the novel. Gallico does a masterful of job of building them into people of depth and dimension. With the sea disaster as the underlying premise, he strips them of their security and their dignity, testing their might, taxing their bodies, and stripping them of their clothes.

In so far as the actual escape is concerned, the reader gets a strong sense of the imminent danger and claustrophobia encountered by the survivors. Throughout the book one never forgets how close they are to impending doom. Gallico is almost unrelenting in his sense of urgency.

Overall, "The Poseidon Adventure" makes an excellent and fast read. Some of Gallico's verbiage shows it's age, but ultimately the novel is a story of courage and strength of character, of failure and loss, of intense drama and great suspense. It will leave you as stunned, breathless, and exhausted as the survivors.

The book was re-released in June of 2006 and is still available. I highly recommend you add it to your reading list!

NOTE: I also listened to the audiobook this summer. In some cases Dylan Baker's voices are brilliant (Mike Rogo, Frank Scott), but in many cases they are a bit annoying (the Rosens, Hubie Muller). At the start it seems like Baker went into the studio cold - he seems unsure and uneven. But by disc 2 he finds his stride. The audiobook's abridgement was authorized by the Gallico estate, but like most abridgements it takes away from the story. Worth a listen if you're pressed for time, but I highly suggest sitting down with the actual book.

No wonder Irwin Allen was so determined to make this movie, what a great book! Although the characters can come off a little like soap-opera actors, Gallico has written an exciting maritime classic, which actually bears little resemblance to the subsequent motion picture of the same name. You'll be swept up in this exciting epic!