Triumph (Beyond Armageddon) [Paperback]

Philip Wylie (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2007 | Series: Beyond Armageddon

In the world’s upper hemisphere, only one small group has survived World War III: fourteen people, sheltered deep within a limestone mountain in Connecticut and with enough supplies and equipment to maintain their subsistence for upwards of two years. The group includes a forward-thinking millionaire and his family, a levelheaded Jewish scientist, a playboy, an aging African American servant and his daughter, a gigolo and the glamorous woman who has been his mistress, a beautiful Chinese girl, a young meter reader, two children, and a Japanese engineer. Fully aware of the outcome of the war that had raged briefly above them, the survivors seethe with hatred, fall into depression over their losses, rise to moments of superhuman bravery, and lapse into behavior that reflects their human weaknesses. Philip Wylie mercilessly predicts the inevitable end of a world that continues to function as selfishly and as barbarously as our own.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Triumph is a powerful novel about love, drunkenness, the racial problem—above all, a hair-raising story of worldwide nuclear warfare. The pages describing what an atomic war will look like are unique; there is nothing like them in literature. What happens to the handful of people that survive World War III is fascinating in a nightmarish way. I know of no other book quite like Triumph.”—Eugene Burdick, coauthor of Fail-Safe

(Eugene Burdick )

About the Author

The earliest books by Philip Wylie (1902–71) greatly influenced twentieth-century science fiction pulp magazines and comic books: The Savage Gentleman was the inspiration for Doc Savage, Gladiator for Superman, and When Worlds Collide for Flash Gordon. A prolific writer of fiction and nonfiction, Wylie left a legacy of hundreds of short stories, articles, serials, syndicated newspaper columns, novels, and works of social criticism.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Bison Books (December 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080326013X
• ISBN-13: 978-0803260139
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #848,936 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good story even if premise is dated, September 2, 2007

By 

Dave Huber (Delaware, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Triumph (Hardcover)

Written during the height of the Cold War, Wylie provides a highly detailed description of nuclear annihilation. Like many (most?) novels of that generation, the Soviets start the thing (thanks to a maniacal Russian premier) and boy have they planned this thing out. Not only are basic nuke weapons used, but the Reds have all but ensured that NO ONE will survive in the United States ever again. They explode submerged nukes off both coasts to create super-radioactive sodium clouds, and later detonate cobalt devices. The fourteen folks living in a specially prepared Connecticut bunker are indeed the last people left alive in the US. The description of these folks' lives in the bunker is fairly well done, although it is unlikely -- given the degree of Soviet bombing -- that the devastation would be limited to just the northern hemisphere. (ON THE BEACH is probably more accurate in that such an amount of radioactivity would eventually make its deadly path to the southern hemisphere, too.) The ending is somewhat uplifting if not, again, implausible. Considering the degree of devastation and total rad count, it is much more likely that all the bunker inhabitants would eventually perish in their livable tomb.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow, June 4, 2010

By 

Marie J. Post "rita_knits" (Florida Keys) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Triumph (Beyond Armageddon) (Paperback)

I've been reading post-apocalyptic books since I was 15 and discovered On the Beach and Alas, Babylon at the local (tiny) library. Very few have lived up to the bar set by these two.

Triumph is right up there with them. I can't say that I liked the characters, but the description of the destruction wrought by nuclear war is incredibly detailed, descriptions that are generally glossed over in most post-apoc books. I appreciate that the "process" is included along with the interactions of the people left in the shelter after the end of civilization as we know it.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is into EOTWAWKI themes. It's going to take a pretty damn good writer to surpass this one.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Astonishing for 1963, October 29, 2009

By 

Jeffrey Swystun (Ottawa & New York) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Triumph (Beyond Armageddon) (Paperback)

The book's original intent, one speculates, is to examine racial issues of people in tight quarters and in a post-apocalyptic setting. I can see that this would have had great interest and impact in the year it was written, 1963. But reading this in 2009, what struck me was the knowledge and sophistication the author possessed to address all of the related technical content: elaborate bomb shelter (U.S.150-200 million dollars in 1963 currency), the effects of nuclear strikes, not to mention the way he envisioned the catalyst and method of how the two superpowers would war.

The most gripping part of the book was a side story covering a few remaining U.S. naval forces and their Soviet counterparts who had prepared their own incredible shelters to survive. The "last ditch" strategy had me thinking about other books on nuclear war from that period that I believe more accurately portrayed military members reluctance to do any more damage after first strike. Here U.S. forces are portrayed as mindless order takers bent on revenge.

The anti-Soviet rhetoric speaks to the times though the enemy seems less menacing, all knowing, and relentlessly diabolical now that time has passed. Character development was so-so, most interesting is the mogul who anticipated so much in the building of his shelter. Inter-relationships were hard to get in to but the claustrophobic atmosphere was well communicated.

Triumph has introduced me to Wylie who is credited with inspiring Doc Savage with his book The Savage Gentleman, also Flash Gordon with When Worlds Collide, and incredibly, Superman with his work Gladiator. The latter I intend to pick up as the story behind the story is as intriguing.