Termush, Atlanterhavskysten

by Sven Holm

Paper Book, 1967

Status

Available

Call number

839.81

Genres

Science Fiction

Fiction

Publication

(Kbh.) Gyldendal (1967) 106 s.

Description

Championed by Jeff VanderMeer - 'a classic: stunning, dangerous, darkly beautiful' - welcome to a luxury hotel at the end of the world in this post-apocalyptic 1967 dystopia ... 'Chilling and prescient.' Andrew Hunter Murray 'Elemental and true.' Kiran Millwood Hargrave 'Mesmerizing.' Sandra Newman 'Like someone from the future screaming to us.' Salena Godden The day we came up from the shelters four people were found dead on the steps of the hotel. Welcome to Termush: a luxury coastal resort like no other. All the wealthy guests are survivors: preppers who reserved rooms long before the Disaster. Inside, they embrace exclusive radiation shelters, ambient music and lavish provisions; outside, radioactive dust falls on the sculpture park, security men step over dead birds, and a reconnaissance party embarks. Despite weathering a nuclear apocalypse, their problems are only just beginning. Soon, the Management begins censoring news; disruptive guests are sedated; initial generosity towards Strangers ceases as fears of contamination and limited resources grow. But as the numbers - and desperation - of external survivors increase, they must decide what it means to forge a new moral code at the end (or beginning?) of the world ... Translated by Sylvia Clayton… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Michael.Rimmer

"I must ask myself whether I am not colouring what I see with my own views."

Holm leaves enough space in the text that his narrator's self-query is relevant to the reader, also. It's a book of impressions, partially understood events and delirium, that, coloured by my own views, perhaps, seems like

a metaphor for late stage capitalism. The rich provide themselves with a haven from social collapse, leave the poor to suffer, and start to splinter into authoritarian factions. There is an obvious violence inherent in this, which does manifest itself in the narrative, but the atmosphere is rather that of a dream or a state of increasing dissociation and withdrawal.

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LibraryThing member arubabookwoman

According to the forward of this short novel, it is both a realistic chronicle of society's collapse and a surreal journey of a man confronted by crisis. Set in the aftermath of a nuclear war, it delves into the psychology of the holed up survivors as they face the hazards of societal breakdown.

As

the novel opens, the first person narrator is living in a hotel with other guests, all of whom have paid dearly to be taken care of at this isolated facility in the event of a nuclear war and its aftermath. Management takes care of them, and gourmet meals and all creature comforts are provided. If radiation levels get too high, the guests are conveyed to basement shelters to remain until safer radiation levels return. If possible, outings are sometimes arranged, so the guests don't get too bored.

Then, the outside world begins intruding. "The day we came up from the shelter, four people were found dead on the steps of the hotel." Soon, people from the outside world begin arriving at the hotel in larger numbers, many of them suffering from radiation sickness. Management and some of the guests want to help them, but many guests do not. Chaos and confusion reign.

I used to read a lot of nuclear war/post-apocalyptic novels back in my teens, early 20's, a kind of guilty reading pleasure, if you will. This is one I missed back then. (It's Danish, I believe, so maybe it wasn't even translated). Many of the books I used to read back then focused on the nitty-gritty details of survival. This one was a bit more philosophical. I can remember back in the day the drills in schools in the US to shelter under your desk in the event of a nuclear attack, which seems so quaint and naive now, and to a certain extent I guess I view these types of books the same way as I now view the shelter-under-your-desk exercise: I don't think surviving a nuclear war is possible, and why would anyone want to survive anyway?

Still, for what it is this was a good read.

3 stars

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LibraryThing member sophroniaborgia

Termush is a science fiction novel from the 1970s, translated from the original Danish. The premise is one that was quite popular at the time and having something of a revival today -- what happens to the survivors after a calamitous event wipes out most of society. Termush's narrator is one of a

group of wealthy people who have bought themselves a place in a somewhat remote luxury hotel to wait out the aftermath. They are provided with fancy meals, medical care, and even recreation and outings. But the outside world keeps intruding, both in the form of physical refugees from the disaster and the mental effects on the wealthy guests themselves.

I am not generally a science fiction reader, but this short novel was well-reviewed so I picked it up. The themes are certainly as relevant today as they were when the book was first written, unfortunately. Our planet is still threatened by human activity, and we are still plagued by the class issues that drive the actions of the hotel guests. Author Sven Holm chooses to avoid describing specifics of what is happening, much as his characters would prefer to ignore the specifics of their situation. But he expertly implies the unease, desperation and threats that lie behind the bland day-to-day events. Reading the book is somewhat like being trapped at the Overlook Hotel during the Apocalypse, but Holm chooses to emphasize the atmosphere rather than go for the supernatural. I have found myself thinking of this book several times since I finished it, despite its brief length and simple story.

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