You have to remember that some seventy per cent of the population of this planet are going to die anyway – in the very near future. Not in the nicest way, perhaps – but under control. And there is always one person in the classic role of the philosopher of the apocalypse, who goes on, frequently at great length, about how the catastrophe simply unmasks nature as it has always been: The protagonist somehow gets an inside scoop and manages to keep one step ahead as violence inevitably breaks out. As the disaster grows, the British government develops plans to contain its doomed citizens, while a well-connected few make it out. Nobody wants to acknowledge the looming disaster, and then when it can’t be ignored, there are desperate hopes that science will come up with a last minute miracle. The style of The Tide Went Out is a little pulpier than The Day of the Triffids, Kraken Wakes and No Blade of Grass, but the well-plotted story hits all of the main features of classic 1950’s British apocalypse stories. Wade develops from government tool into a desperate survivalist, ready to kill to make it back to his family. Wade lands a plum job with the propaganda department while his family is shipped to the Arctic, but the government smokescreen of course proves increasingly difficult to maintain as the situation becomes more dire, and civil unrest breaks out.
Soon shipping is impossible, and Britain (and the rest of the world) goes into crisis as the world dries out – no clouds, no rain, no crops, etc.Īs in No Blade of Grass, the British government has a secret plan that does not benefit most of its citizens – secret Arctic camps are built to hold privileged evacuees, while the government sets up a powerful security and propaganda machine to keep the populace pacified. But oddities offer clues: frequent earthquakes trouble seismically mild Britain, and the tide steadily decreases. Wade has his story pulled at the last minute by mysterious government officials. The recent nuclear tests of ‘Operation Nutcracker’ have busted open the earth’s crust, and the oceans are draining away into the earth’s interior. Journalist Philip Wade writes a speculative story about the potential adverse geological effects of nuclear testing, and inadvertently almost reveals a tightly held state secret. Fans of British apocalypse novels a la Wyndham and John Christopher ought to enjoy Chalres Eric Maine’s The Tide Went Out, another story focused the catastrophic disintegration of British society in the context of a world-wide disaster.
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