Pulling Through

Not too many authors can involve you in a very entertaining story and teach you about survival all at the same time. Written when the threat of nuclear death was very real, Dean Ing takes the reader through the basics of surviving that situation with interesting characters, interesting settings, and fun equipment. Oh, one tidbit of real life info...Dean actually built that Lotus with the hover ability. Building cars, from the frame up, was a hobby of his. (12/04)

Not Ing's absolute best work, but still a keeper. The novella that comprises the first half of the book is tautly written, often wryly amusing, and a painless way to learn about the many, many ways you can fail to survive a real disaster. His novella's premise of the start of a nuclear war is less likely to happen now than when this was written -- but many of the same techniques that the characters use to save themselves can and probably should be used to protect yourself in the event of a "dirty" bomb in your vicinity, or other similar unpleasantness. I have recommended this book to many friends, and I think everyone should have a copy in their home library.

I liked the informational aspect of this book. There were a fair number of useful nuclear war survival tidbits. Many of the ideas implemented are the public domain work of a man named Kearny working out of the Oak Ridge National labs. The weakness - and this is just my opinion - stems from the main chracter. I just couldn't identify with him. I like my characters to be ordinary people who are forced to struggle with no special resources but their wits. This guy dives a Lotus hovercraft and lives in a virtual retreat behind a chain linked fence for heavens sake! The kid in this story was so unsympathetic I disliked him from the start.Other people love the characters, so who am I to gripe?

Pulling Through has 2 parts--the first part is a fictional story depicting what would most probably happen in the event of a nuclear was (a much more likely event when it was written rather than now) and the problems people might face. The second part gives very practical information on how to plan for such an event and how to make/get some very useful tools. Useful for showing what might happen in other types of disasters as well (tsunamis, etc.). Not his best work, but still a good, well-written, entertaining story-with-a-purpose.

I read this book when I was in high school for some research I was doing on neclear war it was verry informative and compelling the charachters are well rounded and inteligently written. context is reliable througght that book