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183rd out of 571 books
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1,390 voters
Level 7
Level 7 is the diary of Officer X-127, who is assigned to stand guard at the "Push Buttons," a machine devised to activate the atomic destruction of the enemy, in the country’s deepest bomb shelter. Four thousand feet underground, Level 7 has been built to withstand the most devastating attack and to be self-sufficient for five hundred years. Selected according to a psycho...more
Paperback, 200 pages
Published
June 24th 2004
by University of Wisconsin Press
(first published 1959)
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Jan 18, 2012
Erik Graff
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
cold war fans
Recommended to Erik by:
no one
Shelves:
sf
I read this book during the 1961 Berlin crisis while still in primary school. Science fiction was already an addiction and I'd put away a book or two a day when school wasn't in session. Politics was also of interest since Dad had been a vocal supporter of Kennedy against Nixon the previous year as well as active in community affairs. Indeed, he took me to village board meetings, encouraging my interest in public affairs and reading of the newspaper.
The Berlin crisis had lasted from the previous...more
The Berlin crisis had lasted from the previous...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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Level 7 isn't truly a book that I just read. It's a book that I've just re-read, which is a bit different. With over 25 years since the first reading, however, my views and appreciation for the art intrinsic in the novel have changed a bit.
First off, I should say that the copy I first read was without the preface found in my new copy. For first time readers I'd recommend reading that preface after the whole of the novel. It's rather heavy-handed in reinforcing the spin of the novel and rather ru...more
First off, I should say that the copy I first read was without the preface found in my new copy. For first time readers I'd recommend reading that preface after the whole of the novel. It's rather heavy-handed in reinforcing the spin of the novel and rather ru...more
Level 7 is the tale of a military man who lives in a bunker 4,400 feet below the surface of the earth. His job is to sit in a room and wait for the command to push a series of buttons which will unleash complete nuclear destruction on the earth. He is not told why he is to go into the bunker beforehand, and when he gets there he finds out that he must spend the rest of his life there.
He's not the only one down there. There are two more people like him who wait in shifts for the command to come....more
He's not the only one down there. There are two more people like him who wait in shifts for the command to come....more
This is one of those books that rewards patient reading--its cumulative power is immense. We follow the diary of a man who lives on Level 7 of a bunker where the best and brightest go in a kind of experiment to see how humans would endure extended life in isolation after a nuclear holocaust. The details of day to day life are interesting enough, but the growing sense of dread that one day the alarms may go off and our protagonist will have to do the one simple action that is his duty in case of...more
I'm not sure where this book would rank on my list if I re-read it now - but it left an indelible mark on the mind of my twelve-year-old self. Aside from weeks of nightmares about an atomic war, it’s influenced my opinion of every other post-apocalyptic novel I’ve read since . . . usually to their detriment, as none of them ever hit me emotionally in quite the same way.
Pretty straight-forward post-nuke serving of the everyman, the consummate serviceman, "cog-in-the-wheel." A pretty enjoyable treatment on the power of passivity, I think this might be a good preface to reading the Stranger (finish strong of course), both are heavy with the hand of hopelessness, resolved faith in the faithless, it's worth a read.
Very chilling book. I have always been obsessed with stories/films about nuclear holocaust. This is an older book, written during the Cold War between the U.S. and Russia. As was common at that time, the story focuses on the absurdness of the concept of "Mutual Assured Destruction", wherein if two parties are engaging in nuclear war, both sides try to completely destroy the enemy even if they themselves have already been decimated.
Level 7 revolves around a multi-level underground bunker that hol...more
Level 7 revolves around a multi-level underground bunker that hol...more
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What I found most disturbing about this novel was not the hopelessness of the Level 7 dwellers, buried thousands of feet beneath the earth, then assigned to annihilate humanity and continue living for 500 years. I suppose we've heard that story before and become dulled to the prospect of a fusion armageddon. I was more repelled by the personalities of the individuals on level 7. X-127 guesses that they must have all been chosen for their mission because they don't like others, and are all somewh...more
Grim and horrifying depiction of life in an underground bunker, waiting to unleash the missiles that will destroy the outside world, then doing just that and reaping the consequences. Written in first person diary form. Highly recommended.
This is a downright spooky book. Much like Kafka would write, no one is identified - just numbers and letters. Nothing personal - all clinical. And how people are picked to go to the different levels is about as cold and calculating as anything can be. Of course, the whole point to the book is about how dehumanized and unpersonalized conflict can be - this is cold and difficult to read. I found myself being pulled along to find out what would happen next but secretly hoping that it would hurry u...more
I like books about the end of the world.I know, call me weird! This was different than most I've read. It was kind of chilling and the personalized approach made it all the more real.
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I am so glad this novel is now available in e-book form. I read it in high school, loved it, and have wanted to read it again. I’m sure that beat up library copy was out of print even then. What? I just noticed it was published in 1960. No wonder it was in crappy condition and smelled of mildew. I am even more impressed the story feels so 2011ish.
The story is told in diary form, written by a missile technician only known as x-127. The story starts out as the solider x-127 and 250 other soldiers...more
The story is told in diary form, written by a missile technician only known as x-127. The story starts out as the solider x-127 and 250 other soldiers...more
I have to say, I haven’t enjoyed a work of fiction this much in quite some time. This is the best dystopia you haven’t heard of in the canon. At the very least, I had never been previously aware of its existence. Tight and crisply plotted, with a marvelous alienation, disregard for humanity, and a cold war era calculation, it is a worthy heir to 1984 and other such works. The essay and the silly outtake from a would-be second novel seemingly added like dvd bonus features are a waste of time and...more
The book reads like a twisted version of Plato's Republic - a dissertation on the sort of society and people required to commit and survive atomic armageddon. It is a coldly logical social structure inhabited by emotionally stunted human beings, whose purpose is to be the push-button operators for otherwise fully-automated weaponry, and later to continue the species.
Parts border on parody. From their deep-hole bunkers, politicians spit vitriol upon their enemy counterparts, even after such chest...more
Parts border on parody. From their deep-hole bunkers, politicians spit vitriol upon their enemy counterparts, even after such chest...more
Feb 21, 2012
Susan
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
pacifists not afraid of depressing sci-fi
Like a sci-fi atomic apocalypse version of Anne Frank's Diary if Anne was a military man with philosophical tendencies. Started off being creepier but less depression than Fail Safe, another book of the same genre, and ended up being creepier and MORE depressing, since the story ended on the note of And Then There Was No Hope Left. At All. Also compared to the same book, I'd say it's more dramatic but has less plausible science (though I may be nitpicking solely based on my background). Also wri...more
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Bleak. With no chance of redemption whatsoever. If you like happy endings, you might want to stay away from this book.
This book is quiet similar to On the Beach and Alas, Babylon, both in the era in which they were published and the primary subject matter with which they deal: nuclear apocalypse. While I personally found On the Beach totally unimpressive and a drag, Alas, Babylon became one of my favorite novels.
So where does "Level 7" stand?
Well, while it may not become one of my favorites,...more
This book is quiet similar to On the Beach and Alas, Babylon, both in the era in which they were published and the primary subject matter with which they deal: nuclear apocalypse. While I personally found On the Beach totally unimpressive and a drag, Alas, Babylon became one of my favorite novels.
So where does "Level 7" stand?
Well, while it may not become one of my favorites,...more
This book starts off really good and grabs your attention right away, and it ends even better. Its basically about a man who is in training and gets promoted and taken 4,300 feet below ground to do his job, with a select group of other people. The earth is scorched due to nuclear war and the only survivors are those who went underground. The book is written in a diary format as the main character enters level 7 and all the way until the end. This is a must read if you ask me, great book... well...more
"Livello 7" è il diario dell'ufficiale X-127, assegnato di guardia sul fondo del più profondo rifugio antiatomico.
Quattromila metri sotto terra, il Livello 7 è stato costruito per sostenere attacchi atomici e garantire l'autosufficienza per cinquecento anni in caso di attacco nucleare.
Le bombe atomiche esplodono, ma le cose forse non andranno come previsto...
Questo potente romanzo distopico del 1959 rimane una delle più disperate visioni sulla guerra atomica.
Quattromila metri sotto terra, il Livello 7 è stato costruito per sostenere attacchi atomici e garantire l'autosufficienza per cinquecento anni in caso di attacco nucleare.
Le bombe atomiche esplodono, ma le cose forse non andranno come previsto...
Questo potente romanzo distopico del 1959 rimane una delle più disperate visioni sulla guerra atomica.
This 1959 novel is a diary of "Push Button Operator X-127", one of five hundred military personnel sealed in a self-sufficient bunker ("Level 7") kilometers below the surface of the Earth. The inhabitants of Level 7 are to spend the rest of their lives underground, and in the event of war they will command a nuclear attack from which they will likely be the world's only survivors. One of those extraordinary Cold War stories about the insanity of nuclear weapons.
I struggled with whether to give this three or four stars. I settled on four because any novel written almost 55 years ago that feels this fresh and relevant is really quite remarkable.
While reading, I found myself wishing that more detail had been given, and time devoted, to background and personal information about the characters, particularly the narrator. I suppose, however, that it was more effective to maintain the "nuclear war mentality" by not making it so much a human story as an inhum...more
While reading, I found myself wishing that more detail had been given, and time devoted, to background and personal information about the characters, particularly the narrator. I suppose, however, that it was more effective to maintain the "nuclear war mentality" by not making it so much a human story as an inhum...more
An interesting (and depressing) look at what global nuclear war could bring. It definitely feels like a cold war piece, but it's much more depressing than they normally are.
It's good, and I like it a bunch, but it was depressing. Did I mention that it was kind of depressing? It was.
It's good, and I like it a bunch, but it was depressing. Did I mention that it was kind of depressing? It was.
Kind of wish I didn't read this book. Don't know what possessed me to keep reading it. Worst writing style I remember in a while. It is clear that the author was going for a kind of satire, setting up straw-man characters to poke fun at. Didn't work. Don't read it, really.
This book is a horror story. But not a horror story of monsters but one of politicians, isolation, dehumanization, and claustrophobia.
Perhaps not as poignant today as when it was written during the Cold War, however few books have captured the sense of pure terror in the face of annihilation like Level 7 has.
Perhaps not as poignant today as when it was written during the Cold War, however few books have captured the sense of pure terror in the face of annihilation like Level 7 has.
Somewhat dated and very bleak novel of the then-presumed inevitable nuclear apocalypse, this book is a good character study of what could've happened had the Cold War progressed to its predictable, dehumanizing conclusion. It's worth the hour or two it might take you to read it.
Look, I liked the book, but it wasn't a nice book. Billed on its cover as "horrifying," I didn't really get that until the end, but at the end, even though it was 8 degrees, I stuck my head out for a deep breath of fresh air and a look at sky and stars and moon. Well-written, engaging, Freaky (note the capital "F").
I first read this novel a few months after the Cuban Missile Crisis was resolved. I see that there are several good reviews here and I don't have much to add except to warn that the writer has an agenda, but it is the same agenda that all sane people should have.
While this is a short book, Level 7 is a stunning look into what may already be in place, and what could happen when/if a global Thermo-nuclear war occours, as well as the dangerous reprocussions, and potential for it's accidental occourance.
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apocalypse Whenever: *solved* (Level 7) Help! Trying to find a book about a man in a missle silo | 5 | 111 | Aug 15, 2012 07:04am |
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Jan 13, 2013 02:59am