Parts of this book are interesting, if you like to learn new facts.
After losing his wife in a California earthquake, Vail, a former seismologist, has moved to New England because he can't stand the strain of anticipating another quake. Now he thinks the earth at his new home has tremors--or is it just his phobia? His new wife thinks the house is haunted by spirits who want them to leave. The local villagers think that God resides in the ground under Vail's house, and is making His displeasure known. Interesting presentation of different points of view to explain the same phenomena, and the impossibility of getting someone to change their point of view when their faith is so heavily invested in it.
All the supporting characters are pretty wooden, and just present to give Vail some conversation. Pages 169-174 give us enough background in seismology so we can understand what's going on in the earth, and why Vail takes some actions to try to dissipate the quake's force.
Herzog's philosophy seems to be summed up here: "The earth wasn't made for living things, he thought, but rather the shapes and forms of life--elemental, on its own--had to find their place upon it and, in the last reckoning, take it as it came, survive the vicissitudes that were visited, endure." (p. 239) ( )

While some people living in places regularly rocked by earthquakes may give the chance of a quake a fleeting thought every now and then, others living in areas not known to this type of disaster will never give it a thought. Unless they had had some previous experience or knowledge of earthquakes.

The book starts with a fairly innocent episode of Harry Vail falling off a ladder. He cannot imagine how that could have happened, except that the ladder was shook by an earthquake, but dismisses the idea as highly unlikely, as New England is not the kind of place where that would happen. In the following chapters Harry, a former geologist, keeps wondering, as more and more signs seem to point into the direction of that unlikely possibility. However, doubt and disbelief are towering high, and the sense of paranoia spreads as Harry starts wondering about his own sanity. Nonetheless, his persistence leads to the gradual discovery that tension is building up, and that an earthquake is imminent.

This was an enjoyable read, with tension gradually building, while the psychology of overcoming disbelief was an interesting motive. Technical information about Earthquakes and the geology of New England, including some illustrations, included to make the story more believable was not entirely successfully integrated in the story, and merely show the reader that the author has done some research.

The book could be classified as science fiction. In the early chapters, Harry's wife says that Harry thinks of the earth as being alive, an organism. This seems a reference to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's excellent short story When the World Screamed (1928). However, the story does not develop into that direction, and should be much more regarded as a psychological novel, against the background of a likely / unlikely event of an earthquake in New England.

I am surprised only 23 copies of this novel are registered on LT. I thought Arthur Herzog (1927–2010) was a fairly well-known science-fiction author, as I had some interest to obtain The Swarm, but even that book is only owned by 83 people on LT, despite the fact that both of these books were turned into films. ( )

This piece of trash is without doubt, the absolute worst novel I have ever read.

How any editor or publisher could let this drek see the light of day is beyond me.

I read it when it was first published in 1976. The premise seemed interesting, and I dove in, totally unprepared for what was the worst anti-climax in literary history.

Imagine reading a well crafted novel about potential nuclear war, only to have the author cheat on the ending by introducing the moronic notion that THIS time, all the bombs will explode with the power of a soap bubble.

Herzog builds the tension in the novel well enough, but his ending is an absolute cheat.

Any writing instructor would do well to have their students study this "novel" as a perfect example of how NOT to end a story.