I was on edge from beginning to end; a thrilling read.

One of the two novels that the movie The Towering Inferno was based on. It has its moments of drama, tension, and action. It also has poorly developed characters and storylines. With blue bloods living and partying in the top floors of a 125 story building, an explosion in the bottom floors creates a fire that traps them. The author has characters giving lengthy speeches to one another that too often stop any momentum cold. In the end the fate of too many characters are left unresolved.

This book was sitting in my library for i don't know how many years. I don't even know how it got there. A good suspense book. Vivid characters. Give it a go if you like the genre.

This is a great page turner which became part of an awful movie called the Towering Inferno. I loved the movie then, now I think the books were a lot better. This is great page turner.

One of the two novels that was used to write the disaster movie classic "The Towering Inferno" (1974). Set in New York City the story packs a punch - mainly because of the similarities to 9/11. The fact that the World Trade Center North Tower plays a key role in the rescue effort makes the story even more powerful.

The story is suspenseful and tragic. It's obvious that Mr. Stern was saying something about our obsession with always needing to be bigger and better and that ,if left unchecked, eventually the drive to be Number One was going to result in some real serious losses.

The novel is laced throughout with observations of how our various systems are flawed. People fall through the cracks (with unintended and tragic consequences) and small and crucial details are either ignored or overlooked. Couple those failings with Human greed and unchecked ambition and it's a real Witches Brew.

As a disaster story the novel is fine. It moves along quickly and it's readable. However I would have to agree with another reviewer who states that the book is a mishmash of ideas. Mr. Stern simply overreached in some respects and as a result the plot sometimes comes to a stop while characters lecture each other. I understand what he was saying, but I wonder if a disaster/suspense novel was the best setting for such an argument.

All in all three stars. Not a bad book, but not a piece of great literature either.

Quick and easy read. The writing gets a little out there sometimes. It's oddly like reading a Mad Men episode at times. Hard to believe people spoke like this, having no idea if it is accurate representation of the time. Anyway, mixed in with the high-flown dialogue the story does a good job with pacing, switching between all the characters and the tension is high by the end.

read 10.02.84

I read "The Glass Inferno" then "The Tower" and then watched the movie "Towering Inferno." I had seen the movie years ago and remembered a lot but it was very interesting to see how the elements of the film were derived from the two books. More of the movie came from the "The Glass Tower" but some key parts also came from "The Tower."

"The Glass Inferno" was much better, a really fun read. It's interesting to feel the zeitgeist of the early 1970's in the two books but it was much more apparent in "The Glass Inferno."

It is my understanding that Fox and Warner Brothers were each going to do a skyscraper disaster movie based on each of the books. Irwin Allen who was a renowned producer of disaster films ended up doing a joint venture and used both books. I don't know the history of why the two books were written but i have a few of insights:
- Both books have a similar story and the main character is the architect (the Paul Newman character) of the new grand skyscraper (in "The Tower" it's the tallest building in the world. There are other common characters, the building owner (the William Holden role), the african american guard/police officer (the OJ Simpson role) and the fire chief (the Steve McQueen role). Elements related to the cause of the fire were also very similar.
- I think at least one of the authors of "The Glass Inferno" was gay. Perhaps one of the most heroic characters was a gay interior decorator and there are a lot of details about his relationship issues and discrimination as a number of social issues were at the surface, race, sexual orientation and drug abuse.
- In particular with "The Tower" I have a hunch that the inspiration for the book was the World Trade Center construction. I find it prophetic how the events in the books were not terribly unlike what happens in the WTC 30 years after the books were written. WTC was actually a "setting" in "The Tower." Had the collapse of WTC been known to the authors, I think they would have made changes. One thing in both books is comments about how the relaxed building standards in the early 70's lead to the problems....and I know that there had been a contentious debate about building standards during the construction of the WTC. I don't think Stern would have said the steel is "white hot" and not had the building collapse.

They are both worth a read!

This was one of two books that were cobbled together by filmmakers to come up with the script of the 1974 disaster movie "The Towering Inferno" (I'm currently reading the other book and will post about that one when I'm done.)

Fans of the movie will notice a certain number of characters that were subsequently used in the screenplay, although their story line often differs in the original book. I found this book to be a page-turner all on its own, without the benefit of the added characters and plot in the other book. Recommended reading for fans of the genre.


**#38 of 100 books I pledged to read/review in 2015**

He llegado a leerme la mitad de la novela (200 páginas) y es un historia que jamás termina de arrancar.
Es aburrido y no suceden apenas cosa.
No pierdo el tiempo, lo abandono y me pongo con otro libro.

I read this in 1975 and saw the movie THE TOWERING INFERNO at a later date. The book was better.

Este libro era de mi papá, por lo que tiene un valor sentimental grande. Nunca había leído nada que fuera de algún familiar, por esto mismo, es un libro viejo.
Honestamente no sabía bien que esperar al abrirlo pero la historia me cautivó. Me sentí transportada al interior del edificio en lo material, en sus paredes, en este ‘núcleo’ que mencionan repetidas veces, y en la mente de las personas que pasaron por esta catástrofe. Creo que es una historia un poco lenta, pero te da una perspectiva completa. Desde los personajes dentro, fuera, importantes y no tanto; eso me agrada mucho para comprender el trasfondo de todo.
Es una historia bastante digerible, fácil de leer y si te gustan los detalles, sin duda alguna se disfruta muchísimo. Si no te gusta conocer cada pequeño detalle —importante o no—, sin duda será un libro que se te hará tedioso y “too much”.
Es un libro que tiene ciertas palabras y modismos que sin duda son de otra época, y se hace un poco difícil de entender si no estás familiarizado con esto, pero no le resta continuidad a la historia.
En fin, la historia me parece magnífica, el desarrollo de los personajes es gigante para el periodo de tiempo en el que se desarrolla la historia y dentro de todo, me gustó el final. Aunque para mi gusto, se quedó corto en relación con el desarrollo de la historia.