“The storm had undergone an intensification [now known] as explosive deepening, but the Weather Bureau of Isaac’s time had no idea such a dramatic cha“The storm had undergone an intensification [now known] as explosive deepening, but the Weather Bureau of Isaac’s time had no idea such a dramatic change could occur.”
ISAAC’S STORM’s sub-title, A MAN, A TIME, AND THE DEADLIEST HURRICANE IN HISTORY provides an excellent overview summary of the three part aim of Erik Larson’s story of the death and destruction that passed through Galveston, Texas, in the second week of September in 1900. Larson has done an excellent job of telling the biographical story of a single man, Isaac Cline, dedicated to the early, undeveloped science of meteorology and its use in forecasting that had to be considered as, at best, rather hit-and-miss; the story of the development of the science itself in the context of a typical hubristic US mindset and the growth of the US port city of Galveston, Texas, in competition with its neighbour, Houston; and, finally, the catastrophic specific details of the hurricane itself and its horrific aftermath … in effect, the “story of what can happen when human arrogance meets the uncontrollable force of nature.”
My personal takeaway from ISAAC’S STORM is the rather surprised realization that the science of meteorology was much more advanced and used to a significantly greater extent than I had ever imagined in the late 19th and early 20th century. At the same time, I also finished reading with the disturbed feeling that the art of forecasting, predicated on the understanding of that science, could have been much more accurate and much more useful to the public at large if it had not been under the thumb of bureaucrats and politicians governed by the rule of CYA and the xenophobic beliefs that the USA had it all under control, knew it all, did it bigger and better, and could systematically reject any information or input from other nations and sources (particularly those, I might add, originating in nations “of colour” such as Cuba).
Neither a mere pedestrian, workmanlike, recitation of historical dates and facts nor a compelling page turner that could be read with the relentless interest of a suspense thriller, ISAAC’S STORM is a worthy addition to Larson’s body of work and maintains his position as an author able to write non-fiction in a manner that is at once informative and entertaining. (And readers should be reminded that the list of authors capable of that feat is quite short!)
Global warming has run its course. Catastrophic climate change is a reality. The ice caps are gone and the“Our world has been utterly transformed”
Global warming has run its course. Catastrophic climate change is a reality. The ice caps are gone and the continental land masses as we once knew them have been obliterated. All that remains are a series of islands, once the peaks of the greatest mountain ranges in the world, and now little but scattered remnants separated by vast expanses of open ocean. The survivors, and there appear to be precious few of those, have been reduced to a warlike lifestyle of stealing, scavenging, salvaging and surviving. The path to renewed civilization is a distant hope and fraught with dangers and obstacles.
AFTER THE FLOOD is the thrilling, intriguing, innovative, and poignant tale of Myra and her daughter Pearl’s such for Pearl’s older sister and the father who kidnapped her after a deluged destroyed their Nebraska home. If Ms Montag’s imaginative post-apocalyptic tale of survivalist struggles prompts you to consider the reality, the dangers, and the social impact of the current levels of human-caused global warming and climate change, then I expect Ms Montag will be well pleased with the results of her efforts.
AFTER THE FLOOD is a gripping, readable and enjoyable story of survival and resilience under impossible duress. But, be warned, there is very little to like about what people are forced to do and to become under such conditions. Definitely recommended.
A low probability disaster is not a zero probability disaster! Just ask any dinosaur … oh, wait!
ROGUE WAVE is an improbable but realistic tale of theA low probability disaster is not a zero probability disaster! Just ask any dinosaur … oh, wait!
ROGUE WAVE is an improbable but realistic tale of the results of a mega-tsunami caused by the impact of an errant asteroid that makes it through earth’s atmosphere and lands in the Pacific Ocean.
Boyd Morrison puts the pedal to the metal and doesn’t let up for almost 400 pages. If you think of a hapless team of firemen trying to quench the blaze when the house was painted with the arsonist’s accelerant before the match was tossed in, you wouldn’t be far off the mark. It’s gripping to be sure but, frankly, it’s as tiring to read as it would be to live through. The plot is perfectly linear without a single turn or a moment’s respite. Somewhere around the three quarter mark ROGUE WAVE loses its appeal and it becomes obvious that Morrison ROGUE WAVE is a screenplay for a blockbuster special effects movie.
ROGUE WAVE is pure action with little to no characterization or motivation beyond the disaster itself. In fact, what little characterization occurred seemed improbable in the extreme and lacked any credibility. The main male protagonist, for example, ostensibly the acting director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center and, under the given conditions, responsible for the lives of millions of Hawaiian citizens, abandons his post for entirely personal reasons. In the real world, this would have been tantamount to the captain of the Titanic scrambling in a self-interested venal grab for the first place on a departing lifeboat.
An effective and informative page turner that ultimately turned out to be less than entertaining and, in fact, quite unsatisfying.
“We’re commandeering the planet to fight our wars for us”
You have to hand it to author Michael Day. When he penned his geophysical pot-boiler, Slide, “We’re commandeering the planet to fight our wars for us”
You have to hand it to author Michael Day. When he penned his geophysical pot-boiler, Slide, he certainly wasn’t thinking small or hiding the light of his ideas under any bushel. Taking his cue from the James Rollins school of thriller writing, everything but the kitchen sink found its place in the story – nuclear submarines and submersibles; deep sea mining of gold and uranium; room temperature superconductors; hydrogen powered cars; weather control and the weaponization of human-controlled typhoons; man-made mega-tsunamis; Islamic hatred of the USA; illegal, undercover production of nuclear bombs; racist concentration camps; a military coup d'état; a tin pot, megalomaniacal Indonesian dictator surrounded by a host of traitors each plotting their own schemes for wealth and power; an American president focused on – you guessed it – retention of power and plausible deniability; and undercover CIA agents vested with superpowers and the proverbial nine lives.
Notwithstanding the fact that all of this puts the plot completely over the top and into the realm of bizarre hyperbole, the darn thing was readable and ultimately quite interesting. In particular, given the events currently overtaking the USA and dominating its newspaper headlines, the behavior of the American president and the members of his cabinet, their machinations, their lack of concern for the American people and their drive for anything but preservation of their power and plausible deniability, seemed disturbingly real and profoundly unsettling.
At 670 pages, the length is a little overwhelming and the overdone plot stretches both the imagination and one’s reading endurance. That’s why I limited the rating to only 3 stars. If Day and his editors had seen fit to even moderately tone down some of the more outré pieces of the plot and trim out about 100 pages, I would probably have added another star. But, Day’s finished his writing, he didn't check with me before he sent the final draft to the printer and Slide is what it is. I still enjoyed it.
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