I'm posting my reviews of "The Rift" and "The New Madrid Run" as a single thread because they're kinda sorta related, and also because you might try to decide between the two of them as they both *look* like they're about similar things. They aren't, but that's not obvious until you read the books.
First Review:
The New Madrid Run
by Michael Reisig
Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Clear Creek Press; 2nd edition (October 1998)
ISBN: 0965124010
Cover Price: 6.95 (Amazon claims list is $5.95: that's what I paid for it.)
Summary:
The New Madrid Run is not, as one might guess based on its title, about a seismological event involving the "New Madrid" faultline in the midwestern US. Rather, it is a TEOTWAWKI novel involving a "pole shift," although the author describes this as a massive reorientation of the polar ice caps, not as an inversion or major movement of the earth's magnetic axis.
The protagonist, a charter pilot in the Florida Keys, narrowly escapes death in the form of a huge tsunami that wipes out the Keys. He and an assorted cast must then sail up the middle of the US along a new sea caused by the opening of the New Madrid faultline and which roughly follows the old Mississippi valley. Their objective: the protagonist's survival retreat in Arkansas, one of the few places relatively untouched by the global catastrophe.
Review:
If I had to sum up this book in one word, it would be "breathless." The author basically pours out the entire story in a short 300 page mass-market paperback. "Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse," which has basically the same storyline, is much less complicated and is a 352 page trade paperback.
Comparisons to "Patriots" are not favorable to "The New Madrid Run (TNMR.)" The author of TNMR does not have, as far as I can tell, a great deal of knowledge on TEOTWAWKI specifics. While he knows more about weapons, for instance, than most authors, he is continually making small errors that grate upon the knowledgeable reader. (For example, he thinks that all M-16's are fully automatic: he does not incorporate the fact that the current version will fire only in three-shot bursts. This is important when you're in a firefight.)
Similarly, the metaplot suffers from "almost, but not quite." His theory on the "pole shift" event, while no less edgy than many theories on TEOTWAWKI events, seems forced, and its effects seem plot driven - he needs the new sea to get the characters where they're going, so it is within a day's drive of the survival retreat, although the survival retreat is miraculously untouched by the presence of such a sea and the other effects of the shift. The main Bad Guy, while nicely evil, is not very believable: one minute he's laying out intricate twenty-year plans, the next he's forgetting elementary tactical techniques.
Again, unlike "Patriots," TNMR offers few if any nuggets of wisdom for the aspiring survivor, other than "lots of people are bad and without governments around they'll do mean things to you." While that's fine, if the aim of the work is an enjoyable adventure story, it is a consideration for those who enjoy their TEOTWAWKI fiction believeable. Also, the author is much more pro-government than most such: while he doesn't denigrate self-reliance, he feels that reinstituting as much government as possible, as soon as possible, absent only those parts he doesn't happen to like, is the best solution to the problem at hand.
I would not recommend this book for most people here, as the problems with realism would distract from the book too much. As an adventure story, it has its moments - a dogfight between a P-51 Mustang and an F-16 is really quite well done, if you can imagine such a thing - and I don't feel that I was particularly "cheated" out of my six dollars. Readers would be well advised to skip the preachy and nearly incoherent introduction, and go right to Chapter One. (The man who wrote the introduction, Richard Noone, apparently came up with the version of the "pole shift" theory the book is based on: if his own books are anything like the introduction, I recommend diligently avoiding them.)
If you do want to read it, I've got a copy I'll sell you cheap.
Second Review:
The Rift
by Walter J. Williams (Author)
Mass Market Paperback: 736 pages
Publisher: Harper Mass Market Paperbacks; (April 4, 2000)
ISBN: 0061057940
Summary: The midcontinental fault system known as the "New Madrid" experiences several major earthquakes, wreaking massive havoc upon the Midwestern United States. The book follows the events as they impact several different communities and groups of people, including Apocalyptic Christians, isolated river towns, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Review: Okay, this was way better than "The New Madrid Run." The characters are sympathetic, the plot believeable, and the description of the utter chaos and destruction such an event (a once-in-a-thousand-years Superquake) would cause is fascinating. The large scale political and economic devastation upon the country and the world are also explored.
The main characters are a teenage boy who is separated from his mother, an engineer trying to get back to his divorced wife and child, a newly-elected sheriff who also happens to be the Grand Kleagle of the Mississipi Ku Klux Klan, an Apocalyptic evangelist and the new commanding general of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mississipi Valley Division. The story flips back and forth between them, and then comes together as events conspire to bring them into contact.
Again to use my benchmark Survivalist novel, "Patriots," as a comparison, this book is quite different. Although the evangelist has sort of a survivalist operation (which isn't very good, both because he's not very bright and because he's not dug in for the Long Haul, only for the start of the Tribulation) nobody else in the book does. Preparedness is woefully absent. That's one of the author's main points: he is almost (but not quite) preachy about just how horrible this event is going to be and how isolated and alone people in the earthquake zone (the entire lower Midwest and the Mississipi River Valley) are going to be when it happens. (And it's *going* to happen. Eventually.) One character simply can't cope with the loss of normality, goes into a fugue, and dies. There'll be a lot of that.
This novel is less pro-government than "The New Madrid Run," but basically the Federal Government, especially the USACE, are the "good guys." The KKK sheriff is surprisingly sympathetic, but in the end, he is what he is and he has to pay for it. The preacher, likewise, can't let go of his particular interpretation of reality and suffers the consequences.
One thing the book *does* do well that would be of interest to preparedness enthusiasts is describe both the natural disaster that this event would produce (most of the Mississipi valley is reclaimed swampland: it will be un-claimed really fast in such an event) and the man-made disasters that would follow. Dangers that even some survivalists might not think of are described (do you know what the smell of musty hay could mean after a disaster? Do you know what a "sand blow" is?) I learned quite a bit, actually.
I can recommend this book. It's long, and there are two fairly graphic sex scenes early on that some more conservative readers might not care for. They're pretty self-contained and don't contribute to the plot, so you can skip them if you like. Otherwise, it moves along well, it is believeable, and you want to find out what happens to the characters.
St. Marc
First Review:
The New Madrid Run
by Michael Reisig
Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Clear Creek Press; 2nd edition (October 1998)
ISBN: 0965124010
Cover Price: 6.95 (Amazon claims list is $5.95: that's what I paid for it.)
Summary:
The New Madrid Run is not, as one might guess based on its title, about a seismological event involving the "New Madrid" faultline in the midwestern US. Rather, it is a TEOTWAWKI novel involving a "pole shift," although the author describes this as a massive reorientation of the polar ice caps, not as an inversion or major movement of the earth's magnetic axis.
The protagonist, a charter pilot in the Florida Keys, narrowly escapes death in the form of a huge tsunami that wipes out the Keys. He and an assorted cast must then sail up the middle of the US along a new sea caused by the opening of the New Madrid faultline and which roughly follows the old Mississippi valley. Their objective: the protagonist's survival retreat in Arkansas, one of the few places relatively untouched by the global catastrophe.
Review:
If I had to sum up this book in one word, it would be "breathless." The author basically pours out the entire story in a short 300 page mass-market paperback. "Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse," which has basically the same storyline, is much less complicated and is a 352 page trade paperback.
Comparisons to "Patriots" are not favorable to "The New Madrid Run (TNMR.)" The author of TNMR does not have, as far as I can tell, a great deal of knowledge on TEOTWAWKI specifics. While he knows more about weapons, for instance, than most authors, he is continually making small errors that grate upon the knowledgeable reader. (For example, he thinks that all M-16's are fully automatic: he does not incorporate the fact that the current version will fire only in three-shot bursts. This is important when you're in a firefight.)
Similarly, the metaplot suffers from "almost, but not quite." His theory on the "pole shift" event, while no less edgy than many theories on TEOTWAWKI events, seems forced, and its effects seem plot driven - he needs the new sea to get the characters where they're going, so it is within a day's drive of the survival retreat, although the survival retreat is miraculously untouched by the presence of such a sea and the other effects of the shift. The main Bad Guy, while nicely evil, is not very believable: one minute he's laying out intricate twenty-year plans, the next he's forgetting elementary tactical techniques.
Again, unlike "Patriots," TNMR offers few if any nuggets of wisdom for the aspiring survivor, other than "lots of people are bad and without governments around they'll do mean things to you." While that's fine, if the aim of the work is an enjoyable adventure story, it is a consideration for those who enjoy their TEOTWAWKI fiction believeable. Also, the author is much more pro-government than most such: while he doesn't denigrate self-reliance, he feels that reinstituting as much government as possible, as soon as possible, absent only those parts he doesn't happen to like, is the best solution to the problem at hand.
I would not recommend this book for most people here, as the problems with realism would distract from the book too much. As an adventure story, it has its moments - a dogfight between a P-51 Mustang and an F-16 is really quite well done, if you can imagine such a thing - and I don't feel that I was particularly "cheated" out of my six dollars. Readers would be well advised to skip the preachy and nearly incoherent introduction, and go right to Chapter One. (The man who wrote the introduction, Richard Noone, apparently came up with the version of the "pole shift" theory the book is based on: if his own books are anything like the introduction, I recommend diligently avoiding them.)
If you do want to read it, I've got a copy I'll sell you cheap.
Second Review:
The Rift
by Walter J. Williams (Author)
Mass Market Paperback: 736 pages
Publisher: Harper Mass Market Paperbacks; (April 4, 2000)
ISBN: 0061057940
Summary: The midcontinental fault system known as the "New Madrid" experiences several major earthquakes, wreaking massive havoc upon the Midwestern United States. The book follows the events as they impact several different communities and groups of people, including Apocalyptic Christians, isolated river towns, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Review: Okay, this was way better than "The New Madrid Run." The characters are sympathetic, the plot believeable, and the description of the utter chaos and destruction such an event (a once-in-a-thousand-years Superquake) would cause is fascinating. The large scale political and economic devastation upon the country and the world are also explored.
The main characters are a teenage boy who is separated from his mother, an engineer trying to get back to his divorced wife and child, a newly-elected sheriff who also happens to be the Grand Kleagle of the Mississipi Ku Klux Klan, an Apocalyptic evangelist and the new commanding general of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mississipi Valley Division. The story flips back and forth between them, and then comes together as events conspire to bring them into contact.
Again to use my benchmark Survivalist novel, "Patriots," as a comparison, this book is quite different. Although the evangelist has sort of a survivalist operation (which isn't very good, both because he's not very bright and because he's not dug in for the Long Haul, only for the start of the Tribulation) nobody else in the book does. Preparedness is woefully absent. That's one of the author's main points: he is almost (but not quite) preachy about just how horrible this event is going to be and how isolated and alone people in the earthquake zone (the entire lower Midwest and the Mississipi River Valley) are going to be when it happens. (And it's *going* to happen. Eventually.) One character simply can't cope with the loss of normality, goes into a fugue, and dies. There'll be a lot of that.
This novel is less pro-government than "The New Madrid Run," but basically the Federal Government, especially the USACE, are the "good guys." The KKK sheriff is surprisingly sympathetic, but in the end, he is what he is and he has to pay for it. The preacher, likewise, can't let go of his particular interpretation of reality and suffers the consequences.
One thing the book *does* do well that would be of interest to preparedness enthusiasts is describe both the natural disaster that this event would produce (most of the Mississipi valley is reclaimed swampland: it will be un-claimed really fast in such an event) and the man-made disasters that would follow. Dangers that even some survivalists might not think of are described (do you know what the smell of musty hay could mean after a disaster? Do you know what a "sand blow" is?) I learned quite a bit, actually.
I can recommend this book. It's long, and there are two fairly graphic sex scenes early on that some more conservative readers might not care for. They're pretty self-contained and don't contribute to the plot, so you can skip them if you like. Otherwise, it moves along well, it is believeable, and you want to find out what happens to the characters.
St. Marc
