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Author: Peter Hernon
ISBN: 0515127132
Publisher: Jove
Details: 460 pages, 18 cm. November 1999
Set in an indeterminate near-future, stories of odd animal behavior in the Mississippi Valley has reached the Center for Earthquake Studies at the University of Memphis. John Atkins, a member of the United States Geological Survey's disaster team, has been invited to the area by an old friend Walt Jacobs of the university. While generally dismissed by scientists, history has shown that animals can detect earthquakes before they happen, and Atkins and Jacobs want to interview people in the area to better understand the phenomenon.
Thousands of miles away, in California, a brilliant (and wealthy) scientist calls a former student of his, Elizabeth Holleran and gives her a bizarre message. She's to go to his house and pick up some data and a videotape. Soon after the phone call, he commits suicide. The data and videotape seem to prove that a catastrophic earthquake will take place within days in the New Madrid Fault in the Mississippi Valley. The reasoning behind the bizarre prediction seems ludicrous to Holleran, since it involves tidal forces and sunspot activity - two things that seismologists are certain have no bearing on earthquake activity. Just as she goes over the data, a 7.1 earthquake rumbles through the fault zone. Packing lightly (but bringing the data with her) Holleran flies to Memphis to talk to the seismologists there about the bizarre yet frightening data.
Holleran and, later Atkins, struggle to convince their colleagues and later the President that the prediction, no matter how it was arrived at, is accurate. After an 8.4 earthquake devastates much of the Mississippi Valley and the Midwest, Jacobs, Atkins and Holleran fear that history may end up repeating itself. Because, back in 1811-1812, the same fault suffered 3 catastrophic earthquakes in a eight week period. As the aftershocks keep rumbling and growing in intensity, a plan to prevent further quakes from happening is hatched. But powerful men are set against it, leading to attempted murder.
Score: 81 out of 100. Hernon proves to the reader that he has researched the topic thoroughly, and makes the technical descriptions (and the imparting of information) brief and painless. He spares us yet another look at the personal side of catastrophe (which tends to predominate the homogenous disaster movies), concentrating instead on the main characters, and the heroic efforts they make to try and prevent the worst-ever disaster to happen to the United States from happening. An exciting read, but with somewhat two-dimensional villains. Still worth reading.
STC
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