Part fiction and part fact, literally. A fictional account of our future is interspersed chapter by chapter among current and historical events. An amusing read, but please keep your common sense handy as this book is a bit sensationalist. The fiction thread ought to be (a little too) familiar if you've seen "The Day After Tomorrow".
This book was co-authored by Art Bell. It was the original book to inspire the movie "The Day After Tommorrow". It talks about the conditions that exist right now that can cause sudden and dramatic climate change. It goes into speculative history about past ice ages, floods and into possible causes for lasting change in the weather and environmental "status quo" on a global scale. Reads more like a novel in some places. Afterall Whitley is a fiction writer.
This book is not written by people with science background. It goes back and forth as a end of the world novel to one trying to explain our climate in the far past from questionable archeological record. It reads like a science fix novel.
The book definitely made me think.
Expecting to read more of the "same-old" doomsday speculation rampant on Art Bell's radio show, this book suprised me with both its message and its scope. With the exception of some of the initial chapters, which provide an overview of recent theories regarding the age of mankind, the entire book was new material for me. It was the first time I'd heard of a "superstorm", how one would form, and the effects such a storm would have. The prospect is terrifying.
The book is so well-written, however, that I felt the book's message was a call to action rather than an simply a disruptive alarm. The authors cleverly intersperse realistic-yet-fictional scenes of the onset of such a storm between the factual, sometimes dry prose. The result is a book that is extremely informative and a pleasure to read (similar to "The Hot Zone").
Grounded in science and only minimally speculative(the authors state very clearly where they do so), this book is well worth reading and contemplating. I hope the book finds its way into academia soon.
