Rating: 
Summary: There's nothing as sure as DEATH,TAXES and EARTHQUAKES
Review:
This is a much different book than the typical disaster book as we've seen such as Hurricane Andrew,The Great Chicago Fire or the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906.
Mark does three things in this book:
He gives us a history of the rapid growth in people ,strucrures and infrastructure from almost a wildersess in the early 1800's to the present time.Then he gives us a history of the earthquakes and the resulting deaths and destruction.Thirdly,he tells us what can be expected if a major earthquake occurs along the Hayward Fault,which runs under Oakland.
All the ingredients are in place for a disaster that could well exceed anything imaginable.There seems to be little that can be done to prevert this catastrophe short of a complete and permanent vacating of the area.It appears that most who live and work in this area are well aware of the possibility but are committed to stay put and hope for the best.
I guess the author summed it up with this:
"Daily life makes one forget about it."
Maybe it isn't any different than when people live under the threat of a Nuclear attack.However;the thing about earthquakes is that they are certain;the only uncertainty is when and where.
Though this book gives little to hope for,it does give some sobering thoughts. All one can do is hope and pray for the best.
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating and frightening look at what might be
Review: A 7.2m earthquake ruptures on the Hayward Fault one February day in California and the chaos begins. Unreinforced buildings topple to the ground, freeway overpasses buckle, and the cantilever structure of the Bay Bridge falls into the bay below. Several thousand people are killed by the event. More troubles ensue as the fault destroys canals, power lines, sewer lines, railroad tracks, and highways (all built across the fault) that could bring help and aid to the dazed survivors. Even the airports are knocked out of commission as their runways, built on bay mud) are turned to jello by the ground motion. Loma Prieta was a whimper compared to what the Hayward fault has unleashed.This is a fictional scenario of course, yet it leans heavily on what could be. The events are based on long conversations the author had with experts in the earthquake field. Anyone who has read Cadillac Desert knows the power of Marc Reisner's ability to analyze and explore a topic. The only "con" for me was the book was too short! It was so gripping I couldn't put it down but I still wanted more. A book double or triple the size would've been fine. Please also note, that the book is being published 3 years after Mr. Reisner's death. As such, it does not seem the book was in it's absolute final form prior to being released. There are only three chapters and they don't seem quite balanced. He also launches into his scenario (the last half of the book) rather abruptly, requiring the reader to be alert. I didn't mark it down in terms of a rating as I was expecting this (and the quality of the material is high enough to overlook this oddity) but I mention it here to warn the reader. Still, while it lacks in polish is more than compensated for in it's urgency. If you've been wasting time getting your earthquake kit together stop fooling yourself. These things will happen and what's more, it could be worse than what's described in this book. Something every Californian should read.
Rating:
Summary: A fascinating and frightening look at what might be
Review: A 7.2m earthquake ruptures on the Hayward Fault one February day in California and the chaos begins. Unreinforced buildings topple to the ground, freeway overpasses buckle, and the cantilever structure of the Bay Bridge falls into the bay below. Several thousand people are killed by the event. More troubles ensue as the fault destroys canals, power lines, sewer lines, railroad tracks, and highways (all built across the fault) that could bring help and aid to the dazed survivors. Even the airports are knocked out of commission as their runways, built on bay mud) are turned to jello by the ground motion. Loma Prieta was a whimper compared to what the Hayward fault has unleashed. This is a fictional scenario of course, yet it leans heavily on what could be. The events are based on long conversations the author had with experts in the earthquake field. Anyone who has read Cadillac Desert knows the power of Marc Reisner's ability to analyze and explore a topic. The only "con" for me was the book was too short! It was so gripping I couldn't put it down but I still wanted more. A book double or triple the size would've been fine. Please also note, that the book is being published 3 years after Mr. Reisner's death. As such, it does not seem the book was in it's absolute final form prior to being released. There are only three chapters and they don't seem quite balanced. He also launches into his scenario (the last half of the book) rather abruptly, requiring the reader to be alert. I didn't mark it down in terms of a rating as I was expecting this (and the quality of the material is high enough to overlook this oddity) but I mention it here to warn the reader. Still, while it lacks in polish is more than compensated for in it's urgency. If you've been wasting time getting your earthquake kit together stop fooling yourself. These things will happen and what's more, it could be worse than what's described in this book. Something every Californian should read.
Rating: 
Summary: Two books. One cover..............
Review: A Dangerous Place begins as a concise, well-paced description of California's seismic potential and precarious water management systems. Blending history with present day infrastructure requirements, Reisner lays bare the fragility inherent when a populace exceeds the environments ability to support it. Though natural resources may fail on their own, Reisner suspensefully charts the mayhem when the inevitable 7.0 temblor arrives to accelerate the process. Indeed, through two-thirds of the book, A Dangerous Place is an excellent, non-fictional read. But, then, for some inexplicable reason, Reisner decides to make believe. In the final third, the author imagines the next big earthquake and attempts the difficult shift from fast-paced factual reporting to fully fictional, wide-eyed, first-person narrative. It's him and his family against the fantasy earthquake. It's thrilling, it's chilling....... Well, no, it's corny. Reisner's shift from fact to fiction seriously harms his ability to achieve his goal. Where a feigned natural disaster is desired, one may always rent a 70's era movie starring Ernest Borgnine. Yet, when one desires to be provided the facts in an exciting, hard-hitting style, one would hope to have access to the format with which Mr. Reisner began. Had he maintained it, A Dangerous Place would merit 4 to 5 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Two books. One cover..............
Review: A Dangerous Place begins as a concise, well-paced description of California's seismic potential and precarious water management systems. Blending history with present day infrastructure requirements, Reisner lays bare the fragility inherent when a populace exceeds the environments ability to support it. Though natural resources may fail on their own, Reisner suspensefully charts the mayhem when the inevitable 7.0 temblor arrives to accelerate the process. Indeed, through two-thirds of the book, A Dangerous Place is an excellent, non-fictional read. But, then, for some inexplicable reason, Reisner decides to make believe. In the final third, the author imagines the next big earthquake and attempts the difficult shift from fast-paced factual reporting to fully fictional, wide-eyed, first-person narrative. It's him and his family against the fantasy earthquake. It's thrilling, it's chilling....... Well, no, it's corny. Reisner's shift from fact to fiction seriously harms his ability to achieve his goal. Where a feigned natural disaster is desired, one may always rent a 70's era movie starring Ernest Borgnine. Yet, when one desires to be provided the facts in an exciting, hard-hitting style, one would hope to have access to the format with which Mr. Reisner began. Had he maintained it, A Dangerous Place would merit 4 to 5 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Welcome To My Nightmare!
Review: A Dangerous Place by Marc Reisner is a difficult book to review - even though it contains the eloquent prose a reader expects from the author of the classic Cadillac Desert, it also represents an incomplete effort due to the author's untimely death. That said - and 4 stars assigned - let's move on to why this book is worth reading.
Marc Reisner has once again nailed the situation on the head - California, had we known then what we know now, was a really cruddy place to put a heavily populated state. The most populous cities in California either sit next to potentially dangerous faults or over top of them. [When I started teaching 20 years ago, the only known nearby fault to my high school was the Whittier fault - now my earthquake unit is far more exciting given the fact that we now know of two blind thrust faults - the Puente Hills and the Elysian Park - that lie beneath the high school!] Reisner makes the case that many California cities are very expensive ruins waiting to happen. Reisner's main focus in the back 2/3rds of the book is the Bay Area, where three main faults - the San Andreas, the Calaveras, and the Hayward - run directly under areas full of buildings that still have not been brought up to current code and will not withstand the next big quake. Lucy Jones, seismologist, and her colleagues, like to point out "earthquakes don't kill people, buildings do!" Part III of the book is a well-developed fiction of what the next Hayward fault earthquake might cost California and the nation. [I went to Hillside Elementary in Berkeley [no longer a public school] for 1st and 2nd grades, which sits directly on a bench cut in the Berkeley Hills by the Hayward fault.] This section has bothered a lot of readers, but the scenario is accurate and I suspect, had Reisner lived, there would have been a Part IV or an Epilogue to put a more conclusive ending to the book. The book also lacks an index. [I'm unaware of whether this situation was rectified or not in the paperback.]
This book, warts and all, can serve a valuable purpose - start a dialog among Californians and other folks in the United States about what to do about big cities near dangerous faults. We can't move them like we can a small town along the Mississippi River that has been destroyed by a flood or summer homes that have been washed off of a barrier island. And it should be noted that some of us live in California with our eyes very wide open [and this included Reisner himself]. Reisner didn't live long enough to witness the destruction of parts of Manhattan on 9/11/01 or the mashing down of Florida by 4 hurricanes in the summer and fall of 2004. One wonders what the conclusion of the book might have been in light of those disasters.
Rating:
Summary: apocalyptic & inevitable
Review: As a geoscience educator, I'm often looking for new books that will engage freshman, introductory geology students, and I can think of no better way to compliment this book than to say that I'm going to require it for all my lower division classes. Reisner doesn't reiterate ideas from Cadillac Desert, but rather infuses his understanding of the interaction of water, geology, and people into this new area. I learned a lot; for example, I didn't have a full appreciation of the precarious nature of the Delta and its role in supplying the southern half of the state with water. The book was written pre-9/11, and one cannot help nodding bitterly at the accuracy of Reisner's descriptions of public reaction to, say, the deaths of thousands of citizens. It's a terrible loss for us that Reisner won't write another book, and indeed didn't flesh this one out as thoroughly as his presentation in Cadillac Desert. As an example, the scope and inadequacies of legal changes to building permitting after the 1971 San Fernando earthquake could use further elaboration. Such omissions don't distract from the book--indeed, they may enhance its readibility--but I'm sure had he time, Reisner would have delved in more detail into many subjects. Nonetheless, this book should be a startling and resource-rich guide for the cataclysmic event that is guaranteed to happen in the near future.
Rating:
Summary: A shaky scenario
Review: Like Cadillac Desert, this book was meticulously researched and very revealing about the nature of those who originally went west. It led me to an uncomfortable realization that most of us Californians are the descendents of either scheisters, crooks, or ignorant optimists. Like in classic plays, the viewer can't ignore the introduction of a gun in the first scene, knowing that before the play is over it will be fired. Reisner introduces so many elements in the first two chapters that his final fictional scenario of 'the gun going off' is almost unnecessary. The discomfort of knowing the tenious foundation (literally) that this state is built on is almost enough to make a complete story. His future scenario of a 7.2 hitting the Hayward fault in 2006, though very plausible, is reminiscent of many similar sci-fi cataclysms. The details of individual auto accidents and specific buildings that are to collapse, somehow takes away a little from the overall urgency of the book. I give five stars to the history and research, but only three to the first person fictionsl account of 'the big one'. In spite of that, the book does hit its mark in conveying the fact that California, has been and always will be a dangerous place.
Rating:
Summary: Superlative writing
Review: The best non fiction I've read in years. The facts proliferate like ants on a Tennessee ant hill. Marc Reisner writes like a blue fiend and gives the reader an education he wont forget.
Rating:
Summary: A Sobering Look At The Inevitable
Review: Think of a writer with an ability to spin a convincing tale of fright, and Stephen King might come to mind. But after reading "A Dangerous Place: California's Unsettling Fate," you might want to add Marc Reisner to that list. In this compact volume, Reisner first provides an overview of California's spectacular development from a largely unsettled desert to the most populous state in the nation. The desire for wealth drove the growth of the state's two great metropolitan areas. While gold fever was behind San Francisco's rapid rise, and land speculation fueled Los Angeles' frenetic expansion, the result was the same--two great communities situated atop extremely violent seismic zones. Reisner recounts some of the most spectacular earthquakes of the 19th and 20th centuries in this region. But most frightening of all, at least from this reader's viewpoint, is his account of a disaster yet to be. In a vivid, yet fact-based account Reisner describes a quake that is NOT a worst-case scenario...yet it dwarfs its predecessors in destruction of life and property. Thousands of lives are lost, the damage totals soar into the billions, and even though the site for this hypothetical quake is the bay area, we learn why it will almost certainly have catastrophic consequences for southern California's water supply. Reisner was apparently still working on this book at the time of his death from cancer, so this may be why the ending seems to fall short of a great summing up. Still, his message is clear. When--and it's truly a question of when, not if this disaster strikes--we will face little choice but to rebuild and go on. Our investment in these places is too great to do otherwise. We need to take his cautionary tale to heart, and be prepared as much as we can be for the enormity of the task ahead.
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