Rating: 
Summary: WOW -- What a frightening book!
Review: This book is required reading for all, not only Californians. We are talking here about the BIG ONE, the inevitable next large earthquake to hit the San Andreas fault system. It is not a question of if it will happen, but when -- next year, in 2010, or perhaps not until the year 2110? When it happens, it will undoubtedly be the largest national disaster on record, killing thousands, and destroying buildings and infrastructure with a cost of...well, some dollar figure best written with scientific notation.The book is organized into three parts: Part 1 summarizes the colonization history of southern California, L.A., and San Fransciso, explaining how the cities came to be and how half of the western population somewhat suprisingly now resides therein; Part 2 briefly discusses the basics of plate tectonics, earthquakes, and the numerous geographic and geologic hazards unique to California; and Part 3 is a fictional diary of the author's day set in the near future (February 28, 2005), the day a large quake occurs on the Hayward Fault on the eastern side of San Francisco Bay. Parts 1 and 2 are both informative and well written, but it is Part 3 that is particularly disturbing; the entire scenario is drawn from experiences of past earthquakes and the author's local knowledge, and the description is quite plausible. The consequences of such an earthquake are difficult to envision, but I believe that you will find Mr. Reisner's fictional treatment really hits the mark. I read one of his previous books, "Cadillac Desert" and found it politically one-sided and tough to finish. This book is different. It is short (181 pages, I finished it in two sittings), very well-written, and carefully researched (as a professional geologist, even I was unaware of the consequences a large quake in San Francisco would potentially have to the water supply of Los Angeles). Sadly, the young Marc Reisner passed away in 2000, so this will likely be his last book. That is truly unfortunate! I highly recommend this book to anyone with a even a passing interest in U.S. history, science, and/or politics, and especially to those of you who live on the left coast. One thing for sure, as noted by the well-known philosopher Will Durant: "Civilization exists by geologic consent, subject to change without notice."
Rating: 
Summary: Little Book About the Big One
Review: This will make me sound like a bad guy, but the untimely death of Marc Reisner lead to the very undeveloped nature of this book. This was surely a work in progress when he passed away from cancer in 2000. The book has the potential to be an environmentalist powerhouse of investigative reporting, like Reisner's masterpiece "Cadillac Desert." California in general offers the kind of story that Reisner mastered in the other book, as much of the state and its civilization are living on borrowed time and very unnatural social constructs. The state faces two potential catastrophes: running out of fresh water, and of course the inevitable BIG ONE - the ultimate earthquake that will ruin the state. This book opens in Los Angeles, a megalopolis in a dismal location with zero natural advantages that can naturally support the population. L.A. would be little more than a dusty crossroads without 150 years of federal subsidies and gargantuan engineering schemes to import water, especially from Northern California. Meanwhile, that area has its own threatened megalopolis, as the San Francisco Bay area is just waiting for the big earthquake that will hit sooner or later. In addition to structural mayhem and wildfires, such a disaster would also devastate the water supply for both urban areas. The problem here is that all of the above issues are covered convincingly, but merely in essay form with no notes or supporting bibliography. Reisner also did not get to the long-term financial and sociological catastrophes that would result from the disaster, which would have made this book far stronger. Meanwhile, much of the book is interspersed with a fictional account of the Big One that is mostly a doomsday scenario. It's a plausible story but indicates a lack of focus for the book overall. Sadly, Reisner was unable to deliver the powerhouse book that this subject promises, and of which he was surely capable. [~doomsdayer520~]
Rating:
Summary: Marc Reisner ¿ his last book, dammit
Review: What a great guy Marc Reisner was. He wrote A Dangerous Place: California's Unsettling Fate as he was dying of cancer, and it's not just a benchmark of California's environmental history but also a profound and emotional valedictory effort. Living as I do within ¼ mile of the grumbling and growling Hayward Fault, I found Reisner's projections of the cataclysmic effects of the Big One to be more than unsettling. Those of us who are priviledged or doomed to live in this glorious state cannot fail to take heed of the picture he paints of the likely events surrounding our upcoming tectonic hiccups, belches, and sneezes.
The book is divided into 3 sections. The first retells Californias environmental history from the era of Junipero Serra's mission system right up to our own freeway system. The middle section deals with the fundamentals of plate tectonics. But it's that 3rd section that looks forward to (shudder) a hypothetical eruption of the Hayward Fault in 2005 that is most gripping. Yikes.
Sayonara to a great environmentalist and author.
Rating: 
Summary: Great apocalyptic non-fiction!
Review: What better book to send to your friends or parents back east than a book about California sliding off into the sea?! Keeps them in their place, reinforces their prejudice, and a good yarn too. Never mind that the majority of the world's population lives in earthquake zones like the Ring of Fire and the Big One is overdue in places like Tokyo, Japan, and nobody seems to care--for good reason. Do you really want to live forever in Toledo, Ohio?
Rating:
Summary: Great apocalyptic non-fiction!
Review: What better book to send to your friends or parents back east than a book about California sliding off into the sea?! Keeps them in their place, reinforces their prejudice, and a good yarn too. Never mind that the majority of the world's population lives in earthquake zones like the Ring of Fire and the Big One is overdue in places like Tokyo, Japan, and nobody seems to care--for good reason. Do you really want to live forever in Toledo, Ohio?
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