Rating: 
Summary: Life in the China Shop After the Bull Shows Up
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book but I thought of putting it down several times in the 180 pages of character development that precede any action. There are several story lines deftly woven together in this book and in the end I admit it was probably necessary to take up those 180 pages, so hang in there. It's worth it. The book centers around a huge 8.9 quake that takes place along the New Madrid fault in the midwest. It throws the mighty Mississippi right out of its course and generally creates havoc and mayhem. It is a successful "disaster" story with bad guys and heroes galore plus lots of ordinary folk that we can relate to as well. The nine central characters are all sufficiently unique to present a good cross-section of human nature so that we are treated to a well-rounded speculative look at the ramifications of the failure of our society's systems and their effects on individuals. Throughout the book there are quotations from historical documents of the last earthquake on the New Madrid that took place in 1812 which while horrible elude to even greater horrors of the impending disaster of a large scale quake in our more complex and populated world.
The story lines expose several small fractures in our own society such as fundamentalism and the malice of white supremacy that are similar in their own ways to building a nuclear power plant over a major fault line. The plot shows us how foolish our failure to pay attention is and how easily these threats can one day open up and swallow us whole. While imprisoned by crazed KKK members a black man answers the frantic querey of "Why?!" by saying "Because somebody overlooked this damn place, overlooked it for a century, probably. All it took for death to take a grip on a community was a handful of crazy people and a lot of other people who weren't paying attention."
The book is well researched and very scary in its implications. Industry and expediency have caused us to build and invest and grow our civilization right over top of one of the most unstable places on Earth with our usual short-sighted "it can't happen here" attitude and our wishful thinking. There is and has been, for a very long time, plenty of evidence that a disaster of overwhelming proportions is inevidable but we have systematically chosen not to pay attention to the facts.
This book makes for very exciting and entertaining reading. It is full of edge of the seat action and thought-provoking ideas and insights. The characters are rich in detail and the message that floats in and out between the lines is a powerful one. I recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: The Big One
Review: The New Madrid Fault lies in the south central part of the United States right on the Mississippi River. It is very real and very ominous last heard from in 1811-1812 in an 8.9 earthquake. So "The Rift" is not an apocalyptic fantasy, but a meticulously researched epic of what could happen tomorrow. You well may ask why isn't the earthquake of 1812 a part of every American child's history book as famous as the Chicago Fire or the San Francisco earthquake of 1906? The answer is how lightly populated the area was at that time; the number of people who could report on the catastrophe were few, so at present day we have little documentation.Mr. Williams has done an awesome job of investigation from everything concerning an earthquake to nuclear reactor plants. Every chapter is interwoven with contemporary accounts of the 1812 earthquake. We read what transpired over miles and miles of countryside, and then the author shows us what the same devastation would be like if that "countryside" had the City of Memphis sitting on it as it does today. I learned a little about the Richter scale: an 8.5 is not just a "little" stronger than an 8.3, but a thousand times stronger. An 8.9 (the top of the scale) is just short of affecting the entire planet. For comparison purposes the San Francisco quake registered 8.25 on the Richter scale. To bring us a story and give us a human's eye view of such mass destruction, Mr. Williams gives us a cross-section of characters, most of whom were sharply defined and realistic. From Jason, a young teenager who is Kalifornia Kool but displaced by his parent's divorce to Cabell's Mound, Missouri to Nick, an unemployed weapons engineer recently separated from his wife. (For some reason, I pictured Nick as Bryant Gumbel in the middle of the earthquake.) The hustling dealmaker Charlie struck me as the most poignant. He only existed in the cyberworld of suppose; when the earthquake hit, all he could think to do was dial 911 on his cell phone. "The Rift" is a monumental work in all senses of the word, but unlike many worthy tomes, highly readable and entertaining. Grade A
Rating: 
Summary: Good but not great
Review: I enjoyed this book, but it wasn't the "end of the world" tale I was expecting. A series of earthquakes strike the Missippi valley of the US, and some well-defined and extremely interesting characters find themselves faced with this calamity. Mr. William's story is most interesting when he is showing how people react and take advantage of the chaos and peril that now surrounds them. Some milk the situation, some are responsible for trying to clean up the mess, and others simply try to survive and find lost loved ones. Mr. Williams covers each of these extremely well, and while the story is a tad slow in parts, I found myself flying through it. I gave it 3 stars because even though it was enjoyable story with excellent characters, there was something missing throughout. I think part of it was that even though a significant portion of the US was chaotic and nearly destroyed, you still got the sense that eventually everything would be back to normal.
Rating:
Summary: Good but not great
Review: I enjoyed this book, but it wasn't the "end of the world" tale I was expecting. A series of earthquakes strike the Missippi valley of the US, and some well-defined and extremely interesting characters find themselves faced with this calamity. Mr. William's story is most interesting when he is showing how people react and take advantage of the chaos and peril that now surrounds them. Some milk the situation, some are responsible for trying to clean up the mess, and others simply try to survive and find lost loved ones. Mr. Williams covers each of these extremely well, and while the story is a tad slow in parts, I found myself flying through it. I gave it 3 stars because even though it was enjoyable story with excellent characters, there was something missing throughout. I think part of it was that even though a significant portion of the US was chaotic and nearly destroyed, you still got the sense that eventually everything would be back to normal.
Rating:
Summary: Great story, horrible story-telling
Review: This novel tells a wonderful story, if you're willing to sit through all the extraneous story lines that amount to nothing. Some have claimed that the almost 200 pages of character development was valuable. Unfortunately, I think that some of the best characters in this story had very little wasted on their "development". Those that were "developed" still stayed relatively shallow. All that truly mattered in thier development could have easily been done in just 20 pages. If that weren't enough, I thought it was a joke when I realized that some of the isolated characters who wer "developed" were ignored as soon as the action started, and the development phase was complete. Characters that were developed and used in the story were extremely disposable to the author, which also annoyed me. At least 2 characters who were followed died, but onlt amounted to a sentence or 2 spelling that out. Yes, this is supposed to be a catastrophe, and the frailty of life may be a point, but I'd expect that if I invest 100 pages in a character, that character's death can have an ending, and not just comments about someone seeing flies coming from the house. I also found all the short snippets from historical letters of previous quakes to be extremely annoying, to the point where I skipped them. I found that they added nothing to the story. On the positive side, there is plenty of action in this story. I do find this story much more believable and entertaining than that _The New Madrid Run_. Additionally, it did feel as if the author spent a lot of good time on background research that made its way into the detailed story. If all you want is a good story, then this is for you. Otherwise, the book's faults may just run the risk of you putting the book down for good before you even get to the meat of the story.
Rating: 
Summary: NOT Walter Jon Williams But a Good Read Anyway
Review: Despite what the amazon.com review says, this author is a different person from Walter Jon Williams, so fans of his, look elsewhere! Nevertheless it is an interesting, if long, read, carefully researched and plot intensive. The characters are rather shallow but the plot moves along at a good clip and imaginatively presents a picture of what would happen if the New Madrid Fault, along the lower Mississippi River, sustained a huge earthquake. Fans of apocalyptic fiction and disaster yarns will especially enjoy this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Disappointing
Review: I saw this book at Barnes & Noble and thought it looked awesome. Every time I read a few pages, I'd fall asleep. I looked at other reviews for this book and saw it showed promise. I got past the first 200 pages and kept hoping it would get better. There are a few passages in this book that were great, but I had to quit reading once I got to Chapter 18. I kept pushing myself to continue reading, but I couldn't go on. I'm glad others have enjoyed this book and I think the plot itself was great to write about with vivid characters and the goal of survival. There was just too much information added to this book that had nothing to do with the story itself. This is probably the only book I decided to quit before reaching the end, but there are too many other good books out there waiting to be read.
Rating:
Summary: Realism, probably not.
Review: My reviews are very short and I don't like to go into detail like some others. This book is long. It could have been shortened and would have been fine. Centering on a religious fanatic and a bigoted sheriff during this huge disaster is a little strange. When Jason is off the river, I found myself disappointed. The author should have kept them on the river more. Instead, he attempts to show us the shortcomings of our society. Disaster novels are about society, true, but this type of thing happening is highly unlikely. The characters were cartoony. I did like the reference to the plight of the midwestern farmer. Corporations have taken over there.
Rating:
Summary: An Awesome Read
Review: This book is absolutely great. I have leant my copy to the high school librarian and demanded she read it. The begining is a bit slow but from the quake on is riviting. It was so good I stayed up late to finish it and slept through the ACT. It was worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Shake, Rattle and a Race Battle
Review: I can't remember how I came across this book. For some reason it was in the Fantasy section at my local B&N. After reading it, I realized sticking this next to trolls and dragons is like putting Megadeth in the Easy Listening section. The book is a disaster tale that takes place in the here and now. Unlike modern disaster tales like The Stand and Swan Song there is no supernatural element. But like those books the characters are well developed and entirely believable. Throw in a Tom Sawyer like travel down a bloated Missisippi, an ardent religous end times obsessed pastor and a KKK sheriff and the story flows as quick as said river.
| 
