Helpful Score: 2
This is a great book. I've spent every spare moment during the past 3 days reading it. It
really makes you realize how much your very life depends on oil and not just for use in cars or planes,etc. Your food,water,medicine,hospitals and everything else in your life.
And with that in mind, just imagine what will happen when it runs out.
This book makes you think about the survival of life as we know it today without some other kind of energy-making product to take the place of oil.
really makes you realize how much your very life depends on oil and not just for use in cars or planes,etc. Your food,water,medicine,hospitals and everything else in your life.
And with that in mind, just imagine what will happen when it runs out.
This book makes you think about the survival of life as we know it today without some other kind of energy-making product to take the place of oil.
Helpful Score: 1
The book begins in New York City, Christmas time 1999, Andy Sutherland and his wife and daughter are enjoying a business pleasure trip. Dr. Sutherland has written a report on Oil for a mysterious conglomerate and is in New York to deliver it. His daughter a young girl of 11 or 12 accidentally opens the door to the room next to her father's and sees four men. The men decide to let her go thinking she will not remember the incident due to her young age.
Shift to the present 8 years later. Jenny Sutherland is preparing for a job interview in Manchester, England, Andy is in Iraq, Lenora is away at college and Jake the son who was born after the New York trip is 7 and away at prep school. The family since the New York trip has slowly broken apart, mostly due to Andy's obsession with Peak Oil and what the loss of oil will do to the world if we run out.
The same day an attack is orchestrated on the oil fields of the Middle East, Venezuela, the straits of Harmouse, and Africa. At the same time Lenora has e-mailed her father saying as an afterthought that she has seen one of the men who was in the room that day. A contract is taken out on her and the horror begins.
As the whole of England is shut down and riots and civil war breaks out in the Middle East we see Jenny and Andy trying to return home to the children, the children trying to get home from school and survive and the killer, trying to find them all.
The book has a large cast of characters, good guys and bad guys, the story line examines the family bonds and what is really valuable and how far any of us will go to survive.
The book has lots of action (the entire book with the exception of the first chapter takes place in a 7 day period) and struggles to survive.
The book is written in England with an English author and as such English laws and mores apply. In England no one except the police and army usually have guns. It drives home that without something to protect yourself with you are at the mercy of a mob. The book describes what could happen if some group decided to cut off oil to the world and its consequences. How prepared are we to survive without the basics.
This is an exciting well written book
Shift to the present 8 years later. Jenny Sutherland is preparing for a job interview in Manchester, England, Andy is in Iraq, Lenora is away at college and Jake the son who was born after the New York trip is 7 and away at prep school. The family since the New York trip has slowly broken apart, mostly due to Andy's obsession with Peak Oil and what the loss of oil will do to the world if we run out.
The same day an attack is orchestrated on the oil fields of the Middle East, Venezuela, the straits of Harmouse, and Africa. At the same time Lenora has e-mailed her father saying as an afterthought that she has seen one of the men who was in the room that day. A contract is taken out on her and the horror begins.
As the whole of England is shut down and riots and civil war breaks out in the Middle East we see Jenny and Andy trying to return home to the children, the children trying to get home from school and survive and the killer, trying to find them all.
The book has a large cast of characters, good guys and bad guys, the story line examines the family bonds and what is really valuable and how far any of us will go to survive.
The book has lots of action (the entire book with the exception of the first chapter takes place in a 7 day period) and struggles to survive.
The book is written in England with an English author and as such English laws and mores apply. In England no one except the police and army usually have guns. It drives home that without something to protect yourself with you are at the mercy of a mob. The book describes what could happen if some group decided to cut off oil to the world and its consequences. How prepared are we to survive without the basics.
This is an exciting well written book
Not bad, not great. I like post-apocalyptic/end-o-the-world fiction as much as the next guy, and this one wasn't bad, but the ending was a bit disappointing. Over the last 50 pages I kept thinking, "Is this part 1 of a series? Is there going to be more?" And the answer is nope, not really.
The characters were ok, the situation was ok. Not a bad read -- just not great literature.
Addendum: Apparently, there is a sequel, so take the above review with a grain of salt. I'll revise it after I get the second book.
The characters were ok, the situation was ok. Not a bad read -- just not great literature.
Addendum: Apparently, there is a sequel, so take the above review with a grain of salt. I'll revise it after I get the second book.
I discovered the concept of Peak Oil a couple of years ago, and spent the better part of six months trying desperately to find something to refute it. :-) When that didn't work out very well, I began reading as much as I could, trying to figure out the best way for me and my family to deal with the future.
This book is great story if you're interested in Peak Oil, or apocalyptic stories. It's not the best one I've ever read, but the author does a good job of holding the reader's interest. His complete breakdown of society comes a little faster than I think would actually happen - however, he's writing about Britain, not the USA, and the circumstances there may be as "fragile" as he describes.
After reading the book, instead of completely panicking, it's a better idea to take baby steps to reduce your use of fossil fuels, and make your family as self sufficient, or more locally dependent than you were before. Supporting local agriculture is a great first step, as farmer's markets will grow and prosper if we buy from them, thus insuring that our families will have food.
This book is great story if you're interested in Peak Oil, or apocalyptic stories. It's not the best one I've ever read, but the author does a good job of holding the reader's interest. His complete breakdown of society comes a little faster than I think would actually happen - however, he's writing about Britain, not the USA, and the circumstances there may be as "fragile" as he describes.
After reading the book, instead of completely panicking, it's a better idea to take baby steps to reduce your use of fossil fuels, and make your family as self sufficient, or more locally dependent than you were before. Supporting local agriculture is a great first step, as farmer's markets will grow and prosper if we buy from them, thus insuring that our families will have food.
