- Paperback: 416 pages
- Publisher: Spectra; Reprint edition (Mar 31 1997)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0553573330
- ISBN-13: 978-0553573336
- Product Dimensions: 17 x 10.7 x 3.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 249 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Two formidable SF talents converge splendidly in this disaster thriller, which offers sleek action-adventure writing, world-class tumult and a coherent near-future based on sound yet innovative social and scientific speculation. Thirty years ago, as a child, Lewis Crane was scarred physically and mentally by the Los Angeles earthquake of 1994. Now he spends his days tracking earthquakes to minimize their damage. He also harbors a secret hope that he can, through a daring plan to fuse the earth's plates by exploding nuclear devices along their fault lines, stop the earthquake menace forever. Lewis is aided and stymied in these actions?and in his attempts to warn of the monster quake implied in the book's title?by a gallery of realistic characters and well-developed political factions, including the suppressed but still potent Nation of Islam, a powerful women's bloc and the Chinese business interests that now really run America. The plot permutations are as rich as the premise and settings, involving maturing characters, shifting allegiances, betrayals, open conflict and hidden agendas. Clarke's trademark technological mysticism and McQuay's tight plotting (as evidenced in his SF detective novels) make for a moving, convincing and engrossing yarn.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Library Journal
Sf guru Clarke (The Hammer of God, LJ 5/15/93) teams up with McQuay (State of Siege, Bantam, 1994) in this novel about a young seismologist in California who pinpoints the location and date of The Big One.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Good Read for When There's Nothing Better to Read,
By Pete(r) "Piv" (Thar ghettos of suburban Pennsylvania. Straight up, dawg.) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Richter 10 (Paperback)
Richter 10 is, inmy opinion, a book to read when you're looking to pass the time. Summer vacation is one example. Prison is another. But whatever the circumstances may be, you will find that Richter 10 is nothing if not interesting.The author(s) of the book do many things right, while still managing to screw up the story. Surprisingly, it's about an earthquake. Several earthquakes, anyway. Crazy geologist Lewis Crane is hell-bent for revenge on earthquakes after one knocked off his parents in 1994. The book takes place in the early-mid 21st century, and we see several examples of advanced technology. Perhaps some of it is too advanced, but since we went from struggling to get a glider to hang in the air to putting men in space in about 50 years, maybe it is normal. Anyway, the characters and several parts of the story are not developed very well. We never really get to know the characters, so that when something good or bad happens, we couldn't care less. The characters aren't exactly good people, either. Crane has some good characteristics, but he is pretty much consumed by his power. His assistant, Dan Newcombe, goes from being a humble scientist to a megalomaniac in a few chapters. The book, though not being too long, drags on for quite a bit. There are ample oppurtunities to end the book, but the author(s) feel the need to keep it alive. Too much of a mediocre thing can be a bad thing. As another point of negativity, the ending sucks. I won't give it away, but, eh, it wasn't very good. In closing, I recommend this book to bored people who do not have anything else to do with their time. 50% of the population, in other words.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not excellent, but pretty good,
By
This review is from: Richter 10 (Paperback)
As an Arthur C. Clarke junkie, I was surprised to find a book by hin that I hadn't read that was also eight years old. Well, it turns out that it wasn't really written by him, but he had enough input into it (see other reviews for details) that he got authorship credit (although he shouldn't have been at the top).About the only thing I had trouble with was the rash of intense and destructive earthquakes that kept showing up in the book. If such disasters happened at the rate and scale they did here, the world economy would really tank, but somehow they just seemed to cause ripples. I found the characters to be quite interesting and pretty believable, except for the male impersonator (no really good reason for that, and when the character was discussed, it was a bit confusing when folks called her "him" and when she was alone, she was "her"). This book is a definite page-turner, with just a few minor issues.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting...,
By Victoria (Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Richter 10 (Mass Market Paperback)
I actually give this book 3.5 stars, as I don't think it quite deserves four, but it doesn't deserve three either, so I gave it the benefit of the doubt.As well as being scientifically interesting (if not completely realistic- but since when has science fiction been completely realistic), this book was also futuristically interesting. In my opinion, I found that some of the social predictions were quite reasonable. The plot wasn't brilliant- it was quite predictable in many areas- but I found that the setting and vision of this particular future made up for the story's shortcomings. The book ended in a very over-done way (if you read it you'll know what I mean) but not so over-done to ruin the rest of the book. On the whole, this book was quite good and quite satisfying to read.
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