by Walter Jon Williams

Imagine if around 1999, the New Madrid fault would have roughly repeated its 1812 performance. What could the results look like? That is what Walter Jon Williams explores in The Rift. After opening with an apocalyptic earthquake during the era of the “Mound builders”, we follow the adventures of several people who are living in that same region – A young teen who has just relocated there with his “new age” mother, an out work of man of color (who’s father was a general, and who is an engineer), the new major general who has just started as the commander of the Army Corps of Engineers for this region (a woman), a British financier, a park ranger at the Gateway Arch, a New Mexican working at a nuclear power plant, an end times preacher in a small town, and a newly reelected sheriff (who is also Kleagle for the local KKK). Along with interludes from POTUS. Each chapter starts with an eyewitness account of the 1811-1812 earthquakes that inspire the action here.

This book was recommended to me during a discussion on post-apocalyptic/survivalist books. And it checks those boxes: A racist sheriff who sees his quaint little town turn into a genocide, thanks to outsiders who are stronger believers than he is. An end time radio preacher who thinks the earthquake is the end – and enforces his beliefs in a cultish way. Several others who react in a variety of ways, and survive the initial earthquake, but who don’t all survive to the end of the book. A competent Corps of Engineers who see their attempts to fix problems, thwarted by the Earth itself. The heart of the book is a “Huck and Jim” adventure where the protagonists of that storyline will eventually intersect with many of the others.

Its nice to read a story where the federal government is not a villain (or so comically inept that they may as well be a villain). Having lived in Illinois and Missouri for about 14 years of my life, inlcuding the late 90’s and early 2000s – there were people and placed that seem pretty authentic to the experience back then.

Today, there are parts that felt dated. And I don’t know if the main trek down the Mississippi works as well today as it did in history.

944 Pages

3.5/5