Book Title: Alive!
ISBN 9781466062504
Part of Series: No
Author: Nicole Stuart
Price: $3.99
Number of words (approximately): 58 556
Star Rating (of five): Four
Summary: Alan is
looking for a place to live, a place where he can use his Management
Consultancy talents to build a new business.
Almost by accident, he arrives in Montagu, a small town far from the
city, and finds a potential client, a wine farmer. He is invited by the man’s sister to inspect
the interior of a large steel tank, and so he escapes the effects of a burst of
radiation from the sun that destroys most of sentient life on Earth. When he and Karin leave the tank, they
realize that they will have to rebuild their lives from the bottom up, finding
opportunities where they can.
Extract:
- As Karin spoke,
Alan remembered the TV newscast this morning.
“There was an explosion of the
new power plant that they were sending to the Space Station. It was in a parking orbit just outside the
Magnetosphere area. Is that not the area
that protects the Earth from the cosmic and solar radiations?”
“You’re right, Alan! I knew that they had parked the power plant
there. It struck me as foolhardy to put
it right there, but I did not know about the explosion! I wanted to watch the news this morning, but
Rudy hates news! What did they say about
the explosion?”
“Well, thinking back, it
wasn’t really an explosion. Apparently,
the scientists decided to use the radiation-sensing equipment on the nuclear
power plant to measure the radiation from the solar storm. The radiation sensing equipment on the plant
was stimulated by the unusually strong solar waves to the point where its
safety function was actuated, causing it to dump the fuel elements into
space. It was designed to prevent a
nuclear catastrophe on the space station by dissipating the nuclear fuel as
soon as the radiation reached a certain level, so that it would not melt
down. The scientists said that the fuel
was widely dispersed, so that there would be no concentration of radioactive
fallout in any particular area of Earth.
Apparently the fuel elements were designed to self-combust if dumped.”
“I can’t believe that those
idiots would allow the dispersion of fuel elements, which generate ionising
radiation, in the most sensitive area of Earth’s radiation protection! That probably caused a breach in the
Magnetosphere and the Van Allen Belts, and that allowed high levels of
radiation, including magnetic radiation, through to Earth! What we’ve seen here is the effect of intense
microwave activity! Everything that
contains water or liquid was effectively cooked!”
“How did we escape, then?”
asked Alan. He suspected that he already
knew the answer.
“Rudy did us the favour of
locking us in a protective shell of steel!
I’d imagine that the only people who have survived are those who spent
the critical hours totally enclosed in a shell of magnetic-wave-blanketing
material, like steel or copper.”
“That would exclude virtually
everyone! Even people in the cabs of
trucks weren’t protected.”
“I’d guess that anyone who
could see out would have been affected.
Even the workers in the factory, which was largely enclosed by steel
walls and roof were killed. The
radiation entered through the brick end-walls, the windows and open steel
doors!” The implications of her analysis
were sinking into Karin’s mind. “That
means that the vast majority of people on Earth have died, or will die in the
next few hours as the Earth rotates and exposes them to the radiation!”
“We have to warn them! We can’t just allow this to happen!”
“How can we do that?” Karin’s face showed the hopelessness she
felt. “Radio communication will be out,
because of the sun storm. Even if any
radio equipment is still working, after the electronics have been destroyed by
the microwave radiation! The sun storm
would have initiated intense electrical surges in power and telephone
lines! That will include anything
connected to long wires. Smoke signals
won’t cross the Atlantic ! And I don’t think that there will be any
carrier pigeons left!” -
Reviewer’s Comments:
Structure: The book
complies with the standards formatting requirements for eBooks, as well as
having a good use of language and grammar.
Content: The story
builds as it progresses, fleshing out the characters and the environment. The full scope of the disaster dawns slowly,
and with it comes a determination by the characters to survive, to make the
best of what remains, and to build a new life for themselves.
Reviewer’s Comments: Nicole Stuart
has the ability to make her characters mean something to the reader. The true test of a book, in my opinion, is
whether I care about what happens to the characters, and that, in turn, depends
on them being more than cardboard cut-outs.
The writer achieves this well. I
really cared for these people, and I was pleased with what they achieved. This book deserves a place in your library.
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