Publisher:
Harper Collins
Reviews & Overviews by Rod Cameron
Publisher: |
Harper Collins |
|
Date: |
2005 |
|
Size: |
520 Pages |
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Format: |
Paperback |
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Price: |
£6.99 |
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ISBN: |
0-00-714891-7 |
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Reviewed by: |
Rod Cameron |
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Review Date: |
March 2007 |
This is the sequel to Forty Signs of Rain that I reviewed in June 2005. Like Forty Signs of Rain, Fifty Degrees Below is a novel about American politics and catastrophic climate change. The characters we met before are used again with good effect to personalise the worsening weather conditions. The hero this time is Frank Vanderwal who we met in the first book. He is now working in Washington to restabilize the climate, but unfortunately because of an acute lack of accommodation as a result of the floods, and admittedly partly through choice, he ends up living in a carbon-neutral tree house in the woods. It also comes to his attention that he is being monitored by Homeland Security. Then, with the Gulf Stream shutting down, a particularly harsh winter arrives and the temperature drops to fifty degrees below…
In my previous review I said “In parallel with the painting of the picture of the political apathy concerning the state of the climate, a disaster scenario is developed concerning the Washington DC basin. Whilst the book is very readable, I found it to be slightly disappointing in that the disaster when it came was not civilisation threatening, it was merely a threat to the functioning of Washington.” I was much less disappointed with this book. For some reason a looming ice age is much more exciting! The elements of conspiracy and paranoia also help to maintain the interest. Kim Stanley Robinson is to be applauded for doing his bit for publicising the threats associated with climate change. And I am looking forward to the third part Sixty Days and Counting which is to be published in hardback imminently. I wonder what it’s about?