BLACK SWAN SHOCK

The author offers a tale set in a post-World War III world where society has grown too comfortable with its ability to mitigate catastrophes. Some folks live quite happily on the moon, and those still living on terra firma regularly pack dangerous fault lines and fissures around the globe with, basically, high-tech glue. One character blithely tells Syia, “In the past 21 years, there has never been any seismic activity greater than 2.8 on the Richter Scale in locations where fusing has been completed.” Cue a massive quake that rocks the Midwest, reducing St. Louis’ Gateway Arch to rubble and forcing the mighty Mississippi River to change direction. All that heroic St. Louis resident Syia wants to do is save as many people as she can and reunite with her daughter, Marla, who was running near the Arch. Marla, who’s set to compete in the 2142 Summer Olympics on Earth’s moon, is a triathlete with Down syndrome who’s as courageous as her mother; when disaster strikes, she rescues babies from the raging deluge unleashed by the earthquake. Vettori’s detailed disaster-themed tale could conceivably prepare some present-day readers for real-life disasters. The author, an emergency-services professional, clearly has a taste for disaster fiction, and her take on the calamities erupting around her characters makes them feel real—and there are terrorists afoot, as well. Syia also doesn’t much like the Electromagnetic Sound and Holographic Isler Communication Operating Network that everyone’s using to communicate—especially the “increasingly popular brain implant version”—and it turns out that the good doctor is right to be wary of it. However, Vettori has effectively left that bit of the mystery for the final installment to come.  

An intense, futuristic thriller that recalls the best of 1970s disaster cinema.