Saturday, May 16, 2009

Darkness Falls by Kyle Mills


From the back: Erin Neal has been living a secluded life in the Arizona desert since the death of his girlfriend and he isn't happy when an oil company executive appears on his doorstep. A number of important Saudi oil wells have stopped producing and Erin is the world's foremost expert in analyzing and preventing oil field disasters.
As far as he's concerned, though, he left that world behind long ago. Unfortunately, Homeland Security sees things differently. Erin quickly finds himself stuck in the Saudi desert studying a new bacteria with a voracious appetite for oil and an uncanny ability to corrode drilling equipment. Worst of all is its ability to spread. It soon becomes clear that if this contagion isn't stopped, it will infiltrate the planet's petroleum reserves and cut the industrial world off from the energy that provides the heat, food, and transportation necessary for survival. As the scale of the coming disaster continues to grow, Erin realizes that there's something eerily familiar about this bacteria. And that it couldn't possibly have evolved on its own...

My thoughts: This was the first Kyle Mills book I've read. It was a fascinating read, if a little slow in the beginning. How scary to think that someone, one person, could destroy the whole world? This is not your normal thriller, it becomes a cautionary tale using real-world detail and giving a good look at what could very well happen if anything really did happen to the oil supply. Yikes!
That being said, I did not become involved with the characters except the FBI guy, Mark Beamon. I had to keep reminding myself throughout the book that ERIN was the guy. I've always seen the guys name spelled Aaron and the girls Erin. That kind of grated. Petty details, I know.

Read the author's thoughts about this book. Really, it's interesting.

Challenges:
100+ Reading Challenge
RYOB Reading Challenge

Eco thriller, thriller, mystery, political thriller

4 comments:

Jo, a retired teacher said...

Thank you. If the details are annoying, the story is kind of hard to enjoy. I read a posting about the new Star Trek movie made by someone who really understands the whole history. He had some detail problems with the movie's story. Some of us really dislike logic holes.

Keep reading and listening.

Sharon said...

Joy, you are right about the details!

We saw the new Star Trek movie and there are things in the story that don't compute. There was one big thing, a relationship, that just doesn't belong. Have you seen it yet?

Harvee said...

I read this book some time ago and enjoyed the plot. Happy to know there have been no bacteria like these developed, otherwise we would be scared for sure!

Ladytink_534 said...

Ooh! It sounds like that stuff that destroyed the Rusties in Scott Westerfelds Uglies series. Neat!