Customer Reviews

2027, New Madrid, Missouri

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

2027, New Madrid, Missouri

Arlington Nuetzel did a masterful job in creating this work. Research depicts a series of events in the Mississippi Basin in the winter of 1811 - 12, that are largely forgotten or ignored in the 20th and 21st Centuries.

I found the book intriguing, planned a casual three day read and by the second, I could not put it down. The story line is a veritable rollercoaster of striking events on the Mississippi which culminate in, not a plausible or probable cataclysmic event, but an eventual happening of biblical proportions. I highly recommend this book to any and all. I live on the rim of the Pacific Ring of Fire and know only too well the forces brought to bear with the ever moving Tectonic Plates. Go buy this book!

First off, this is a great fiction story of a small family pulling together to survive in the pioneer wilderness of New Madrid, MO. For that, I give it 5 stars. Seriously, this book could well become a motion picture.

I deduct two stars, however, because the title and 'back cover summary' are misleading. The rear says: "Nuetzel...guides us through the sobering and shocking consequences of a 21st century Armegeddon." The book is 166 pages long, but spends only the final 22 pages covering the 2027 prediction, and sketchily, at that. For someone interested in the future predictions, this book fell short.

In the winter of 1811-1812 a series of earthquakes occurred in America's heartland, near New Madrid, MO. These earthquakes are listed among the some of the largest earthquakes of known history and are credited with affecting the topography of the North American continent more than any other known earthquake. They were responsible for forming new lakes, changing the course of the Mississippi River, and destroying over 150,000 acres of forest. There are estimates that these earthquakes were felt strongly over an area of 50,000 square miles. Experts predict that there is a 90% chance of an earthquake of magnitude 6.0 or greater occurring in the same area before the year 2040.

The author of 2027, New Madrid, Missouri takes us back in time to the winter of 1811-1812 and puts us down smack in the middle of the action. We get to meet several people who are living and/or working in the area and spend many anxious minutes with them as they fight for their lives in the middle of one of the major seismic events in known history. The action is tense and the book moves along quickly. At the end of the book, the author follows a descendent of one of those New Madrid pioneers into the year 2027 just when the New Madrid fault produces another great quake. We then get to see several predictions of what exactly could happen in the St. Louis area if an earthquake of the same intensity of the 1811-1812 earthquakes were to occur.

You will tear through this book in one or two sittings. Arlington Nuetzel spins a stunning narrative around the earthquakes that devastated the American Midwest in 1811 and changed the course of the Mississippi River. His colorful characters are historical as well as fictional, which adds an additional sense of authenticity to the story. Nuetzel has done considerable research into the people he portrays, and especially into the horrific events that took place. His interplay between "the good guys and the bad guys," and how their lives were destroyed or forever altered by these cataclysmic events, is a very entertaining read; and yet, an unsettling one, because the scientific community knows for a fact that this horror will definitely come again... perhaps as soon as 2027.

Adolescent-level writing, melodrama full of editing errors, little to no factual information: the title is highly misleading. This attempt at historical fiction, and brief, even feebler attempt at 2027 prediction (when we apparently still rely on FTP, and are devoted to and dependent on Fox News)both fail utterly. If you want to learn anything about the New Madrid quakes, try "When the River Ran Backwards" or any other source instead.

This is an excellent historical novel. I could not put it down. The characters are fleshed out and you really are in the historical period. The plot flows easily. I highly recommend this book.

2027 New Madrid is a fancifully entertaining projection of what has been and could be soon again in our world of cataclysm and disasters. . . Its scenario begins James Michener style with prehistoric mastodons and folds gently out into a 19th c. backdrop of interwoven storylines. Colorful personalities dominate and confront one another in the Missouri landscape in its change of townships, classes and cultures: Pirates, half-casts, French parlays, entrepreneurs of devious daring, dashing young sheister meets River-swimming maiden in distress, the town idiot/prophet foretells but is not heeded, and neither is the ominous riot of pre-earthquake evacuees in the form of hordes of panic-stricken ground squirrels.

With historical reflection and not too much self-seriousness, Nuetzel weaves his tale for an audience that enjoys spoofs, proofs, valor, local color and accent. There is the eau d'rigor of gentry combating the criminal river barons while keeping reins on a newly tamed wilderness. We hear tidbits of French custom and patois, and encounter real life natural rogue-entities like the 'tallow whackers'. Both opportunist white men and disbanded native Americans witness the phenomenon of a great comet radiating 'bright moonlight without a moon.' Nature dominates mind and matter.

Not a Western shoot up, but a quick float up and down the cultures of the Mississippi valley, which poses a scenario of natural consequence wreaking disaster on a few chosen lives. The philosophy of human existence and all its foibles stands against the flow of time. 2027 New Madrid is a tale of River people riveted by the looming unexpected, whose inevitable tragedies are not so alien from our own.

Outstanding read, was not sure what to expect but found myself turning page after page until I finished the book in one sitting. Enjoyed the varied character and the look back into our past. Look forward to exploring more of this authors writtings.

The author did his research on this one, it is historically accurate to the letter. The descriptions of life along the Mississippi River during that time period were especially well researched.

From That's All She Read http://allsheread.blogspot.com .

This is a quirky little book with tiny chapters and a tendency to sweep from one geological age to another. It's also a fascinating account of a disaster that had human habitation been as fragile and dense as it is now, would have been a cataclysm. This Arlington Nuetzel illustrates by one last chapter detailing the impact of an earthquake in 2027 as strong as several that took place over a few months in 1811 and 1812. It is both a story of human struggle, tragedy and triumph and also a cautionary tale to spur us to more effective action to prepare ourselves for the unthinkable.

The narrative, for as I will explain below it is more that than a novel, concerns the Boncouer family living in new Madrid, Missouri, in 1811. The family is the basic unit facing not only the forces of nature but also of human nature. Throughout the story the well-being of the daughter, Sarah, as she is first kidnapped by pirates and later becomes the love and lover of a seeming charlatan and elopes with him, circumstances equal to the trials of natural disaster. The quakes affect Sarah primarily because she thinks she may have lost her love and the father of her unborn child to its forces, but another family member, her uncle, whose actions as a result of the quakes' damage that are really tragic.

I would have to say the writing in this book is uneven, running from unduly formal and stilted to simple, straightforward and descriptive. I sometimes felt that Nuetzel, faced with a 25 cent word and a dime word invariably chose the quarter. In the dialogue this may have been suitable, as the written English of the day was that, but it tended to be too much in the narrative itself. However when the thunder starts and the earth shakes, Nuetzel's prose changes. His forte in this book is his description of the disaster as it takes place from the perspective of indibidual characters.

I say it is a narrative more than a novel because it has a family storyline but in many ways that storyline seems imprinted on the real tale. The characters don't feel authentic or well-rounded. I must admit however that I got choked up with the ultimate scenes of the love story of Cletis and Sarah, so they m ust have been real enough to me for that. And it is a good narrative as far as what it relates. It contains details of the 1811-12 quakes that are absent from other books I have read, and the 2027 events are equal to other quake novels I have read. The story comes aroundfull circle with a descendant of Sarah in a way that is quite satisfying.

There are peripheral characters that will delight you. The historical characters include the commander of the pirates and his Indian and Portuguese mixed blood wife, Pluggie, an unforgettable figure in American history. I told Mr. Nuetzel I liked her best, and he told me, "Everyone does." I would love to see him take a crack at a fictional biography. His illustration of the Chickasaw tribe is loving and true to history and if a bit romantic, a real positive in this ultimately sad story.

This book is available in paperback and on Kindle, and if it is not yet, it will be available on [...] for people who are print impaired.

Nan Hawthorne
That's All She Read
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