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Blowout (Nate Osborne and Ashley Borden, Book 1) [Hardcover]

Byron L. Dorgan , David Hagberg
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)

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Book Description

March 27, 2012

America is on the brink of crisis. Unless we can curb our dangerous appetite for foreign oil, petroleum-rich countries and speculators will bring our economy to its knees…long before CO2 emissions will devastate our ecosystem. The President has answered the call with the Dakota District Initiative, a top secret research team hidden deep in the Badlands of North Dakota. The Initiative is developing a way to produce clean energy from coal.

 

But powerful enemies will stop at nothing to sabotage this revolutionary technology. A cadre of oil hedge fund managers hires a crew of mercenary fanatics to attack the Initiative’s experimental power station. Despite the bloody assault, the research continues as war-hero sheriff Nate Osborne and brash journalist Ashley Borden search for the attackers.

 

The stakes couldn’t be higher: Unless the Initiative succeeds we could be faced with gasoline at twenty dollars per gallon or more, putting an impossible strain on an already fragile economy. If the project fails, we will continue to poison the very air we breathe. Either way, the Badlands will run red with blood.


Frequently Bought Together

Blowout (Nate Osborne and Ashley Borden, Book 1) + Castro's Daughter (Kirk Mcgarvey) + Black List: A Thriller
Price for all three: $49.60

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Editorial Reviews

Review

 “Oodles of action…now that’s what I call a thriller. Sizzling hot!”

—Stephen Coonts, New York Times bestselling author of The Disciple  

 

“David Hagberg is a proven master of the thriller genre and Senator Byron Dorgan brings a unique, insider's view on politics and the world. Together they've woven a complicated tale, told deceptively simple, that will leave you wanting more. Plenty of sizzle in this page-turner.”

—Steve Berry, New York Times bestselling author of The Jefferson Key

 

“Combining masterly writing skills with deep knowledge of their subject, authors Dorgan and Hagberg serve up a unique, thought-provoking and, above all, ceaselessly exciting novel about today's hidden security threat: our willingness to overlook evil in our addiction to foreign energy supplies. The pace will make you sweat, the plot will make you think, and the peril is very real.”

—Ralph Peters, New York Times bestselling author of Cain at Gettysburg and The War After Armageddon

 

“Dorgan and Hagberg have written an edge-of-the-seat thriller about energy that will stretch your imagination and keep you guessing until the very last page.”
—Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle

 

­“This book hits the bull's-eye on our energy challenge. How to end our addiction to foreign oil by finding new ways to produce energy here at home while at the same time protecting our environment?  Blowout combines a healthy imagination about an energy future with fast-paced action.”

—Former Governor of New Mexico and U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson

 

 

About the Author

SENATOR BYRON L. DORGAN served as a U. S. Senator and Congressman for North Dakota for thirty years before retiring in January 2011. He was Chairman of Senate Committees and Subcommittees on the issues of Energy, Aviation, Appropriations, Water Policy and Indian Affairs. Senator Dorgan is the author of the New York Times bestseller Take This Job and Ship It and Reckless!: How Debt, Deregulation and Dark Money Nearly  Bankrupted our Country (And How to Fix It!).

 

DAVID HAGBERG is a former Air Force cryptographer who has traveled extensively in Europe, the Arctic, and the Caribbean. He has published more than twenty novels of suspense, including the bestselling Allah's Scorpion, Dance with the Dragon, and The Expediter. He makes his home in Sarasota, Florida.


Product Details

  • Hardcover: 432 pages
  • Publisher: Forge Books; First Edition edition (March 27, 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0765327376
  • ISBN-13: 978-0765327376
  • Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #227,056 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Almost didn't like it, but I do! February 26, 2012
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
I always enjoy David Hagberg's writing so when I saw he co-authored the book I was expecting great things. I was disappointing in the first couple chapters - it got so immersed in the science of the main plot (using bacteria to transform coal into gas) that it almost made me put the book down (and understand, I love science). I'm glad I stuck it out. As the story unfolds, War hero Sheriff Nate Osborne and reporter Ashley Borden (who's father coincidentally runs the facility in question) get on the case and the book reads more like a David Hagberg novel. Great twists and a terrific ending (which I won't tell you about - no spoiler here). Read it - you'll enjoy it.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
This title really had all the elements needed to be a five-star thriller. Without giving away too much of the plot, most of the action centers around the efforts of the American government to create an alternative energy source to oil. Of course these efforts are not about to accepted by those elements who have a strong interest in oil, especially as it relates to money. From this, we get 400+ pages of a mostly good, almost great thriller.

Unfortunately, there are two issues that prevent this from being the great, straightforward thriller it should have been, with the first being the obvious political leanings of the author(s). It's obvious early on that the story is not going to be exactly pro-oil, and that's fine. However, I really could have done without the multiple lectures on global warming, discussions about which group of scientists is likely to be correct, discussions about other planets' changing climates, and the lack of any "pro-oil" character in the book having even an apparent shred of decency.

The second and perhaps more painful piece was the relationship between the two protagonists, a county sherriff (who of course is also a war hero) and the newspaper reporter who just happens to have a very important father. First off, there was really no reason for them to interact as more than co-leads but of course that doesn't happen. I was shocked not only at how quickly they fell in love, but also by how their relationship changes......without getting into details, the epilogue did not seem to fit. The discussions between these two when it comes to their relationship seemed unbelievable, clumsy and a little bit painful.

Even with my reservations, I would still recommend this title.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars Too Much Political Science & Jargon! March 12, 2012
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
Over half this book should have been edited out. There were hundreds of organizations and companies mentioned in the first chapter. Too many to even try to keep up with. ANd most of the lit was giving background history of each one and what their politial views were. It jumped from the storyline to the scientific aspects of a subject and background reviews for each one.

I just wanted a story I could follow with ease not a scientific journal.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars A real BLOWOUT! April 16, 2012
Format:Hardcover
David Hagberg should stick to Kirk McGarvey. His politics completely overrode the subject matter. Not everyone from the northern Rockies states is a wild-eyed conspirator. Byron Dorgan as the co-author is the clue as to what course the book follows.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars Political lecture disguised as mediocre fiction March 14, 2012
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
I like politics. I do. And I like the environment. And I'm all for alternative energy sources.

But when a book is so bogged down by political environmentalism and scientific jargon that I wondered at times, "Is there a story here? Because I think the authors dove into the science and forgot about the plot."

And then there's the plot. The unlikely love story comes together in, well, unlikely ways. Really, they're head over heels about each other after one (albeit emotional and dramatic) encounter? And then he gets to play knight in shining armor and rescue her on a white horse? (Okay, I don't think the horse was white. But still.) As one familiar with politic and military protocol, I found that part of the storyline far-fetched as well. Which leaves the action sequences, which I do admit were interesting and fun reads and could one day make the basis for a decent political thriller in the theaters. Those parts aren't consistent or long enough to carry the story, though. Once the authors finally got to the end, they wrapped it up quickly without much resolution, which almost seemed like an admission that this was really meant to be a really long political statement rather than an actual novel.

And one final pet peeve: "Bray" was an interesting word choice for "laugh." And it worked well... the first half dozen times. When its use got well into double digits, I began to wonder if the authors needed a lesson on using a thesaurus.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars How to ruin a decent book with a 2-page epilogue March 9, 2012
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
The authors, both of whom bring considerable real-life expertise to this promising geopolitical thriller, did a good job of setting up the premise of this book: The attempts by the U.S. domestic terrorist group Posse Comitatus and their veiled-in-shadow backers to shut down an equally veiled-in-shadow Clean Coal initiative. The back cover summarizes the book's promise well: This is definitely "a high-concept thriller about America's dangerous addiction to foreign oil—a dependency that could cripple our economy and our ecosystem."

As I started out reading the book, it seemed to lean a little too heavily on cataloguing types of weapons (which will surely appeal to the "out of my cold dead hands" crowd), but the first half of the book moved briskly and convincingly enough to catch me up in the action. Often I found myself wondering if, and wishing that, such an initiative really exists today. BLOWOUT presents to readers some juicy complexity to chew on (thanks to Dorgan, I expect), and Haberg's extensive experience with writing action-packed books definitely shows. Had the characterizations been as strong as the action, I would have rated this book more highly than I did.

I should have known what was coming, though, when, halfway through the book, love interests began rather implausibly to pop up between the most important characters; when the women were sometimes called by their first names, the men by their last names, within the same sentence; when the few very carefully drawn characters began to say and do things completely out of character; when the loose ends had been battered and bent as often as Sheriff Osborne's lost-leg prosthesis. The "love" bits were not believable.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Good read
Kept me on the edge of my seat and could not put it down. A must read whether in Kindle form or book form
Published 1 month ago by Jay Keeran
4.0 out of 5 stars Tense eco-thriller with plenty of assassins, explosives and heroes
Blowout is a fast-moving novel about peak oil, carbon emissions, foreign trade, anti-government militia groups and financial shenanigans. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Glenda Boozer
5.0 out of 5 stars VERY GOOD BOOK
Could not put the book down. Kept you on the edge of your seat. Good for guys but much better for laddies because they will get their blood boiling. A good boil..
Published 2 months ago by Jackie Sherwood
2.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful idea, poor execution
I was at the airport and needed something to read for the flights. I saw this one and picked it up. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Dino
5.0 out of 5 stars excellent reading
There was suspense all the way through. It was a good fast read. And to think that it might happen!
Published 3 months ago by Eileen Johnson
3.0 out of 5 stars Didn't Quite Work
I should start off by saying I was a bit surprised by Senator Dorgan's first novel. Generally with vanity projects there is not much umphh behind the story. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Matthew Erwin
4.0 out of 5 stars Edge of seat
Can't put this one down. Once you start reading this thriller, it will be hard to put down until you have finished. Once again, this author has done a great job! Keep reading.
Published 9 months ago by Carole Morris
4.0 out of 5 stars for environmentalists this is a worthwhile read ...
for environmentalists, this is a worthwhile read ... it drones on about the science of an alternative energy and, as i'd expect having been co-authored by a u.s. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Robert W. Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars Blowout
David is the best. This book is so exciting I didn't want it to end. Actually, all his books are the same, so exciting and not wanting them to end.
Published 11 months ago by Sharon Litwiller
3.0 out of 5 stars Action and Politics
It is a long book and I had to speed read thru some pages because I was losing interest but it's a good book if you like action books and political science. Read more
Published 11 months ago by G. Hembrough
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