Customer Reviews

Darkness Falls

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This was simply a quick and entertaining read. Good subject that was quickly put together and resolved.
Probably a beach book for most.

Microbes are eating and destroying oil. I loved the premise in this book from the start, and it kept my interest throughout the book. Unfortunately, the main romance is a bit forced and the ending is more than a bit far fetched. The characters were not especially interesting or believable. In spite of the weaknesses, this thriller was one I liked. It moved at a good pace and the originality of the plot made it fun. I listened to this audiobook, and the reader was very good. This book mixes action, environmentalism and terrorism and tells a pretty good story.

Oil production has become a common target of terrorists who see shutting it down or holding it hostage as a means of influencing world politics. Western economies cannot survive without a steady flow of crude oil, a product that to a larger and larger degree is produced in countries not exactly friendly to Western ideas and influences. Oil companies have come to be cast as villains on the world stage and have also attracted a new breed of terrorist, environmentalist extremists, in addition to the more familiar brand of terrorism suffered at the hands of Islamist extremists. Thus is the stage set for the latest thriller from Kyle Mills, Darkness Falls.

When new bacteria surprisingly appear in the oil fields of Saudi Arabia, bacteria with a voracious appetite for oil and the drilling equipment used to produce it, Erin Neal, a retired expert in the prevention and control of oil field disasters, finds himself there at the not so subtle request of Homeland Security. As one oil well after the other stops producing, it becomes apparent that the bacteria have the ability to spread from one well to the next and could permanently kill oil production from the biggest producing field in the world. Thirty percent of the world's production is seen to be at immediate risk, something that could destabilize international politics to the point of causing open warfare and countless deaths.

Erin Neal is devastated to find that his own research into the design of oil-eating bacteria to be used in oil spill cleanup may have been adapted by his former girlfriend and fellow scientist to develop similar bacteria capable of destroying oil still in underground reservoirs. Neal, who had been driven to living in seclusion by the woman's apparent drowning, begins to suspect not only that she may still be alive but that she could be involved with people who are willing to protect the environment at the cost of millions of lives.

Working with Homeland Security and with the highest levels of government, Neal finds himself in a desperate race to catch those responsible for spreading the bacteria before the world's entire oil supply is destroyed. As they come to realize that losing oil means losing the power necessary to produce and transport food supplies, to generate heating and cooling for billions, and to fuel the economy and military, Neal and his team understand that only they can prevent the ultimate loss of millions of lives. If they fail, mankind will be reduced to a standard of living not seen for hundreds of years.

Kyle Mills has written a first rate thriller, a nightmarish reminder that our way of life is almost completely dependent on a natural resource that is less and less found within our own borders. Love them or hate them, it is clear that this way of life is dependent on the success that oil companies have in replacing oil reserves for at least the next several decades.

If you don't believe me, read Darkness Falls.

Having been introduced to Kyle Mill's work via his first book, "Rising Phoenix" I have measured the rest of his books by his first standard, and this latest authorship is a major disappointment. Though the subject matter is creditable for the times, the lack of detail in the story build assumes much of the reader, and gave me the impression that Mr. Mills was either writing under a deadline, or needing to fulfill a minimum number of words to satisfy a contract in lieu of a thoughtful and compelling story.

Yes, it's a quick read, and one the reader may enjoy, but for the money, I would consider rereading Mr. Mill's first book again rather than having to work through the holes in this latest version of a suspense novel.

On the 5-star side: Darkness Falls' plot was so fathomable and absorbing that I led dinner-table discussions with my family for three days.

On the 2-star side: Kyle Mills, an author whom I usually rave about, uses horrid prose, bad action pieces, and undeveloped characters to move this along.

On the 5-star side: Mark Beamon, FBI anti-hero from many of Mills' previous books, is back!

On the 2-star side: He doesn't do much at all, and is barely in the book. He seems to be here simply because it gives us readers a familiar face to latch onto. He's older, closer to getting married, but is a deus ex machina, able to get things done just because he's 'Mark Beamon!'

On the 1-star side: The main character's name is Erin. Erin is a man. I dated a girl named Erin in college. I've never met a man named Erin. I found this confusing throughout the whole book.

On the 1-star side: The character of Jenna. There is nothing to like about her, but we're supposed to like her anyway.

Overall: It's a great idea handled poorly by Mills, who usually writes much better, and funnier, thrillers.

Darkness Falls, by Kyle Mills, is a surprising novel. While I have read several novels dealing with terrorists bent on disrupting oil production, this one took a different, more interesting tact. As the pages turned, I was surprised to learn a few things about oil and the products that are created using it. The lessons were provided in a manner that showed Mills did his research and yet, it did not detract from the story.

The book opens with a woman dumping a white powder into a oil rig's drill bit lubricating fluid. The woman, a biologist and a member of an environmental group, wants to stop oil drilling in the Alaskan wilderness. The powder she dumps into the lubricating fluid is a bacteria that feeds on oil. Living a secluded life in the Arizona desert, off the grid, another biologist, Erin Neal, is approached by a high ranking Homeland Security official. He enlists Erin's services to investigate an issue with several Saudi oil fields, where machinery is being destroyed and the oil fields seem to be contaminated. What Erin finds will change the world's petroleum reserves and affect the lives of every person on the planet. But not before he becomes a prime suspect; Erin once proposed that a similar bacteria could wreak havoc on the world's oil supply.

The science in this book makes this a terrific read. Performing a little research, you find that there are bacteria that feed on oil. Used primarily as a method to clean oil spills, it isn't a stretch to apply it to the destruction of the world's oil supplies. That is what makes this a fast paced, believable thriller. Along the way, Mills provides the reader with a reminder of the products that are created using petroleum, and what it would mean if that supply was suddenly stopped. It is a good reminder of how much we rely on a steady supply. While the characters are quite good, and the overall story moved quickly, the love story angle seemed a bit forced. Further, the villains were a little stereotypical. However, Mills keeps the action moving and you don't really realize those points until after the last page. Overall, an extremely good thriller with a excellent premise and a chilling reminder of our dependancy on oil.

Darkness Falls is pure melodrama. There is a good guy, the misled gal, the comic relief guy, the evil guy, and the really-really evil guy. The only difference between this book and a book written a century earlier is that the really-really evil guy doesn't have a big black moustache.

The premise is the threat of a world without petroleum. The misled gal develops a bacteria that eats oil. She is fighting for the rights of the Alaskan caribou. The really-really evil guy wants to take the world back to a pre-Industrial Age and therefore sets the oil-eating bacteria loose in the oilfields of the world. The good guy has to find the really-really evil guy (and also his boy wonder mildly evil guy) and stop said guys from destroying civilization as we know it. Misled girl adds some love interest and in the end, she works with good guy even though it was all her doing that started the mess. Comic relief guy plays his part superbly.

On completion of the book, I more or less said to myself, "A really interesting premise. But I just couldn't get myself involved with any of the characters." Almost all the situations were predictable, even the morality play ending. In short, this ain't literature but it's an interesting read that passes some time and doesn't require the reader to wonder about anything.

That being said, I have to wonder how another author might handle the same theme.

To me, the scariest stories are not the typical horror stories involving ghosts, vampires or serial killers. Far more frightening are the tales that could actually happen: tales of environmental or military disaster. That is why Kyle Mills's novel Darkness Falls is scarier than anything that Stephen King could put out.

Darkness Falls features the return of series character Mark Beamon after a couple standalone books. Beamon is a former bend-or-break-the-rules FBI agent who is now a bend-or-break-the-rules agent for Homeland Security, particularly the branch that handles Energy Security. When a Saudi oil field starts developing problems, Beamon investigates and drafts environmentalist Erin Neal to assist. Neal realizes that there is a bacteria in the oil deposit that is consuming the supply and threatens the entire field. With a second similar infection in an Alaskan oil field, it becomes quickly apparent that this is no natural event.

Neal has been a recluse since the death of his ex-girlfriend, though he soon realizes that reports of her passing were not true. This realization comes when Neal recognizes the bacteria as a variation on one he designed (to clean up oil spills), and that only she knew the design also. Unfortunately, the government also catches on, and rashly decides that Neal is a terrorist and suddenly Constitutional rights go out the door. Only Beamon suspects that Neal is innocent, and meanwhile the real culprit is planning something far more sinister.

Mills does a good job at portraying a United States that is crippled by a major oil crisis that threatens the stability of almost all civilization. But then again, Mills usually does a good job with his stories. If you like a good, truly scary (because it could happen) story, Darkness Falls is a recommended read.

Maybe the fact that I'm paying over $4 gallon for gas influenced my reading of the book. Maybe it was the over the top environments message. Maybe it was the flat characters. I don't know, but the book just rubbed me the wrong way. It felt like having Ralph Nader, Al Gore, PETA and Green Peace all whispering in my ear that the world was coming to end, save the environment for humanity. Trying to hide such a political message in the story was annoying and over the top.

As for the characters, I just didn't get the love story part. I didn't feel any connection to them. As another person noted, why name a man Erin. The male spelling is Aaron and it was confusing through the whole book. I didn't find anything likable or endearing about Jenna.

Overall, it's probably a good beach read, but I wouldn't want to buy it. Check it out from your local library.

"Darkness Falls" is a riveting suspense novel by Kyle Mills with all the elements of a story that could have been ripped from today's newspaper headlines. Erin Neal is an expert in the use of genetically engineered bacteria for use in the cleanup of toxic spills. But the unexpected death of his girlfriend derailed him professionally and he took refuge in the isolation of the Arizona desert. Then Homeland Security came and found him. A catastrophic bioterrorist attack using a strain of crude-petroleum eating bacteria on Saudi Arabia's largest oil reserve threatens disaster for the world's fuel supplies. Tracking down the origins of this bacteria leads to Erin's confrontation with a homicidal environmentalist he had thought long gone. Clearly, nothing less that the destiny and fate of the industrialized world hangs in the balance as Erin seeks to halt the spread of this bioterrorist attack. Very highly recommended for both personal reading lists and community library contemporary fiction collections, "Darkness Falls" is a superbly crafted thriller played out against a backdrop of energy dependence and the possible consequences should every oil well in the world suddenly going dry.