63 of 73 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Engrossing., May 8, 2000
This review is from: The New Madrid Run (Paperback)
The New Madrid Run
The post-apocalypse genre of novels has always been one of my guilty pleasures. (My wife kids me that it's a "sure sign of a sick mind.") While this novel doesn't rank with "Lucifer's Hammer," "The Stand," "Alas, Babylon," or "Warday," I enjoyed it nevertheless.
I noted in some previous reviews that some readers found cause to savage Mr. Reisig's writing abilities. To a degree, I concur with some of them. (Although certainly not to the extent that I'd agree with one reviewer that his writing is "amateurish.") The sentence structure is awkward at times, the dialog doesn't always flow so well, and character development is a little sketchy.
However, those limitations notwithstanding, the story line of this novel has loads of punch, and Mr. Reisig's spare, direct, journalist's style fairly careens the reader through the plot. The author seems much less infatuated with the thesaurus than most new novelists, and that's refreshing in itself.
All in all, I found "The New Madrid Run" pretty doggone engrossing, and for readers who enjoy this genre, that's recommendation enough. HJ
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thouroughly Enjoyed The Book, December 26, 1999
This review is from: The New Madrid Run (Paperback)
This book held my attention from the very beginning of the story. I was on the edge of my seat waiting for what would happen next. I put myself in the book as I was reading and found that the possibility of the diaster that happened was very probable. Realizing this made the book much more real. What would we do if this happened and how would we prepare ourself for the event that all that we knew was gone. The book made me do a lot of thinking about what could happen. I could not put this book down until it was finished, then wanted more. Highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a great story.
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30 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Three and a half stars - decent, original post-apoc. book, April 16, 2002
This review is from: The New Madrid Run (Paperback)
While some reviewers tend to focus on the negative aspects of a book, I would prefer to look at a work's positive points. Michael Reisig's first major novel, The New Madrid Run, published by an independent press in Arkansas, is an interesting experiment not only in post-apocalyptic literature but in publishing itself.
The premise of the novel is a little far-fetched: a violent shift in the Earth's magnetic poles causes massive earthquakes and tidal waves, and the main character, a pilot and sailor in the Florida Keys, makes for some property he bought a long time ago in Arkansas for this express purpose. On the way, he picks up some characters, meets some other characters, and eventually heads to a showdown with the main bad guy, a kind of survivalist general who has commandeered much of the local National Guard supplies.
So the story isn't original (even if the disaster premise is), it ends too quickly, the characters don't show much real development, and the villain is a cutout stereotype. So what? Reisig breaks post-apocalyptic convention on two important counts: first, New Madrid Run, like The Postman (from which it obviously draws inspiration), does not revel in the downfall of civilization. It isn't some big free-for-all, where extreme libertarians don't have to pay taxes to the Evil Gub'ment ™ no more, and might makes right (although the bad guys are dispersed by guns). Second, like The Postman, the survivalists are the bad guys. In an overmined genre, it's refreshing to see at least a semi-sane take on the realities of a post-disaster America.
All in all, Reisig has created an interesting read. The prose, while not Nabokov, flows nicely, and there are only a few times where the reader thinks that an experienced editor might have helped the novel. For that is the other means by which Reisig defied convention; going through a small, on-demand press, he circumvented normal publishing routes and created a book and successfully marketed it both on the Internet and in his area. No mean feat, that, and it beats having to pay an agent to sell your manuscript (although another editing eye is always helpful). Certainly not a method for every writer, but one that is to be admired. The product of these endeavors, while entirely satisfying, belongs on any post-apocalyptic aficionado's shelf, if only for the premise alone. For those who enjoy a decent action romp, there are worse ways to spend your time.
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