Off The Grid [Kindle Edition]

Dan Kolbet (Author)

Book Description

Luke Kincaid is a model employee at the only company in the world that can deliver wireless electricity. He's engaged to the CEO's daughter and is quickly becoming the go-to corporate spy on its behalf. But Luke would rather tear the company down from the inside. The company killed his parents and it must pay.Threatened by a secret that could destroy him and any chance of revenge, Luke sets off to find the true origins of wireless electricity, but discovers a vast deception that will change the world forever.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Dan Kolbet's dystopian techno thriller Off the Grid offers us a picture of how a world without easy access to electricity might be" . . . a "fast-paced thriller"
-Self-Publishing Review 
 
"Off the Grid is an interesting and compelling read both for mystery fans and electric power industry veterans." 
-Vito Longo, Technology Editor, Transmission & Distribution World
 
"Off The Grid is a very detailed yet fast paced action book with a backdrop of technology. Almost instantly the characters and the setting brings you in and it is hard to put the book down."
-Bryan C, Goodreads review

About the Author

Dan Kolbet lives in Spokane, Washington with his wife and two daughters. He is a former newspaper editor and reporter. Kolbet currently works as a corporate spokesperson for a West Coast utility.

Kolbet's literary works include the corporate espionage thriller, Off The Grid (2011), and Don't Wait For Me (Nov. 2012), a gripping tale of love, loss and new beginnings. Kolbet prides himself on writing stories that invite a reader in and hold their attention. If you enjoy wasted prose and needless opining, look elsewhere.

You can find Kolbet's personal blog atdankolbet.com or like his author page on Facebookfacebook.com/DanKolbetBooks.

Product Details

• File Size: 540 KB
• Print Length: 362 pages
• Publisher: Alfeka Publishing; 1 edition (October 7, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B005TV2JUY
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #312,899 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars A decent fast-paced thriller December 1, 2011

By SPR

Format:Kindle Edition

Dan Kolbet's dystopian techno thriller Off the Grid offers us a picture of how a world without easy access to electricity might be. In Kolbet's near-future setting, environmental concerns have led to fossil fuels being banned in the generation of electricity in America, which in turn has led to millions of people suddenly losing access to electricity with catastrophic results.

What follows is a fast-paced thriller that takes Luke around the world and around America, searching for the truth behind StuTech's technology. Along the way he encounters the usual sorts of thrills and spills you'd expect in a story of this sort, and it all leads to a suitably dramatic climax.

Kolbet clearly understands the demands of the genre and writes clearly and well when he needs to, but this novel didn't quite work for me. The elements are all in place here, and the action set pieces in particular are written with vigor and a good eye for the telling details, but some problems with the setting kept bouncing me out of this one.

Fatally, I struggled to find the basic premise convincing. The banning of fossil fuels in power generation makes sense - it's likely something like this is going to happen sometime in the next fifty years - but I kept wondering about alternative and sustainable energy. It's unlikely that wind, hydro and geothermal power would be able to completely replace oil and coal plants, but apart from a fleeting aside about wind turbines (we're shown wooden turbines being sold at a market, which is a bit lame - wooden? Seriously?) they don't get a mention. And what about nuclear? It's not mentioned either.

I was also concerned that the ramifications of the great black-out weren't followed through. Given that suburban and rural areas, small cities even, are without power, I would have expected far more in the way of death and destruction. I would have expected big cities heaving with refugees, widespread and grinding poverty and starvation everywhere. It didn't seem to be quite the lawless and apocalyptic place it really needed to be to justify the hyperbole around the loss of electricity. And what about all the other uses for fossil fuels - international air travel, for example (which contributes between two and five per cent of carbon emissions globally) doesn't seem to be a problem.

Similarly, I was never entirely clear on the nature of StuTech technology. Kolbet emphasised the miracle of broadcast power, but I couldn't figure out exactly how the power was generated. It's possible that the whole thing makes sense, but I didn't feel I was given all the pieces necessary for it to fall into place.

These elements were a real problem, because without a clear statement of what's gone wrong (or a massively over-the-top one even, given the genre) Luke's motivations seem a bit watery. When Kolbet threw in, about halfway through, that the miracle substance A.R.C. didn't just conduct electricity but could potentially cure spinal injuries (and, it's implied, Luke's niece's respiratory illness) I got the feeling that he was trying to compensate for this lack of drama by giving Luke something else to fight for. That's probably a mistake. I needed only one miraculous power of the secret stuff to keep me going; adding another unrelated super-power made me question the whole enterprise.

There are also a few uncertainties of character that let this novel down. Luke's motivations get a bit confused as the action goes on: the love affair with the boss's daughter is a good complicating event but then there's a rapist murder, a sick niece and the miracle properties of A.R.C that muddy the waters of his revenge plan, not always to good effect. Kathryn the femme fatale is particularly uncertain, and drifts around the points of the moral compass at the whim of the plot rather than any internally consistent pole.

There's definitely a decent thriller in here, and Kolbet clearly has it in him to write it. The problems in the background and the motivation indicate a writer still finding his feet, and hopefully his next effort will have a bit more focus in the setting and characterization. If you're a fan of the genre you'll find much to enjoy here, and this could be an opportunity to see a future star of the genre in his formative stages.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Page turner November 18, 2011

By Utenzi

Format:Paperback

I think a lot of people would rate this book 5-stars and I can easily understand why. It's well written and the plot pulls you in and makes you want to know what happens next. There's an enticing quality to the main characters and the dilemma that they find themselves in. I enjoyed reading this book. In a sense it reminds me of books like The Da Vinci Code in that while some things don't make sense---you don't care because the action just carries you along and you don't want to stop reading.

I have to mention how attractive the book is. This appears to be self-published since there's no publisher imprint and the cover illustration and quality of the paper are excellent. Much better than what I expect from the big publishing houses.

The reason I gave Off the Grid 4-stars instead of 5 is that there were some inconsistencies in the book and things that didn't make sense to me. I'll mention the main logical issue I had but if you want to read Off the Grid, stop here 'cause this might bias your own feelings toward the book.

**beware of plot spoiler**

The setup of this book is that in the near future, due to concerns about environmental impact, energy generation is shifted to cleaner sources. As a result StuTech, a company that transmits electrical energy wirelessly, gains a near monopoly and that results in many small towns no longer receiving any electricity.

As soon as I started the book my thoughts ran to the "WTF" area. Wireless delivery of electricity, even if it were possible on a large scale, isn't a clean method of electrical generation. It's a method of electrical delivery. In the entire book there's no mention of how the electricity is being generated. A gaping flaw when the premise of the book is that the world is changed due to the need to have cleaner energy.

Does this hurt the flow or readability of the book? Not at all. It's just a logic element that probably won't matter to most people.
In any case, these are quibbles with the logic of the book not with the writing itself. The book is engaging and easy to relate to. I'd definitely read it again.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Love love loved off the grid! November 8, 2012

By nana

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Want secrets suspence and a timely thriller with a touch of romance? Then this is the book for you! Character developement was great! Kept my interest. Love the genre. Keep it coming Dan!!

More About the Author

Dan Kolbet lives in Spokane, Washington with his two daughters. He is a former newspaper editor and reporter. Kolbet currently works on the West Coast.

Kolbet's literary works include the corporate espionage thriller, Off The Grid (2011), and Don't Wait For Me (Nov. 2012), a gripping tale of love, loss and new beginnings. Kolbet prides himself on writing stories that invite a reader in and hold their attention. If you enjoy wasted prose and needless opining, look elsewhere.

You can find Kolbet's personal blog at www.dankolbet.com or like his author page on Facebook www.facebook.com/DanKolbetBooks.