Tsunami [Paperback]

Gordon Gumpertz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 22, 2008

Deep in the mid-Pacific an ancient undersea volcano comes to life. Leading scientists predict the volcano will subside and go dormant, but seismologist Dr. Leilani Sanches is alarmed. Her advanced computer model shows the volcano will build to a monster explosion and trigger a tsunami massive enough to wipe out the Southern California coast.

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Durban House (August 22, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1930754809
• ISBN-13: 978-1930754805
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,793,234 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Tsunami, July 8, 2011

By 

Michelle McKeeth - See all my reviews

This review is from: TSUNAMI (Kindle Edition)

I love natural disasters, both written and as a movie. I loved this story.

Lani faced those who would deny the evidence before them, thereby killing millions, and those who would destroy her reputation in order to continue making money.


That being said, the characters would profit by being more fleshed out, and there were too many threads that were added rather abruptly, and ended the same way. A smoother transition would work better for me.

Overall, this book was well-written. However, it is incorrect to say Purvis's. It should be Purvis'.

4.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down, April 17, 2011

By 

Bryon Bischoff - See all my reviews

This review is from: TSUNAMI (Kindle Edition)

This book kept you interested all the way to the end. I don't usually write reviews, but this book was excellent and I await for more books by Gordon Gumpertz.

3.0 out of 5 stars Strong science, weak characterization, March 24, 2009

By 

Cathy G. Cole (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tsunami (Paperback)

First Line: The container ship Moro Prince, bound from Manila to Los Angeles, had enjoyed three days of smooth sailing.

Add to my penchant for post-apocalyptic fiction a love of books about killer natural phenomena: tornadoes, hurricanes, volcanoes. I'm not quite sure why I enjoy them so much, unless it's the simple urge to see humans triumph over seemingly insurmountable odds. I found the premise of Tsunami fascinating: a huge underwater volcano out in the middle of the Pacific is ready to blow, and if the worst case scenario comes true, a 200-foot tidal wave will hit Southern California. Millions of people could die.

Seismologist Leilani Sanches has been watching this volcano, and she believes that the worst case scenario will indeed come to pass. The trouble is, when she tries to alert people, no one really wants to listen...especially real estate developers and other scuzzy capitalists.

Some plot threads in the novel work better than others. Gumpertz' strength does not lie in characterization. I found most of the people to be rather two-dimensional, and the author never made me really care what happened to any of them. The Good Guys were too good (and lucky); the Bad Guys were too bad (and unlucky). Where Gumpertz' strength does lie is in the plot threads surrounding the volcano, the resultant waves of tsunamis, and their effect on the Southern California coastline. When he wrote about these events, I was glued to the page. When the tsunamis did hit California, the author started bringing in more characters, showing us what happened to them. This would have been a powerful addition to the book if these characters had shown up earlier so the reader could get to know and care about them. Their brief appearances occurring when they did were poignant but weren't the knock-out punch they could've been.

All in all, I'm glad I read the book because it did contain a lot of information about sciences that fascinate me. For a character-driven reader like myself, Tsunami was a bit of a letdown, but I will be on the lookout for other books by this author.