119 of 130 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thrilling page-turner!, September 18, 2007
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Wet Desert. It is rare for a book to generate such a compulsion for me to turn the pages. I felt as if I was being pulled through the book. It's fast-paced, intelligent, thought-provoking, cohesive, and entertaining. Wet Desert not only met those criteria, it takes a place among my favorite books, in company with others from Clancy, Crichton, Grisham, and Cussler.
I liked the fact that it was technical enough to lend credibility, but not so much as to be tedious. Characters are well-defined and remain believable and consistent throughout the story. The book presents some thought-provoking issues and offers fascinating facts and insights, but for the most part allows the reader to draw his or her own conclusions. Specifically, the novel provides interesting historical details about the Colorado River, the Glen Canyon and Hoover dams, Lake Powell, and the Colorado River Delta. I found it so intriguing that I did further research, starting with Wikipedia. (In fact, you might want to refresh your knowledge of the Colorado River before you read.) Most importantly, I couldn't wait to set aside time to read Wet Desert and looked forward to turning each page from beginning to end.
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37 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Surprisingly good novel for first time author!, July 19, 2008
Wet Desert is about... the desert in the West getting wet.
Go figure.
But author Gary Hansen, writing like a Tom Clancy clone, has written a surprisingly engaging first novel. A mystery man blows up Glen Canyon Dam, and the contents of Lake Powell disappear down the Colorado River. A mid-level Bureau of Reclamation employee is the only person around when this happens, and he realizes that the reservoir behind mighty Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, will not hold an extra 8 trillion gallons of water.
If that water flows over Hoover Dam, the dam will fail, along with every dam below it.
These are the stories of people who live, work, and recreate in or around the river. What happens when you are boating and the water starts dropping in Lake Powell? What happens when you are rafting the Grand Canyon and the water rises? What happens when it is your responsibility to control floodwaters? And what happens when the "freeing"of Glen Canyon is not the real reason for blowing the dam?
When I picked this book up in the Salt Lake City International Airport's bookstore (and surrounded by books on Joseph Smith and LDS living), I have to admit that I expected it to be the "Mormon literature" style: those who believe in God (or pray like they do) and are good, live. Everyone else is on their own. Wet Desert was not this style. I think prayers were mentioned twice, and life-or-death situations sometimes bring prayers to unexpected places! "He looked up at the sky. Was there a god? He had always believed it, but now he wondered. If there was a god, would he help? David wasn't sure. But there was one thing for sure; it didn't hurt to ask" (p. 165).
A memorable quote: "'He's the only one of you that's ever tried to sneak up on a bad guy, and that was a million beers ago'" (p. 326).
Finally, the book, for the most part, avoids the politics of water conservation in the West, with this exception:
"Grant locked eyes with the FBI agent. 'It makes perfect sense if you're an environmentalist, if you've spent years demonstrating for Green Peace [sic], or the Sierra Club, or the Glen Canyon Institute. If you fought to elect liberals like Clinton and Gore, but were forced to watch when even they gave the environment lip service, establishing a couple monuments, but avoiding the real issues, the issues that might offend the farmers who receive subsidized river water, or the populations of Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Phoenix, who plant palm trees in an environment more suited for scorpions or rattlesnakes. If you dedicated your life to restoring the Colorado River and one of the most amazing deltas in the world, but deep down you knew that nothing you'd done, or ever would do, would even matter'" (p. 323).
Sounds like Ed Abbey!
This was a good thriller that revolves around cubic feet/seconds, dam construction, water use in the Western US, and BuRec politics.
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47 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent plot, sloppy editing, July 30, 2008
A fantastic plot and well written novel - the only clangers come when you hit the badly edited sentences. An editor - or an author - who can't distinguish between they're and their - has a serious problem. If the publisher let the software do all the editing, they are lazy and sloppy. There's a few other grammatical boners spiced through this marvelous book.
Despite these speed bumps, the character Grant Stevens is a forthright and interesting man who knows that no decisions are worse than bad decisions when it comes to handling the domino effect of a destroyed dam. The Bureau of Reclamation is now an administrative division with few projects underway, and the glory days are long gone, including the hands-on engineers who built these projects on the Colorado. When a saboteur starts his destructive career at Glen Canyon Dam, Stevens is the only upper-level Bureau man on hand, and he's got to start making the choices that may destroy his career as well as billions in property and thousands of lives.
Stevens would be an excellent series character. I'm sure Mr. Hansen is already working on book two, or already has it at the publisher. Please check it carefully! I can't wait to read it!
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