• • • — — — • • • fragment a novel by Craig Russell

A quick read, the story is bit outlandish in part, even dead wrong on at least one scientific fact, and overly optimistic. But, damn, the author captured DC and the corrupt politicians it attracts in a candid depiction.

It was an entertaining read. ( )

The story is captivating. Craig Russell does a good job of fleshing out his cast of characters, especially the ones we’re going to spend a lot of time with. Ring in particular felt like a well-developed person, who just happened to be a whale.

The stakes start out high and get higher all the time. I couldn’t stop turning pages, especially in the last half of the book, which I read in a single sitting.

The ending, while compelling, felt like it could be fleshed out somewhat. Several disasters involving the Fragment’s unstoppable force vs. an island’s immovable object were delivered in a few paragraphs, and it felt rushed.

It’s an eco-disaster novel with political overtones, and it’s a first-contact novel, all in 200-and-a-bit efficient pages. ( )

In a world coming to grips with climate change, a sci-fi eco-thriller like Craig Russell's Fragment resonates with a gut-churning fear that fiction might possibly predict the future.

In Russell's world, respect for nature and disdain for human greed and malice are easy for the reader to adopt. I never expected to read an eco-thriller that would also generate surges of emotion, but Fragment achieved this as well.

No eco-thriller would be complete without a dramatic depiction of the devastation brought by epic disasters. Russell doesn't shy away from a graphic account of the financial, structural, and geological devastation, with the associated lives lost.

But we also need stories like Fragment to share hope, and Russell doesn't disappoint in this critical area. That this hope takes the form of inter-species cooperation with whales around the world gives the reader admiration for the power and beauty of the natural world.
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