Saving Cascadia

With Saving Cascadia, Mr. Nance shows once again his expertise all things technical. He has expanded his world, and his expertise, beyond his avionic specialty, and it is a new and refreshing side to his writing that kept me awake and reading well into the night. In this novel, we move into the world of geological phenomena, and as always, Mr. Nance has written in an incredibly educated and precise manner, with a clarity that even the least 'geologically knowledgeable' can easily comprehend.

As a previous occupant of the Northwest Coast, I am well versed in just how devastating it will be when the subduction zone ruptures. All it takes is a walk along the cliffside beaches of Southern Oregon at lowest tide to see the total destruction show more which was caused by the last great quake along the coast. Once the sand has washed away in a storm, your walk will show you the bases of massive tree trunks, twenty feet or more across, sitting in a deep green clay, eight feet or more below the current cliff tops. These massive trees literally sunk under the seas when the coast ripped and fell away, straight down, into the openings left by the tears in the zone. It is both shocking and humbling to realize the true enormity of these movements and the destruction they have caused, and will again.

Mr. Nance explores not only the technical aspects of why the zone exists, but also how our intense disregard for the earth can, and most likely at some time will, cause the very destruction he posits in this novel. His Dr. Lam character is a man who not only knows deeply the geology of the earth in his location of expertise, but is capable of making the type of intuitive leap which separates the merely educated and intelligent from the truly brilliant. Mr. Nances second, or possibly first, goal in writing this novel was indeed involved in avionics, his original specialty, as he drew his characters of air rescue, giving the reader a true insight into the dedication of professional air rescue personnel and the dangers they face every day.

The interactions among the characters are realistic. Just because the world seems to be coming to an end doesn't mean that people don't still have the same issues continuing in their lives that they had before. Yes, I had guessed Dr. Lam's personal situation before learning the truth near the end of the novel, and wasn't surprised. A truly honorable man would have acted just as he did. And I was glad that a truly strong and determined, but emotionally damaged woman was able to stand up to the father who caused he so much pain in her life. I was able to deeply relate to both her strength and her pain, and was glad she finally found it within herself to stand up and say "No more", and yet get beyond that pain to forgiveness. And even a spoiled, self centered, horney old multi billionaire can pull his heads out of the sand and start thinking about someone other than himself when faced with the destruction of so many souls, especially when it is caused by his own self aggrandizement . . . and when he has to actually see and touch the people he is murdering through his own self centered disregard, not just do it 'long distance' with bombs and chemicals and poverty. Even a true misanthrope would have difficulty overlooking his responsibility in this case.

No, this isn't a solely avionic novel. Mr. Nance continues to grow with every novel - it is to be hoped that his readers will grow right along with him. show less

With Saving Cascadia, Mr. Nance shows once again his expertise all things technical. He has expanded his world, and his expertise, beyond his avionic specialty, and it is a new and refreshing side to his writing that kept me awake and reading well into the night. In this novel, we move into the world of geological phenomena, and as always, Mr. Nance has written in an incredibly educated and precise manner, with a clarity that even the least 'geologically knowledgeable' can easily comprehend.

As a previous occupant of the Northwest Coast, I am well versed in just how devastating it will be when the subduction zone ruptures. All it takes is a walk along the cliffside beaches of Southern Oregon at lowest tide to see the total destruction show more which was caused by the last great quake along the coast. Once the sand has washed away in a storm, your walk will show you the bases of massive tree trunks, twenty feet or more across, sitting in a deep green clay, eight feet or more below the current cliff tops. These massive trees literally sunk under the seas when the coast ripped and fell away, straight down, into the openings left by the tears in the zone. It is both shocking and humbling to realize the true enormity of these movements and the destruction they have caused, and will again.

Mr. Nance explores not only the technical aspects of why the zone exists, but also how our intense disregard for the earth can, and most likely at some time will, cause the very destruction he posits in this novel. His Dr. Lam character is a man who not only knows deeply the geology of the earth in his location of expertise, but is capable of making the type of intuitive leap which separates the merely educated and intelligent from the truly brilliant. Mr. Nances second, or possibly first, goal in writing this novel was indeed involved in avionics, his original specialty, as he drew his characters of air rescue, giving the reader a true insight into the dedication of professional air rescue personnel and the dangers they face every day.

The interactions among the characters are realistic. Just because the world seems to be coming to an end doesn't mean that people don't still have the same issues continuing in their lives that they had before. Yes, I had guessed Dr. Lam's personal situation before learning the truth near the end of the novel, and wasn't surprised. A truly honorable man would have acted just as he did. And I was glad that a truly strong and determined, but emotionally damaged woman was able to stand up to the father who caused he so much pain in her life. I was able to deeply relate to both her strength and her pain, and was glad she finally found it within herself to stand up and say "No more", and yet get beyond that pain to forgiveness. And even a spoiled, self centered, horney old multi billionaire can pull his heads out of the sand and start thinking about someone other than himself when faced with the destruction of so many souls, especially when it is caused by his own self aggrandizement . . . and when he has to actually see and touch the people he is murdering through his own self centered disregard, not just do it 'long distance' with bombs and chemicals and poverty. Even a true misanthrope would have difficulty overlooking his responsibility in this case.

No, this isn't a solely avionic novel. Mr. Nance continues to grow with every novel - it is to be hoped that his readers will grow right along with him. show less

I thought Saving Cascadia by John J Nance would be a much more engrossing thriller for me than it turned out to be. A small island off the coast of Washington State with a major fault line running through it was no place for a exclusive resort, but due to bribery, dirty politics and the sheer force of the developer, the resort now exists and is about to hold it’s grand opening.

With a large cast of fairly clichéd characters like the honest engineer who discovers the faulty data and is now on the run, the female helicopter pilot and her whistle-blowing geologist boyfriend to the native American activists who have plans of their own for the hotel. While the characters assemble the author builds the suspense with a series of small show more underwater quakes that are creating havoc and leading to something devastating.. Eventually the three hundred guests of the resort’s gala are stranded on the island of Cascadia and in the path of a giant tsunami.

I found Saving Cascadia a little to formulated and predictable to qualify it as a true thrills and chills read. The author is very good at the technical aspects and the setting and development of the story could have worked if he had been better at filling his story with believable characters. Instead I felt very much like I was reading the script of the disaster movie of the week. show less

I barely finished this silly thriller. The technology is more overwrought than usual, as are the characters and situations. The helicopter descriptions are repetitive (how many times do I need to read/hear 'collective'). And the twist is too easy to see coming.

On top of all that, I was listening to the author read their own work in an audio edition, which was not successful here.

Who is to blame? The developer? The engineers? A lavish resort is built over a fault; the pounding of the construction becoming amplified in the fault lines way beneath the surface. Small, then larger earth quakes start happening....are they the predecessor to the BIG (9.5) one?

This book was written like the author was hoping to get a movie deal. And I found the ending to be a bit contrived. The seismologist figures out how to stop the earthquake? Oh, c'mon.

A hotel built with the knowledge of an engineering mistake is the setting for this Nance thriller. Fast pace, plenty of action, generally sensible characters.